Long-term: a two-year, renewable commitment, including a required six-month return home.
- Connect
with us - Application
- Family evaluations
- Vision trip to PNG
- Flight, language and cross-cultural training
- Arrival on the field
Join the teamLine Pilot
Role 01 of 07Long-term
Line Pilot
Be the difference between life and death. Fly care and the gospel to river villages.
I’m interestedThe work
From our base in Wewak you’ll fly Cessna 206 floatplanes on call: life flights, medical supply runs and disaster relief, landing on the river at villages across the Sepik and Gulf. Our median mission is 2 hours, wheels-up to home base. You’ll keep your certifications current, check airworthiness before every flight and stay sharp on emergency procedures. About a third of a pilot’s time goes to maintenance, so you’ll know the hangar as well as the cockpit.
What it takes
To serve as a Line Pilot you need an FAA (or equivalent) Commercial certificate with Instrument and Single-Engine Seaplane ratings, the ability to obtain a CASA First Class Medical with EKG, and a flight assessment by our aviation committee. There’s no minimum flight-hours requirement. An A&P is preferred, not required. If you don’t hold a seaplane rating yet, that comes first.
A moment on the field
Junior was eight when a death adder bit him. He had three to eight hours to live and was barely conscious when the crew reached him. The floatplane was off the water in under a minute, and antivenom was waiting at the hospital. A year later he was home in his village, holding an audio Bible in his own language. His grandmother had died of a snakebite years before, when there was no Samaritan Aviation.
The ministry half
Every role is a ministry role. You’ll pray with every patient. You’ll build relationships in villages and aid posts, join outreach along the Sepik and in the Gulf, disciple national staff and serve in the hospital ministry. Years ago one of our pilots flew a pregnant woman in distress to the hospital. On a later hospital visit he found her recovering with her newborn son. The family had named the boy after him.
Who thrives
Pilots who ask about the work, not the perks: water landings, corrosion, what breaks. That includes mission-aviation students and new graduates, mid-career pilots, military, airline and corporate retirees, and mission-agency alumni. If you hold an A&P and have flight time, you’re the profile we need most.
Requirements
- FAA (or equivalent) Commercial certificate with Instrument and Single-Engine Seaplane ratings
- Flight assessment by the aviation committee
- Able to obtain a CASA First Class Medical (EKG required)
- A&P preferred, not required
- No minimum flight hours
- For every role: a call to serve Christ across cultures
Ways to serve
Still in flight school? Ask about our four-week internship.
The internship