22 FEB 2011: 'Change is a way of life here', writes MAF pilot Jon Cadd in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
This is often true for MAF teams worldwide who need to be as flexible as possible in their flight plans to accommodate the unexpected. Jon recounts a day of flying a few days ago in the Cessna 206 aircraft:
'This was the first flight for Rodney Dyrud, our new MAF pilot in Bunia. We were on the schedule to go out for our first of five training sessions to knock the dust off of a few months of not flying while in transit over here and review what he had learned at our bush flying “school” back in Idaho.
'But instead we had to pick up some stranded people from SIL (Wycliffe) in Auzi and Aru. So we went took off with the idea of doing some training after this short detour, but it would be a good opportunity to get familiar with some of our area.
'While descending into Auzi, we got a radio call from Joey Lincoln, in the Caravan, that there was a medical emergency in Ngilima and we needed to hurry over there to make a pickup. This was over an hour away from our position so we needed more fuel. We dropped into Auzi to pick up one passenger and then flew on over to Aru for fuel and two more passengers. After that it was off to Dungu to drop off our passengers and pick up a doctor to escort the patient. We were then able to go to Ngilima and get the lady, who had been in distress for some time, and get her and her newborn baby to the hospital in Dungu.
'By this time it was late and we got back to Bunia about ten minutes before the airport closed. Quite a change from our original plan and quite a first day intro for our new pilot!' Story taken from Jon's blog