A letter from Iain Douglas-Hamilton regarding the new airplane for Save the Elephants:

I scoured the web and sent out the word that I was looking for a new aeroplane. Eventually I found an old 1974 Cessna 185F going in Nairobi. The owners were most reluctant to part with her, but they had experienced such a bad tourist season that they needed the cash. However, they would not come down below $95,000, and eventually I decided to buy the plane anyway. To date, $55,000 has been raised from our very generous friends and supporters. It was a good buy and cheaper than buying in the States or South Africa and shipping or flying it to Kenya.

The new plane has many features highly to be recommended, for example:

	A belly pod for the storage of bulky items
	A six seat configuration
	Extra large tyres for landing on rough landing strips
	Bubble side windows for sticking your head out and looking straight down without opening the window
	A Roberston STOL conversion for extra short landing and take-offs

All in all it is an excellent tough bush plane ideal for the sort of monitoring and work we do. I can carry heavy loads, fly low and slow during aerial elephant counts, stay up for hours radio-tracking, convert the cabin to carry sick people, and serve a number of versatile ends.

I want to express my deepest appreciation for all those who gave donations, as without a plane it was really very difficult to do my work and to sustain our elephant research operations deep in the bush. Now we can resume work at full pace once again. We will be repainting the plane in due course to more modest desert colours with the Save the Elephants logo on the side. Respectfully yours, Iain 30 November 2003