Paul Calvert spoke with Mission Aviation Fellowship.

Bryan Pill with Paul Calvert

Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) uses planes to transform the lives of the world's most isolated people in need. Paul Calvert spoke with Captain Bryan Pill, from Mission Aviation Fellowship, about their work.

Paul: When was Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) started and why was it started?

Bryan: MAF started just after the Second World War for a number of reasons. Aircraft had been used, as everyone knows, for bombing and fighting; there were a number of pilots and engineers who were thinking that they could use these amazing tools for something that had peaceful purposes. It all came together and so there were pilots and engineers in Britain and also in the US at a similar time and that's where the vision came from for MAF.

Paul: Is this an active plane that we're sitting in now?

Bryan: Yes it is. I learnt to fly on one of these, this is a little two seater Cessna 150. This is one of the world's most successful trainers, but MAF have got about 135 aircraft in 26 countries. Our smallest plane is a four seater diesel powered Cessna. It looks a bit like this, but a bit more room. Then we go up to our largest aircraft and we have three of those in Papua New Guinea. They're called Havilland Canada Twin Otters and they're 19 seater twin engines. They are small airliners. We've got a variety of aircraft in between as well.

Paul: Where do you work?

Bryan: All over the world. They're not really the holiday destinations, think of South Sudan and Chad, Mongolia, Bangladesh, East Africa, the Congo, places like this and obviously places in South America.

Our aim is to bring help, hope and healing to some of the world's remotest communities. We work with the Christian church, Christian missions and Aid organisations. You would know many of them like World Vision, Save The Children fund and Oxfam. Then we do medical evacuations and we also have a disaster relief team.

Paul: So if there was a disaster would someone call and say, "Can you come into this area and help out?"

Bryan: That's right. We've got somebody full time who would assess whether it's something we could be involved in. In the case of Nepal we were able to help and Haiti is another case, with the Tsunami some years ago. We're also caught up with events that are local and so we have a programme in South Sudan. Rather sadly it's not going well for the country, so we have a programme there and we're very involved working with the Church and Aid organisations.

Paul: Is your work dangerous?

Bryan: We're always joking that the most dangerous part is usually driving to the airport.

There is risk involved and we take risks seriously. Our pilots are really well trained and our engineers are excellent. In fact, there's a world shortage of engineers. If anybody out there is an engineer, or if there are youngsters, boys or girls, thinking of a great career, why not think about being an engineer. We have good aircraft and we take risks seriously, but if I'm honest, the biggest risk is driving on the roads. I would say many more people get injured in road accidents than they ever do in aviation incidents and accidents.

Paul: Is working with the local church very important?