Flight Operations

Since the beginning of Flying Mission in the 1970s, FM has had an aviation program in Botswana bringing physical and spiritual help to people in need. The program has altered in size and structure over the years, in keeping with the changing needs of the country and its mission communities. In 2005, some of these changes left the aviation program on the brink of closure with few resources and an unclear vision for the future. After months of prayer and difficult conversations, FM decided to breathe life back into the program by turning it into a for-profit aviation company with the goal of making it self-sustaining and income-generating. Rather than relying so heavily on external financial support, the income generated through the aviation department would be used to support itself and to help finance other FM non-profit work. Even with few resources, in just two years, exciting progress has already been made: new contracts have been secured, additional aircraft have been made available, and enough income has been generated to maintain the aviation department.

Medical Flights – FMS is the air ambulance provider for the government of Botswana: flying patients in a critical state from any one of Botswana's smaller hospitals to a more well-equipped hospital in Francistown, Gaborone, or even Johannesburg. Although FMS has been providing air ambulance support since 1980, it was just in 2007 that Botswana's Ministry of Health awarded FMS with the exclusive contract for this service. With the start of this contract, FMS fitted a King Air C90 with basic medical equipment and a fixed stretcher berth to provide better care for the patients. FMS partners with a local paramedic service to have qualified paramedics on board for each air ambulance flight, ensuring proper patient care and treatment.

 

Charter Flights – FMS offers on-demand charter flights throughout Southern Africa from its two Botswana bases in Gaborone and Maun. Government officials and agencies, business organisations, missionaries, churches and tourists are among the many different clients who use our services.

The base in Gaborone has a diverse set of charter clients: from survey work with mining companies to moving development workers to remote project sites. Charters leaving from Gaborone are flown in a King Air 200.

The base in Maun primarily flies tourists to safari camps throughout the Okavango Delta and has become very busy, averaging 150 hours a month during peak season. FMS currently has a Cessna 207 based in Maun to cover this charter flying. With only one airplane in Maun, FMS is flying at capacity and still significantly unable to keep up with demand. FMS is working very hard to put a second aircraft in Maun.

Pilot Intern Programme – Many pilots interested in pursuing mission aviation struggle financially to build the necessary flight time that all mission aviation programs require. Because the FMS air ambulance service requires two pilots on each flight, FMS is uniquely able to help train and equip low flight time pilots who are eager to serve with other organisations. These interns start out flying the King Air as the second-in-command pilot, accompanying an experienced pilot who continues to train them while they build experience and time.

After several hundred hours of flight experience in the King Air, interns typically move to the Maun base where they begin single pilot flying. Once the intern has built enough time to satisfy the requirements of their sending mission organisation, they are released back to them and sent to a mission posting somewhere else in the world.

One significant benefit of this program is that the interns gain experience in turbine aircraft. With the increasing scarcity of aviation gas, mission aviation worldwide is shifting toward turbine airplanes which run on jet fuel. As a result of this shift, pilots with turbine experience are in high demand. Additionally, this program is valuable as the interns are not simply building flight time, but are gaining real world multi-cultural mission experience.