Welcome to Kpong Airfield

A new look for the front of the airfield and lots of smiles from those whose lives are being changed by the activities at Kpong Airfield.

Neighbourhood watch ... Ghanaian style

Not far from the airfield we have a little family that lives in a simple structure under a tree.

The mother and daughter were suddenly found on the airfield, near the threshold of runway 11, shouting in loud voices, which resulted in the deployment of our 'incursion response'. Pulling up in the car next to them I was greeted with even more shouting.

Apparently they had seen two men use the airfield access road and were chasing them, on our behalf.

We did not find the men, but we did find what they had been up to. In the safety area beyond undershoot 01, about 1000m from the office and workshop areas , had been stealing trees. This is a common practice. They had chopped down about 20 small trees in the area and started to pile up the 'sticks' or thin logs, in hidden areas.

As a reward for their diligence and good airfield neighbour citizenship we loaded the sticks into the car and sent them back to their home for fire wood; to cook with and to keep them warm during these relatively chilly harmattan nights.

We will further reward them with some clearing contracts on the airfield in the coming weeks.

Amateur Radio at Kpong Airfield!

For the first time ever, we'll be having an amateur radio station activated at Kpong Airfield to be used as a teaching aid for the students at the AvTech Academy. After several months of application time and the help of Bob to finalize the license, I have successfully been granted 9G5MS, a lovely complement to my US license of AI6MS! With any luck, we'll have a station operational in the next week or two, hopefully in time to activate for the ARRL School Club Roundup contest, quite possibly being the first school station in West Africa to ever participate! Stay tuned for details...with any luck we'll establish some standard operating times and frequencies once we get then antennas up and operational. 73 de 9G5MS.

NOT a place to be squeamish.....

We enjoy a number of Owls around the airfield. Locally they have connotations of mystical powers and thus act as excellent security personnel. Furthermore, the owls eat mice, rats, small reptiles and the odd smaller bird, and are welcome workers in the bid to keep the airfield clear of vermin.

Normally we are greeted by an owl pellet every 2-3 days, however today Juliet found a spare bird leg that had been dropped onto a tail section of an aircraft. There is no room for squeamishness in our line of work!

Time to Tidy up.....

The dry season and the harmattan together allow us to hit many of the cleaning up and tidying jobs that got pushed on due to other workload challenges. Today Lele and Bernard are finally completing the post construction cleanup around the accommodation site. At the same time acting as fire watch as a bush fire burns close to the site.

This will be a great relief, since the debris from last year's construction is a fire risk in itself and has sat out far too long.

Volunteers coming out will be given the opportunity to help to keep and develop the site this year, as aim to gain better, if not full, control of the 100+ acres of Kpong Field.

The big vision is beginning to look like it could become a reality sooner rather than later, thanks to your Support and encouragement.

Fire..... An ever present danger....

An unexpected bush fire is keeping us all rather busy.   Keeping the fuel depot cool is priority.

Termites.....Lessons to learn???

Termites are a challenge wherever they exist in the world - they are incredibly organised creatures that can consume wood faster than Mr Solo (and that takes some doing!)

Here we see the effect of termites on a panel of wood that fell to the ground, and was there for about three days... If only we could all be so organised as to take advantage of an opportunity and to make such 'short work of consuming it'!

The key thing with Termites is that they work as a team - much like our Medicine on the Move family - let us work even better in 2013 as we seek out the opportunities and, together, work towards making an impact in a sustainable manner.

Tomorrows forecast... your guess is as good as mine?????

It rained yesterday. The Harmattan is in today... Visibility dropping fast. We never mow in December, rain in December is rare.

Today we are mowing for the third time this month...unbelievable!

The daily effort to keep the site operational seems to be increasing, especially as the abnormal climatic conditions appear to be lasting....'Abnormal' and ' unpredictable' are the new normal, so we had better get used to it!

The Belle of the ball...

