Page 7 - July22T

a population that lives alongside an 800-mile stretch of the Sepik River, the access to floatplanes has allowed them to support the country in a way it has never been before.
“There are only about three runways you can land a plane on along the river. But with our planes, we can land anywhere on the water. We can turn a one to three-day trip by canoe into a 45-minute to an hour flight and fly seven days a week.”
The river’s everchanging conditions is only one of the challenging factors the half a dozen volunteer pilots must contend with while transporting critical and non-critical medical supplies, mission workers or healthcare workers.
“The river changes every time we fly. It rises and falls pretty dramatically throughout its length. At times, it almost becomes a lake as it overflows the banks. One week you can land and pull the plane up to the clinic a hundred feet away, and the next week there is a thousand-foot sandbar there.”
“Also, there are often fishing nets in the water you have to dodge or crocodiles poking their heads up, people in canoes, and other factors. The river’s color is a light chocolate, so you can only see an inch below the surface. Consequently, pilots have to make a lot of critical decisions from the air.”
The ability to make flexible and concise deci- sions is key and continually exercised competency of Samaritan Aviation pilots.
“You quickly learn how to make critical decisions and love people – that’s why we are there. Overall, it is a rap- idly changing environment. We had our first live birth a few weeks ago in the plane, although we have had a lot of close calls over the years. When we do medical transports, patients’ heads are only a few feet away from the pilot, so it takes a certain mentality to fly in this capacity. A big part of flying is decision-making for our pilots and how they do under extremely stressful situations like
someone dying in-flight, bad weather, aircraft
running rough, etc.”
Palm also provided a general overview of the organization’s pilot qualifications and the financial contributions they bring with them. “Our pilots are required to be licensed A&P mechanics, commercially and instrument- rated, and have the heart to serve people. All our staff families raise their own salaries from their friends and church.”
In addition to this dedicated pilot training program, Samaritan Aviation has a strong operational focus on its other most impor- tant asset – the airplanes. In December of this year, Samaritan Aviation is expecting its third amphibious 206 to come online in Papua New Guinea. “This new aircraft will allow us to expand across the mountains to the south side of the island, where we will begin serving another 200,000 people in the remote water communities of the Western Province.”
And of course, continued maintenance of the company’s existing aircraft is of the utmost
importance to the organization and its served population. “Maintenance is always a challenge. But we have been blessed in July of 2021 to have added our first full-time maintenance director. Additionally, all of our pilots are A&P’s. We are establishing a good system of what will need maintenance and when, but sometimes you are still down for a week waiting on a part.”
Corrosion especially poses a challenge for the Samaritan Aviation team. “Where we operate is a very cor- rosive environment. Our hangar is literally a thousand feet from the ocean, so corrosion is one of the biggest things we fight with our planes. We keep a close eye on those things.”
Samaritan Aviation currently relies upon amphibious Cessna 206’s that each fly around 250 hours per year and have completed over 2,400 missions.
July 2022 / TWIN & TURBINE • 5