PCM News: March 2013

29 March 2013

Assortment

Whilst allowing for a potential dash up to Dakar, Senegal for the Kodiak ferry flight, Paul was still kept busy with a number of shorter mission flights.

The first was another trip for Mercy Tech Missions, a Canadian based organisation who are developing a motor mechanic workshop at the ASAM base noth of Chimoio in Mozambique.

Rick (left) and his friends taking the mickey as I let him fly for a short while.

Yet again we fly past Paradise Island just north of Vilanculos.

This is headed up by Rick Cogbill who has a good blog with more pictures and less words than me at: http://mydustyshoes.blogspot.com/

The next two trips we did in our new Piper Seneca III which was kindly donated to us at the end of last year by a business man in Durban.

Seneca taking off from the Mercy Air farm.

The one trip involved taking a missionary who had been evacuated to South Africa for medical treatment back up to Mozambique, along with two mission kids who were returning to their families for Easter. The return flight involved bringing some German and US staff back to South Africa after visiting some of their missionaries in Mozambique.

The last flight was another one for Errol, the policeman who had been shot in the neck eleven years ago (a previous blog entry is at http://www.pcm-mercyair.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-perfect-storm.html). This was our fourth flight for him which enebled him to travel from his home in Kwa Zulu Natal to receive hospital treatment in Pretoria - and back.

On the way there we flew over the Cullinan Diamond Mine.

If you enlarge the picture above you can just see the huge Cullinan Diamond Mine where the world's biggest diamond was discovered in 1905 and which is now in the Crown Jewels in London.

Here's one from the web that shows it better:

Meanwhile, back in the plane...

Errol in relative comfort in the back of the Seneca.

Police and medical staff help transfer Errol to a streacher in Vryheid.

We appreciate that a lot of these pictures are just 'people in a plane' and in themselves aren't very exciting, but to those we flew and the people who received them they were quite important and it is a privaledge for us to serve in this way.

Thank you.

Paul and Cathy

28 March 2013

Kodiak Ferry Flight

In response to the blog entry below we must report that Mercy Air has decided to delay the ferry flight of the Kodiak to a later date.

There are a number of factors that led to this including technological, logistical, administrative and weather. We had extra cabin fuel tanks built for the long Atlantic crossings but the approval paperwork which we thought would take only a few days didn't come through even after two weeks, apparently due to FAA staff cutbacks. Without ferry tanks we could have flown the northern route via Greenland, Iceland and Europe but that would have cost more money (which we didn't have) a whole bunch more planning and then there was the weather. The last major concern was that the satellite tracking device we bought for the aircraft didn't work - at all. If we had a problem no-one would of had a clue where to find us.

There were other lesser factors but we eventually made the decision to leave the plane in Maine (in a hanger in Bangor in fact) and make a plan to collect it in the coming months.

We'll let you know as plans materialise.

Cheers

Paul and Cathy

A short history of us

Not long after we were married we felt that God had some full time work for us overseas. This initially began with a move to Sheffield in 1992 to work for a Christian management training company. Three years later we felt the Lord's prompting that another change was imminent and this led to a move to Africa where we helped set up a youth program with the Lesotho-Durham link in the capital Maseru. An initial three year commitment turned into four after which the youth work was handed over to the nationals.

Then, after feeling God was moving us into mission flying Paul enrolled at a flying school and completed his South African commercial license with an instrument rating in December 1999.

We moved from Lesotho to White River in South Africa in June of 2003 where we now work with Mercy Air. Mercy Air was borne out of Youth with a Mission (YWAM) and is a sister, although smaller organisation to the more well known Mercy Ships. We are situated near Nelspruit and provide a service to missions and the development/aid community in the southern African region but mainly serve Mozambique.

We operate four aircraft at present - a Quest Kodiak, a Cessna 310 and two Airbus 350 helicopters which are often used for the relief flights.

When not flying Paul is responsible for flight operations and is Mercy Air's Safety Officer.

Cathy, who is a registered Nurse and Midwife works part time at Africa School of Missions which is a bible college preparing missionaries for overseas service. She teaches in their School of Health and is part of a team which visits a number of rural clinics during the week. She is also helps with the hospitality ministry that Mercy Air runs.

Matthew spent four years at Rhodes University in Grahamstown where he studied photo journalism. He has now flown the nest and is living with his wife in Durban. They have a young daughter named Isabella.