Page 5 - Dec 23

and Neighbors
Pilots for Patients has access to just a handful of Beechcraft King Airs, which it uses only when an efficient mission will result. Wayne Petrus flew this King Air BE200 for a group that included this open heart surgery patient and his companion on a flight from Birmingham, Alabama, back to Rayville, Louisiana.
King Air pilot among founders of Pilots for Patients
bWy M e L i n d a S c h n y d e r
hen pilots Wayne Petrus and Philip Thomas flew missions for Angel Flight South Central in the early 2000s, they noticed the tremendous need for flights originating from their home state of Louisiana.
Angel Flight was doing an admiral job, but with the organization based in the Dallas metro area, many of their pilots were also Texas based. It could be difficult to recruit pilots from Dallas to fly to Louisiana to pick up a patient who then needed to go to Houston for treatment.
The pair, based in the city of Monroe in northeast Louisiana, decided to start an organization that could focus on Louisiana and other areas of the Deep South, including parts of Mississippi, Arkansas and East Texas. Pilots for Patients (PFP) formed in December 2007 and Petrus – now a contract pilot with 6,500 hours
DECEMBER 2023
KING AIR MAGAZINE • 3