The unbelievable battles that everyone in dog rescue faces on any given day are daunting and their courage in facing them is immense.
I am always amazed at the level of effort and expense that rescues, fosters, and volunteers invest in saving the lives of dogs. People do this hard work every day and face massive hurdles and obstacles in trying to do good things for dogs.
What I’m about to share is in no way a hill steeper than others have climbed. It’s just an experience and story I wanted to share about dog rescue and aviation.
When you are a dog rescue pilot who flies a lot to save the lives of dogs you routinely face a lot of issues that are not related to the dogs but play an equally important role.
The airplane is a fantastic tool that can allow you to move Momma and her five puppies long distances to make the trip less traumatic. That’s something we did last weekend.
But the airplane is a level of annoyance and distraction that makes the tool of flying both a blessing and a curse.
For people not familiar with all the things responsible aircraft owners have to deal with, it would blow your mind.
From an almost constant unexpected maintenance surprises to forces of nature, to regulations and logbooks, dealing with using aviation for good is sometimes a daily distraction and battle. But let me be clear, it’s a fight worth fighting.
Yesterday I flew over to a nearby town to have the propeller on the plane balanced to make sure the engine was running as smoothly as it can. Reduced vibration from a balanced propeller helps to put less stress on all parts of the aircraft. It’s like getting your tires balanced on your car.
About a year ago we had to replace a part on the airplane because it was cracked. This dinner plate looking part sits behind the propeller and costs about $3,000. Replacing it last time was painful enough but when they told me the new one was cracked yesterday during the propeller balancing, I thought I was going to throw up. I had to go and sit down for a few minutes.
Every dollar that has to be spent dealing with such issues is money that takes away from flights and grounds us so we can’t fly. But not dealing with such issues would mean we’d have to fly unsafely or be grounded. Neither of those options is good.
So here is what a cracked $3,000 dinner plate looks like.
All I can say is this kind of thing really sucks as much as you can imagine it does. Especially when it takes away from allowing us to play our little role in saving the lives of dogs.
And I guess besides sharing this unfortunate news with you, our friends, talking about it just allows me to put the situation out into the universe and let people know about it in case they feel they want to donate to help support us at this time. If you want to help and share a tex-deductible donation to help, you can click here. Bless you.
Otherwise, like so many bridges that everyone in the dog rescue world has to cross, we will deal with this and find a way forward.