GDF spends $697M on airplanes… Acquiring parts for 40-year-old aircraft will be challenging

GDF spends $697M on airplanes… Acquiring parts for 40-year-old aircraft will be challenging – Capt. Gouveia

May 15, 2018 News

Former Guyana Defence Force (GDF) pilot, Captain Gerald Gouveia

Former Guyana Defence Force (GDF) pilot, Captain Gerald (Gerry) Gouveia, has warned about the need for Government to develop an effective plan to source parts for the four 40-year-old planes.
Government has secured approval from the National Assembly for a final payment of $484M towards the purchase of two Skyvans and two Islanders. A down payment of $213M was made by the GDF.
“For the Skyvans, there are some concerns because even for the current Skyvan that they [the GDF] have, if you check the time that the airplane is serviceable and the length of time, sometimes you have to wait to get parts, it is a challenge. Acquiring parts is a challenge, but I hope that they have a plan and I have to believe that they have a plan,” Gouveia stated.
The former army pilot has extensive experience in the aviation sector. He told Kaieteur News that the planes being purchased by the army are very suited for Guyana. He noted that the Government appears to have made the decision to purchase the planes based on economic considerations.
Minister of State, Joseph Harmon, has indicated that the new planes will be used solely for security purposes, but Gouveia said that this has not been the case in the past.
“We have a big national security problem. The police need air support; we need rapid deployment of policemen and soldiers across the country, border patrols, maritime patrol for illegal fishing and what they are doing is using the planes to go to Kaieteur Falls or to fly miners into the hinterland. They should never be using the planes for those purposes,” Gouveia said.
He said that the GDF plans to compete with the private sector.
“What they do is that they run those planes into the ground and before you know it, there are no planes. The GDF, for example had helicopters and airplanes and all these airplanes are broken up. They have one Skyvan now; the minute they start to fly instead of doing military work with it, they start to do flights for the miners; fly in fuel. They break up the planes and they have no monies to maintain it,” Gouveia explained.
Harmon disclosed that the Islanders being purchased were manufactured in 1976 while Skyvans were manufactured in 1977. Both models are no longer being manufactured.
The Minister disclosed that the Skyvans, which were being used for troop transport and parachuting are being brought from Belgium through Liberty Aviation, an American company that operates from North Carolina.
The Islanders, according to Harmon, are being purchased from Brazil who utilized the planes for passenger and cargo services.
“If they keep those airplanes for the service of the military and particularly the police, I think nothing is wrong with the purchase because while airplanes have been manufactured in 1970 airplanes are constantly maintained so the main parts of the airplanes are new parts,” Gouveia pointed out.
He noted that the Skyvans are amazing planes for Guyana because of their ability to undertake short takeoffs.

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