The girls at Kpong love the new John Deere sit and ride mower, and have taken the responsibility for mowing to heart. Here they wanted to pose with the new 'worker' at the airfield at the end of year party. The love for the machines, the care for the machines, the desire to use the machines as they are meant to be used and to maintain them, is key to the overall success of all that we do. These girls are empowered and they are taking that empowerment back to their communities as the travel home for the end of year festivities...

When did you last see young people (boys or girls) taking so much care of a machine and realising the real use - the use to establish, maintain and make sustainable, facilities that change lives, one flight at a time!

Please Moo-ve on....

Not all of our days are good days. After all of the work to repair the fence, this afternoon a cattle herder, seeking greener grass for his cows, broke down the fence to the safety area and threatened one of our staff. It is a long time since we had issues like this, but the post election sentiments are raising the stakes in some parts of the country. Including, it seems, our airfield and the ability to take down our fences at will.

Our staff member called us and we responded rapidly with the truck. We wanted to talk to the cattle herder, but he was already clear of the fence line and refused to come back to 'discuss' the situation. We will be increasing our security patrols, and alerting the Police to the situation. There is a growing challenge of 'free range' cattle herding in the area, and much as we respect their rights to roam, they must also respect fence lines that are in place to ensure safety for our aircraft as well as to prevent people putting themselves in danger.

Field maintenance.. sometimes it's a balancing act...

With a constant need to maintain a secure site, the 4km of fencing needs constant checking. Lydia its sending fresh supplies to the fencing crew- water, binding wire and a chunky hammer, which will remain perfectly balanced as she walks the 2 km track to where the supplies are needed...

These boots were made for ...working....

Thanks go to Michael in Germany for his fund raising and donation of support to purchase new safety boots for the young women in training at Kpong.

It is wonderful to have such support from all over the world and it makes our jobs such a pleasure, changing lives one flight, and one pair of boots at a time.

Getting ready for 2013

Now that the national elections are over, and declared, life begins to return to normal.

Later this week we will release our year end news letter, so if you are not registered for it do so now at ........http://www.medicineonthemove.org/..... once on the page *scroll down *

Ghana has, once again, demonstrated its peace loving stance and the atmosphere in the country is predominantly positive and inclusive. We are proud of the people of Ghana, their clear demonstration of tolerance and a desire for development.

Meanwhile, the harmattan has started to lay the grey blanket of dust in the sky and with it we will be focused on workshop activities ready for our major drop campaign in March/April 2013.

Big rocks and small planes.......

Maintaining runways and manouvering areas is a constant challenge. As part if their placement duties Emmanuella and Lydia are working to remove a large stone that has emerged near the apron.

The stone is squeezed out by the contraction and expansion of the Akuse Vale Clay, a unique soil in this area. It may take a day or two to remove but it us satisfying work that increases our pride in the airfield.

Finally everybody got involved as the stone resisted efforts...it will learn that resistance is futile!

The Field is quiet today......

Emmanuella and Lydia are the only Av Tech students at the airfield this week, since the others have travelled to their home towns for the election on Friday.

It is nice to have a smaller family for a change and a chance for some more relaxed moments. It was these two who were the catalyst for many of the developments at the airfield, and they are still as committed as ever to be role models and agents of change for the rural people of Ghana.

Without the willing and dedicated inputs from these young people much of our current success would not have happened.

Take a look over some older posts with these two in and enjoy the positive differences that can be seen in them today. Then realise that you are a part of that development. Thank you.

Learning to drive while cutting the grass

Learning to drive whilst cutting the grass on the apron has many challenges, and for Lydia this is a moment of great joy.

After a morning of cleaning and preparing the machine, work has begun.

learning to cut in a straight line will be a bonus!

Emmanuella finally managed to get Lydia to yield the seat for her to also gain experience on this new tool.

A new Green Machine on the field....

Skill building with a purpose. Thanks to a very generous donation from a friend of our operations, we were able to obtain a small John Deere mower at an excellent price by local standards (thank you AgriMat).

