Colleagues of mine in GF tell me that Capt MP posted the initial news on the GF Web where he stated that Rad was at Cyprus General Hospital & that flowers & a card from GF Management and all pilots had been sent.

A mate of mine told me that he had phoned three Senior Gf pilots for news, all on answerphone with NO REPLIES.

I guess you could always phone the Cyprus General Hospital for news update.

We certainly all care, very much, for this most popular aviator.

My information from a few weeks ago was that Rad was in the ICU at Limassol General.

Limassol General Hospital
Nikeas street
Pano Polemidia
Limassol
Cyprus
Tel: + 357 25 801 100

Not sure it's a good thing to contact the hospital and if they would actually respond - I guess if you are not (blood) family they won't despite most of GF staff feeling the are family to each other.

Maybe we can get someone from Flight Operations to take ownership and put updates on the GF intranet on a bi-weekly basis perhaps?

Update
 

Latest news is that there is no improvement sadly. Rad is still in ICU in a comma. His condition is stable but still quite critical.

Our hopes and prayers are always with him.

Mach

Thanks Icarus & Mach 84. At least we have an address to which a card or letter of support can be sent. Good idea for weekly update.

A wake up call to us all I guess. Rad always appeared very fit when I was in GF. Don't really know how to achieve longevity. So many of us are hit hard just after we retire ! Up till now, a little of everything appears to work for me.

Thoughts still with our Colleague & card on it's way.

Let us not forget the great Rad with our GF troubles!

Falks Rad is one of the best training Captains we have in GF and I'm not only talking about his knowledge and his flying skills! But I'm talking about Rad as a person!

He is such a gentleman and respects every one! and people like Rad they make you respect them! He is loved by every one!
I never heard any thing bad about him!

I wish you a quick recovery and hope to see you again online soon

28 July now......Any update on Rads progress?

Last I hear, no improvement but stable enough to be moved (MEDEVAC) to the UK for surgery, so I presume that is also the latest plan.

Apparently Rad is paralized on one side only from the stroke and Ronnie is trying to get him air lifted with a medevac flight back to the UK. His condition has not improved in the last week and they seem to be waiting for some improvement in order to move him.

A great lad indeed who certainly deserves better.

Get well soon old mate

Fluffies

Thank you guys for the update on my old friend....will continue my prayers for his recovery.
Comforting to know he has Ronnie there fighting his corner when the going got tough.
Hopefully he is through the worst and now a steady recovery.

Update on Rad's Condition
 

Thankyou for your kind words and thoughts. Rad had to undergo emergency surgery last week for internal bleeding. He is currently recovering from that and in a semi concious state. Breathing on his own and on dialysis every other day. He cannot sign the cheques yet, but does pout his lips to give me a kiss! I am fighting to get him evacuated for rehabiliation, but if this fails I will move him to Pafos General Hospital so that he is near to me and I can see him more often to help with his rehabilition.

I am sorry I cannot answer you all individually but thanking you and Rad is hanging in there, stubborn bugger!

Cheers

Roni

Good to hear from you Roni and about Rad. It's very nice of you to come to the Forum to give us some news first hand. Thank you!
It matters Rad gets better a bit every single day. Hang in there, both of you. Hope all goes well (at least better) these coming days.

Roni,

Have PM'd you.

Bestest

FW

Rad,

Best wishes for a speedy recovery. We flew together in GF. Top man, kind and obviously very well thought of.
Good luck.
VS

Thanks for the update. As always our prayers are with you & wishing 1 of the finest gentlemen of aviation a quick recovery.

Update
 

Hi everyone,

Just found out that Roni is trying to get Rad to the hospital in Paphos so she can have better access to him on a daily basis and it looks like the medevac issue is out the window due to the very high cost (80 grand). Rad overall is doing a bit better but is still in a coma and the major issue now is getting a neurologist to see him. He did have another small operation done as he developed stomach bleeding from being fed with the tubes but thank God that has now been taken care of.

Once again thanks for all your kind words and support for our good mate.

May God keep him safe and grant him a speedy recovery.

Mach

clochadearg
 

80 grand ??

could we not raise this, for that man ?

of course we could

come on .....

he is one of us ...in trouble....but he is US !

he represents everything every pilot aspires to...

complete gentleman .....modest average pilot (his words !) wonderful husband ....amazing career....fantastic teacher...
GREAT company......(my words).....talked about Roni ALL the time !.....(as he should).......HEY !...and still being Rad !

so

can we start with a small sub committee ?

MD

If it is 80K US then thats going to be around BHD100 for each GF pilot. Why not approach it from an immediate salary deduction at the end of Aug. Executed on the assumption that everyone is in unless they sign a 'no thank you' with Personnel/Flight Operations. Get it going now, it could be available at the end of the month - who's really going miss 100 dinars? Or suggest that the company front the money and the crew will 'repay' it via a 100BD deduction from the first salary month that includes the next incremental payrise? Again on the premise that everyone is 'in'.

As soon as someone has a proper contribution scheme set up please post the details. There are a still a lot of Rad's former GA buddies out here and would surely want to contribute.

That's fair enough.

What we now need then is two or three volunteers to spearhead this.

I'm one. If we can get a couple more current GF staff then we can meet up to decide the best way to manage and implement this. But it needs to move quickly. Either volunteer here or PM me.

Thanks Icarus, I will stay tuned in and pass on any details to ex GA guys I know in my area.

