Story by Juliet K

Morning came, with the beautiful sun rise from the east. People started to plan for the day. Students prepared for school. Drivers started their cars early for start of the day. Trusty said, I was getting ready for school when I heard a big sound which went bang! People were shouting and calling many names and crying.

These sounds were heard right in front of my house. She got herself decent and went out. She found out that a car had knocked down one of her father’s cows. The cow died on the spot but the driver was severely injured. The driver was brought out to a secure place and first aid was provided to him before taking him to the hospital for medical assistance. As the victim was being taking care of by the first Aiders, the rest of the people who came to help also made sure that, they inspected the car for injured parties and other things which are valuable to some of family involved. The police arrived and did some measurements as part of their investigation. They found out that, the driver was not wearing seat belt, he was driving at high speed and did not check if there were any obstacles or pedestrians on that side way. The police continued with their investigation and saw that, the driver was exceeding the speed limit of the road,120 km per hour on the street of the town was too much. The policemen went to the house of the driver to find out whether he was into drugs, alcohol or misunderstanding with the family before going out. It came to the notice of the policemen that, he had some upset with the family and so they believed that, the argument could be the cause of the bad incident. The policemen went away and Trusty went to school feeling very sad about what she saw.
When Ms Mercy saw her student Trusty sad, she approached her and asked what the problem was. Trusty narrated the story to Ms Mercy who was Trusty’s science teacher.

The madam told Trusty to have heart, and should always remember that, getting people distracted could cause an accident. Because the little mistake you do today could lead to a bigger accident tomorrow. The Science Teacher also said to Trusty that, she should always start her day in a happy mood. Things go wrong at homes, workplaces and other places when misunderstandings are not resolved. No matter how sick, how bad you feel or how cross you are, you should ever go to work or school with those bad expressions showing on your face. For instance, if you were to be in a company whereby your job is to receive visitors, do not say because you had a bad moment last night, you would not serve your customers and visitors well. When Trusty heard what the madam has said, she was lost for words and was surprised. Why was she surprised? Her mother has been telling her similar words anytime her mother was advising her.

Trusty’s mother was a flying doctor and she had been explaining to Trusty how accidents happen when it comes to flying. She made her daughter understood how safer it was to fly than to drive. But flying could be dangerous if safety measures are not put in place. For instance, when planning to fly, the runway to be used for take off and landing needs FODwalked (Foreign Object Debris walk). These are done because sometimes when you look at a runway in a distance, you will see that the tarmac or the grasses look neat but the moment you start to walk on it, you may be amazed at some of the things you may find on the runway. Some examples are; Dog, stones, eggs, cattle and human beings also crossing without permission from the authorities in charge of the field. FODwalk is done to get rid of all those things on the runway. Trusty’s mother also spoke to her about some of the checks she does on her aircraft. Again she does her flight plan as to where she would be flying to. She said that, she always communicates with the ATC at the particular airfield she would be starting her flying at. She is permitted to fly only VFR (Visual Flight Rules) because of that, she only flies into what she sees. Her weather condition is always taken into account. She did not only end there, but she continued to tell her daughter that, pilots plan their cross countries which is where they will be flying to. They do that, to enable them calculate how much fuel would be consumed, how long before getting to their destination.

Dr. Juliet Brown who was a flying doctor,who did a lot of mission flights to rural areas for humanitarian purposes. Knowing the great passion the woman had for humanitarian aviation, she wanted her daughter to have the same strong passion. Dr. Juliet Brown was pleading with her daughter because she was getting older and was losing the strength to work and wanted someone to replace her. She wanted someone who was ready to do humanitarian work. Fortunately enough, she was a flying instructor. She taught her daughter how to fly ultra light aircraft since those types were appropriate for the mission flying. She was trained on how to fly an aircraft by registration 9G-ZAF which was normally shortened as AF.

The reason for using these aircraft was that, it was good in doing STOL (short take and landings) operations. It was also good in doing bush landings. Furthermore, most of these deprived villages have short runways but with this kind of aircraft, and with an experienced qualified pilot, you can achieve STOL. One of the most important things was that, the aircraft was using Rotax 912UL engine. These type of engine burns 15 litres per hour. It can go as high as 10,000feet. It flies below that, because she was operating at VFR and passed 10,000feet, human begin to suffer from hypoxia. It ranges from 140 to 160 km per hour. AF was sprayed with red and white colour because these colours symbolised emergency or Red Cross. This was because the aircraft was purposely built for humanitarian purposes. Dr.Juliet Brown bought the plane for Trusty to help her fly to rural areas with health personnel to give the people in the villages’ basic health education. Many flights took place and guess what happened…

As Trusty was doing her pre-flight for her first solo, she noticed that one of the wires joining the oil pressure sensor gauges was torn. She went for a pair of wire stripper, she stripped the plastic insulator. She kept the copper wires neat to avoid electrocution. She reconnected them to have a working sensor gauge to avoid inadequate reading from the gauge. As Trusty did her checks, she asked for clearance from ATC, she took off and did several circuits. Finally she was cleared to land on runway 19. She has always kept in her mind about checking the runway for obstacles before landing. She turned on final, as she continue her approach and the plane was descending, she saw a cat run from nowhere crossing the runway to the other side of the field. Immediately, she added power and climbed out again. She finally did one circuit and landed safely. She did many more solos and did her written examination. Trusty passed her examination and had her license to fly. Since that time, Trusty took her mother’s position and did a lot of mission flight. Every flight made to rural areas, she made sure, she donates many things which cost more than $1,300.

All these dreams were achieved by hard work and the help of
some generous people. Trusty flew to many villages and

Changed lives one flight at a time.