Where did the month go?

Wow it's been busy the last few weeks. Over Thanksgiving weekend we went to AIM's Annual conference, held at Kijabe. It was really good. The food was excellent, the company great, the speaker was very very good...all in all a great weekend. Then back to work and flying. Two trips to Kurungu and Samburu, with a side trip to Gatab thrown in. Then to Marsabit and an unexpected night stop in Kalacha. I'm just back from a trip to Entebbe and Kakira in Uganda. Not, mind you, that I'm complaining. I came here to fly. The list is my excuse for why I didn't post any blogs for the last month!

The trips to Kurungu and Samburu were good. It was good to see the Middletons again, and the stay in Samburu was nice. The Samburu Serena is a very nice place. Gotta get Susan over there. Hmmm.

The second trip to Kurungu, Walt got me up in the morning (I was already awake, just being lazy). "Jay how are you on fuel?" Huh? Where's the coffee... Some men from a village just north of Kurungu had walked in and woke Walt up at about 2am to come and get a fellow who'd been shot in the leg. I ended up flying the guy up to Gatab for Dr Focking to look at. The wound turned out to be fairly minor...the bullet was nearly spent when he was hit (in the knee) or his knee would have been shattered. As it was he could walk and stand on it.

Last week I went to Marsabit to pick some folks up and bring them to Nairobi. First though we stopped at Balesa (about 90 miles north of Marsabit). David had a water project there to check on. The whole family went, leaving me to guard the airplane, and swelter in the sun. It was HOT there! "You have to be back by 2 or we may not have enough daylight to get to Nairobi." It was about a 3 hour flight from Balesa to Nairobi, plus I had to stop and refuel. They finally got back to the plane about 3:15....the truck they were in had broken down on the way back. No way to get to Nairobi before dark (Kenyan rules don't allow night flight by single engine aircraft). So, down to Kalacha, where there's a guest house. There's also a pool (an irrigation tank that got taken over as a pool). The guest house is spartan...a foam rubber mattress with a sheet over it, a camp chair and a coffee table pretty well complete the accomodation. I think it might be the balance for two visits to the Samburu Serena. Dinner that night was 2 day old chapaties and fried goat.

Then it's off again, this time to Uganda, Entebbe to clear customs, and then to Kakira. The Kakira airport is interesting, it's owned by a sugar plantation and is very very nice. I dropped the Duckworths off there to visit a school they are sponsoring, and returned to Entebbe to spend the night. At Entebbe I did battle with the bureaucracy. It's much easier to fly internationally than within Uganda. Go figure. I also ended up linking up with one of the MAF Uganda guys. He had some parts to go back to Nairobi that had been on loan to them from MAF Kenya. Tim Carpenter from AIM Air had met me there (Entebbe) in the morning to give me the paperwork tour, so I was armed for my afternoon battle with the bureaucracy. Then, today, it was back to Wilson.

We leave on the 22nd to go up to Gatab for Christmas. I'm looking forward to it, as are Susan and the kids. It'll be good to get out of Nairobi. The Gatab missionaries apparently have a few flights lined up already, and who knows what will pop up.

So...where'd the month go, anyway?

Re-registration

We have a new airplane! Sort of. N209KA is now 5y-SIL. We've had to re-register 2 of our aircraft to Kenya registry, and 9KA is the first to get through the process. The other, N756MS is undergoing a major overhaul, including complete repainting, new instrument panel, new HF radio, nearly a complete re-wiring, new fuel tanks, etc., etc.

Anyway, we received the registration certificate today for 5Y-SIL. The airplane joined AIM Air's fleet in the mid-80s when Denny Dyvig flew it from Sudan (as part of the evacuation from Sudan with the civil war there). Denny (and the airplane) are with JAARS, Jungle Aviation And Radio Service, the aviation branch of Wycliffe Bible Translators. Denny's our safety officer at AIM Air, and a truly outstanding pilot.

Another part of Wycliffe is the Summer Institute for Linguistics, or SIL. Thus the new identifier for the aircraft. SIL exists to bring the Bible to peoples who don't have a written language. It began in 1934, started by William Cameron Townsend as part of his efforts to bring the Bible to those who did not have it. Part of their charter now is to work with local people to "adapt or translate literature or publication on subjects such as nutrition, farming, health (including HIV/AIDS), and some or all of the Bible." (From the SIL webpage at www.sil.org/sil )

It's a relief to know that we'll be getting a C-206 back in operation very soon. We've missed the airplane's capabilities, alot. It's exciting that we'll put 5y-SIL back to work supporting missionaries as they live among the people they are bringing God's Word to.

