Over the past two months the maintenance team and I have been working very hard to keep our services operational. Only one of our three helicopters was flying and it had only a handful of starts left before the engine cycled out and would need changing.
Helicopter
9 posts
In 1986 we bought a helicopter in Abu Dhabi in the United Emirates on the Gulf of Persia. Now I intended to fly the machine via Ethiopia to Kenya where it was urgently needed.
After three years of preparation, training and many tests, Maichel, a young pilot from Papua, was finally ready. Just three weeks ago we completed the so-called type rating for our helicopter with him. And now it was time for his first real mission.
t requires a lot of skill, experience and high concentration from the pilots to fly in this challenging area with the helicopter.
To avoid long flights over water I planned to cross the Mediterranean at the Strait of Gibraltar, but because of the military no-go area I had to turn aside much sooner and aim for Morocco. I needed all my courage for the long flight over water.
The three-day flight program was well planned, so that we could combine serving three organizations in one mission.
Ernie Tanner experienced a dangerous emergency landing during the drought in the south of Ethiopia in 1985. Together with General Mobratu, Governor of the Province of Gemu Gofa and a good friend of his, he had the task of inspecting the state of health of the people in certain areas of the country.
Since the town of Wamena in the highlands of Papua can only be reached by air, all the fuel has to be flown in by cargo plane. In Wamena this is organized for us by a third party, but it gets more complicated when the fuel is needed in remote places in the bush.
Helimission staff are committed to making sure that our “help from above” really reaches its destination.
