Guest Post: Night Flight in Tanzania with Arusha Medivac

Guest Post: The Aero Experience thanks our friend, Jacek "Jack" Rejman, Founder of Arusha Medivac in Tanzania, for relating this story of a night flight with a patient in the Piper Navajo advanced life support aircraft.  Arusha Medivac provides essential air ambulance services in northern Tanzania and neighboring Kenya. Our Midwest Aviation connection goes back to 2016, when Rejman was in St. Louis to pick up the Piper Navajo after it was refurbished by Wings of Hope. He provided the narrative and accompanying photos for this riveting tale.

Night Story

I thought I would share a little note from my night flying...

Just a little while ago we got a medevac call around 5:15 P.M. One of park rangers from Serengeti National Park had a serious motorbike accident and needed urgent evacuation. Because of our location (3 degrees south of the Equator, in Tanzania, East Africa), it gets dark pretty quickly. Within 15 minutes after sunset, you can’t see a thing. This time of the year it happens around 6:30 P.M., so we have only one and a half hours of daylight left to go to the airport, prep the plane and fly 150 NM to get to Fort Ikoma bush airstrip that has no lights. Pretty tight, but someone needs us!

I drove to the airport like crazy (ironically, on my motorbike), did a quick preflight, and together with our flight medic Adam (from Australia) we took off at 5:42 P.M. for the flight to Serengeti. It is always so beautiful watching the sun go down while flying. I never get tired of it!

We got there after 55 minutes, and, as usual, I did a low pass to check the airstrip for any animals or holes in the runway and there are hundreds of wildebeests right there! Not one, but hundreds of them!

We had 5 minutes before total darkness, so not a lot of time to chase them. We did another low pass, but this time I saw several park ranger cars clearing the runway. In the next minute or so, we were safely on the ground. 

"Where is the patient?” I asked. “We need to depart right now! It is almost dark.”

"They are on the way," one of the rangers replied, "from Mugumu!” Mugumu is a small town about an hour drive away.

Well, there was no chance to depart before darkness, so we decided on a plan of action. How do we depart safely at night in the middle of migrating wildebeests? I was not concerned about the lights - our plane’s LEDs are so powerful that you can see with no problem. But the animals were a serious concern. 

The patient arrived within the next 40 minutes in critical condition, and while Adam was preparing the patient for the flight, I was working with the rangers to make sure that there were no animals on the runway. The park rangers managed to gather 8 cars for the job. They chased the wildebeests and parked the cars with lights facing down the runway. 

When the cars moved to take their position along the runway, it suddenly became very dark near our Zoggy plane (5H-ZOG). It was such a weird feeling to be climbing into the plane’s cockpit in the dark, clearly hearing wildebeests around! (You should try that!)

We fired the engines and taxied to the beginning of Runway 09. I turned around and stopped to have a good idea where to aim. Looking at the red taillights of the rangers’ cars (8 cars, so 16 lights which are not aligned), might get confusing! 

Once I had a good idea where to go, I turned on all the lights in our plane, pushed the power and…Totally no problem! I could see far enough and wide enough to feel safe. Zoggy got airborne in no time (310 HP with turbo each side)!

The only thing with taking off at night from the bush airstrip is that once you lift the nose wheel from the ground, it becomes very dark - IFR flying 5 ft from the ground - but it lasts only a few seconds!

After climbing to FL 100, we arrived safely to Mwanza Airport that has 4 km of runway and a VOR approach to Runway 30. An ambulance was waiting for us already, and our patient was transported to Bugando Hospital.

Well...Another day! 

I have flown in Tanzania for more than 20 years, and I still get a thrill while doing that!

All the best!

Jack

Wings of Hope Hosts Intern Program, Prepares to Send Team to Tanzania

By Carmelo Turdo

Wings of Hope continues to change and save lives through the power of aviation in St. Louis and around the world. For sixty years, Wings of Hope has been providing or supporting global humanitarian aviation services to communities in Africa, the Asia Pacific region and South America. For the last 21 of those years, the Medical Relief and Air Transport Program (MAT) has been providing air transportation for patients and their families to medical facilities around the Midwest. Wings of Hope also looks to the future of humanitarian aviation with the more recent introduction of SOAR Into STEM, a five-weekend course held twice each year that introduces the concepts of aeronautics to high school students and provides hands-on experiences including a flight in a general aviation aircraft. These and other programs directly contribute to achieving the mission of Wings of Hope now and well into the future.

