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(PA-18-150), plus parts and high- frequency radio transmitters. He enlists the help of Pacific North- ern Airlines pilot Bud Donovan. The purchase of the Piper Super Cub was transacted through B. J. Oswald of Oswald Flying Service in Tacoma, WA.
Initially, the Kenyan government couldn’t understand the two men’s motives. Jerry Fay said, “They thought we were going to start a flying service and make a killing [as a business]. Then Bishop Houlihan explained our purpose and that we’d help the na- tives who live so far from medical aid. Now they can’t do enough for us.”
Receiving the Pope’s Blessing
Fay and Donovan soon left for Naples for an audience with Pope John XXIII in Rome before arriving in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. At the same time, U. S. Senators Warren G. Mag- nuson and Henry M. Jackson got the project to qualify under the foreign aid program, which meant the U.S. Navy and Air Force could help out, too. The Navy agreed to move the crated Piper to Naples, and then the Air Force carried the crate to Addis Ababa. This mission was officially called “Operation Handclasp.”
After unexpected delays, Fay had to return to the U.S., meaning Dono- van was left to take care of the aircraft alone. “[The Piper Cub] arrived in a big crate on Saturday,” Donovan said. “I had to wait until Monday to get started on it. But I had it together by Wednesday night. Thursday, I took it
up for the first time – it felt good to be finally flying again.”
Later, Donovan f lew the little Pip- er about 700 miles to Nairobi. After some typical customs problems in Nairobi, he piloted it to Kitale, the town nearest the mission territory in the Turkana Desert. By the latter part of April 1963, Donovan was fly- ing supplies into the mission stations and providing the priests and nuns as much information about the plane as possible. He accrued around 80 hours in three weeks. At the same time, Bishop Houlihan recruited Brother Mike Stimac to pilot the new Super Cub.
The Real Flying Nun
Stimac also trained two nuns to f ly the plane. Sister Michael Therese Ryan completed her f lying course in Boston. She passed her pilot exam on the first try, earning the distinction of becoming the first Catholic nun to do so. Sister Ryan (a.k.a. “The Flying Nun”) would log over 40 solo hours be- fore making her way to Kenya, where she would ferry supplies from the central hospital in Eldoret to three camps 800 miles apart. The sisters would f ly missionary doctors, nurses, patients, medical supplies, and any- thing else needed. Soon they were dubbed “The Marianist Air Force,”
and stories about “the flying nuns” ap- peared in international newspapers.
Businessmen get Involved
Inspired by the story of tragedy in the desert, a group of St. Louis businessmen laid the foundation for the support of air mission service in Turkana. Joseph G. Fabick of the John Fabick Tractor Co. and William D. Edwards started the Turkana Desert Fund to raise money for a new, all-metal aircraft. The creation of this Fund is cited as the birth of what would eventually become Wings of Hope, which would officially be incorporated a few years later.
Since the Super Cub had arrived, it became apparent that the plane’s fab- ric wings were not suited to the harsh desert environment of the Turkana. And oddly enough, Hyenas were fond of nibbling away at the wing’s fabric material, attracted to the phenol in the covering.
Meanwhile, George E. Haddaway of Dallas, Texas, spearheaded a drive to supply the medical missionaries with a workhorse plane. Haddaway, an influential aviation publisher of Flight Magazine, was a director of the Turkana Desert Fund. He wrote, “In all my 30 years of aviation publish- ing, I’ve never found a greater need for an airplane.”
Bill Edwards, Thomas Dwyer, and Joe Fabick receive the new Cessna
Max Conrad in Nairobi
April 2023 / TWIN & TURBINE • 11