Fly Me Day 2011 - A blast from the past!

Submitted by Marcel Stieber

Yesterday, while looking for some Kente print fabrics for our AERO booth, the shop owner's 11 year old daughter Harriet recognized our yellow shirts from the Fly Me Day she attended 2 years ago at Kpong Field! Harriet beamed a great big smile and excitedly told us that she had flown in the "red and white" plane with Captain Yaw. Her mother was also proud to tell us about all of our planes that she sees flying overhead and how she tells her friends about the airfield and what an amazing experience it was for their students. Apparently all the girls in Harriet's school are now aspiring pilots and engineers; thanks to their flying experience 2 years ago at Kpong Field! It is always wonderful to see the direct effects of our outreach to these communities and how much change it can bring for the student's lives. We did end up buying the cloth from Harriet's mother for our booth at AERO so the stand decorations in Germany will be products from the mother of one of our Fly Me Day candidates. That is the sort of symbiosis that gives us the inspiration to keep going day after day!

Flyme day and the Afram plains

Fly Me Day this year focused on the girls from the Afram Plains. VLTC assisted with transport and logistics to get the girls into Kpong Airfield.

50 girls and their support team were flown. Then, once they made their way home we started the first drops of health education materials to these rural places. Patricia flew left seat in our incredible Rotax 912iS powered Ch701 (which we hope to upgrade to a CH750 later this year) and Lydia sat right seat as drop master.

All drops were successful and further runs will commence as soon as funds are available.

Fly Me Day 2013

These past few weeks have consumed our every moment with preparation for the Afram Plains Fly Me Day.

Due to the usual Murphy's Law of everything needing fixed (water problems, fuel sourcing issues, truck engine meltdown, aircraft technical challenges, too many visits to Accra, court cases, etc.) PLUS working flat out to prepare for fly me day and the forthcoming initial drops into the Afram Plains, I feel as if there is a distinct shortage of days in the hour!

All the same, we appear to be ready. All participating aircraft were finally 'released from engineering' and the last pilot passed their check ride for day as the sun started to back light the emergent mahogany trees on the ridge to the West.

A lot of consistent hard work from every member has us going to sleep early on the eve of a new outreach.

The Afram Plains girls have sailed all day and are sleeping in Akosombo for the night. ..ready to drive to the airfield at first light.

These girls will see aircraft close up for the first time ever. They will get a short ride and then learn more about the forthcoming Afram Plains outreach. We will demonstrate drops and explain what is coming their way.

Excited is an understatement for our feelings and also for that of the Afram Plains girls who will doubtless sleep little tonight on the floor of a hall.

We hope to bring you images and stories that will help you to grasp why we do what we do!

When You work for Smiles...

Letters like this seem like a bonus check.

From Samyukta and Sanaa Saklani

My father is a student pilot @ WAASPS and he told us a few weeks ago about 'Fly Me Day' during which Mr. Jonathan, Patricia and other pilots from US and Ghana fly 100 children from nearby villages for free. He asked if we wanted to go there to help out. It sounded very exciting, so we said 'yes'.

We woke up very early on Saturday and got into the car half asleep for the 1 hr journey to Kpong airfield. When we got there, we felt like the sun had fallen on earth. It was like the inside of an oven there, but there were lots of excited school children and adults and we saw 4 colorful planes ( yellow, green, white and red) on the field parked behind each other. It got a little cloudy. After a while we didn't mind the heat.

We really enjoyed Fly Me day. We met lots of new people, for example Millicent, Rebecca, and Linda, (some of the village students we met.) We also met Melissa, Rex, and Jenny who had come from the US and Germany to help out. My dad's job was to take pictures of each student using a fun camera called polaroid where you get the picture immediately. We hadn't seen such a camera before! My mom was working with Jenny to fill in the children's flying log books with details of their 1st flight and paste their picture in it.

We very much enjoyed our job of taking the photos from my dad and passing them to my mom or Jenny (OK, maybe it sounds booooring, but try it out, it's kinda fun.). We took over 100 pictures. We also spoke to the children before and after their flight to ask them how they felt. It was fun to watch the kids live in a dream. The kids were scared and excited- mixed emotions. Some kids looked a little scared before their flight but everyone was smiling after they landed. My dad was trying to take pictures of the children with a plane behind them so that they can remember better. Some were smiling a lot more than others.

