Volunteer Doctor and UK PPL(A) pilot
 

Just tentatively putting out some feelers.

I'm a semi-retired doctor looking to spend 6 months a year in the UK working, and 6 months a year doing some travelling/volunteering in Africa.

I wonder if there's a way I can combine my love of flying with voluntary medical/medical-educational voluntary work in rural Africa?

Pay is not required - free flying is always a gift, but I'm also happy to invest money in further training, and could even take my own aircraft ( 2 seater bush plane).

Any thoughts?

Positive answers only please.

Kindest regards ... Shaun

Here’s some positive advice:

1. Don’t work for free.
2. Have a bit of respect for yourself and aviation professionals.

Probably not the most helpful or enlightened advice, but thank you for trying

I'm curious as to why humanitarian volunteering would equate to a lack of respect for oneself- I was recently inspired by the work of Ukraine Air Recue, German PPL holders that delivered medical resources (for free) to areas that needed them.

I'm hoping to graduate as a doctor in about a year's time, so very interested in responses here, thanks for asking the question Fizzwizz.

The reason you don’t work for free is because you are setting a president for all operators out there to abuse pilots. We aren’t all as fortunate as you to have a medical degree or to be in a financial position to afford one. For many pilots flying is the only way to support themselves and feed their families. By offering your services for free you are denying a livelihood to many well deserving people out there.

Another issue is that Bush flying isn’t easy, realistically you need a
minimum amount of experience and ability to do it safely, at least CPL level, that’s only an opinion, but have a look at the Mission Aviation Fellowship’s website to see what experience levels they require. Admittedly that’s not voluntary, but even voluntary needs to be safe.

I think fizzwizz is volunteering their services as a doctor, not as a pilot?

Surely you are not suggesting private flying is doing commercial pilots out of a job?

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I'm afraid virtually no chance of that. African aviation is highly regulated these days - partly for good reasons, but almost more to put in a good framework for extracting bribes from aviation. Nobody will allow you to fly a local registed aircraft on a CAA PPL(A). Also there are in most african countries plenty of local pilots who would object to an expat taking a potential job from them. Taking your own aircraft is also out of the question - you could transit through Africa (with a lot of headache and paperwork and hefty bills) but to fly internally you would need to import the aircraft (massive bills!) and in a lot of countries register it on the local register.

The most positive I can suggest is to volunteer as a doctor in an area which uses single-pilot aircraft to fly to remote strips - and you could probably get a bit of stick time in RHS from friendly pilots who enjoy having another pilot along.

I have for example seen single-pilot operations in El Fasher in the Dafur region and I am sure they are desperately short of doctors - but really I don't think it would be much fun to go there!

In nicer parts of Africa (Kenya, Botswana) there is a lot of single-pilot transport of passengers and I expect they occasionally need to take doctors out and about. But you would need to get work first as a doctor and then network from there and you could perhaps be seen as a first-call when a doctor is needed.

That is about as postive as it gets - sorry!

Only religion people might take you to fly their aircraft but need good relationship with lord they don’t take anybody

Sorry to read the negativity in this thread for what is essentially a humanitarian offer.

I have no links with Africa, but thinking around the problem, how about:

1. Sticking to one country
2. Validating your license there
3. Buying/leasing an aircraft 'in country', then selling afterwards?

It's a vast continent, and I’m sure that this might make it easier to volunteer your services.

Good luck, and thank you.

There’s a fantastic book written by someone who worked for flying doctors in kenya. He brought his own aircraft from Canadia. It’s a great read on Africa, aviation and travel. It’s called “My Heart is Africa”.