Dave Forney was the pilot we were flying with today. I refer to him as MAF’s very own top gun! He has the mirrored shades, is American, and he is pretty cool. You can see the link.
We were at the airfield by 7am and I managed to get some really great shots of our planes on the apron as the sun rose. In Uganda, the sun rises and 7am and sets at 7pm pretty much all year round. It doesn’t change like it does in the UK.
We helped where we could as Dave did all the pre-flight checks, manifest checks, weight calculations, fuel allowance, and aircraft checks.
Whilst Dave did all the technical checks, Steve felt he needed to do the most important aircraft check: kick the tyre!
I absolutely love flying and more so the technical side of things. I loved physics at school and learning how things work and why we do things. As Dave was doing his aircraft checks, he took fuel samples out of the tanks. This was to check there were no anomalies in the fuel but mainly water. He explained how water is heavier than Jet-A1 fuel and so if there was any water in there it would sink to the bottom so you can easily see it. He explained that if there was water in the fuel, the engine could stutter and if there is a considerable about, it would stall. Good thing to check then!
We took off from Kajjansi at around 8am. Our route today included 5 stops in Uganda. We were so grateful that not only were we getting a flight, but 6 all in 1 go. Our first stop was in the north of Uganda, Gulu. A 60-minute flight, the equivalent of around 8 hours' driving. We also flew to Pader, Kotido, Moroto and Soroti before heading back to Kajjansi.
This flight pretty much covered the majority of Uganda and we were back by 2.30pm. It’s pretty amazing just how much of a difference flying makes.
Gulu and Soroti are tarmac runways but the others are just dirt tracks, some barely wide enough for a car to drive up.
Our flight purposes included delivering blood to a doctor, important documentation and satellite equipment to Far Reaching Ministries, a few other parcels to another local charity and at the same time, picking up passengers to fly back to Kajjansi. Our first passenger got on at Pader.
When we flew to Kotido, we came into a bit of difficulty on the first landing attempt. Here, the local tribes people are fascinated with the plane. They hear it coming and all rush to the runway. The only problem is they all stood on the runway! We attempted a landing but had to abort as they didn’t move. We circled around for a second attempt and this time they realised they needed to keep clear.
It was great to be around some local tribes people and grasp just how remote these places are.
By the time we were at Moroto, we had 4 passengers and then picked up a further 7 at Soroti. These 7 passengers were a family visiting their family who are Christian missionaries in Soroti.
Throughout the day, Steve and I took it in turns sitting up front in the co-pilot seat and I took the opportunity to learn more about flying, flight rules, airport rules, what certain dials mean etc. It was really great and I loved the experience.
It was such a great end to our 2 weeks in Uganda, we had pretty much completed the entire office move and set it all back up again. The only thing outstanding was the VOIP phones which were held up still by the phone line provider configuring the satellite dish so we felt we had done our bit.
If only the day had ended there…
We come back to the office and the power had cut out suddenly and the whole office was in a state where nothing was working.
Typical! So after a lovely morning/afternoon, we had to help with getting things back online again.
We got the ball rolling and then handed over to Kalumba as we needed to start saying goodbye to staff and heading back to our house to pack and catch our flight home.
Our flight was leaving at 1am Saturday morning and so we got picked up from the guesthouse at 9pm. It took 2 hours to drive to the airport, but I got the driver to stop off for me so I could grab a last minute Rolex (see Day 7)!
After what seemed to be far too many security checks, we eventually made it to our flight gate and, would you believe it, we bumped into the family that we picked up from Soroti on the MAF flight! The flight was on time and I believe I fell asleep almost instantly! I was so tired after being awake close to 21 hours.
We arrived back in the UK at 8am safe and sound and I was very pleased to see my wonderful wife and daughter waiting for me.
Feeling thankful
I feel very privileged to have had the opportunities given to me on this trip. I have seen one of our MAF programmes, worked in a very different and challenging environment, met some amazing families serving with MAF, experienced first-hand the difficulties people face living and working in Africa and meet our sponsored child at Watoto. I have seen things that will stick with me for a long time, but most of all I feel proud to be a part of such a great organisation who can provide access to resources and information to the remotest of locations, helping people who need it the most.
I hope I have the opportunity to see more of the great work MAF does. Thank you to all the supporters who help make it possible and thank you to those who have followed me on my journey through reading this blog.
God bless.
Luke
