AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2014 - 84

Mwangi and other senior pilots spoke of rust and bad habits
that can take hold in such isolation, and stick-and-rudder skills
that lose sharpness in the absence of regular training.
Poor control coordination or inattention to detail don't always
lead to trouble right away, said Kenneth Mwiti, a KWS pilot who
was nearly killed in a crash. After years-and thousands of hours-of
flying alone, complacency sets in. "It becomes normal," Mwiti said.
"Even if it's a deviation, it becomes a normalization of deviation."
Newly minted private pilots with little more than 100 hours
each comprised about half of this group in Kilaguni, and they had
the most to learn, having yet to see their first combat, drop water
or other supplies to rangers on patrol in the bush, or fly wounded
rangers to distant hospitals.
"We've been scraping hard for aircraft," Clark said. He made
an impassioned plea to the pilots for care and caution as the clinic
began, telling the group that donations from overseas benefactors
were precious, and might not continue if aircraft continued to be
lost-on missions that were supposed to be routine. The Americans
spent much of the time in classrooms and cockpits focusing on the
basics: flying square patterns, rudder coordination, and the use of
checklists that usually are dispensed with as the Kenyan pilots gain

familiarity with their aircraft and begin to rely on a flow.
Mistakes at low altitude are the most common cause of losses.
"Some of the Huskys have been rebuilt six times," Clark said.
"You can see the welds of how many times the fuselage has been
reassembled."
Wagstaff said she has worked on the same issues throughout
her visits, focusing most on basic aircraft control and the precision, low-level flying that she is known for. She works to "get any
cowboy tendencies out of them," and develop the reflexive control
coordination that is essential to staying alive when flying low with
attention directed entirely outside. In a country where a private
pilot license costs a typical student about five years' pay or more,
flight schools and qualified instructors are scarce. "They don't have
really good stick-and-rudder-type instructors," said Wagstaff, who
has spent more time here than anyone but Clark.
'THIS IS THE LIFE.' Three of the five aircraft tasked with patrolling

Kenya's parks were assigned to Kilaguni for the week, and one was
lost. Word arrived one morning of a crash during an attempted
takeoff at a dirt strip a few miles away, drawing scowls and looks
of concern. Clark and a few others hustled to the scene. This time,

There are about 3,000 KWS rangers, with about half assigned to anti-poaching/wildlife
protection duty, including 575 still in training in early 2014. Rangers are armed and
empowered to investigate crime and make arrests. Dividing the total force of 3,000
rangers across 18,000 square miles of protected land equals one ranger for every six
square miles, or 0.16 rangers per square mile. Alaska has America's lowest population
density at about 1.3 persons per square mile.

84 | AOPA PILOT October 2014

AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2014

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