Sammy – Our First Local Helicopter Mechanic In Papua
- haeberlin5
- 4 hours ago
- 2 min read
In 2003, Sammy joined the Helimission team here in Wamena. In 2008 he started training as an apprentice helicopter mechanic in our hangar. Over the years, many people invested in Sammy helping him develop his helicopter maintenance skills.
In 2014, he left the island and went to Bandung to study aviation maintenance at Nurtanio University. After 1 year there he obtained his A1 (airframe and airplane) and A4 (turbine engines) licenses. He returned to Wamena and continued gaining experience while working on our helicopters.
In 2021 Sammy traveled to Surabaya to get his A2 basic license for airframe and helicopter. He continued to work on our helicopters, and we only needed to organize an AS350 factory training for him to become a licensed helicopter mechanic. During this time covid hit and it was difficult to arrange this course as it is not available in Indonesia. Finally, in 2025 we found an online course which Sammy could take. Once he completed the course, we organized his visa, and he traveled to Switzerland to complete the practical side of the course. He returned to Wamena again with all the documents needed to obtain his AMEL. Once all the paperwork was submitted, he flew to Sentani to take his oral exam with the local aviation authorities, which he passed successfully. During this time, Wamena was under some security threats, and the aviation authorities didn’t want to travel to Wamena, so they asked me to become an official examiner and conduct Sammy’s practical exam on our helicopter. Sammy and I spent half a day doing the practical exam tasks and I am happy to report that he passed!
We recently got to celebrate Sammy! He is the first local at our base in Wamena to become a licensed helicopter mechanic. It has been a long journey, but Sammy has remained faithful over the years. It has been such fun working alongside him and seeing him grow in his knowledge of aviation maintenance. I have seen his hands-on skills and theoretical knowledge increase so much over the years. He has become a mechanic I can trust to do anything and if he runs into something he doesn’t know or understand, he always asks for help. I am so proud of him and so thankful for his faithfulness in serving his own people through aviation maintenance. I’m so excited to see our local friends being entrusted with the skills needed to continue operating our base, even if all foreigners had to leave the country. I am proud to have Sammy as a colleague and as an equal.
Matt, Pilot and Mechanic
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