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Old 24th Apr 2013, 00:22
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wingflyer
 
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Lima, Peru
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any info about bushflying jobs in Bolivia?
There is a fair amount of activity out of airports such as Trinidad and Trompillo going to agricultural and cattle ranching "estancias" in Beni and Santa Cruz, mainly because roads are not good and don't reach much of the countryside. Aging high-wing airplanes predominate, like Skylanes and Caravans. There are lots of charter flights and a significant number of planes owned and operated by the owners of the estancias. I am not familiar with their maintenance practices but would be skeptical about them.

What are the conditions/risks?
VFR flying might be fine once you become comfortable operating out of small grass fields with very limited weather information, using pilotage and dead reckoning for navigation, and probably maxed out and with a high density altitude on a frequent basis, which would require to be very serious about performance calculations. However, if the weather turns IMC in the middle of the flight it may be very challenging, since radio aids for navigation and approach are scarce and of limited coverage. Also, you may not find glass cockpit airplanes, most are round dials. Instrument approaches at the regional airports are usually VOR. They are starting to implement GNSS procedures at some regional airports, but that assumes you will have a current GPS database, which is not likely.
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