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.