Space Race 2020

Paul and Cathy were able to help a team accomplish a feat at Mercy Air recently that will take some beating.

Something took off from our airstrip and climbed to near space (75,000ft) before descending and landing again.

To give you an idea:
100,000ft is in the Stratosphere and is where the ozone layer is located.
It is three and a half times the height of Everest.
Airliners fly about 35,000ft.
The SR-71 Blackbird spy plane flew at 80,000ft.
The Space station orbits only three and a half times higher at 350,000ft.
In contrast Mercy Air fly locally at around 4500ft and only up to to 12000ft when we go international.

If you've glimpsed the photos yet you will understand that this was no ordinary aircraft but two weather balloons that were launched as part of a project organised by Yellobric (http://www.schoolspacerace.com/news/). This was part of their 'School Space Race' program that aimed to encourage school children from around the globe to use maths, physics and geography to build, launch, and retrieve an unmanned craft as high as possible on a budget.

One of the pupils in an amusing t shirt

It was a pleasant morning when they arrived on the day of the launch and the lack of wind was a bonus.

There was quite a lot of preparation to ensure all connections were.. er..connected...

..and that the tracking equipment was talking to the transponders.

The payload of the transmitter, camera, radar reflector and parachute was 0.55 kg and helium was used to create a lift of 0.65 kg.

The balloons start about 1.5m in diameter but as they ascend and the air gets thinner they expand until, between 6-8m, they burst and return to earth under the parachute about 5 hours later.

The anticipation was immense!

And the crowd went wild!

There was just time for the obligatory selfie...

..before the balloons were lined up for the countdown...

 

..and release.

 

Then the tracking team got to work...

..while the cars drove off to recover them.

There was a nifty website that we used to see progress. A screen shot shows the tracks of the balloons with one achieving a maximum altitude of 22432m (73596ft) - their target altitude was 100,000ft.

We were happy to be able to help these schools in their quest by providing a launch site but we won't try to emulate any of their performance figures any time soon - promise!

Thank you.

Paul and Cathy.

Preparing for the worst - Hoping for the best

After helping extensively with cyclone Idai in Mozambique last year, Mercy Air has reviewed its involvement and put an enhanced disaster management plan in place, to be even better prepared should anything similar happen in the future.

Quite a lot to choose from

One of the issues we faced was the supply of aviation fuel. Things worked out well for us last year, but it could have been very different and we identified that making our own plans could be very pertinent.

Checking each one for condition

To that end, we recently sourced and collected 28 fuel drums from the anti rhino poaching air wing in the Kruger National Park.

We had to drive through the park to get to where the drums were - seriously!

We have since taken them to Maputo for filling and shipped them up to a mission base in central Mozambique.

It was a very hot day!

It is a place we visit often so if, hopefully, there is no emergency to deal with, the fuel certainly won't go to waste.

Thank you.

Paul and Cathy

Flying for Life - Limpopo Dental and Womens Health

Mercy Air was scheduled to do another Flying for Life trip in mid November, but on this occasion the elements seemed to conspire against us.

We have weather radar and a storm scope in the aircraft and can safely navigate around most weather. However, we are also fortunate these days to have access to fairly accurate weather forecasting and it became obvious in the days leading up to the proposed trip that the conditions, particularly around Johannesburg for the return flight in the afternoon, would be less that favourable.

We therefore decided to cancel the trip, and that probably was one of the better calls we've had for a long time!

Below is a radar image of the storm we would have been flying into and back out of (dark red) in the top RH corner.

Here is a multiple image shot taken over a few minutes by some weather watchers in Jhb, at the time we would have returned.

There were also photographs of people who could only hold five pieces of hail in an outstretched hand!

Fortunately Africa can be quite flexible and after a few frantic phone calls, we were able to re-arrange the flight for the following week - when the forecast promised far better conditions.

So the trip was back on and this time Cathy was also able to come along to help with some women's health issues.

Our team at the pick-up in Jhb...

..during the flight...

..and when we landed in Tshikondeni in Limpopo.

While the dental team got busy in the mobile dental unit..

Cathy got help from a very efficient local nurse for her series of pap-smears.

As in previous visits, after the clinic we visited a disability centre and took a few small gifts that were well received.

The area we visit is remote, even by South African standards, and is also quite neglected in terms of health provision.

This Makuya valley is one hours' drive away from the strip we land at

Tshikondeni airstrip

On the way back we were routed over Pretoria..

..and in particular the Union Buildings, the equivalent of the UK's Houses of Parliament.

The flight distance covered for this trip was about 1000 miles (1600 km), equivalent of flying from London to the north coast of Africa.

Thank you

Paul and Cathy

Container Base, Marromeu, Mozambique

Paul recently completed a trip that begun a week earlier with a different pilot.

Many years ago Mercy Air re-furbished some shipping containers and drove them up to Marromeu near the end of the Zambezi River in Mozambique, in order to set up a base from where we could help a local mission team work with the almost forgotten people in the Zambezi Delta region. As there are no roads this mission group used to travel three days by dug-out open canoe in order to reach the delta, a journey which now takes our helicopter only 20 minutes!

