A while ago, I flew a team to visit two villages in Madagascar for three days. After a 45-minute flight, we reached Ampatakana in the rain forest. Most of the rice supply for the whole island is grown in this area. Setra, who is a dentist, treated lots of […]
Helicopter
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At the beginning of April, we flew two teams into the rainforest. The weather was fine when we started from the capital, Antananarivo, but the weather in Madagascar is always full of surprises… On day 2 of our mission, we flew both teams to Androrangabe. The coordinates were not correct, […]
For some time now, I have carried a vision in my heart that different organizations would work together to provide practical help and thus be a testimony of God’s love. When we as pilots fly with teams in Madagascar, we often see people who need medical help, but whom we […]
Large stormy depressions, called cyclones in this part of the world, strike Madagascar every year between January and April. After cyclone Batsirai caused major damage, we were asked by development worker Luciano to visit the communities he takes care of to get an overall view of the damage. Because […]
In 1975, following a long drought, southern Ethiopia was afflicted by severe floods. The river Wabi Shebele overflowed and spread out to a width of up to 10 miles (17 km). At that time, the communist regime sent students off to do forced labor in every part of the country. […]
11 November 2021 was “National Future Day”. We pupils were given the assignment of observing a particular profession. Since my dream job is a helicopter mechanic or helicopter pilot, I asked Curt if it would be possible for me to spend my Future Day at Helimission. Curt checked on my […]
”Of my last five flights, the flight to save a small baby with severe burns means the most to me,” reported pilot Maichel. During a funeral service at Kerabuk, a small village in the lowlands, a little baby had fallen asleep in a grass hut and rolled into the fire. […]
This year, we, Katja and Nick, have been married for 15 years. We normally celebrate together with our family, but this time, it turned out differently. At the start of the week, we received news at the Helimission office that a pastor’s wife was having trouble with one of […]
Several months ago, we started a major inspection on our helicopter PK-HCY in Papua, Indonesia. A strange hydraulic problem was very hard to figure out. It ended up not being a problem with the hydraulics, but with the Main Rotor Blades. We had to send all three rotor blades to […]
Treasures from The Pioneer Era, reported by Ernie Tanner: In those days in the 1970s, it was virtually impossible to get any weather reports in Africa. For example, I once asked the meteorological office in Douala, Cameroon, to show me the weather map and I noted down the data. When […]
Numerous people contributed their skills to ensure that the 12-year inspection of our AS-350 HB ZHQ (formerly ET-AMW, formerly PK-TSE) was carried out reliably and purposefully, leading to successful completion. In cooperation with Rotortec AG, the helicopter was practically disassembled into its individual parts, thoroughly tested, then put back together. […]
On a previous flight in the Bemarah area, in the village of Begara, a 14-year-old girl had an epileptic fit and fell into a fire which resulted in severe burns to various parts of her body. Dr. Justin, who flew there with us, treated the teenager and asked us […]