This little mower can mow the r runways and manouvering areas in around 20 hours, and will take some load off of the tired tractor... More than that, it will be used as the intro to driving for the girls, since they must look after it and operate it.

As part of that ownership, Emmanuella was entrusted with the cash, and supported by Lydia for the transaction. Much can be learned from a few simple adjustments to the perceptions of a simple, daily, necessary task, just with a bit of thought.

Tomorrow the girls will' enter to service' the new tool at the airfield.

The Weather

We have the most incredible weather at Kpong Airfield, and our view of Mt. Krobo keeps changing………

So what on earth do I do at Kpong Airfield?

Your humble scribe is working as a volunteer for seven weeks with Medicine on the Move and the Avtech Academy. Fundamentally, I’m a general dogsbody and will do whatever is needed.

I spend a good chunk of time in the classroom with the AvTech students, and we use Computer-based Training (CBT) courses as a basis for teaching. Currently, we’re going through the CBT sessions on Meteorology (for pilots), and so we have endless opportunities to delve into critical topics like fractions, graphs, metrics, and physics. When we were discussing the physics of pressure, we talked about the effect of carrying a bottle up to 10,000’ sealing it and seeing what happened after coming back to sea level. It so happens that we have a few airplanes close by, so it was easy to do a real live test (at least to see the effect of 2,500’ pressure difference)! It’s so wonderful to be able to bring the academic and the practical side of things into such close proximity.

The AvTech students are great fun to work with! A few days ago, we were discussing metrics and talked about estimating distances. The girls guessed the distance to the picnic tables when walking over for lunch, and then they paced off the distance marching forward silently as a very determined group! The estimates were amazingly close and you can imagine the loud whoops of delight when the estimates and the measurements came within a few metres of each other!

At an active and fast-paced operation like WAASPS / MoM / AvTech Academy, junk easily accumulates, and it’s tough to keep the place clean and tidy and de-junked. AvTech students are (almost!) always willing, enthusiastic and smiling when we call on them to help out!

There is much work to do around the airfield and things break a lot in the harsh conditions of strong sunlight, humidity, rainstorms, insects, plus general wear and tear. When the tractor used for mowing the runway recently ran out of fuel, I had to spend an hour bleeding the air out of the system before it ran properly. Plumbing is a constant problem, and I’ve blogged previously about the fun and games we have with imported fittings! The current bane of my life is getting some cellular modems to work in the data centre. Our internet access is reasonable reliable but somewhat slow, and so everything takes that much longer. Other related tasks include getting computers with odd operating systems to work on the network, and getting that wireless printer to work with all the student computers.

 

Keeping up with e-mail, writing blogs and doing administrative work means that I spend a surprising amount of time on my computer. We’re building a bit more structure around the AvTech Academy programme with additional documentation of the academic and practical training – that means more typing!

Every night I do a quick check of the hangars and workshops when I turn off our trusty generator soon after 20:00. Since it’s located in the complex of buildings on the far side of the field, this entails a short walk across the runway in the dark, and I have a fond hope that I’ll spot the snakes with my flashlight before they decide that they don’t like me. If it’s been pouring rain (we’ve had a lot recently), I get a bit more exercise plus muddy shoes, and walk the long way around the end of the runway to avoid spoiling the soft runway surface..

You see, there is no rest for the wicked (or anyone else for that matter). There is always so much to – plus we have those almost weekly and not-so-much-fun trips to Accra which consume a whole day and which I’ll ignore in today’s blog. With all that goes on, I’m always thrilled if I manage to get in the odd bit of time in an airplane!

Fuel an everyday challenge....

Fuel shopping is not cheap. Not only does it take half a day, and at over 100 km of travel, it empties the wallet too!

Without fuel for the aircraft we clearly cannot fly. Getting and storing the fuel is not as easy as we would like, but we manage.

Fuel is then double filtered before going into the aircraft tanks with a special filter and water separator, then in aircraft systems are several layers deep... All for the love of safe operations!