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

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

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

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