Hot Ashes For Trees - Rwanda

Rwanda is best known for two things: the 1994 genocide, which killed nearly one million people in 100 days, and mountain gorillas. However, it is hardly known at all that Rwanda not only has a helicopter school, Akagera Aviation, but that it is the only place where helicopter pilots can train in East Africa.

There have been films and books about the genocide and the mountain gorillas (Hotel Rwanda and Gorillas in the Mist, for example), but the helicopter school has had only a small mention in publications like Rotor & Wing, RotorHub and Africa Flight. Yet the helicopter school offers as much hope for the future as the business incentives created by the new Rwandan government of Paul Kagame, and the attempts to protect the gorillas.

The charter side of the helicopter company started first, before the school, in 2005, with three R44s...