Under our flying club the Mansoear Flying Club and in cooperation with Frontier Aviation, we assist Papuans to be introduced to aviation.
Due to the wildness and the fastness of the interior of Papua and West Papua, air transportation is often the only viable option. Many Papuans dream to become pilots to assist their isolated communities with medical assistance and education. In many areas, people have no means of transportation to go to the hospital. It is not unusual for a person who is seriously ill to wait days to get to a hospital. In this rugged terrain, a one-month hike can be done in a 15-minute flight.
Within the Mansoear Flying Club, we give individuals and students the opportunity to get acquainted with aviation and combustion motors.
One of our achievements is the fact that we have built one helicopter Bell 47G-B3-1 up from the ground. It took us three years to complete it in the mountains of Kri island, and several students participated in the process in cooperation with foreigner aviation mechanics. The training helicopter will also be used to support scientific expeditions, to monitor the area and to support missionaries, who often are the ones providing medical services and education in remote areas in Papua. We also did a medical evacuation by this Bell 47.
Funds granted by the Conservation International were allocated to this project, besides private donations from our friends and partners.
We built a hangar with two storage rooms and an office, a helipad, and a helicopter platform above the water in front of the RARCC offices. We built the hangar on the top of the hill to avoid the saltwater influence. After we found a lever area, we had to remove 3 Megapodius bird mounts, which by itself was quite a task. After levelling the hangar area, we dug the foundations and started bringing bricks, sand, cement and rebar up the hill which was another hard task. Soon we found the fastest way was by motorcycle.
We are putting together a second Bell 47G-B3-1, and next, we want to build some Piper Super Pacer aircrafts. When we have realized that, we hope to assist the local people by teaching them how to fly these Rotor Wing and Fixed Wing aircrafts.
There is a real need for mechanics and pilots in the more remote areas of Papua and West Papua, and we want to make this field accessible to them.
