Feeding the planes

One of our ongoing tasks is keeping up with our fuel supply for the planes. For years, we had an underground tank (the one pictured above) that we filled up with Avgas (Aviation Gas). The fuel guys at the airport would deliver Avgas with a tractor to our hangar and pump it into this tank. We then had an electric pump to pump the fuel from the tank into our planes. A few years back, the pump and hose starting leaking quite a bit and we had lots of power cuts which made the electric pump unpractical. About the same time, we discovered that the fuel guys were emptying drums of Avgas into their tractor to deliver the fuel to us. They would then keep the empty drums and sell them. At that point, we decided to simply have them deliver the sealed drums to us with the Avgas inside. We bought a good hand drum pump and began refueling straight from the drums. We decommissioned the underground tank, dug it up and sold it. In the picture you can see the engineering feat of safely loading this large heavy tank into a trailer after we sold it.
When the 1st diesel plane arrived, we had another fueling dilemma. It uses Jet fuel, which is stored in huge tanks at the airport fuel depot and piped underground to refueling points on the ramp. The fuel guys can't deliver Jet fuel to us at our hangar. In order to keep a stock of Jet fuel on hand at our hangar, we converted some empty drums to use for Jet fuel. To get the fuel, we had to load 3 drums at a time into our van and take them to get filled up on the ramp. Unloading those full drums from the van at the hangar afterwards was always a risky proposition for our legs and toes. Only getting 3 drums at a time also meant that we had to get fuel quite often. The fuel guys didn't really like this system either as it was difficult to fill the drums in our van and they often spilled fuel in doing so.



After lots of brainstorming about a better solution, we finally decided on getting a fuel trailer for Jet fuel. Thanks to the sale of the underground tank and some donations from churches, we had enough funds to buy this fuel trailer. (The full costs of the trailer aren't covered yet, so if you'd like to donate towards the trailer let us know.) It arrived on a container in January and we've put it to work right away. The timing was great as we had friends visiting at the time who made trailer hitches for two of our SIMAIR vehicles to pull the new trailer. We can now pull the trailer to the ramp to get filled up. We're very thankful for this new tool. It has a battery operated pump and a 50 ft hose to easily reach our plane from where the trailer is parked.

Snow?

I've never seen snow in our part of Africa and am pretty sure that there's not much chance of seeing it here. In fact the temperature today in our hangar was 110 deg F. But, I did take this picture today near our hangar. It sure looks like snow. Let me explain...

Today we picked up our passengers, drove to the airport, went through the formalities with the police, checked weather and filed the flight plan. Then we headed to our hangar, pre-flighted the plane, loaded the bags and passengers and prayed before the flight... all pretty routine for a normal flight day... that was about to change. After shutting the plane doors, Dave (our maintenance specialist) and I stepped back away from the plane. We waited for Ed to start the plane. As he prepared to start the plane, I watched one of the airport fire trucks driving back toward the fire station not far from our hangar. They had the water cannon on top spraying water towards the bushes near their station. Once again, pretty routine stuff as they practice spraying water almost every day. It's a good way to practice and water their bushes at the same time. Suddenly, the "water" seemed a lot thicker coming out of the cannon. They have foam in the trucks that they can spray on the runway in case a plane has to make an emergency landing. I've seen them spray the foam a few times here just for practice, but this time was different. The taxiway coming from our hangar was coated with the foam.

We couldn't send the plane taxiing through the foam, so we headed over there with squeegees to clear the foam off as much as possible. It sure looked like snow as we pushed it to the sides. After we cleared a path, we sent the plane through. We then talked with the firemen, with whom we have a good relationship. They apologized for the inconvenience and assured us they wouldn't practice on the taxiway again. We appreciate the job they do and are grateful for the many times they've helped us over the years around the airport and with tours for kids of their trucks and fire station.

