Another hot day in the saddle

As mission trips go, this is an easy one. A little lie in, a late start, good flying weather, one overnight and then just flying missionaries back to SA for their onward travel to the UK and the USA for furlough. No physical labour in the heat of the bush, no sweating continuously for 20 hours a day, no endless nights sleeping outside in a moaquito net tent, no rice and beans for days on end. Not that I mind all that to be honest, it's what I do and I really enjoy it. True, the hours can be a little unsocial, but it beats anything else I am capeable of and a whole bunch of people can benefit from it other than me.

The perfect start to any day - fried English breakfast and a cup of tea,.on the stoep, in the sun with the missus.

Feels like my birthday!

Then a bit of flying..

A total of about four hours in the air from South Africa to Vilanculos in Mozambique via the Limpopo river...

Then on up to Marromeu on the Zabbezi River.

I fly past the aptly named Paradise Island surrounded by an emerald sea, where Bob Dylan once wrote a song whilst sitting at the grand piano in the foyer of of the now defunct hotel apparently. It's on the 1976 album 'Desire' along with Isis, Hurricane, Black Diamond Bay .... and others I can't remember.

A gold star to anyone who can tell me the name of the song.

It really is quite a jewel in an ocean of tranquility...

Then on up past Beira, Mozambique's second city where we would usully land except that they had no fuel - again.

They won't be getting my landing fees today.

I quite like flying on my own. seat back, look out the window, read a book, take some photos...

The YWAM guys I am picking up live modestly in Marromeu.  Part of their garden furniture is this tank, left over from the civil war quite a few years ago now.

 

I spent the night at Mercy Air's heli base sleeping in a shipping container.where the temperature at 10 at night was still over 30 deg.

The next day dawned bright and sunny and even though we were airbourne by 07:00 it was already hot.

We flew back past some interesting expansive scenary.

 One of the big green bits looked like a huge heart.

The passengers seemed quite happy - which is usually a good sign.

I also take it as a compliment if they're comfortable enough to sleep.

I t was a wonderfully boring and uneventful flight back to South Africa - just the kind we like.

after we landed and did the customs and immigration formalities the passengers had to wait in the shade of the wing whils I paid the landing fees.

Then we flew the eight miles back to the Mercy Air Farm where we were able to put them up fopr a night before their onward travel to the UK the next day.

Paul

All Change

This is what we were expecting to be doing this last week end - except with more sweat and mud.

But a phone call at 16:00 on Friday afternoon put paid to all that. So instead the weekend ended up looking more like this...

Ten hours in the saddle in a day/night mountain bike race was swapped for a similar amount of time in a plane at 10,000 ft. Azarja, who is one of Mercy Air's new pilots, also came along to help.

The story was that this lady way up in Mozambique had been getting progressivly more ill over the previous two weeks and had got to the stage where she needed to be bought out for some urgent medical attention. It would be unprofessional of us to say what her problem was but let's just say that we were advised to take a large bucket and a lid with us!

We didn't actually get the permit and the go-ahead till 21:00 on Friday evening so it was a bit of a rush to get ready for 05:30 the next morning. Saturday dawned dull and foggy so we were a little late taking off from the farm and had to do an instrument approach into the internatiuonal airport only 8 miles away. On the way one of the engines ran a bit too rough for our liking and so we left the plane there and drove back to get the other one. To cut a long stoy short, we finally left 3 hours later that we had planned.

The weather in Moz was good and we flew over some interesting scenery near the coast on the way up.

After refueling in Beira we continued on to Mocuba...

...where the condition of the strip seems to have improved recently.

 We were greeted with the usual pomp and ceremony from the local kids...

...before taking off with the patient.

Her mission organisation had arranged for a doctor to come out to the plane at our refueling stop in Beira on the way back.

The weather was still bad in Nelspruit so our only other option was another 2h45 flight to the capital Maputo where the patient went to hospital and we ended up spending the night.

All that was left then was to return later the next day in a big cloud, landing in low vis and heavy drizzle.

So, over 1600 miles (6400 km) and 10 hours of flying but not one bike wheel turned in anger.

Paul and Cathy

Paul's visit to the USA (which is in America).

Mercy Air has recently taken delivery of a Kodiak aircraft.

Ron and Barbara Wayner with the Mercy Air Kodiak

Being bigger than anything we currently operate as well as having a turbine engine, some specialised training was required. There are only 80 other Kodiaks worldwide and only three in Africa and so the best place to get training is near where they are made in the US. Paul therefore recently spent three weeks at Spokane Turbine Centre in Spokane, Washington to learn some of the intracasies of the aircraft.

It took 31 hrs to get there including a 16 hour flight from Jhb to Atlanta. He first went to Dayton, Ohio to visit some friends and get his head around the time difference.

He didn't want to go here (despite there being signs everywheredirecting you)...

but it just so happens that not too far further on from where they live is the largest military aviation museam in the world - so Paul went two days running. They have lots of historical stuff including the B29 that dropped the second atomic bomb on Nagasaki which ended the Pacific war.

Bockscar

They also have a hanger with a load of presidential planes as well as one filled with research and development aircraft including the XB70 Valkyrie which must be one of the most intimidating planes ever built...

When it's not cooped up in a hangar with lots of other X planes it looks something like this...

He also got to dress up as an astronaught.

Ground control to Major Paul.

At the end of the week he flew on to Spokane to start the training. The first week was all about the PT6 engine and how it works. There was a cutout engine and lots of bits and pieces to pass round.

This bit of the engine apparently goes round very fast and gets quite hot. If you break it it costs a lot of money.

There was also an engine outside on a test stand that we ran.

The following week was a mixture of cockpit Garmin G1000, aircraft systems and simulator training.

G1000 class

The sim was a bit box like from the outside...

but being 'full motion' was very realistic on the inside.

At the end of the week we drove up to Sandpoint, Idaho, where they make the plane to have a factory tour.

The last week was more G1000, systems and sim, and then a chance to join all the dots together and see if we could actually fly the thing.
Turns out we didn't do too bad...

Although it probably helps to have a slightly goofey instructor...

Even though the weather tried its best to intervene we finished off with some mountain flying in the hills of Idaho.

Quite a bit of mist lingered in the back country areas.

But very pretty.

Terrain Terrain. Pull up. Pull up.

This one place was a bit dogey to get into so we just flew round it a bit and took some pictures.

A few mug shots to finish...

And one end of course group photo.

I write this on Saturday after a two hour flight from Spokane where I am now 'enjoying' a nine hour layover in Salt Lake City. At 00:50 I fly to Atlanta where I get to wait another 12 hours before boarding a 16 hour flight to Jo'burg. Then I have a reasonable 1h30 wait before I get onto a minibus for the four hour drive to Nelspruit. Roll on Monday night!!

Paul