The first session of the Soar & Explore Summer Internship for high school and vocational students began today. The students will meet at Wings of Hope for two half-days per week, for four weeks, and receive practical insights into the aviation industry through airport tours, aircraft maintenance reviews, familiarization of aircraft instruments and communication methods, glider build and fly activity and a Discovery Flight. Here we feature the interns with Tiffany Nelson, Wings of Hope Director of Programs and Evaluation, and former MAT pilot and Wings of Hope volunteer Jay Rickmeyer assisting with the first airplane build activity.

Also today it was announced that a team from Wings of Hope will be sent to Arusha, Tanzania next week to perform the annual inspection on a Cessna 206 that serves with partner organization Flying Medical Service. Wings of Hope has supported Flying Medical Service with aircraft, parts and annual inspections for over twenty years, and this aircraft will continue to provide flying medical clinics to twenty-five Maasai settlements. The A&P technicians going on this mission are Edward Schertz, whom we have featured several times in recent years, and Bailey George, a pilot and A&P technician from Service Oriented Aviation Readiness (SOAR) located in Boliver, MO. SOAR specializes in training aviation professionals for the mission field, and this is Bailey George's first international assignment. Schertz served as a pilot and A&P technician for Wings of Hope in Peru and Paraguay from 1972-1980 before returning to St. Louis as Director of Maintenance from 1981-2005. He is an ideal mentor for Bailey George and all who work on aircraft deployed in the countries supported by Wings of Hope. 

In the coming weeks, The Aero Experience will provide additional coverage of the Soar & Explore Summer Internship class as they receive their Discovery Flights and a review of the aircraft inspection trip to Tanzania. 

2016 Year In Aviation Service: Missionary Pilot Returning to Tanzania With Plane Refurbished by Wings of Hope

By Carmelo Turdo

The Aero Experience continues our series of 2016 Year In Aviation Service with more coverage of missionary pilot Jacek Rejman's preparations to return to Arusha, Tanzania with the Piper Navajo advanced life support air ambulance.  The aircraft had been undergoing significant maintenance and updating at Wings of Hope World Headquarters at Spirit of St. Louis Airport over the winter until last week, and Rejman took off on the first leg of a nearly 8,000-mile journey Saturday.         

The aircraft, a twin-engine PA-31-310 Piper Navajo, will serve as an advanced life support flying ambulance for the new initiative, called Arusha Medevac, named for the city of Arusha, in northern Tanzania where the service will be based.  The two engines and interior space make it suitable to carry medical equipment and medical staff and also for flying at night (night flying is not permitted with single-engine aircraft).  Additional aircraft will be added as funds and staffing allow.  Medical flights, including those for emergencies and regular clinical visits to outlying villages, are critical to the survival and development of the society. 

The Aero Experience visited Wings of Hope on Friday as Jacek Rejman was preparing for his flight from St. Louis to Rockford, IL, Detroit, MI and several other stops on the way to crossing the north Atlantic and then heading south to Tanzania.  Mechanic Barry Garen was checking recent work done on the left engine while others helped pack the aircraft for the trip.  Several engine run-ups and a flight around the local area showed the need for further adjustments to fuel mixture controls, which were completed for the flight on Saturday.       

The Piper Navajo is prepared for flight at Wings of Hope Friday.

The keys to the aircraft were handed to Jacek Rejman by Wings of Hope President, Don Hamblen, before Friday's flight:

The Aero Experience conveys our best wishes on the success of Jacek Rejman's flight and Arusha MedEvac in Tanzania.  Special thanks to the staff at Wings of Hope for their hospitality and their contributions to 2016 Year In Aviation Service.

2016 Year In Aviation Service: Missionary Pilot Teams With Midwest Aviation Community for New Project

By Carmelo Turdo

The Aero Experience continues our 2016 Year in Aviation Service series with a story about a man whose aviation service spans several continents and directly involves Midwest Aviation in an ambitious new project.  The man is Jacek "Jack" Rejman, whose story begins with his life behind the "Iron Curtain" in Cold War Poland and reaches across Europe to the U.S. and to east Africa.  His journey through aviation service has taken him to St. Louis-based Wings of Hope, where he is preparing to take a newly-refurbished aircraft for his newest humanitarian aviation project in the east African country of Tanzania. 