Unfortunately, it rained before all the children could fly, so then mr. Jonathan made a speech and thanked all those who had helped including our family!

We'd like to thank all the 4 pilots who flew over a 100 kids. Especially Mr. Jonathan, for being such a great 'n' humorous host. And our mom and dad for bringing us to the Fly Me day.  My dad says that once he has become a good pilot and got his license, he too wants to be one of the pilots to fly the children on  the next Fly Me day. We look forward to attending Fly Me day next year!

Fly Me Day memories

Submitted by Boulos Abawi

I recently had the good fortune to observe -and participate in a very small way- in the annual “Fly-Me-Day” event at Kpong Airfield, where some 127 local kids were given the chance to fly in one of the light airplanes at the field.

It was quite a memorable experience to to see the enthusiasm, anticipation and in some cases apprehension in the eyes of those youngsters as they queued to register for the flight, had their photos taken and got their own personalized pilot log books. After the flight in the fleet of airplanes flying around the circuit in a precisely coordinated formation, and as the kids were led back from the runway by the ever-efficient and highly disciplined girls from the Aviation Academy, one could clearly see the excitement, joy and spontaneous smiles on their young faces. For most of them, coming from the neighbouring rural communities, it must have been the high lights of their lives so far, and this adventure of flying will not be forgotten for a long time to come.

The day was a complete success, and in pondering on the huge logistics, resources and efforts that went into planning, organizing and realizing this event, one can’t help but admire the dedication and hard work of all those involved in bringing the dream of flying to the lives of young kids.

I thoroughly enjoyed the day and the festive atmosphere that only kids can bring to such an event. I will definitely mark my calendar for next year’s “Fly-Me-Day” – it’s not an event that I want to miss.

Submitted by: Paul Himsworth

I was thinking about this weekends Fly Me day and recalling the school trips I went go on, typically days out in London to see various events and national monuments. All very exciting at the time but nothing in comparison to Saturday’s adventure. It was great to see all the students lining up to take their turns in the cockpit. All well behaved and with slightly serious faces reflecting the trepidation they must have felt. Totally natural bearing in mind that they were about to experience something that the vast majority of the world never will. The face on the students after they had landed was fantastic. I never realised you could get so many teeth in one head. I’m sure their joy was real affirmation to all the Pilots, Avtech girls and volunteers for the hard work and exemplary organisation they had put in. Also well done to the Queen Mothers and teachers. Seeing you share your encouragement and care off the student was terrific. It was and inspiring day for us all and hopefully it has sown a seed with the students to aspire for higher things, apologies for the pun.

Submitted By: Augustine Sam Biney

Aviation is a world on its own, comes with its own rules and regulations, truly being in the aviation family is a second world.

Flying people on a special day like this one takes special people to do so,

Being an air marshal on 'fly me day' gave me a new experience in my life, helping passengers board and alight from the airplane was my job, and I did my best to put thing under control,

In all we head a calm weather, from the morning till late afternoon, when the weather changed against us.
Nevertheless we were able to hit our target, by flying as many people as we can,

We thank the almighty God who made all things possible for us to sail through the day successfully, and to our dear pilots who ensure a safe state of affairs and made things go on successfully, I say bravo.

Fly Me Day 2012

Whilst we wait for the many pictures and other comments to roll in from today, I just want to kick off this new sub-section of our Blogspot.

Fly Me Day has become an important part of our interaction with our communities and part of the dissemination of safety and health messages. This years Fly Me Day was, in my opinion, the best one ever!

We focused on the Queen Mother's in about 20 communities, and added a couple of Schools (one local and one from Techiman) - surprisingly we got a 100% (plus some uninvited) turn out. It was a amazing. All had done their paperwork and flights went smoothly until the heavens opened. Although we were unable to fly all participants before the weather broke, we did do more than ever before.

The faces tell the stories - and it was a very special day....

