Sep 11, 2017
Twelve days ago, Operation Airdrop didn’t exist. What did exist was dozens of towns in Texas that were cut off from the outside world by Hurricane Harvey's flood waters, downed trees, and power lines. After driving a trailer load of supplies to Rockport, TX, Doug Jackson wondered if general aviation airplanes could be used to fly in relief supplies to isolated communities. Twelve days later, over 200 Aircraft from Mexico and all over U.S. have flown over 500 flights and delivered over 250,000 pounds of supplies. All with small, general aviation aircraft. Now the focus of the operation shifts to Florida, where Hurricane Irma is still raging as this show is being released. In our interview with Doug Jackson, he describes the catalyst for the organization--a moving encounter with a down-on-his-luck man with a sick dog--how the operation was set up in such a short period of time, and how pilots can donate money or use their airplane to deliver badly needed hurricane relief supplies. You can find the Operation Airdrop webpage here and their Facebook page here. Click here for the listener survey. Tell us what flight planning tools you use when planning a longer flight. Please visit my new Patreon page and make a contribution to help me with my goal of improving the AviationNewsTalk.com website. You can Dictate a listener question from your phone and I’ll try to answer it on a future show, or send an email.