Two Days Four Countries

I was on my way to Mwanza, Tanzania with four folks going to do computer training at a school there. The sel-call on the HF goes off (sel-call lets you ring a specific HF radio. Everyone else on channel can still hear you, but only the one radio rings like a phone). Our ops manager says, "Jay can you divert and after you drop off your passengers, go to Entebbe to pick up three people and take them to Bunia?" But I'm getting ahead of myself.

First the guys going to Tanzania. When we planned the flight there was no fuel in Mwanza so I had to carry round trip gas (about 280 liters or 74 gallons, weighing in at 440 lbs). They were told 20 lbs luggage each, no more. They showed up at the hangar, not customs for the usual metal detector and luggage scans, and they showed up with 20 kg (about 45lbs0 of luggage each. The good news for them was that that day Mwanza had gotten a fuel shipment in, so there was gas there. So...taxi from customs back to the hangar, take 100 liters of fuel off (about 25 gallons), and now there's weight to carry the luggage. Taxi back to customs (beat the passengers there) load up finally and go. Wow.

Then the HF call. Can I go to Entebbe. "Call me when you get on the ground there and I'll talk you through where to take care of the paperwork." Sure, I can go to Entebbe. "Ok, I'll call when I get there." So I drop my passengers off, refuel, file a flight plan and take off.

Entebbe, yep, the same place as in "Raid On Entebbe." They have a fancy new terminal building (3/4 done, that plays in later) getting ready for the CHOGM meetings next week. Land, park, secure the plane, etc. Ok, call the Ops Mgr. No answer. Hmm. Find the restroom. Call again. Still no answer. Ok, let's see what I can find. I found were the file flight plans and pay landing and navigation fees. I wander out through arrivals (I missed the office where we're supposed to leave general declarations (customs document stating what and who we brought and are taking)). Call again - it'd be nice to know where I'm spending the night. Finally, an answer! I'll be staying with the Stairs. Dan is the Entebbe pilot (he's up in CAR on a safari flight for another week though) and his wife Cindy and two daughters live there. I get a cab out to their house, Cindy pays the cabbie (I have no Ugandan shillings). I get a great meal, and fixed up with a room in the guest house / AIM Air Uganda office.

The next day it's back to the airport and off to Bunia. I meet my passengers, the Morrows and Pearl Winterbuck. They're long time missionaries out there. Pearl is about 87 years old and in a wheel chair. Somehow we have to get here (and about 10 huge suitcases) downstairs to the ramp. Remember the building is still under construction? There's no power to the elevator. So... Ed Morrow, two Ugandan airport workers and I carry Pearl, wheelchair and all, down two flights of stairs. Brave lady. Then Ed and I lug the bags down, and I stuff them in the plane. Its a good thing they were missing one from the flight to Uganda, I have no idea where I'd have put it That plane was FULL!

Off to Bunia, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. No worries. Except the Bunia tower controller won't SHUT UP!! Three planes are coming in at about the same time. This guy gives us new directions every 5 seconds. Just sequence us and let us fly for crying out loud! Get landed, get unloaded and say farewell to the Morrows and Pearl. (Ed was great to talk to, he was on headset for the flight out...wonderful fellow!) Belagese, the Congolese who works at Bunia for MAF and AIM helped me with the paperwork, and brought out three more passengers to go back to Entebbe. Get them all loaded up, get on our way...tower thinks we're going to Arus. Sigh. Easily fixed, and back to Entebbe.

Land, unload, farewell my passengers (who speak 10 words of English between them) and file paperwork to get home. Take off, and fly along the north shore of Lake Victoria heading home.

Two hours later, I land and put the airplane away. Two days. Four countries. Ten missionaries.

Donkeys & Airplanes

Don't play well together. I flew up to Kurungu today to pick up a lady who was going to the UK. Coming into Kurungu...hmm, something on the runway. Turn final. Hmmm, still there. Get ready to go around. Oh. Donkeys. Add power, buzz the strip about 20 ft up. A couple donkeys run. Most of them are still there, I see as I turn back on downwind. One of the workers at the mission compound comes out and runs most of the donkeys off. Two are still there, standing in the middle of the runway watching the airplane. Downwind. Base (still there). Final (still there). Short final (still there.) Add power, buzz the donkeys at about 10 ft. Go around. They ran this time.

