A day out of the office

There is a hint of irony about the fact that I am currently working for an aviation organisation as flying in small aircraft is not something I enjoy doing. I have done it out of necessity when it is the best option to reach a remote destination but it is not something I would readily choose to do. My reasoning is:

• I am prone to motion sickness and in my experience the smaller the plane the bumpier the ride so why would I choose to do something that is more than likely to make me feel unwell?
• Most flights leave very early in the morning and I am not a morning person...
• There are limited (sometimes no) opportunities to use a bathroom, so I limit my intake of liquids. Consequently at the end of the day I am dehydrated and have a terrible headache.

Generally I prefer to keep my feet on the ground, supporting others as they fly people and essential equipment to hard to reach places. However, I am also aware of the fact that after being in Chad for just over 6 months last year and for two months, so far, this year that I have barely been out of the capital and that there is a lot more of the country to see.

So today I decided it was time to finally go on a flight. The C208 Caravan (the larger of our two planes with a capacity of up to 12 passengers) was going to Am Timan, with space to spare. Am Timan is nearly 600 km east of N'Djamena; a journey that takes more than 12 hours by road but a little over two hours by plane. The departure time was set at a civilized 08:30 a.m. and, I told myself that the Caravan is considerably less bumpy than the smaller 4-seat C182. We were taking three generations of an American family working in the area back to Am TIman after a few days in N'Djamena and they seemed happy for me to come along. Somehow I couldn't find a reason not to go...

The passengers had done a lot of shopping whilst in N'Djamena to take back with them as the availability of goods is very limited in the rural areas. By the time we had loaded the plane and the passengers had got through the bureaucracy and security at the airport it was closer to 9.30 a.m. but we eventually got airborne. We had a good (read 'smooth') flight to Am Timan albeit with a strong headwind, which meant it took us about 20 minutes longer than anticipated to reach our destination.

Pilot Bryan explaining to one of the passengers how to fly a plane!

There was great excitement on our arrival as both the local population and other ex-pat families came out to meet the plane. They all seemed so pleased to see us that we stayed on ground for about half an hour, chatting to everyone and letting the children sit in the plane.

On the airstrip at Am Timan

On the return journey there was just Bryan, the pilot, and me so I got to sit in the co-pilot's seat. I put on the spare headset and plugged it in so I could talk to Bryan during the flight and could also listen to all the radio conversations. We were making extra fast time back as, what had been a headwind on the way out, was now a tailwind, pushing us along at 180 knots.

About an hour from N'Djamena we noticed that the weather radar was showing some storms ahead. As we got closer to our destination the storms seemed to grow in intensity and the control tower at N'Djamena airport confirmed that it was raining there. I was starting to think that this was a situation where I would prefer not to have too much information but I knew I was in capable hands as Bryan has lots of experience of flying in all sorts of different weather conditions.

We diverted slightly from our original course in order to fly around the storms and as we got close to the airport we decided to circle around for about five minutes to allow the tail-end of the storm to pass over. As we bumped around I made sure I had a sick-bag close to hand but fortunately things calmed down before I needed to use it! We came into land just before 3.00 p.m. and two of the MAF team were waiting to meet us to tow us safely back to the hangar.

Coming into land at N'Djamena

I have ended the day with a massive headache (not enough water, not enough coffee) but I am glad I went. I have a new appreciation of the sacrifices some people make as they work in remote areas and I am again very thankful for the skills and abilities of our pilots.

Fuel shortages

Over the last few weeks there has been a shortage of diesel in N'Djamena. Like many oil producing countries in Africa Chad still lacks the investment and the infrastructure of a totally robust supply chain so such shortages are not unexpected (although they are thankfully relatively unusual).

A bit of a grapevine developed whereby word of which petrol stations had diesel would start to spread, which of course meant that very soon they too would run out. One day a colleague managed to fill up his car but when I went to the same petrol station a few hours later they were already out of stock again.

The biggest challenge was buying diesel for our generators, both at the hangar and at the compound. Power cuts are a daily occurrence so we rely on the generators for our electricity supply, particularly in the hot season when the city power can be out for several days at a time and the need to run fridges, fans and air-conditioning is at its greatest. Typically we will buy several 200 litre barrels of diesel at a time in order to give us a good reserve. However, despite our forward planning we soon found ourselves down to our last couple of hundred litres. This may sound a lot but it is quickly used up if we are without city power for a few days. For about a week I was sending one of our staff members out every day to tour the petrol stations to see if he could find one that not only had fuel but was also willing to sell us at least 200 litres. We limited the use of the generator for a while and managed to get by with fuel to spare and now it seems that the supply of diesel is back to normal again.

But this is Africa so just as you come through one challenge another one presents itself! On Tuesday we went to get fuel for one of the aircraft in preparation for a flight the next day only to be told that our usual supplier of Jet A1 (the type of fuel used for most aircraft) was out of stock and would not have any more for a week. Well, aircraft burn a lot of fuel, and despite having some reserves we would not have had enough for all the flights we had planned for the coming week so we made contact with the other supplier of Jet A1 at the airport to see if they could help us. It took a visit to their offices and several phone calls but eventually they said we could buy what we needed.

So we took the plane back to the place where the fueling is done at the airport and filled it up with Jet A1 using the same equipment and the same staff as if we had been buying from our usual supplier. The only difference seemed to be the company name on the invoice and who we wrote the cheque out to. All of which left us wondering if there really is a shortage of Jet A1 at all...

Another goodbye

One of the best parts of the work I do, as I spend time in different countries, is that I get to meet lots of great people from all over the world. Many of these people become good friends as we share the joys and challenges of working (and often living) together.

One of the worst parts of the work I do is that the time always comes to say goodbye. Sometimes I am the one who is leaving and sometimes it is others. When you work in an international community these goodbyes seem to happen fairly frequently.

Today we said goodbye to a MAF family who have been in Chad for almost 10 years. They have served faithfully through some difficult times and have gained the affection and respect of everyone they have come into contact with. They are going to be missed by many people.

As their plane taxied down the runway this afternoon on the first leg of their long journey back to their home country some of the MAF team stood on the apron outside our hangar and waved them goodbye.

I have no idea whether they could see us but somehow it made me feel better. This goodbye was hard.