One more weekend.....

Do I look like I'm enjoying myself?  We're prepping for yet another SAR Training sortie in East Africa, and loving every second of it.  I just can't get enough of actually flying a helicopter once again.  SAR flying involves plenty of low level shenanigans with steep turns and flares and precision hovering, hoisting folk off heaving decks or cliffs and rock outcrops, and requires experience and dynamic decision making skills, and it all adds up to some seriously good fun.  SAR flying is very far removed from the numbingly sterile offshore support flying role, which to be honest, is getting more and more sterile as North Sea "experts" bring about even more restrictions and inflexible procedures.  If I could shenaggle a full time SAR posting......

I've been getting in plenty of flying this tour, with over six hours airborne yesterday with a surprise trip to Dar es Salaam, so I'm as happy as a rooster in a hen house.  I've got one more Mtwara weekend ahead of me, then I'm homeward bound yet once again.  Many contractual rumours have everyone wondering just where they are off to next, myself included.  While the best course of action is to just go with the flow, as in most everything life throws at you, it is frustrating not having more control.  I love flying the AW139, but it wouldn't break my heart to find myself back on Super Pumas, or perhaps even a new endorsement?  I really don't have a clue what the future holds, which isn't really a bad thing.  Considering the possibilities provides one's imagination with plenty to keep it occupied, plus providing plenty of fodder for conversations over sundowners at the Msemo.   I've made a good life here in East Africa, with the snorkelling and mountain biking and good local friends, and if I'm not back,  I will seriously miss it.  But ever upwards and onwards!