Third pattern's the charm. Donkeys are gone, landing strip is clear. The half-dozen camels at the halfway point weren't interested in coming out of the shade to get in the way. They chewed their leaves and watched me roll past.

No donkeys in sight on takeoff.

Orthopedic clinics

Last week I flew the Drs from CURE Int. around western Kenya while they did intial and follow up clinics for children. They work with crippled children, providing orthopedic surgeries and therapy. Some of the cases were pretty horrific.... children badly burned with the scars having contracted and crippled their hands or feet, children with spina bifida or cerebral palsy, or badly broken bones or clubfoot or... you get the idea. Seeing the initial cases was depressing. Seeing the follow ups, after they'd had surgery and - or physical therapy, that was amazing.

One boy, about 14 years old, really stuck in mind. He'd been born with no hands and no legs below the knee. But, his handwriting is better than mine (he has pads where his hands should be and holds the pen in both "hands.") And he plays soccer! Apparently rather well, too. He has shoes made from leather sewn around plastic tubs that fit over the stumps of his knees. The Drs are working on fitting him with prosthetic legs, but the thing that made this guy so amazing was his attitude. He walked in, smiling, glad to be there. He wasn't letting his disabilities stop him, or even slow him down much. Just amazing.

The medical team was ecstatic over being able to fly. The way these clinics ran in the past, they would drive to Kisumu from Kijabe (about 8 hours), do a clinic the next day, drive 6 hours to Kitale after the day's clinic, do a clinic the next day, drive 2 hours to Eldoret, another clinic the next day, then drive 6 hours back to Kijabe, getting in around midnight. The flight to Kisumu was just over an hour, to Kitale about 25 minutes, to Eldoret about 15 minutes, and back to Nairobi about an hour. They've already booked flights for the next two clinics.

C-210 Checkout pt 2

Finished! Not without some obstacles, but the checkout is complete and the paperwork submitted.

Tower tried to get in the way. Not sure why, but they told us they were unable to approve flight in the local area due to weather. Huh? The weather was decent VFR. Besides, that's not their call, that's the pilot's call. Anyway. We filed a flight plan and went to Magadi, and played with the flamingos. (There was a big flock of them on Lake Magadi that we overflew on base leg).

Denny Dyvig did the checkout for me. He's a great pilot, I always learn something when I fly with him. Probably the biggest learning experience this time was an attitude thing. He reminded me that the reason to do my best isn't the next check ride, or anything else like that. It's that I've got missionaries (and their children) in the back of the plane depending on me to get them where they're going, safely. A good reminder. It's easy, here, to get complacent, and to forget why we do what we do and why we take such care.

Anyway, a good flight, and a good lesson. Oh, his biggest critique on my flying was some suggestions to make radio calls more concise (that's what lead to the rest of the discussion on safety).

210 Checkout

I'd gotten used to the 206....A flying pickup truck. The 210 isn't really a sports car, but it's nearly half again as fast as the 206. So I spent about half the flight catching up to the airplane. It's easy to fly, a bit heavier in pitch, much lighter in roll. Zipping across the ridge line south of the Ngong hills is alot of fun at about 100 feet above the ground.

Tomorrow it's more 210 checkout: Short and soft field take offs and landings. The 206 is very capable with short, rough runways. Should be fun.

Next week it looks like I'll be up to Marsabit in the 210, and to Mfangano Island. We're trying to make 1 C210 do the work of 2 C206s. It's going to be a busy plane the next couple months.

Stuff

Just stuff. This week is pretty slow. I check out in the C-210 (retractable landing gear, similar to a C-206 but faster, not quite as good on rough runways). Just in time, too. We're losing 2 of our C-206s for a couple months while the registry is changed from US to Kenya (a Caravan also). AIM Air is hurting a bit for airplanes at the moment. Our one Kenya registered 206 is up in Lokichogio for the most part. We're down to 2 Cessna Caravans, one of which is in Loki, so... Looks like the C-210 will be getting a workout for the next couple months.

I'm finished up with route checks, and about 3/4 of the way through new pilot status. Of 150 hours I have about 115. I need to renew my Kenyan pilot license this month...when you're over 40 the license is only good for 6 months. Hard to believe it's already been that long.

