Medical supplies on flight south

A tiny orange and white monoplane bearing the brave title “Wings of Hope” cleared Love Field’s traffic pattern and headed south for Guatemala on a mercy mission that has been operating nearly 10 years.

The plane, piloted by Sink Manning with Stan Eschmann as co-pilot, was the latest in a series of “Wings of Hope” planes bringing medical supplies to natives of that nation.

The new plane, donated by American Airline pilot members of the Allied Pilot’s Association (APA) with headquarters in Arlington, replaces one which flipped on its back in a jungle clearing last month.

“When we heard ‘Wings of Hope’ was temporarily grounded, the APA decided it was a worthwhile project,” said Capt. Vernon Brown, APA project officer, “so we bought the plane for them.”

“We need it-need it badly,” explained Manning, a Columbia, S.C., native, who has been flying the mercy missions out of Santa Cruz del Quiche. “This plane will be the sole means of getting medical care and treatment to 18,000 persons in 10 widely scattered jungle villages.”

Manning, who is taking Eschmann along as a full time project pilot-mechanic (both working for minimal pay) for a dangerous flying mission, told newsmen “It is the most satisfying job in the world.”

The Cessna 180 formally was presented to Manning by Brown and Capt. W. H. “Bud” Barry, APA vice president, in brief ceremonies Monday under the wing of an American Airlines DC10. It then took off with a heavy load of medical supplies and plane parts to rebuild the downed craft in Guatemala.

It arrived Tuesday night.

The new plane is one of three operated in Central America by the “Wings of Hope” organization which was conceived and founded by Dallasite George Haddaway, publisher of Flight Magazine.

Now, with organization headquarters in St. Louis, “Wings of Hope,” with Haddaway as its guiding spirit, has planes volunteer crews flying medical mercy missions in Africa, South and Central America and New Guinea.

“These planes fly in and out of primitive air strips cut out of the jungles by natives with machetes,” explained Brown. “And their pilots and crews perform the most impossible missions as routine without recognition. They must do their own maintenance.”

“The pilots do no preaching,” Barry said. “Their job is to deliver the medical missionary to the jungle clearing where he is needed. We find most take on the job, fundamentally, because of the religious conviction that is their way of helping others less fortunate than themselves.”

CAPTION: Under the spreading wings of an American Airlines DC-10 at Love Field, pilot Sink Manning receives the keys for a new “Wings of Hope” plane from Capt. W.H. “Bud” Barry, vice president of the Allied Pilots Association.