AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2014 - 44

PILOT BRIEFING

FIRST LOOK

206 has nine lives
Aircraft fulfills its humanitarian mission
BY CAROL ENRIGHT
AT 8:07 A.M. ON APRIL 16, 2014, Wings of Hope pilot Don
Hoerstkamp taxied down a St. Louis, Missouri, runway
in a 1974 Cessna 206 to begin the first leg of a 75-hour
flight spanning 10,000 miles, including one 2,200-mile,
17-hour stretch over the frigid North Atlantic.
Hoerstkamp is an experienced aviator and a longtime volunteer for the aviation charity, transporting
sick and disabled patients to advanced medical care
using the nonprofit's twin-engine, specially outfitted
air ambulances.
He was on a ferry flight to deliver the 158th Wings
of Hope airplane to its humanitarian operation in
Tanzania, an east African country that is home to the
Maasai, a tribal people Wings of Hope has been helping
for more than 20 years. Wings of Hope provides medical care to 30,000 Maasai each year, primarily via flying
medical clinics. And the base had been without an airplane for nearly four months.
As he flew into the clear sky that morning, he knew
that he was delivering more than a STOL-equipped
Cessna 206. He was delivering hope, and making good
on a promise to care for a people who had come to count
on Wings of Hope and its airplanes.
"Our donors are trying to make the world a better place. And they've often told me they support us
because we deliver humanity to the world's poor without any agenda," says Wings of Hope President Doug
Clements. "We help our fellow man because it's the
right thing to do. It's that simple."
A WORKHORSE IN THE FIELD

The Cessna 206 is a workhorse. Nowhere is this reputation for toughness more on the line than when flying
humanitarian missions for Wings of Hope. This particular 206 came as a donation from a Rotary Club in 1993
when it was nearly 20 years old. Shortly thereafter, it
was sent to Guatemala.
"Our primary mission was to help people get reestablished in their villages after the civil war," said Daniel
Creech, the first field director for Wings of Hope in
Guatemala.
Because the country's roads and bridges had been
destroyed during two decades of war, the 206 became
a vital means of transporting construction materials
and medical and school supplies. It also helped the
44 | AOPA PILOT November 2014

poor get their agricultural products to market. "Medical emergencies happened almost on a daily basis," Creech recalled. "We would
drop everything to handle those."
Wings of Hope also used the airplane in Belize. It was on a return
flight from San Pedro, Belize, over the water, that one of the propeller blades broke off at the hub. Creech made an emergency landing
about 30 miles off the coast of Ambergris Caye, the largest island in
Belize. Local fishermen saw him splash down and, within 10 minutes,
pulled him out of the shallow waters.
Wings of Hope flew a crew down to Belize. They were able to
retrieve the airplane from the bottom of the Caribbean with help
from local villagers.
The airplane was shipped to St. Louis, where it was refurbished
and returned to Guatemala. A couple of years later, it was transferred
to another Wings of Hope base in the South American country of
Guyana. By 2008, the 206 was back in St. Louis, where it was used in
the U.S.-based Medical Relief and Air Transport Program, for which
Hoerstkamp and 36 other pilots volunteer their services. Then, its
Continental IO-520 was needed on another airplane heading to South
America. So the 206 took a vacation from the field until its refurbishment for Hoerstkamp's journey to Africa.
In Tanzania, the airplane will fly weekly medical clinics and
emergency medical evacuations. It will also be used to deliver humanitarian assistance to the tribal people on an ongoing basis.
A HAPPY LANDING

On May 22, after many stops and starts because of weather, engine
troubles, and delays with paperwork and permits, Hoerstkamp
touched down in the northern Tanzanian city of Arusha.
"Everyone was happy to see the airplane-and me, because I
brought it," he joked.
A seasoned flight instructor, Hoerstkamp planned to remain at the
base for a few weeks teaching the local pilots better short-field operations on rugged bush-country airstrips. Beyond the practical reasons
for this training, Hoerstkamp shared a personal one.
"This airplane has become like a friend," he said. "I would hate to
see anything happen to it."
Carol Enright is a freelance writer living in Chesterfield, Missouri. She
is a freelance grant writer for Wings of Hope.
WEB

www.wings-of-hope.org

http://www.wings-of-hope.org

AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2014

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