Air Ambulance

No plan survives contact with the enemy. Or something like that. Originally the flight was scheduled for Nairobi to Gatab (lower), and back to Nairobi. It got changed later to add a trip to Wamba to drop a man who'd been shot at the Catholic hospital there for surgery. The plan was to overnight at Gatab, since we'd be leaving Nairobi in the afternoon...the people going to Gatab were coming into Jomo Kenyatta airport (the big international airport in Nairobi) from Mombasa at 1130, so a bit of time to get luggage, and get a cab over to Wilson airport. Then we found out the surgeon was leaving Wamba today, so if he was going to do the surgery, the patient would have to be at Wamba on the 26th.

But where to stay at Wamba? (Single engine airplanes aren't allowed to fly at night in Kenya).

Plus there was confusion over which airstrip at Gatab, upper or lower. The people meeting us at Gatab somehow didn't get the word we'd be using the lower airstrip. So we had to wait on them for about an hour while they organized transport for the patient to the lower airstrip, and so on and so on.

Up shot? I stayed in Wamba last night. The Catholic mission there was very very hospitable, and the guest house the nicest I've stayed in. Wamba was great! Many thanks to the people there at Wamba . Also, the man from Gatab got his surgery, probably saving his life.

I sweated over details. God had it all under control and everything worked out fine.

The GPS is possibly the most important piece of kit in the airplane. Certainly it's the piece of gear most simplifies the flight.













We had some visitors at Gatab while we were waiting for the truck to come with my passenger, and the patient for the Wamba hospital, and to pick up the 2 people I'd brought to Gatab.











Unloading the patient at Wamba. I removed the middle and rear seats on one side of the plane so he could lay down, and then rigged a safety harness for him using the cargo tie downs on the floor. Not very comfortable, but given his injuries better than trying to sit in a seat.

Bad roads

We've all complained about bad roads, but .... The photos are of the Juba - Yei road in south Sudan. It's the best road in south Sudan. One of the AIM Air pilots took the pictures lat week, and they're worth 1000 words, easily. They show better than words can tell why AIM Air exists. Anyway...















I don't think I'll be so quick to complain about bad roads again. Or at least not as loudly.

Wednesday I get to help some people dodge some not quite so bad roads...at least the roads to Gatab are passable (though it takes 2 days to go about 275 miles).

J

Weather

The big bug-a-boo of flying here. I took off to take 2 short term missionaries to Mfangano Island this morning. About 150 feet above the ground things started to turn white. Not good. A low layer of clouds had rolled in on the airport while we were loading the airplane. So I turned back to the airport, buzzed an apartment block on downwind, and landed. Whew.

We tried again about an hour and a half later. I thought I'd go out the south side of the Ngong hills as the terrain is lower that way. Nope. About 6 miles south the clouds were pushing me lower. So I made a U-turn. "Let's try going out the north," I told my passengers. Just 2 miles north of the airport the clouds began to lift, and break up. Another 2 miles and we were in the clear.

The passengers were short-term missionaries from North Carolina, doing evangelism and discipling work on the island. Among their other baggage were three cartons of Bibles in Luo. Alot of the local pastors don't have a Bible. Those three boxes of Bibles ... you can imagine how important they are.

There and Back Again

Extra points if you can identify the quote in the title.

Wednesday it was up early to fly to Logologo, and return late Friday. Saturday it was up early to fly to Rusinga Island, back to Wilson, then on to Mombasa and then back to Wilson.

Logologo went as planned. I have to say, though, that Logologo is rather dull. It's hot, it's dusty, it's hot. Not a great vacation spot, despite what your travel agent may tell you. While I was there the dispensary treated 2 people for snake bites and one boy for scorpion stings.

Saturday turned into a Saturday and Sunday flight. I took 4 people to Rusinga Island in Lake Victoria for a meeting, then 2 of them on to Mombasa (stopping in Nairobi on the way through for fuel). They were late getting back from their meeting and so I'd have been late getting off Mombasa, late enough I'd have run out of daylight on the way home. They were pretty keen to do the flight then, though, so they agreed to the extra cost of putting two pilots up for the night in a hotel in Mombasa. Our chief pilot was along on the Mombasa leg to give me a route check.

So...all my route checks are done! Yay! The flight with the chief pilot was good, and generally went well. He had a few pointers for me, which I took careful note of. Anyway, a good flight if not quite according to the plan.

NFD and Western

The start of the week was busy. I flew up north to pick up some short-term missionaries who'd been serving at Gatab hospital. On the way I stopped at Olturot to pick up a patient, dropped him at Gatab, then took 3 ladies and 2 babies to Loiyangalani where I picked up a -really- sick man(he could barely get to the plane) and took him to Gatab for testing.