The weather and humidity had taken its toll on the five containers and they were in bad need of repair. For this reason we flew a team, tools and materials up for a week to bring the structures up to standard. They had only been there a couple of days when they got a call that the father of a missionary doctor in Beira had been taken ill and was coughing up blood - could we help? Without much delay John, Mercy Air's chief pilot, went to Beira, collected the patient and flew him and his son back to South Africa, where he spent a week in hospital. The rest of the team stayed in Marromeu working on the 'container base'.

At the end of the week Paul flew up with Andy, a maintenance guy looking at joining Mercy Air, to help with the last few issues, and obviously to fly the team back to South Africa.

I'm always amazed at the range the Kodiak has. In the shot below we had already been flying for an hour, yet could shill have cleared Madagascar to the east or Cape Town if we had turned round.

Dotted green circle - 45mins fuel left. Solid green - no fuel.

The view was similar to the range - seemingly almost limitless.

We have been flying to Marromeu for many years. Back in the day, we used to land in the middle of town, but these days that would be unwise!

Fortunately the local sugar company has built a strip out in its plantations and we can safely land there.

Short final Rwy 11

We knew it was toasty up there but weren't quite expecting 41 deg C on the ground at 1500 in the afternoon!

The container base has provided 'moderatley' comfortable accommodation, kitchen and ablution facilities for the heli crew as well as a place to store supplies, fuel and to facilitate some minor on-going maintenance for the helicopters themselves.

The containers were fitted with roofs to keep the rain off as well as to provide airflow to allow cooler conditions inside. One of the main issues was that the steel frames that supported the roofs were badly corroded and needed major work to prevent the sheets being torn off in the upcoming rainy/windy season.

Another of the issues that was fixed was the lighting for security at night.

Saying our goodbyes at the strip on the day we left.

On the way back we flew past a teddy bear who was waving at us!

The work we were able to do at the base will be effective through the next rainy season, but we will need to give it some major attention next year if they are to continue to be an asset in helping us help the communities in the delta, who's only contact with the outside world is a helicopter, or a three day dug-out open canoe journey.

Thank you

Paul and Cathy

ASAM, Mozambique - October 2019

This week Paul was back up in Mozambique with a team for a few days.

The team about to board

Taking off from Mercy Air

On the descent into Beira we flew over Buzi, where we had spent much time earlier in the year when we helped with the cyclone relief efforts.

Looking a lot better now than in March/April

At ASAM it was a game of aeroplane Tetris getting a helicopter, a Cessna 182 and our Kodiak into the hangar.

Not much room to swing a prop!

Each day we attended the familiar morning meeting.

Paul flew Nigel and his wife Erin from Mercy Air, who were preparing to help with an intensive pastor training the following week.

Should be fun!

Also on board were Jeremy and Janet Boddington who are with Mercy Air for three months with a view to stay longer. He also took Allan Luus (CEO of Mercy Air) and Anton, an engineer from South Africa, who looked at options for installing new electric and water services to help with longer term strategic planning for the mission.

Anton and Jeremy surveying the missions dammed river

The day of departure

It was a good few days except for the fact that four of the ASAM staff came down with malaria! They are well on the mend now though.

Thank you

Paul and Cathy

Flying for Life - Limpopo Dental Team

Paul recently flew another MAF/Flying for Life trip to Tshikondeni in the Limpopo province. On this occasion, the plane was full and one of the passengers was Jeremy Boddington, a retired Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm helicopter pilot who, together with his wife, are looking at joining Mercy Air soon. I will let him tell the story of the day:

"Recently arrived from the UK, my wife, Janet, and I are starting as short-term volunteers with Mercy Air.

What better way to get a feel for the work, than to accompany Paul Middleton on a flight to the dry and arid Limpopo region of northern South Africa, taking a team of dentists to a village day clinic?  

We left before sunrise, using torches to pre-flight the Kodiak in the dark. As Paul powered the aircraft down the Mercy Air strip, I wondered whether we were going to miss the trees at the end of the runway and how many Mercy Air staff had been woken from their slumbers. The Kodiak however has excellent short field performance and we were airborne about half way down the 600m long strip.

Loading passengers and supplies in Jhb

We arrived into Johannesburg at 06:30 to collect the dentistry team and then flew another 1h45 on to Limpopo, landing on a bumpy dirt strip before 9am.

Tshikondeni is an old coal mine airstrip that we can still use

This saved the team a six hour drive that in reality could easily have taken nearer eight - each way!

Google Maps depiction of the journey by road

From the airstrip there followed a one hour rickety minibus ride, with frequent stops for the driver to release smoking seized brakes. On arrival at the clinic, a mobile dentistry van and a number of patients awaited us, sitting in a line on the concrete step.

They seemed most grateful to see us as, over the next few hours, pain and aches were removed. 

Dentistry done, we moved on to a day centre for disabled adults, started by a local Christian lady some years ago. Delivering new shoes, food and other supplies, we enjoyed a time of talking and hearing about some of the ‘students’ and how the centre freed up caring families to get out to work to earn a living. After a time of fellowship, singing and prayer, we said our goodbyes, hugs and some tears in evidence.

At the dissability centre

The return journey was quieter (our exhausted passengers were asleep), and after dropping them off in Jo'burg, we made it back to our short unlit grass airstrip with about 10 minutes of light to spare. Night falls fast in Africa."

Thank you

Paul and Cathy (and Jeremy)