Great Commission Air - A New Airstrip in Barillas

One of the airstrips GCA served often in the past was in the town of Barillas, a mountain community in the northern part of Huehuetenango (pronounced Way Way Tenango), about twenty miles southwest of our base in Mayalan. That airstrip became unusable when residents started using it as a thoroughfare for horses, bicycles, cars and so on. The video at left shows me talking about a new airstrip, developed by that community. It is about 1000' higher than the old one and is situated at about 5,800' above sea level along a hillside above the city. The downside of using this airstrip is that its end is located directly next to a tall radio station tower with lots of guy-wires that are invisible to landing aircraft. It also has a perpetual tailwind on landing.

This video shows me (Robert Rice) and the GCA Cessna 336 Skymaster, N538JP, on this airstrip during a recent test landing and survey. I discuss the condition of the strip and my thoughts about using it.

This airstrip, like the one it replaced, will be used to make many emergency medical flights by GCA, saving many lives. It will also be used to transport humanitarian volunteers and Christian missionaries that work in the area. In fact, we recently made many flights for several humanitarian organizations doing medical and other humanitarian work in nearby villages.

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