Nurses training program

Our internet connection has been spotty and nonexistent for much of the past 3 months, making it difficult to put any posts on our blog. The internet reaches our part of Africa via an undersea fiber optic cable. Sometimes a ship drops an anchor that damages the cable. Sometimes the cable is damaged coming from the coast through one of our neighboring countries. The internet for our whole region is knocked out when this main line is damaged. It seems to be working for the moment, so I'll try to post some updates. (As I wrote this sentence, the internet stopped working again... go figure.)

Our hospital in Galmi is implementing several new strategic programs. In a few months, they will be starting a surgical residency program training Christian surgeons from this part of Africa. This vision has been a dream for many years, but the pieces are finally in place to begin. A while back, I flew a member of the accrediting board (PAACS - Pan African Academy of Christian Surgeons) to Galmi for the final approval process. They've now received approval to start the program with their first two residents scheduled to arrive in July. New housing is under construction to house these future residents.

Galmi hospital also has a vision to start a program to train local Christian nurses. This vision is in the very beginning stages. A hospital run by another organization in southern Togo already has a viable nurses training program. So, we flew to southern Togo to pick up the hospital director and another lady involved in the program to come consult with the folks at Galmi. The trip by road would have taken them 3 days each way. It was a full day of flying for us to get them from their hospital in Togo to Galmi. I took off at sunrise and flew 2 hrs to an airport in northern Togo where I checked into the country. Then, I continued flying another 1 1/2 hrs to their hospital.


Here are the two ladies we flew. They have an airstrip right at the hospital. They also have a plane based there at the hospital but no pilot currently. You can see their hangar behind us in the picture. Several pilots are raising support to go there. One of these pilots was a student in the aviation program when I was flight instructing at Piedmont.


The airstrip is sloped slightly, rough, and one way in and out. As you can see, it's a lot greener in Togo than here where we are. I was greeted by about 10 military officers who were waiting in the shade of the trees in this picture. They were there to make sure I wasn't doing anything illegal. After greeting the officials, I refueled the plane with fuel that I brought with me.

Here's their hospital compound next to the airstrip. It's tucked right up in the corner at the base of two ridges. We took off and flew 1 1/2 hrs to the airport in northern Togo again to exit the country and then 2 hrs back to our base. There, we refueled, did the immigration formalities for here and switched pilots. Ian flew them 1hr 45 min to Galmi hospital, landing a little before sunset. They spent 3 full days consulting with our team in Galmi and then we did the trip in reverse to take them back to their hospital in Togo.

We're grateful for the spirit of collaboration that will benefit both hospitals.

2nd Diesel Plane Update

The work on the 2nd diesel plane continues. Here you can see the new paint job on the fuselage with the new windows installed. We sent Ian to the States for a few weeks to help with the work on the plane. They have the diesel engine bolted onto the plane now and are working on the installation of the radios and instruments.

Co-pilot

Silas has waited for this day for a long time. He's watched each of his sisters have a turn being my co-pilot for a day when they turned 4 years old. Today, there was a flight scheduled to Galmi that had room on it for Silas to go along. In his rush to get out of the house this morning, he could hardly spare a moment to give mom a hug. He proudly toted his backpack, lunch and water bottles to the van and later to the plane.

Do you think he had a good time? I sure did. It was a treat having him fly with me for a day. We had the fun of carrying 50 lbs of frozen turkey and 22 lbs of potatoes with us to Galmi for their Thanksgiving celebration. We were happy to help make their celebration a little more special. One of the highlights for Silas was seeing Buddy in Galmi. Buddy is one of the puppies our dog had almost two years ago. He now belongs to a family there. Silas was excited to see him sitting at the gate by the airstrip.



Here's the view from my "office" taken a little over a month ago near the end of rainy season. You can see the patches of green from the crops in the fields. Pray for the many people who had poor harvests this year due to the sporadic rains and damage done by grasshoppers and worms.

This picture from my "office" was taken today. Just a few weeks after the last rains fall, everything turns brown again until the rains come again in 8-9 months. The straight line cutting diagonally across he picture is the main road across the southern part of the country.

