Revolution, Volcanoes, Airplanes, Helicopters and Tanks! | The JetAv Blog by Jack Schweibold | Premier Jet Aviation
Have you, too, ever wondered who reads these blogs? Yesterday I received a call regarding a recent article and recognized the caller to be an old friend, Capt. Alberto from Guatemala. We reminisced about a special day we had demonstrating an Allison powered Prop Jet Bonanza A36 and T34 to his country’s military.
“The Army is revolting, it’s a full fledged coup”, the Guatemalan Air Force major relayed to us as we completed flight demos at their Caribbean airfield. You better top off your tanks on the Bonanza and T34, the Army has taken over all civilian airports and transportation terminals. You may not be able to land anywhere!” We needed to get Alberto back to his hanger at Guat City, apparently that might not be possible. Previously that week we had been denied landing in neighboring Panama and Nicaragua to the north wasn’t any friendlier, Central America was in chaos. By topping tanks we could easily make Mexico or fly back to Costa Rica where we had just sold six aircraft to their police force (peace loving and peaceful and dependent on America, they have no military).
Skirting four of Guatemala’s thirty-seven 10,000-14,000 ft volcano’s surrounding Guat City Airport, Alberto contacted the tower: , “ Guat City tower, this is Turbine Bonanza Two-Five-Zero-Alpha-Tango, flight of two, 25 miles East for landing”.
The controller responded, “Bonanza Alpha Tango, this Guat City Tower, we have small problem since you left, Alberto. Our military has staged a coup and taken over the government along with our AIRPORT!” Sure enough, reaching the field we saw the entire 12,000-foot length of the sole runway and parallel taxiway covered with tanks, trucks and machine gun emplacements . . . scattered to command the field. “Bonanza flight of two, enter a 2 minute holding pattern at the marker beacon. We’ll let you know if the field reopens.” That was 3pm.
“How much fuel do we have, Jack?” Alberto asked, still flying the plane.
Checking the quantity and our fuel flow, I responded, “A little over two hours at this altitude. Maybe longer if we go higher.”
“We’ll stay here. The airliners will stack up overhead and we can be first to land,” Alberto rationalized. I could tell he was a sharp pilot the way he finessed the holding pattern. Two hours and twenty patterns later, Alberto called the tower, “Palo, this is Alberto, when is this coup going to be over?”
“Alberto,” the tower operator replied, “You know, we have not had a good coup for over two years, and it may be several days!”
Alberto turned to me and asked, “Can you guys land these reversible props in 300-400 feet, between army tanks . . . on that cross taxiway?”
“You bet!” I said, with a gulp, “But how about the tanks?”
Ignoring my question, Alberto snapped to the tower, “Palo, it’s 5 pm. You know my wife, Maria. She’ll have my ass if I’m not home for supper! Tower, Bonanza Zero-Alpha-Tango is declaring a fuel emergency and landing immediately!” Then he switched radio channels and called his hangar, “Maria, get the hangar door open, NOW!”
I called the T34 to form up behind and we landed in formation, right on the taxiway heading for the hangar . . . taxiing in with engines running. As Maria closed the door, we shut the engines down. Stepping out of the planes and dropping to the floor, I expected to see Rambos running in with guns drawn. 
No men, no guns, we took the ladies out and enjoyed a great dinner. Captain Alberto was and still is obviously the man-to-know in Guatemala!
In the morning the volcanoes rumbled. 
Not an earthquake but a call from our Indy office, “Jack, you are probably basking poolside, the local MD530 helicopters that run daily seismograph checks on their volcanoes are grounded due to erratic power checks.”
“”Everything is grounded, we are in the middle of a revolt, maybe their pilots don’t want to be shot down”, I snap back at their poolside sarcasm. So, not able to get airborne I smile at the stern sentries posted about the aeroporto and slip over to the Weather Bureau with faxed power check logs in hand. Eureka, as I suspected, our engines are intelligent … they forecast weather!. It appeared that on beautiful days engine power was excellent, on rainy or windy days (probably with lenticular clouds capping the peaks) the engines periodically fell short on power checks. Must have been parallax in the gages as the pilot puckered with thoughts of penetrating weather or volcanic turbulence in a 80 mph+ mountain wave at 14,000’.
Departing the weather office I noted the quiet absence of guards, tanks and water cannon. The revolt was over. With instructions to the helicopter operator to respect appropriate pilot limits on weather conditions … Guatemala stopped erupting and we were able to leave the country in the capable hands of Captain Alberto.