Humanitarian Airlift

[jdlilfan]

Has anyone out there worked for Air Serve? Just had a talk with the soon to be new chief pilot here in Anchorage. Not much pay, but is seemed interesting. Not interesting enough to go where bullets fly frequently without doing a little research, first. Any comments?

http://forums.flightinfo.com/showthread.php?t=79043

 

[TurboS7]

The idea is wonderful and I have had the same vision for years. The problem is to implement it. I have had more success operatiing on a smaller scale. Big airplanes equals big work big job. Thinking that you could do something on your days off will not cut it, it will totally engulf you. Here are some things that I have done which really were neat. When I had the Part 135 I flew (part 91) missionaries to and from South America. I flew Bibles down, medical supplies etc. I was able to get help with the local churches for donations and fuel money. Our company did one trip a month and the pilots bid on it. They gave their time for free, and I think all the pilots really enjoyed their trips.
On a more recent scale. I fly for a Part 121 carrier. We had a flight going to Africa. I was able to get a bunch of stuff for the orpanages, and a local school. I bought soccar balls by the dozens, sent a couple of hundred baseballs( all gathered from little league fields over the year) dolls, and all kind of little knick, naks. I got them all to Miami and we sent them all over. You can't get too big as all this stuff was going in "under the radar". You get stuff too big and all the authorities have their hands out in more ways than you can imagine. I was able to go on a later Africa flight and help distribute all the stuff I had gotten together. This included being able to get a bunch of the soccar balls up to the refugee camps in the Darfur region. (they may be starving but they can pass the time playing soccar now) The personal involvement is very gratifying, but it is a lot of work. If you feel the way you do and you are young Mission Aviation has a program for airline pilots in Afganistan for short term work 1 to 2 months at a time. They are really short on qualified turbine pilots. If you want hardcore then Airserve is the way to go, they will burn you out and send you home wet sore and satified.