Wells

Water is a precious commodity in this part of the world. Our hospitals in Danja and Galmi have wells that not only provide water for the hospital compounds, but also for the residents in the nearby towns. Each location has had some problems with their wells. Galmi's pump broke, which created a crisis for several days until the pump could be temporarily fixed until a new pump arrived. These problems showed that a good back up well was needed as the hospital, staff houses, and town residents all depend on the water. Danja needed another well to help with the increased demand from the new Fistula center.

A friend with another organization has a ministry that includes drilling wells for villages. In between drilling projects, he agreed to send their drilling team to Danja to drill a bore hole well there. I flew him out for a day to see the location for the new well and discuss the logistics with our construction supervisor. Shortly after that, the drilling team went and drilled the well. That well is now operational.

When their drilling rig was headed back to the city, he had them stop at Galmi to drill a back up well. Once again, I had the privilege of flying him to Galmi this time so he could meet with his team and get them started on drilling. Here, you can see the drilling rig and the team of guys getting everything set up to start drilling. The bore hole well at Galmi is successfully completed. They still need to hook up a pump and pipe it into their water system.


Shortly after the rig left Galmi and returned to the city, they got to work drilling a well at Sahel. This well will serve the school and help reduce the cost of water from the city system. We're thankful for the ministry these guys have providing good clean water to communities that desperately need it. We're also thankful for their willingness to provide this service to our hospitals and school.

Phone shots

I don't always have a camera with me, but I usually have my phone. These are some pictures I snapped with my phone over the past two weeks that give you a glimpse into daily life. When we're not flying, we still have a lot of other things to do to keep the planes flying and the program running. Sometimes we are in the office doing finances, flight scheduling or updating maintenance records. Other times, we are running around town to government offices or getting fuel for the planes. A lot of the time, we're doing maintenance or inspections on the planes. Last week, we ended up pulling one of the propellers completely apart. It had been leaking some oil. The prop company mailed us new oring seals from Germany to fix the leak. They arrived last week, so we spent a day and a half pulling the propeller apart. Thankfully, we sent Ian to Germany a few years back for training with the prop manufacturer. As a result, they gave us permission to do this work ourselves instead of sending the prop to Germany for the repair, which would have cost thousands of dollars and taken several months. The seal that needed to be changed was on a piston inside the prop hub behind the blades. Ed is cleaning the inside of the hub in this picture.


Here, Ian is cleaning the prop blades. You can see all the pieces on the table that go with each blade.


The day after we changed the seal on the prop, I flew 3 men to Galmi Hospital and spent the night. The men were with another organization that's working in some villages in that region teaching sanitation and hygiene. They also loan female goats to families at risk in the villages so they can start their own flocks. The female goat is then passed on to another family at risk to do the same thing. While meeting physical needs, they are also seeking to meet the spiritual needs of the people in these villages. I stayed at the hospital compound and checked out the construction projects. The original hospital buildings were built in the 1950s and are falling apart. The hospital is in the process of completely rebuilding everything. In this picture, you can see one of the old buildings on the right and the new surgical ward being built on the left. In the foreground, several workers are loading sand, gravel and cement mix into a mixer to mix cement. This is one site where we actually have a small cement mixer. Most cement mixing is done by hand on our other projects.


We have some great guys helping supervise the rebuild project this year. We'll need some more construction supervisors for the next stages next year.


At the same time, they are also building a new duplex on the hospital compound. The hospital has been blessed with more long term staff, but that also means they need more housing. Here you can see the walls going up on the duplex.



There are always lots of animals to see driving around the city. A few days ago, I was driving and saw these camels and some cows in the back of this flat bed truck. I got my phone out in time to catch the camels, but not the cows that were with them.


Over the weekend, we spent a morning relaxing down by the river. Some men from a nearby village were fishing not far away. You can see them casting their net into the water from their wooden pirogue.