If there was a proper contribution scheme, ex GF people like myself could also chip in. Make the details public and I'm sure we can work it out.
VS

Icarus, please count me in.

M084 I know I could count on you, that's great. It would be nice to have one more and we can get the ball rolling.

all For One, One For All.

Thats A Great Idea, I Am Sure Every One Will Contribute.

Sign me up however it gets organized:ok::ok:

Me too....soon before I go on leave.

BD 100 is the least I can do for Capt Radstone Gammage. What a name! What a bloke! I first met him in DAC, in the 80's, handing over a Tristar with a MEL/CDL item (missing gear door) which required the a/c to cruise in a tight regime between a reduced VMO and above the Vmd. I was a sprog F/O and the the skipper, eng and I had spent BKK-DAC fretting about how the next crew were going to find a speed both slow enough and fast enough for the next DAC-BAH which had a full load of pax and 7 hours of gas when we had only had a knot or two spare with half a load and 3 hours. We need not have concerned ourselves. Rad listened attentively to our misgivings but immediately formulated his own strategy(lower level,extra fuel,fly below Vmd,no need to accelerate past it). For me, an inexperienced F/O, it was a revelation, seing a captain who was cautious yet confident, calculating yet incisive, a true professional at work, delivering the goods. Since then he has trained me and checked me, on the 76 and the Airbus, and it has always been a pleasure. Rad has flown many, many people safely to their destinations. The least we can do is fly him now to where he needs to go.

Great News
 

:ok:

Fantastic news gents, Rad came out of the comma tonight, recognised Roni and spoke a few words. He's lost a hell of a lot of weight obviously and is real weak but at least he's out of the coma now.

We communicated with Roni who was almost in tears with the plan to try and raise money. She was so touched by everyone's response and wishes for Rad and was lost for words when she heard that we're trying to raise some funds for him.

She has pretty much ruled out the move to the UK so whatever we can raise she will use for his rehab. He's still paralized on one side and is in dire need of a neurologist so it will be some time of rehab for our mate to get back on his feet.

Thank goodness though he seems to have been through the worst now.

Once again on behalf of Rad and Roni I would like to convey to all here their thanks and appreciation.

We will soon formulate a voluntary contribution plan which was so greatly proposed by our friend and colleaugue Icarus to help Rad with his rehab, your support would be really appreciated.

I would like also to thank our friends and colleaugues in ETIHAD. I was advised today that several of them who have followed Rad's plight through this thread have expressed the desire to make contributions when we setup the plan. Thank you Gentlemen.

Once again many thanks to all here.

Mach

Great news Mach84, we all miss Rad and wish to see him make a full recovery soon.

As for the donathion plan, i'm in too.

I remember the days when Ali Sultan would take care of all that. All you had to do for any donation was to walk into his office, and he did the rest.

What about creating a paypal account on Roni's name, so each person can 'donate' as much as desired? (or as much as we can), independently of the company we fly for.

I never met Capt. Gammage, in fact I never flew for any of the ME carriers, but if something like this happens to me or any of my colleagues I would like to have this support from you.

Open the paypal account and I will be more than happy to be the first to participate on this great initiative. If they don't need all the money we can raise with this, we can just keep the money for future occurences (though I hope they never come).

Best regards,

MD

I don't know Rad either but from what I've heard, he is certainly a legend and I am more than happy to put in my 6 pence worth. What is important about this thread is how we as pilots ought to conduct ourselves at work and at play to attract the kind of respect and admiration that Rad unintentionally recieved. God bless him and Roni and may they enjoy each other for many many more years. Whoever is organising this fund raise, please update us asap. Good on you mate.

All,
There are a few of us getting together to plan the formation of a fund/donation scheme and whatever else we can muster. Ground work is underway but it would be careless of us to move forward until we understand from Mrs Gammage what the priorities are so we can set and communicate goals. As you may imagine, under the current circumstances these are/can be 'moving targets'. Suffice to say, the dialogue has started and hopefully in a few days to a week we will be able to start work on putting things in place. Please bear with us.

Yes even Pprune rivals have put aside their differences to rise to this occasion...proving their is an aviation brotherhood even here at GF...and of course GF-2:}

I am in!
 

You can count with me! PM me with the details, a life is priceless...

Count me in.

Brgds

FW

hello lads....sorry been away..great news from roni....thanks mach and icarus.... et all.....lets do it ....MD

clochadearg

Count me in too please, just need the details.

One more in the head count for Rad.
Any thing for a fine man that he is!
My req would be NOT to go the Ali Sultan way - he is a helluva nice bloke, but off late, was not to be trusted with money.
Moreover, I am not sure if the collection made for the Bulgarian captain who died in a Dubai road crash reached his family in tact.
Again, PayPal is not feasible - it does not accept Bahrain credit card holders as applicants, and other payments are cumbersome.
Maybe someone in the office could volunteer - Icarus ???

Fund
 

Most of the ground work is complete; there appear to be no hurdles left other than to satisfy the accountants that the process will be secure (at least as secure a possible) - we had some good gains today in a number of other areas too.

There are a couple of issues left to clear up with Insurance and then we should be able to implement. This will still take quite a few more days.

Please bear with those of us that are helping put this together, I hope to have the first phase available soon.

Hi Prop,

Thanks mate, rest assured that the system for contributions which we will set up will be done so anyone even non-GF people can contribute. Icarus is doing some great work in that department and getting results.

If this thing goes through it will be a great show of support for a very worthy individual who has helped guys like all of us throughout his long career.

Cheers
Mach