Glasair’s Ted Setzer visits a Sportsman “Pioneer” in Africa

Featured Sportsman customer: Tom Needham, Cameroon, Africa

Sportsman N211PH: Engine -  Lycoming I0-390, Prop- Hartzell 80″

See below for more pictures.

Tom Needham is a missionary based in Sabga, Northwest Province of Cameroon, Africa. The closest large city is Bamenda, population approx. 500,000. His home and family are based in the scenic countryside at an elevation of 5,800 MSL. Tom operated a GlaStar for over eight years out of his home airstrip serving local villages with much needed supplies, air ambulance service and preaching from his winged pulpit. Desiring more utility, Tom recently upgraded to a Sportsman 2+2 and says the utility has nearly doubled. Ted Setzer from Glasair Aviation recently visited the Needhams and reports that Tom operates from very challenging strips hand hewn from the jungle. In comparison to the bush flying he’s experienced on many of the Alaska adventures in the Sportsman, Ted believes Tom is the premier bush test-pilot in the Sportsman design. “Tom routinely flies at full gross weight across dense jungles and mountainous terrain and lands at very steep, rugged, uphill, one-way strips to provide a service to those who would never otherwise benefit from the advantages the aircraft provides”. He is by far the most pioneering of our customers who have chosen the Sportsman for its excellent speed, efficiency and outstanding utility. While there, Ted experienced trips into and out of the “unimproved” airstrips Tom, his son Daniel, and other volunteers have literally hacked from the jungle in very remote areas. “On one of the trips, Tom had been called to deliver a very sick man to a local hospital. Without the free air-ambulance service Tom provides, patients such as these wouldn’t possibly survive the grueling, many-day trek out by foot,” Ted reports. At other times, Tom organizes volunteer evangelistic medical and dental teams from stateside to visit these remote villages and offer invaluable, often life-saving services to the inhabitants. “At every airstrip we visited,” Ted recalls, “we were quickly surrounded by local farmers and herdsmen who understand the value of what Tom Needham and his Sportsman mean to them. When Tom introduced me as someone who was from the factory where the plane was produced, I was greeted with very warm smiles and vigorous handshakes and words of appreciation. “  To keep abreast of Tom Needham’s activities in Africa: www.tombarbneedham.blogspot.com.

Here are just a few of the photos I snapped while there: