Last month, Diana Rice spent four days performing mission flights for disaster relief in Haiti.

The junior Flight Science major first heard of this opportunity when her father, a doctor at Saint Louis University Medical Center, went to Haiti to do mission work. During his flight home, he told the pilot about Rice and her aspirations to become a pilot. The pilot, according to Rice’s father, offered to let her come down and serve as a co-pilot.
“Of course I said ‘yes’,” Rice said. The pilot was a volunteer for Bahamas Habitat, a non-profit organization based in the Bahamas; Rice will be interning with the organization this summer.
As a co-pilot, Rice flew from Nassau in the Bahamas to different parts of Haiti, delivering food, medical supplies and dropping off missionaries. Because a round-trip takes about seven hours, including a fuel stop, only one flight could be performed per day.
“We had to start early to get back before night,” Rice said. “The radio coverage is bad, and there’s no radar.”
Rice said she flew in a multi-engine plane, which has two engines. Flight time with a multi-engine plane, she said, is very difficult to get at SLU.
“Flying is expensive,” Rice said. “At SLU, you get 15 hours in a multi-engine versus 250 hours in a single engine.”
Though Rice found the multi-engine time valuable in terms of hours and learning experience, those were not the only reasons why she jumped at this opportunity.
“I want to be a missionary pilot,” she said. “This gave me the chance to see if I wanted to do that. It was also something to do to help out.”
Rice had never previously flown mission trips beforeher trip to Haiti, but she has known that she wanted to be a missionary pilot since she shadowed a flight instructor at SLU during high school. Rice has wanted to become a pilot ever since middle school.
“It fits my strengths. It’s very hands-on, visual and involves problem solving,” Rice said. “I really want to do missions. This was a good affirmation.”