This should be an interesting little trip

Those of you who know a bit about us and the work we do with Mercy Air will know that Mercy Air has been working towards getting a new aircraft ever since we sold our old Beech 18 a few years ago.

You will also know that we 'obtained' one a year ago and Paul went to do flight training on it in the US late last year (http://www.pcm-mercyair.blogspot.com/2012/11/thge-usa-which-is-in-america.html).

Another Mercy Air pilot, John, went to the US a few weeks ago to help Ron with the final tasks in preparation for it's ferry flight to South Africa.

They have now set off from Michigan making their way up through the US and on to the north east of Canada from where they will fly to Africa via the Azores. A more detailed account of the preparations can be found on Mercy Air's blog at www.mercyair-sa.blogspot.com.

What's quite interesting for us though is that Paul will fly up to Dakar, Senegal next week to meet them and fly it down through Africa.

Here's the whole route...

 

...and the African part...

The whole route is 8500 miles of which Paul will fly 4600 miles (7300 km) through Africa.

Thank you

Paul and Cathy

Flood survey

Whilst the Mercy Air helicopter was busy in the south of Mozambique, a consortium of aid organisations asked us to survey a large area in the north of the country.

 

We had to wait a few days till a weather system passed but we finally made it up to Quelimane to pick members of the survey team up.

The loop we flew at the top of the map may not look like much but it was 500 miles (800 km) long and took three hours to complete. The flight up itself was about the length of the UK.

As a lot of the survey area was inaccessible and the situation was thought to be quite bad, the Governor of the Province also wanted to come along and see for himself the extent of the flooding.

The area to the north east of Quelimane was extensively affected.

Where as the Zambezi River, although full, wasn't an immediate threat.

On the way back we had to request left of track due to weather and landed at Beira just after a heavy shower.

There is more rain predicted this coming week so we might find ourselves up there again soon for another survey.

Thank you.

Paul and Cathy

Water water everywhere...

Whilst Cathy and I were in the UK during January, Southern Africa had some pretty grim weather and as a result Mozambique seemed to bear the brunt and had flooding throughout the country.

The worst hit area was in the south and so Matthias and Mickey went with the helicopter to give assistance. Here is their report:

We landed the helicopter during late dusk as the city of Maputo was already lighting up.

What Mickey and I saw today, is only very slowly sinking in as actual reality.

The Limpopo flooding is as bad if not worse than the 2000 floods. Places we used to land in back then, are now under water. People report that Chockwe town was 2 meters under flood waters. Roads cut. Water as far as the eye can see.

Throughout the country, over the past years, Mozambique's national disaster management agency, the INGC, has done a commendable job of relocating thousands and thousands people away from the more flood prone risk areas to higher grounds.

But the amount of water present during this flood, is simply unimaginable.

Herds of animals trapped on smallest high grounds cuddle together. So many people, children, grannies, goats, chickens, cooking pots, plastic chairs, capolanos, beds, blankets and buckets, basically everything what people own and hold valuable, rescued to the roof top of their houses.

People in trees! People wading through strong current waters!

First we started with assessment flights with staff from Save the Children, WFP and Oxfam, but then ended up spotting first survivors in the waters!

As I heard a South African Air-Force Oryx helicopter on the same radio-frequency, I asked him if they were winch equipped and able to come to our GPS position? The first rescue was two women we found trying to swim thru the brown strong current, holding on for dear life to a closed plastic bucket with their belongings.

The helicopter winch operation was a success and their lives were saved.

Now we continued scouting for more surviving groups of people and directing the SAAF helicopter to the exact locations to rescue them. Some families we found had even climbed into trees! How long had they been there?

Continuing the search, we hovered slow and low over the brown flood waters, not wanting to miss any one of them, but the hard fact for me is realising, that I know we must have missed people, who could have been rescued. I feel guilty about that. I pray they are found tomorrow. Government boats are continuing as well.

In this short op together, we saved probably over 20 women with children on their backs, men, weak and old people- this afternoon alone.

A Save the Children team drove to help people a couple days ago at Barragem, but now got stuck themselves. During a 1 hour round trip heli flight we evacuated the staff off the high grounds, back to Xai-Xai. During the 30 second turnaround time on the ground, many children came with waving hands, asking to be flown away too!

As I think of those families on the rooftops I ask my self, what do they eat tonight? All the food got destroyed by the surprising flood waters during the night. How do they go to the toilet, on a roof top? How long will they remain healthy, if they drink only the brown flood waters around them? Do the people of Chilaulani on top of their hoses know people in far away countries care about them? Do they still keep hope?

It was overwhelming to see, we were not prepared for that.

We all need wisdom for tomorrow's work and flights.

Matthias Reuter and Michael Aebi

Crewing the Mercy Air helicopter

Stormy Monday Blues

We were recently asked by the South African Police Service to help transport, Errol, an officer who had been shot whilst on duty eleven years ago.

He had undergone surgery a number of times with limited success but needed taking from his home in Kwa Zulu Natal to the hospital in Pretoria. This would usually be a slow eight hour drive but we could fly him there in just over an hour. As he finds sitting very uncomfortable, the only realistic option was lying down in our aircraft.

The little red triangle on the map above doesn't look like much but it still took four hours to navigate and actually gives an idea of the scale of South Africa.

Paul knew that getting Errol in and out of the plane would be hard work so he got some help in the shape of Roger, the Mercy Air US Board Chairman, who was in SA and who just happens to be an ER Doctor - handy.

  

The transfer from car to plane and back took six people.

 

But once on board he could travel in relative comfort.

 

The weather wasn't completely compliant and we had to do quite a bit of storm dodging on the way.

 

This did allow us some impressive views between cloud layers though towards the end.

Thank you,

Paul and Cathy