5 year old Andrew from Leeton has recently undergone a kidney transplant following end stage renal failure. After such an operation, he requires close medical monitoring, including some tests that need to be undertaken at the Royal Children's Hospital. The long drive by road would be very taxing on him, and a financial strain the family. The father was the donor and has to have at least 6 weeks off work after the operation.

Mark Pharoah - Pilot

Lincoln Robinson - Earth Angel
(Lincoln's 9th mission)

Angel flight 1 by Mark Pharoah
This is Mark's 1st mission

Comment by Mark

"We started off from Lilydale on time after climbing through some relatively thin low cloud to reveal a day above them far superior to that we left below, thanks to a high pressure system and a surface inversion. Paul and I were most excited about putting our piloting skills to the best use we have found yet – our first Angel Flight. As we progressed north to our pick up at Narrandera the weather just kept getting better. The return flight for our precious cargo was promising to be a delightful one.

The lovely view from the plane during the flight.

Upon our arrival we met a very brave young man, Andrew a 5 year old kidney transplant recipient and his donor father Patrick (our passengers), together with his Mother Roslyn and two younger brothers Jason (a real plane enthusiast) and Nathan.

Patrick (father), Nathan (brother), Andrew, Jason (brother) and Roslyn (mother).

Eager to get on the plane, Andrew says goodbye to his mum and gets a packet of smarties.

Andrew had a very unfortunate start to life in that he had renal failure that wasn’t picked up in normal antenatal ultrasounds, which damaged both of his kidney’s to a point that required a transplant at the tender age of 5. You wouldn’t know that Andrew was (or had been) ill though, he bounced around just like every other little boy I know, all whilst showing a considerable understanding of his condition, and being just a delightful young passenger co-operating and taking in the sites the entire flight, not complaining for a minute. His quietly spoken father donor Patrick looked in really good shape given what he had been through as well. What a great gift this man has given his son.

Patrick and Andrew.

So our mission was pretty simple in the scheme of things, get them down south safely for a check up to see that all was ok. And that we did. We were not let down at all by weather the surface inversion and cloud had cleared for our arrival into Essendon; it was the smoothest day time flight conditions that I have ever experienced, so much so felt sorry for my colleagues who were to conduct subsequent flights as this one was going to be a hard to follow. So no bumps, and 1.5 hours instead of 5.5 to 6 hours by car (with bumps) made this a very successful mission.

Andrew is a man of deep thoughts.

This flight was all of our first Angel Flight and we were delighted to share this experience."

Angel flight 2 by Michael Loccisano
This is Michael's 6th mission
Previous mission for Michael - M380 AF1.

Michael Loccisano - Pilot

Peter Phillips - Earth Angel
(Peter's 1st mission)