Brett is a student pilot and a volunteer with Labrador Retriever Rescue of Cincinnati.  He coordinated and flew right seat with Pilot Dave to bring a big loveable lab to rescue for heartworm treatments. Special thanks to Pilot Dave and  the rescue volunteers; Bonnie, Brandy, Michelle and LRRoC.  Here is Brett’s accounting of a life saving day…..

” I arrived at the airport at about 1:00PM.  Dave already had our plane pre-flighted and ready to fly.  We were taking a 2001 Cessna 182T.  After we topped off the tanks, and loaded up, we were ready to roll.  We took off just a few minutes after 2:00 PM.  Flight there was pretty uneventful.  We experienced a few minutes of turbulence as we flew through the clouds on our way up to 9,000 feet, but that was to be the only turbulence on the flight.  We flew over the cloud tops for about an hour, and had wonderful blue skies above, and fluffy white clouds below.  After the clouds began to thin, we were treated to views of the mountains as we cross the Appalachians and the Smokey Mountains.  We landed in Anderson at about 4:20 PM.

Brett, Loveable Lab and Pilot Dave

 The airport was under going some major construction, and after some initial confusion, we found our way to the terminal.  We re-fueled, found Michelle, and met our new passenger.  He was a little hyper at first, but not to bad.  It was clear that he loved people, and wanted to give lots of hugs and kisses.  He calmed down pretty well after walking around for a bit.  After we loaded everyone back into the plane we were ready to fly.  By this time it was dark, and Anderson’s taxi lights were all off, so finding the runway was a bit of an adventure, but we made it without issue.

Loveable Lab and Pilot Dave

 We took off for our return flight around 6:30 PM.  The night views were wonderful as well.  ATC put us at 9,000 feet for our return flight, so we had plenty of altitude to clear the mountains again.  Our passenger was very well behaved.  He laid down most of the flight, and only stuck his head between the seats for more kisses a few times.  Return flight had clear skies and no turbulence.  We landed at Blue Ash at about 9:00 PM where Roncy was waiting for us.

Gorgeous view from above