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Flying doctors around the African bush!
Barry Maurer tells PPL Mania how he
got started with AvRICA
Added: October 2005
"In my opinion
this has to be one of the most rewarding flying jobs possible."
Back in 95’ at the age of 45 I decided that I wanted to
do something that would benefit someone else other than the taxman and
myself. I started air experience flying at 15 so I guess it had to be
aeroplane related – result, I formed a small aviation charity ‘AvRICA’
(Aviation Resource International Connecting Africa). Scrounging medical
equipment and funds in and around the U.K. and Europe for Africa, AvRICA
was soon getting involved in helping other NGO’s (Non Government
Organisations) and agencies in Kenya and Tanzania.
Before long I
found myself helping out in the front seat of a Cessna C208 Caravan a
few times a year dropping off doctors and supplies all over East
Africa. Quite different from anything else I had flown the ‘Van’ is not
a jet fighter nor is it a large passenger aircraft, but in my opinion
one of the most accurately sculptured aircraft for the job it does,
durable, reliable cargo hungry, fuel miserly low on maintenance and a
joy to fly.
The full time
professional crews that fly these aircraft on medi-vacs, medical team
positioning flights, and supply drops, have my utmost admiration for
their dedication to the job. I remember early on approaching one strip
(it looked more like a dried up river bed) at a field hospital deep in
Tanzania after the obligatory beat-up to clear the Zebras, Buffalo and
any other randomly mobile items that tend to bend aircraft parts, I set
the aircraft up on finals - I reflected briefly as I neared the
threshold, my pax comprised 5 doctors and 2 nurses in a country where
there’s one doctor per 250,000 people! What a great motivator for not
screwing things up and for making a ‘greaser of a landing’. Flying
doctors and equipment around Africa has it’s moments, on the last leg of
one return flight from Moshi South of Kilimanjaro to Wilson Nairobi the
nose-wheel almost struck an Ostrich missing it’s head by a few feet –
which could have been awkward to explain to operations – as at the time
both pressure altimeters were correctly reading 5,000 feet AMSL!
I don’t remember how I started my water realisation
projects (windmills and pumps), but I do recall thinking that water is a
basic need of all mankind and on a planet that is two thirds water surly
everyone must be entitled to their free share in order to survive.
Kenya and Tanzania are beautiful countries with stunning scenery but
daily life in rural areas is just that, it’s a struggle on a daily
basis. Consider that a gallon of motor fuel in the U.K. would pay for a
mosquito net that could save the loss of a child’s life from the
hypodermic of an Anopheles mosquito laden with its deadly cargo of
Malaria.
One undeniable fact remains, ‘you can’t change Africa but
it will change you’ and I believe it does so for the better, no matter
how desperate things can get, eventually the optimism that has sustained
Africa over millions of years breaks through – I’ve seen many moving
examples of this first hand.
With two of my
three daughters still at home and two years to go at University and
demanding more and more of my time (and money) - I escape to find myself
on the airfield looking up at the sky contemplating how things are going
in Kenya and Tanzania. My nephew drives 747’s and considers his job the
best in the world, it’s certainly well paid, but for me there can be
nothing more rewarding (or challenging) than the work done by the crews
of the Flying Doctor Service.
Financial help is greatly appreciated and every penny
donated goes to aviation medical support and water supply projects in
Africa - administration and all other costs are privately sponsored.
Donations can be made via the AvRICA web-site
www.avrica.org thank you. Thought for the day -as my first and
highly respected Flying Instructor Ron D. Campbell once voiced to me
some 37 years ago, “always remember - a good pilot makes the right
decision at the right time”.
Barry Maurer
AvRICA
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