Pilot Jonathan Blomberg talks about a typical day of flying in MAF’s newest programme.
Back at MAF’s base in Conakry after long journeys to N’Zerekore, Beyla and Kissidougou, pilot Jonathan Blomberg reflects on the impact of MAF’s work in Guinea.
MAF’s Cessna Caravan aircraft brings health workers, church leaders and other aid teams to remote locations that would otherwise take many hours to reach in difficult journeys by road.
“It was a good day for us,” Jonathan said. “A lot of other programmes have multiple landings they do per day, because they have a shorter distance between the airstrip. But for us in Guinea, our distance is very long. So, it was exciting to do four a day instead of just two or something.”
“We had a full airplane able to deliver 14 passengers to the four different destinations.”
“So, it's exciting to see the Guinea programme building and getting more people on our planes and be able to do what we came here to do in serving the mission and the humanitarian community.”
Jonathan has been flying in Guinea for more than 18 months and he relishes the opportunity to serve people in the vast West African nation.
“The biggest challenge in flying is probably just the weather,” he said. “I mean it's a long distance and not a lot of airstrips.”
“And the rainy season is very rainy and unpredictable, you take off and you’re going to go a long way and not exactly know what the weather is when you get home. There's the forecast you see on the computer, but it's not always accurate so it's challenging to be able to fly through the weather and get home safely.”
The distance from Conakry to these destinations by road is: N'zerekore (954km), Beyla (950km) and Kissidougou (601km). That is two and a half days of travel by road.
On an MAF flight, it is only 2 hours 10 minutes to N'zerekore and 1 hour 38 minutes to Beyla and Kissidougou.
The organisations travelling with MAF on that day included Pioneers Bible Translators, Mission Philafricaine (MPA) and the Association of Students of Guinea (AEEG). The groups were carrying out Bible translation, youth work and children’s programmes.
Jonathan and his family are enjoying life in the capital Conakry and getting to know the Guinean people. He finds it rewarding using aviation to help meet the needs of people in isolated communities, with MAF flights bringing in health workers and essential medical equipment.
“It’s exciting to be here in Guinea. There is definitely a need as far as, it’s a very unreached country, but there's not a lot of health care and there’s a need for humanitarian flying and it’s a large country,” he added.”
“So, it's good to be able to serve the people here and hope people will be able to do their work more effectively both in the local church and the missionary and humanitarian community.”
