The end of March Pilot Steve Straw sent this news item about an unplanned landing of the Air Calvary plane:
“Air Calvary’s Cessna 207 aircraft, based in Gabon, Africa, experienced a loss in engine power and made a forced landing in the village of Owendo, just south of the city of Libreville. No one on the ground was injured and neither were the two pilots and one passenger participating in the training flight. There was minor property damage and the aircraft also incurred structural damage. A detailed report will follow.”
Steve and Alace Straw and their three children are now on a three month planned Home Assignment in the States. No repairs will likely be done on the plane until their return. To follow their trip you may visit their “Arrivals and Departures” blog.
Today the Air Calvary Cessna 207 plane arrived at Lebamba, the town where the Bongolo Hospital is located. It came into the country last week but it took several days to get all the paperwork completed before it could be flown down to Lebamba and the Hospital. Many went to the airport to welcome pilot Steve Straw and his family after their two hour flight from Libreville.
From Pilot Steve Straw we learned that there were “About 200 supporters gathered at CXY Aviation in New Cumberland, PA on Saturday, October 24th to celebrate a milestone. Soon, the aircraft refurbishment phase will be giving way to the start of (the Air Ambulance) operations in Gabon! The event was a great time to see so many friends, give thanks to our great God, and then, to lay hands on our “fill-in” airplane and ask for the Lord’s continued direction on this remarkable journey we’re on.”
CLICK HERE to read Steve’s Blog about the event
CLICK HERE to see 35 captioned photos of the event
Cessna 207
Air Calvary and Pilot Steve Straw have ordered a Cessna 207 plane to begin an Air Ambulance Service in Gabon. This plane has 8 seats and plenty of luggage room. The storage compartment is just behind the engine and the cargo pod under the airplane.
From Steve Straw’s blog of July 11: “We hope to see the aircraft in action around the end of the fall, this year. We’ll be adding the avionics, new paint, and then making a decision whether to put the aircraft in a container for 6 weeks and then reassemble it in Africa, or to set it out for an 8 day voyage across the North Atlantic and then through Europe to Gabon.”
The avionics are added as well as the new paint. Take a look at this good looking plane!
From an August 1st letter written by Dave Thompson:
Dear Friends,
At 7:30 pm tonight I got a frantic call from one of our nurses with the alarming news that our hospital warehouse was on fire.
Becki called around the station for others to come while I raced to the hospital. When I arrived, about 200 people (mostly the local youth group, which was meeting in the church next door) were screaming and running around, trying to get into the lock building to put it out. I could see the glow of flames through the windows. Since it was dark, I parked my car with the headlights on the door.
I grabbed the fire extinguisher from my car and ran to the steel door with my keys. When I cautiously opened the door, I could see flames reaching to the ceiling from behind a six foot high stack of boxes–our most recent medicine order. The ceiling was already on fire, along with about 10 boxes. At the center was a refrigerator that was burning like a torch. I sprayed it with my car extinguisher, but it ran out after about 10 seconds. About 10 young men from the youth group and hospital crowded in, and I shouted for some to bring buckets of water and the others to form a chain to drag our medicines out. In seconds we had boxes flying out the door and buckets of water flying in–half the time colliding! What pandemonium! Above it all I could hear women singing praises and prayers to God!
Next to the fire, I was soon elbowed aside by younger firefighters who threw the buckets of water on the fridge and through the burned out ceiling and up onto the burning rafters. Keir Thelander arrived and took charge of that effort, so I worked on getting most of the boxes around the fire out of the building. Then I went outside and discovered the fire was spreading to the waiting area roof of our new lab, which is right next door. I got some good throwers working on that one and in a few minutes we doused it. The water coming out of the hospital faucets seemed like a trickle, but after 30 minutes or so, Keir and his team gradually got the fire inside under control.
We may have lost 10 to 20 boxes of medicines and supplies and a refrigerator full of we’re not sure what. The roof has a huge hole in it and there is extensive damage to the ceiling and rafters for about 1/3 of the building. But we could have lost the entire building, with over $200,000 of medicines and supplies in storage! We praise God that the youth group was there and that so many volunteers rushed to help. And nobody was burned or hurt.
Praise God with us for protecting these precious medicines and supplies and helping us to get it out. Please pray with us that God will help us replace what we lost, and repair our warehouse.
Praising our Great Lord and Protector
Dave & Becki Thompson
