Assortment

Whilst allowing for the potential Kodiak ferry flight, we were still kept busy with a number of shorter mission flights.

The first was another trip for Mercy Tech Missions, a Canadian based organisation who are developing a motor mechanic workshop at the ASAM base noth of Chimoio in Mozambique.

Rick (left) and his friends taking the mickey as we let him fly for a short while.

Yet again we fly past Paradise Island just north of Vilanculos.

This is headed up by Rick Cogbill who has a good blog with more pictures and less words than us at: http://mydustyshoes.blogspot.com/

The next two trips we did in our new Piper Seneca III which was kindly donated to us at the end of last year by a business man in Durban.

Seneca taking off from the Mercy Air farm.

The one trip involved taking a missionary who had been evacuated to South Africa for medical treatment back up to Mozambique, along with two mission kids who were returning to their families for Easter. The return flight involved bringing some German and US staff back to South Africa after visiting some of their missionaries in Mozambique.

The last flight was another one for Errol, the policeman who had been shot in the neck eleven years ago (a previous blog entry is at http://mercyair-sa.blogspot.com/2013/02/stormy-monday-blues.html. This was our fourth flight for him which enabled him to travel from his home in Kwa Zulu Natal to receive hospital treatment in Pretoria - and back.

On the way there we flew over the Cullinan Diamond Mine.

If you enlarge the picture above you can just see the huge Cullinan Diamond Mine where the world's biggest diamond was discovered in 1905 and which is now in the Crown Jewels in London.

Here's one from the web that shows it better:

  Meanwhile, back in the plane...

Errol in relative comfort in the back of the Seneca.

Police and medical staff help transfer Errol to a stretcher in Vryheid.

We appreciate that a lot of these pictures are just 'people in a plane' and in themselves aren't very exciting, but to those we flew and the people who received them they were quite important and it is a privilege for us to serve in this way.

The next couple of weeks are also busy for us so expect another update soon.

Thank you.

Mercy Air team