Farmington, Arizona. Tractorville, Mpumalanga.

We might live and operate out of a farm but we don't actually farm the land. We do however lease the land to our neighbour who is a farmer so it does get utilised. We do also have an old tractor which we use for cutting the grass on the runway, and hauling trailer loads of foliage around.

Every now and then it manifests its age and throws a bit of a wobbly, with its most recent bout of illness being to internally disassemble its own clutch. This rendered it unusable and very immobile as we could hardly even tow it to where we needed to fix it.

Fortunately we have a German auto mechanic working with us for six months along with a Dutch pilot/mechanic who is with us for three months. Together they attacked it with all manner of tools and we're hoping that by early next week it will be feeling a lot better.

Mercy Air staff

Chimoio developments

Ron and Barbera have recently returned to Chimoio to continue with the work of developing a remote Mercy Air base on ASAM's property.

The Mercy Air house is coming along.

The airstrip being leveled and readied for grass planting.

The training centre is also progressing.

Mercy Air team

Mid-life crisis

It would seem obvious that aircraft parts have a life limit whether it be a date (like a sell by date for food), a set number of flight hours or cycles (how many times an engine has been started and stopped or the landing gear retracted).

Turns out that various parts of planes also have a 'mid life', and although not a crisis as such, they are still required to be checked and have any necessary maintenance done. This is the case at present for the propellers on two of our aircraft.

There is something rather forlorn and abandoned looking about a plane without a prop, but it will only be for a short while. The props have been taken to Jo'burg to be checked and will be back in about a week and a half.

Mercy Air team