Spend a morning with MAF pilot Richard Wall as he takes church health teams to three communities in Papua New Guinea, flying them where roads don’t reach.
Story by Vicky Powell
It’s only a 20-minute routine flight from Telefomin to Munbil with Mission Aviation Fellowship.
But the only other alternative in this roadless landscape is a week-long trek crossing mountains, rivers and weaving through the dense jungle.
This morning, MAF pilot Richard Wall prepares the aircraft to take seven nurses from Min Baptist Health Services to three isolated communities. The church-based organisation aims to demonstrate Christ’s love through health services throughout this area known as the Star Mountains.
“We’re here to conduct family planning clinics, child health clinics, maternal health and antenatal clinics,” says Alice Set, one of the nurses aboard this flight.
At the first stop on Richard’s route, the nurses are welcomed by locals waiting at the airstrip, eager to bring them to their community to begin treatments.
At this location, an extra team of nurses alight from the plane to walk another four hours to a community that unfortunately does not have an airstrip.
The next stop is Busilmin, a 500-metre-long airstrip with an 11% gradient. In the plane it’s only a five-minute ‘hop’ over the hill, but for people travelling by foot, it’s a very different story.
“We take off, turn left at a valley and it’s literally there,” says Richard. “It’s close but it’s probably at least a day’s walk for the guys to get there, even though it’s just five minutes, just because of the terrain.”
Richard watches the mountains from the cockpit as he begins his descent to Busilmin.
“You can see how remote it is from up here,” he says. “It will take us minutes from take- off to landing but you can imagine just trying to get up here.”
The people in this community are eager to hear feedback from the pilot after their efforts to maintain their airstrip – their only reliable link with the outside world.
Despite extreme geography cutting them off from basic necessities, the people of Busilmin work hard to keep the grass short and the strip clear from obstructions.
The flights themselves may only last 15 minutes for Richard, but the impact the nurses are able to make is immeasurable. With five days on the ground in each location, they can treat many more mums and babies—and travel with far more medical supplies— than if they were to travel by foot.
On his way to Ibil, the final stop of the morning, Richard is touched by the significance of these flights.
“One thing that really strikes me is that although I get to fly the aeroplane, that’s not really what this is about,” Richard says. “It’s about the nurses who spend days away from home to care for people in their communities. It’s about the local people who continue to maintain these strips without them knowing these flights would happen.
“I feel incredibly privileged that I get to play a small part in all of that.”