SA pilots' mercy flight to Rwanda
Sharon Hammond
14 December 2004
Three Mpumalanga pilots with a passion for adventure are preparing to fly across Africa to deliver urgently needed medical supplies to Rwanda.
Etienne Oosthuizen, Johann Hiemstra and Harry Tucker will fly over six countries on a 28-day circular route, and hope to befriend local pilots along the way.
"Language barriers will exist but, nevertheless, they want to be able to meet the local citizens of each country and region in order to gain knowledge and share experiences with them", said Jennifer Schormann, who will be part of a production team recording the journey for a TV documentary.
The trip, starting in Nelspruit on 18 December, will take the trio across Zimbabwe, Malawi and Tanzania en route to Rwanda.
"They will visit a friend working at a mission in the diocese of Cyangugu in Rwanda, on the shores of Lake Kivu, and deliver urgently needed medical supplies", Schormann said.
The pilots will visit local villages and
orphanages in Rwanda, as well as the Serengeti National Park, Ngorogoro Crater and Mount Kilimanjaro.
They will then head south along the Tanzanian and Mozambican coasts, eventually returning to Nelspruit on 15 January.
The pilots will be flying three Kitfox planes, two-seater aircraft designed specifically as "bush" airplanes.
All three planes are fitted with global positioning systems with which they will track their route, distance, height, fuel consumption and mechanical and technical data.
"They will be on a constant lookout and be updated daily on the meteorological state in their vicinity as they cannot afford to fly near violent thunderstorms", Schormann said.
Source: BuaNews
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