Missionary Aviation Fellowship

[pzu]

Mission Aviation Jobs - Africa

From Expatnetwork (www.expatnetwork.com) - Mission Aviation advertising for various African locations

mailto:[email protected]

[Nevergo]

Forgive my lack of patience to sort through the site.. but where about's is it?

Last info I had on MAF was that you needed to attend religion school for some time and that kinda put me off, me being a rather secular person.

Thanks for the info,

Nevergo

[TRon]

I got the info pack from them. Application form asks how long you have been a christian and what input you give at church....Me having none nor intend on giving any, I filed it in the bin...

Oh and it is deepest darkest Africa for your first Job, sounds like real fun, but I am not a God Botherer and dont think I could handle being around a load...

[Artificial Horizon]

Last time that I talked to MAF you had to have attended 6months at bible college and have a written reference from you local church. Certainly not my scene, best left to people who are really 110% committed to this way of life. They do very worthy and good work for many across the world and good luck to them.

[Wireless]

Mission Aviation Fellowship

I first went down to see one of their "enquirer days" that they hold in Kent for anyone that is interested in serving for them. I went 4 years ago, but I keep in touch and receive their newsletter.

Contrary to belief you are not actually a missionary. MAF provides aerial transport for outside Mission and Medical workers as well as providing heavily subsidised transport for local peoples. All MAF staff are required to be genuinely religious due to the work they are involved with.

The minimum requirements to work as a Pilot haven't changed much over 4 years as they have just sent me a bulletin through. A "basic" Pilot engaged in purely VFR work on the 206 needs 500TT and an ICAO CPL. IR is highly reccommended. If you go in with the minimums the CP said at the enquirer's day that they would require evidence of first hand bush/ high density altitude flying in a commercial environment. An "Experienced" Pilot requires 1000TT and an ICAO CPL/IR. A lot of experienced work is with the Cessna Caravan.

The application takes a fair while apparantly. You have to go to Holland for what they call an Aero Medical. This consists of a series of apptitude and mental tests to see if you are suitable for service. They did stress that the tests are geared towards their requirements, not say an airline's. So you could have aced an Airline's apptiude test but fail MAF's. When I asked about it, £700 was the fee but MAF pay half.

There are a lot of interviews and some reference gathering from your Church etc. One thing I gleaned is that there is no way you can get away with lying and saying that you are religious just because you fancy flying their aircraft. They see straight through that. The people who go in for this do it as a vocation not because they want to have an alternative to para dropping whilst they build a few hours until the airline job comes along. As a Pilot MAF do pay you but every year or so you have to come back from the field on home assignment and go around Church's and local communities etc raising awareness of the work MAF does. The idea being that you raise enough money in sponsorship to cover the costs of keeping you out in Africa . MAF did say that if you couldn't find enough people to sponsor you you still get paid!

Anyway, that's what I know. I am not sure wether it's my bag. I do have a faith myself but I am not sure that I am evangelical enough to feel comfortable in their environment. I thought I'd let you know some stuff about it anyway.

Bill

[AllegroSix]

Light Aircraft Jobs

Hi,
im a newbie here so sorry if this has been asked before.

I REALLY want to be a pilot, but am not really interested in working for a huge airline etc. (although the money would be nice!).

What I really want to do, is work for a charity or a small company in africa or asia or something like that, flying light aircraft.

Where can I find information on these sort of jobs, and how much flying experience would I need?

Thanks!

[tonker]

Africa

I once applied to to an organisation that has numberous light aicraft in Africa delivering aid, doctors etc but i can't remember the name. It was something along the lines of the Christian Aviation Fellowship. The letters MAF seem to ring a bell.

I was really interested until the traits they look for in someone didn't really involve cider or pornography, so i decided i wouldn't quite "fit in"

They fly a number of C172 and the more powerful version(gti)

Good luck

[scroggs]

It might be worth your while keping an eye on some of the regional forums here on Pprune. Jobs like this tend to be passed on by word of mouth, so you won't see adverts for them. We don't carry any kind of classified ads here on Pprune, and the kind of organisation you're looking for probably wouldn't pay us for ads!

What you need is contacts among those who are already working in this field. Some may turn up here, you never know!

Scroggs

[PeterJSY]

MAF

Yes MAF Mission Aviation Fellowship fly from all over the world.

Their website for UK is http://www.maf-uk.org/

Obviously you have to have Christ as your centre and there is a rigorous selection process as not only flying skills are required out there.

If you feel called to that then contact them to have a chat initially as they do day seminars at the end of the summer at Oak Hall in Kent.

Do drop me a line if you want more information and can put you in touch with a MAF pilot who is a dear friend.

[jamestkirk]

MAF

I tried them a few years back, before i got my CPL.

They wanted CPL/IR 500 hours.

Then they said something about one year in bible college and a sort of pure lifestyle.

I totally respect with what they do and as an Catholic have no criticism of thier religious requirements.

Although, as tonker just confessed, it was also far too late for me as i committed the wide variety of sins that could not be washed of with holy ointment.

Better go to an airline then.

[PeterJSY]

MAF Requirements

Yes they do require 500 hours.

All pilots are Christians as is a Christian organisation; impossible to run otherwise as we all serve God primarily. One primary goal in all of our lives.

Workng for a specifically Christian organisation is no different to working for any other organisation as the Bible teaches that we are always working as if God were our employer.

There may be some misunderstanding here about 'if we are good enough' and the Bible says that none of us are hence my full reliance on Christ; nothing we have done but all to Him. That is the whole reason He died so that we may have a path to God as you and I sure know we cannot do that ourselves.

