By KT Reporter
Uganda’s first amphibian plane for serving ordinary people was officially launched on Tuesday with initial plans to fly to six islands on Lake Victoria, including Bukasa, Buvuma, Buyovu and Lingira.
Speaking at the launch, Sam Baguma, the Uganda Country Director Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) said the Cessna 208 caravan that’s a donation from Netherland will be flying daily at a fee that is yet to be set. Baguma who further explained that the plan is to make it affordable to the local population added they also intend to help the country handle medical emergencies with a high number of expectant mothers currently dying on boats on the way to hospitals in Masaka, Entebbe and Jinja.
Rayan Unger a pilot who doubles as the head of Flight Operations at MAF explains that this type of aircraft is flown in many places around the world only that this has been modified to have a bigger engine version that enables it take off on water.
The pilot further explains that they use a floating dock system to allow easy access to the flight.
However, despite the launch, it’s still unclear as to when the nine-seater aircraft will start flying.
Ronny Barongo, Uganda Civil Aviation Authority’s Director of Safety, Security & Economic Regulation says registration of the aircraft could be completed in about two months.
He explains that because this is the first water aircraft to arrive in the country, a team at UCAA will go for benchmarking visits to Papau New Guinea in a week to acquaint themselves with the specifics of operating such a plane.
However, he noted that, while Uganda has not had an amphibian plane before, the Cessna type has been around for quite some time and therefore doesn’t anticipate the checks to longer than two months. One of the requirements he says are a special runway for it to operate on water and guidelines of specifics of weather patterns.
Baguma says they will start with proof-of-concept operations to prove to the regulators that they can do these flights safely. While they are starting off with six islands, the plan is to cover more of the over eighty islands on the Uganda side of Lake Victoria.
Meanwhile, according to Fred Byabakama, the State Minister of Transport in the Ministry of Works, the new aircraft has come in at a time when the country is considering amending the law to among others address issues like aircraft accident investigation, search and rescue, and may now consider looking at other components associated with the new aircraft.
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