Blog | gca-mission-aviation

The Road From Kotoka

True pilots stories from the back of beyond Robert Rice with Daughter Genevieve in Lethem, Guyana - 2000 Robert Rice and daughter Genevieve (4 mos) In Lethem Guyana Over twenty years ago, an organization called “Remote Area Medical” asked if I would participate with the creation of a new air medical service in the Rupununi region of southern Guyana. As a couple, my wife, Jennifer and I had prayed earnestly about what direction our lives should be taking. The answer came from

Missing and Presumed Dead

The call came from a clinic in the town of Flores in the Peten region - not far from the temples of Tikal, near where “Apocalypto” Was Filmed. A child with some unknown illness was in critical condition and near death - could I provide a flight from there to Guatemala City where the facilities might provide some better level of care. As many of these cases went, the child had been sick for a long time and the cost of taking the patient to a far away medical facility was both

The Dead Man's Wife

We were cruising at a low altitude over the lush green jungles of northern Guatemala. My headset was clamped tight but it didn’t block much of the engine noise. The Cessna U206’s 300 HP engine was always loud. Sweat dripped down the side of my face and inside the rubber ear-cups that fit tightly over my ears. It trickled into my ears and dripped off my chin. My shirt was soaked. The temperature at this altitude was about 90 and I looked forward to climbing up to where the air

Dreams and the Routine

Notes from the field - and old letter to myself Robert Rice Feb 01, 2026 I woke up in the middle of the night last night. I heard something that sounded like an airplane engine being cut-back to idle from cruise. I felt my body decelerate a little and suddenly woke up thinking about one of the hundreds of flights that I had made during our stint in Guatemala. We have been “back” from the field for a while and this frequent nocturnal interruption has become a bit of a nuisance