I know this is about flying and responding as a Christian pilot and MAF regional rep. for Jersey. There is often misunderstanding about faiths rather than the organisation; if you want to discuss on the phone send a private message with number. This is not really the forum for disucssions on faith; do e-mail.

regards

[bunnywabbit]

Now advertising in FLIGHT and AVIATIONJOBSEARCH.
I have applied in the past however,you need to be a Christian and sponsored by your local church community etc.
These people do fantastic work, but I do not support any religion and do not go to any church. As I say you have got to be a Christian to join and I feel that MAF do not clearly advertise this, so save your time and energy by not applying if you not.
1 Christian
2 ATPL etc
3 Got dosh/sponsorship from the Church.

The pilots that work for them do some of the best flying available and I am jealous, but I am not a bible basher and never will be. I do apologise if I have upset any religous group or person, but hopefully they will not be bogged down by CVs and applications by wannabes.

[sidtheesexist]

Shortly after getting my ATPL and struggling for work, I too made enquiries to the MAF. What a complete and utter waste of time - unless you are a practising Christian with the FINANCIAL support of your local congregation!!

I was raised as a Christian though I wasn't confirmed. I certainly try and live by "christian'' values and would have loved to have assisted in the humanitarian work carried out by the MAF in Africa - it would have been a mutually beneficial(symbiotic?) relationship - the MAF gets the committed services of a pilot in return for hours/experience.........

But oh no - because you are not a regular church goer, your services are not required. And then the MAF wonder why they have to keep advertising to fill their pilot vacancies??????? What a load of tosh!!!

[High Wing Drifter]

I can understand (if not agree) with it. MAF is a Mission. It is providing the service not just for humanitarian reasons but to spread the word of God too. From the literature I've received from them, if you are not a totally committed Christian then you cannot perform this, as they see it, critical duty.

To a certain extent it must help them sort the weat from the chaff too, it is no good planning a four year tour in Papua New Guinea (the usual minimum duration) around somebody who really just wants to gain a bit of experience and head off to 'greater' things.

[crap pilot]

I hate this sort of rubbish! Im not even sure that it is legal to refuse to employ somebody based on their religion. If I live my life to be the best person that i can be, who are they to say that i am not good enough because i am not a Christian? If somebody genuinely wants to do this kind of work and fly aid what difference does it make what god you beleive in, its still helping people.

[mrwilko]

It's not illegal because you're not employed, you're supported by your home congregation who give you prayer support as well.
I looked into it, even got 500hrs bush flying in Zambia, did the aeromedical in Holland, passed the assessment in Oxford and still didn't get in. Not God's plan for me yet, but perhaps if I get married I may pursue the application again. Now got 1300hr TT and JAR CPL/IR.
Don't really recommend this avenue if you're single. Most of the other pilots are Americans with families who have pledged to stay dry while they are in the field. Not many gags out there.
Crap Pilot I wish you the best of luck in your job hunt.

[zakka]

Here are their standard requirements:


From experience, we know that three issues are crucial in determining whether a con-tact by a person like yourself would actually have any chance of leading to appointment. Therefore we’d like to introduce them to you – and invite you to consider them and de-cide if you’d like me to contact you by telephone.

1. Being not only a Christian organisation, but rather a mission organisation, MAF requires all international staff to be personal believers. This means that even though MAF appreciates sympathy and loyalty towards the basic beliefs and val-ues of the organisation, it simply requires all international staff to be Christians who personally believe in Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Saviour. In practical terms, this most often means that their faith plays a central role in their lives, that they are regular church goers, that they normally are (or have been) active in their church congregation or voluntary Christian work and that they are well known by their pastor and respected by their congregation. Therefore, in or-der for you to be seriously considered as a MAF candidate, at least a couple of these practices should apply to you.
2. Your technical qualifications will be just as carefully evaluated as your Chris-tian standing, and for pilots minimum 500 hours is a basic requirement. It is not enough to hold an ATPL or CPL with MEI and 375 hours. And even if you actu-ally do have the 500 hours, they will be evaluated, as 400 hours plus 100 hours flying in sunny Spain will not qualify an applicant. Therefore, applications from pi-lots will less than 500 hours will only be considered, if the applicant has very con-vincing arguments, indeed.
3. MAF is presently unable to provide full financial support for interna-tional staff such as pilots. Therefore, any international staff will have to take re-sponsibility for raising part of his/her own support. MAF will do what it can to collect funds, but cannot do it without the full cooperation of the staff.

Now, I’d like to invite you to consider if MAF is the right organisation for you. We do not doubt that as a professional you would fulfil most of MAF’s requirements, but the ques-tion if to what extent you will be able to fulfil the above three.
I shall be looking forward to hearing from you by mail or telephone.

Zakka

[mikehammer]

Crap Pilot I agree with you, and making you pay for an assessment seems about as charitable as that well known Irish charity, Ryanair.

Sounds like the religion of hypocrisy to me.

After 14 ATPL exams this century I have no time to read the bible. Give me a break! Yawn, pass me that copy of Flight International.....

[shortcut_approved]

mikehammer et all,

Difference being Ryanair are in the game for profit making, MAF certainly aren't!

As a committed Christian, I was interested in joining them when I got my CPL/IR, but I didn't have 500 hours at the time.

I can honestly say that the requirement to have a strong faith in God, and the support of a church at home is sensible! Not only support in the financial sense, but from the prayer sense. I for one am not ashamed to admit that I would never be able to do MAF work in my own strength!

[mikehammer]

Difference being Ryanair are in the game for profit making, MAF certainly aren't!

Similarity being they both charge for the privilege of assessing you.

Hypocrites. To a man.

Religion. Bah humbug.