The aircraft, a twin engine PA-31-310 Piper Navajo, will serve as an advanced life support flying ambulance for the new initiative, called Arusha Medevac, named for the city of Arusha, in northern Tanzania where the service will be based.  The two engines and interior space make it suitable to carry medical equipment and medical staff and also for flying at night (night flying is not permitted with single-engine aircraft).  The aircraft has been in a state of disassembly and repair for about a year, and it will be ready for the ferry flight to Tanzania this spring.  Additional aircraft will be added as funds and staffing allow.  Medical flights, including those for emergencies and regular clinical visits to outlying villages, are critical to the survival and development of the society. 

Jacek Rejman (L) with Steve Long, Wings of Hope Director of Hangar Operations 

Piper Navajo cockpit undergoes updates

Piper Navajo engine inspection continues



A&P Mechanic Barry Garen is assigned to the Piper Navajo  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

               

Jacek Rejman's interest in aviation began at an early age.  "I've always wanted to be in aviation," he told The Aero Experience.  There were few opportunities for civil aviation in his hometown of Zywiec, in south central Poland, but he did learn to fly gliders at the local aero club (where a mountain gliding school still serves surrounding communities).  His early adult life was dedicated to training to become a Catholic priest and Divine Word Missionary.  The Catholic Church was a cultural unifying force for the Polish people, especially during the decades of Soviet influence.  "To be Polish was to be Catholic," he reflected, emphasizing the special influence of the Church and its eventual role in the successful transition of Poland to a truly independent constitutional republic.
 

Rejman was in Tanzania in 2001 for Catholic missionary work, where his love of aviation was again rekindled.  There he met Father Pat Patton of the Flying Medical Service, who taught him to fly and helped him receive his U.S. Private Pilot Certificate in Iowa.  He became a member of National Association of Priest Pilots, and flew for Flying Medical Service for 8 years from Arusha, Tanzania.  He flew to a network of 30 airfields serving three main hospitals (Ngorongoro, Serengeti, Simanjiro) twice per month, carrying a doctor and RN (pilots are also paramedics) to provide routine  clinical medical services and emergency evacuation flights for critically ill or injured residents.  

 

“It was very tiring and very rewarding,” Rejman said.  Flying into bush airstrips required excellent flying skills and physical stamina.  Terrain can reach over 14,000 feet, with some airfields at 4,000-7,000 feet elevation.  For example, Ngorongoro is at a 7,500 feet elevation, with an upslope runway and one approach direction.  The two Cessna 206 aircraft, each powered by a single Continental 520 300hp engine, used on these routes are tough and reliable.  Missionary work there emphasizes contrasts: “Good is much better and bad is much worse.”  Serving people in such desperate need and in such diverse cultural communities is more rewarding but more difficult as well.  There are over 150 ethnic tribal groups in local communities to serve.  Though Swahili is the national language, communication is often made through local tribal languages and gestures.   

 We return to Jacek Rejman's current project - the birth of Arusha MedEvac and the preparation of the first Piper Navajo aircraft at St. Louis-based Wings of Hope.  The aircraft is still undergoing significant repair and modifications for the new mission.  The aircraft will meet U.S. FAA and also Tanzanian government aviation regulations, which diverge in some areas due to the Tanzanian reliance on the British standards for engines and avionics.  A reliable supply of avgas fuel is available, and maintenance facilities for larger aircraft are available in Nairobi, Kenya and through Wings of Hope.  Financial support is coming through fundraising activities, fee for services and insurance coverage purchased by tourists.  A staff is being assembled, including fellow pilot Per Waller, a mechanic, an administrator, and a dispatcher.            

Other very important members of the current and future service team for Jacek Rejman in Arusha are his Wife, Sarah, and their three daughters.  Sarah Rejman, an Occupational Therapist, works at Arusha Lutheran Medical Centre, a significant medical facility that provides general medical and emergency as well as specialty services in orthopedics needed to treat congenital deformities and burn injuries common to the local communities.  She was instrumental in the founding of Plaster House, a new rehabilitation facility for the recovery of children following orthopedic and plastic surgery.  Up to 100 children stay at the facility and receive medical care, therapy, food and education.  The Video below illustrates the great work performed there.
 

 

The work on the aircraft will continue for several more months at Wings of Hope, and the mission of Jacek and Sarah Rejman will continue in Arusha, Tanzania.  The Aero Experience thanks Jacek Rejman and Wings of Hope for sharing this story and for their hospitality during our visit.  We encourage our audience to support the aviation missionary groups and medical facilities mentioned above so they can continue their life-saving service to mankind.  Also, check back for future updates on Arusha MedEvac and other Year In Aviation Service stories posted in the near future.