Starting a new enterprise is exciting and rewarding.
Adrian Nance felt called to help deliver helicopters faster to disasters. It was when he was in the UK’s Ministry of Defence. In that job he had been invited to lead on the lessons identified from operations.
- One of the operations with many lessons was the flood relief in Mozambique in 2000.
Starting up
Adrian left the Royal Navy in 2006. And he starting to research what were the real issues that made rapid disaster response so difficult. He also looked at where the needs were greatest.
His research took him to South East Africa.
- There he explored Mozambique and Malawi.
- He looked at Tanzania and Zambia.
- He made visits in the ‘long rains’. That’s when most disasters happen.
It took three visits and thousands of miles in hire cars. But it was worth it.
And January is the time that many people are affected by disasters in that region.
Adrian has been flight authorising officer in four ships. So he drove 1500 miles around Malawi in January 2007. The trip was timed to see if helicopters could operate in the prevailing weather.
That showed him that helicopter flying at the height of the disaster season was not only feasible but safe. Safe in the places where the risks were highest. This was his key visit.
Here he is (with his shirt hanging out – well it was hot!) in the queue at the boarder between South Africa and Mozambique, starting relationships there.
The airborne reconnaissance was another story!
And all this lead to Wings founding our Mozambican HQ.
Support came in
Wings was hugely privileged to gain two faithful supporter duing the same period:
Why not see how our first supporter linked up with us?
Or how a chance meeting resulted in our long standing link with Luviair.
Find out more
Why not find out more – contact us today!
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