Once that was all done, I refueled (many thanks to John Woodworth from Master's Mission for his help bringing fuel and the pump down), loaded up nearly 400kg of doctor, nurses and their bags to take to Siana Springs, a safari lodge so they could tour a little before returning to the US.

The fun part was these folks go to my Mom's church, Blacksburg Christian Fellowship. Make sure you got to their show and tell, Mom!


The next day was an easy flight, I took some folks to Kisumu to visit the Compassion International project there. The family I took over supports one of the children through C.I. and they were taking the opportunity while in Kenya to go and visit. It was an excellent day. One of the best parts of being a missionary pilot is that you get invited along alot of the time. It was really great to see how excited the child was, and his parents and the people running the project to have a sponsor come and visit. We support 2 children through Compassion, Uwitonze Dalia in Rwanda, and Newton Agani here in Kenya. We're starting to make plans to visit him, and I now have a good contact in the Kenya C.I. office to help with the paperwork. C.I. is (understandably) fairly careful how they handle these visits. Anyway, I'm looking forward to flying my family out to see Newton.

Oh, and a picture or two: These are from last week's jaunt to Merti.
The first one is loading up the trucks to go to Merti town from the airstrip.

The second is one of the towns people entering the clinic,

and the third is buttoning up the pod, getting ready to return to Nairobi.

Flying to Merti

Last week was interesting...my first medical short term mission team. We (2 airplanes, I flew the 206 and M. DeLorenzo flew a Caravan) picked them up at Lewa Downs, a fancy safari park just north of Mt Kenya to fly them to Merti, a Borana town in north-east Kenya. They had too much stuff. Rather than leave the medications behind, they left 2 people behind (who weren't closely involved in the clinic, one was a long time AIM missionary who'd helped coordinate the trip) and I went back early early the next morning to pick the 2 up and fly them out to Merti.

Departure out of Lewa was scary. Lewa Downs sits in a bit of a bowl. Strong winds out of the southeast rose over a ridge from Mt Kenya and created strong downdrafts as the wind flowed into the bowl. I took off, all normal, got to 100 feet, and could climb no more. I droned on at best climb speed, full power for about 5 miles until suddenly the airplane started to climb. I'd flown out the north side of the downdraft. Whew.

That was Tuesday. Wednesday the team did the general health clinic all day. Handing out vitamins, a de-worming treatment for everyone, and looking at whatever malady the people of Merti showed up with. Mike (the other pilot) and I helped a little with crowd control. The clinic, though, had things very well organized. There was no crowd, they had lots of local help from the (tiny) local church to keep things orderly. Things worked very well.

Merti, by the way, is 90% muslim. The Christian presence is very small, but is growing despite active persecution. Christians can't get jobs in Merti, for instance. The point of the clinic was to provide a tangible example of Christian love, even to those who persecute them. About 90% of the people in the clinic were muslim. The team will be following up through Galge, the local pastor with more aid to the town. Galge's story was amazing. I wish I could tell it as he told it, but suffice to say that he was a muslim who converted to Christianity and is back ministering to the people of his home town. Beleta is another man who's story was just amazing. A muslim chaplain in the Kenyan military he is now a Christian. Also a Borana, he's planted 4 churches for the Borana in Nairobi's slums.

People like Galge and Beleta are humbling. I had the privilege of flying Beleta's family out to Merti from Isiolo (near Lewa Downs) on Thursday so they could attend a wedding.

Thursday...I flew the first 5 missionaries out to Lewa Downs, picked up Beleta's family on the way back, then picked up 3 more short-termers and another 400 lbs of baggage and flew them all back to Wilson/Nairobi. I have a great job.

Med-Evac

I had my first med-evac the other day. Friday I flew from Nairobi to Marsabit, about a 2 hour flight, to pick up a man who'd been shot the previous day. Another man had been shot dead in the same incident. The flight went smoothly. It took a bit of hunting to find the runway at Marsabit, since the official GPS coordinates show the runway to be 3 miles west of where it really is. Once I sorted that out, it was easy.

Big BIG crowd at the airplane. It was the event of the day, maybe the week. Two other AIM missionaries were there, too, a bit surprised that I was there. They hadn't heard that there was a man wounded, they'd only heard about the man who'd been killed. They were very helpful controlling the crowd around the airplane. Everyone has to touch the plane, and move the elevator and ailerons.

The flight home was easy, if a bit bumpy. I felt bad for the passengers (the wounded man and his father, a woman and her sick child) because of the rough ride. It beat the alternative of a two day trip by 4wd, however.