My favourite question was 'What is the name of this airplane?' (meaning which one was it....) and when I replied 'Alpha Foxtrot', the little mite next to me repeated it about ten times. Other interactions made me smile, such as

ME: 'Who brought you to the airfield today?'

14year old young lady: 'My Queen!'

WOW, what a proud girl.

But I will admit to being remarkably proud of the Queen Mothers, for they decided to NOT take their flights before their children had all gone through.... and then when the weather broke did not even whimper a complaint. Furthermore, they interacted wonderfully with their wards - supporting, encouraging and cheering - not mention waving like a windmill in a gale at their kids in the planes... These are special women and they are fantastic to work alongside.

WE only had two 'code six' moments. A Code six means 'My passenger is not doing well - I NEED TO BREAK FORMATION AND LAND NOW.'

Mine was first. I was the fourth aircraft in the line-up to take off. On this particular run the wake turbulence seemed to hang around and add itself up just as I reached 20ft off the ground. I corrected quickly, but it was rough. I thought it could be overlooked, but the shivering frame next to me, was clearly not happy. At 300' I had the legs moving a lot and tears, tremors and a Vulcan death grip on my right (stick controlling) arm. Melissa had just turned downwind in AE, Patrick was cross-wind in AC and Patricia was only a few hundred feet ahead of me on climb-out.

I called 'Code 6, Code 6, Code 6. AF needs to cut short and land first. Holding the height at 300' I tried to calm the eyes clamped closed form next to me. With full power I managed to get ahead and turn abeam the numbers to touchdown, roll out and clear the area without creating any noticeable disruption to the event....

Patricia will write about hers (which was a bit more exciting!)

Thank you for reading, keep following and PLEASE let us know how you like (or don't) what we write...

Fly ME Day!

Today is Fly Me Day.... we have invited over 150people this year, but with a difference.... we have focused on Queen Mothers and the children from their community. Twenty Queen Mothers have each been invited to come with five of their community children. In addition we have invited twenty from Techiman and ten from another school nearby, and of course Battorkope and a another nearby village who are the first beneficiaries of the airborne outreach activities.

Sadly, some have not understood the value of what we do. Some have asked for money to come to the event, and T Shirts and caps... We simply do not respond to such an approach. If the community cannot make the efforts themselves, they cannot benefit. The cost of getting to us from the communities in question is less than they spend on a new dress - and we believe that they need to demonstrate a 'desire for self-priority adjustment' as a primary change in attitude towards greater health.

What they do not know is that we will be giving out prizes and gifts to the children and a small financial gift for development of their community.

THis years line up of Pilots is Melissa Pemberton (9G ZAE), Patrick Ata (9G ZAC), Patricia Mawuli Nyekdzi (9G ZKT) and Capt. Yaw (9G ZAF)...
Lydia, Juliet and Emmanuella are on 'loadmaster duties' - that is putting passengers in and out of the planes!

Jenny Jocksh has flown in for the weekend to help and is running the passenger control - her title is 'Flight Line Queen' (control of the access to and from the flight line and photo taking with a polaroid (thanks to the Pembertons) of each child who flies...

Michaela Hayes is on 'first Aid Post and Queen Mother interaction, community liason' - probably the most important role for outcomes down the line.

Ben Sholes is 'Ring Master' and gets to try to herd the cats - getting cars in the right place and people control (includes all the headaches - poor Ben!!!)
Two staff have volunteered for security roles (Lele and Bernard)
Many students and friends will be helping too, special thanks to Paul H (safety car and fix it man), Soumya and family (marshalling and passenger pre- post-interaction), Aunty Judy (flight line support and gift support).

Special thanks go to Millward Brown for their financial support this year. We are, once again, running the event at a loss and thank WAASPS for covering over 60% of the event. 
We see the importance of this event and look forward to sharing the outcomes with you tomorrow!

(NOTE: We do not announce the date of this event in advance, except to invited guests, since we can get overwhelmed with 'opportunists'. If we exceed 300 people on the airfield we need to shut down operations under the regulations, and it is simply a way of working, but it makes it hard to gain support for the event. )