A Day At AIM Air

A bit of a trite title, but it does fit.

It actually started with the night before with about a half a dozen phone calls. Can you go to Marsabit tomorrow to get a man who'd been shot and get him to the hospital in Nairobi? Can you do the flight? Can you help me do the flight? Matt Olson, our general manager (samaki kubwa as they say here) decided he'd do the flight since the man was to be dropped at Kijabe hospital and the Kijabe airstrip requires a special checkout which I haven't had yet. I'd go along to help with the passenger so Matt could concentrate on flying. Meet at the hangar at 0545.

At the hangar we decided we'd have to take ALL the seats out of the plane except for the pilot's, so that the man could lie down. So...I ended up staying on the ground and coordinating with Kijabe hospital.

In Marsabit, Matt had to fight his way through the weather to land (low clouds, not uncommon there). But he got in. Immediate blood pressure spike: the medevac patient was still in Marsabit hospital. The missionary there went to get him as soon as Matt landed, but it can take a small forever to clear someone out of a hospital here. Like all day. The plane had 2 more flights to do that day which had already been delayed to do the medevac. In the event, it turned out to be a bit over an hour wait. Matt was airborne again and off to Kijabe. The doctors were waiting for him, so Matt takes off to return to Wilson.

Take off normal, gear up... gear up.... another spike on the blood pressure. We've been having issues with the landing gear on the C-210. Thought we had it fixed, but apparently not. So Matt flies home, turns the circuit breaker back on and puts the gear down (it always has gone down and locked, thankfully). It's now about 1230...I was supposed to have taken off at 9am to go to Mwanza.

This late I can't do both trips (Mwanza, back to Wilson then to Olerai) plus with the landing gear problem I don't want to go to Olerai, it's a rough strip and the 210 doesn't seem to like rough. But, we have the Lokichogio 206 down and it's just finished its inspection. So...the solution is get Tim Carpenter to take 5Y-SIL to Olerai while I do the Mwanza run. But Tim isn't in the hangar, and his phone is turned off. Gah!

John McNeely (another of the pilots) takes on tracking Tim down. He also preflights the airplane so it's ready to go. I head off to pick up my passengers to go to Mwanza. Matt goes back to being the samaki kubwa.

The run to Mwanza is routine. I hear Tim heading off to Olerai so I call him on the AIM Air frequency and give him a briefing on Olerai since it's been a while since he's been there. Get back to the hangar around 6, put the plane away, go home.

A life saved, missionaries delivered safely. The shattered schedule put back together. A typical day at AIM Air.

Tto God, alone wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen. Rom 16:27