Teacher told Ulrich he wouldn’t amount to much – look at him now!

Pilot Ulrich Muller joined MAF in 2018 (credit: Rachel Gwole)

As a boy, Ulrich Muller dreamt of becoming a pilot, but a cruel teacher laughed in his face and called him ‘too stupid’ to fly a plane. Crushed, Ulrich became a lorry driver, but God had other plans. Ulrich tells MAF’s Rachel Gwole how his dream finally came true

For the last six years, MAF pilot Ulrich Muller has been serving isolated communities who are cut-off from life’s essentials – first in Australia’s Arnhem Land and now in Liberia.

Despite being ridiculed by his teacher, Ulrich’s dream came true (credit: Dave Forney)

Today, Ulrich is using his flying skills to bring help, hope and healing to some of the most vulnerable people on earth. But as a child, thoughtless jeering from his teacher nearly dashed his hopes of becoming a pilot. Ulrich recalls that painful memory:

‘As a little boy, I wanted to be a pilot – I was always interested in flying things. One day at school I told my teacher that I wanted to become a pilot and he just laughed and basically told me that I was too stupid for that. I wasn’t very brilliant at school, so I decided to drive trucks instead.’

 Ulrich Muller, MAF Liberia pilot

Burying his dream, Ulrich tried out a number of jobs and settled down with his wife Mihaela and started a family.

They moved to Nairobi, Kenya where Ulrich worked for Gospel Fire International for eight years.

At first, he worked as their lorry driver and also honed his technical skills maintaining their sound and radio tech, TV broadcast equipment, and a range of vehicles.

He discovered first-hand how challenging it was for people to get from A to B by road, especially in Kenya’s rural areas.

Driving across rural Kenya is ‘difficult’ says Ulrich (credit: Paula Alderblad)

Gospel Fire happened to have a Cessna 182 aircraft, but not enough pilots, so they appealed to Ulrich:

‘I had learned how difficult it was for people wanting to serve, to travel by road, so they asked me to go to flight school, because of the lack of pilots. Of course, I wanted that!

‘So I discovered relatively late, that although I wasn’t the most brilliant kid at school, flying worked out quite well for me in the end! That’s how I traded my truck for a plane.’

God’s perfect timing

Elated, Ulrich began working towards achieving his private pilot licence in Nairobi. At last, he felt he was finally fulfilling God’s purpose for his life.

Mihaela (R) told her husband to ‘start flying again’ (credit: Ulrich Muller)

Following several years of private flying however, as their children got older, schooling in Kenya became quite difficult, so they returned to Europe and lived in Germany for eight years. But after eight years in Kenya, Ulrich really missed his old life:

‘I stopped flying in Germany as there was no reason to continue, but as I went about my daily work, I wished I was back on the mission field. Mihaela said, “You look depressed, you should start flying again.”

‘Since I had that very same thought earlier that day, I felt sure it was God speaking into our lives, so I started my commercial pilot license training in Switzerland and completed flight school.

‘Given that our children had finally left home, we felt it could be the right time to return to missions, so I started applying to different organisations but they all said that I was too old, or that they didn’t need pilots.

‘I didn’t contact MAF because I knew from our time in Kenya, that they had quite high expectations of flight hours and licenses. But then I met someone from MAF Switzerland at an air show who suggested that our experience was still valuable, and I should get in touch.

‘That was April 2017. By January 2018, we had left for Australia with MAF. God had led us back to the mission field!’

MAF Mareeba’s flight school provides ‘much care & support’ (credit: Andrea Rominger)

In February 2018, Ulrich began standardisation, license conversion and instrument rating at MAF’s flight training centre in Mareeba. Unlike his school days, the teaching there was incredibly supportive he says:

‘There was so much care and support from the day I arrived. It was all in the spirit of everyone wanting me to succeed and working with me to achieve that.’

Ulrich Muller, MAF Liberia pilot

At first, Ulrich served with MAF Arnhem Land for two years (credit: Janne Rytkonen)

After the training, the Mullers transferred to Elcho Island – one of MAF’s Arnhem Land’s bases. Here, they ‘bumped into’ fellow Swiss family – the Schmids:

‘I realised that their son Lukas had been in the same Boy Scouts group I used to lead when he was 11! How crazy was that? After so many years, we had ended up on the same island on the other side of the world flying MAF planes!

‘We were in Arnhem Land for two years and then when the programme was restructured, Mihaela and I agreed to move elsewhere. We were very flexible as the kids had grown-up and we had no chance of getting permanent residency in Australia because of our age. Liberia came up.’

Liberia beckons

Unfortunately, the pandemic hampered Ulrich’s training in Uganda, which was essential for his new role in Libera. But God faithfully continued to orchestrate everything:

‘We were meant to leave Australia, but we couldn’t travel. The whole process was taking forever, and we feared it might never happen.

‘We wondered about doing the training in Australia instead, but it was so complicated. One meeting involved twenty-one people, yet by God’s grace, it all worked out and I was able to do my training in Australia.

‘By then the travel situation had eased, so we returned home to Switzerland and then went to Uganda for my license conversion.

Ulrich has been working in Liberia for the last three years (credit: Dave Forney)

Ulrich and Mihaela finally moved to Monrovia, Liberia in April 2021. Flying in Liberia is completely different to flying in Arnhem Land due to Liberia’s six-month rainy season.

Flying in such conditions means that visibility is seriously reduced and pilots must rely on aircraft instruments (instrument flying rating) instead of simply looking out of the window. Ulrich needed further training.

Once during instrument training in heavy rain, the weather was so turbulent, rain came through the air vents and drenched him:

‘I was literally fighting with the aircraft to be in the hold pattern!’

Liberia is very different from Kenya re: weather, culture & language (credit: Rachel Gwole)

Flying in Liberia isn’t the only difference explains Ulrich:

‘Having lived in Kenya, there’s a huge difference between east and west Africa, which I had not expected. The people, the culture and the language are all very different, so there were lots of things we needed to learn.

‘Ultimately, it doesn’t matter where we are because the MAF family is the MAF family. We really enjoy working with MAF people – we fit in because that connection is already there.’

Enabling partners, transforming lives

Travelling by road in rural Liberia is incredibly challenging (credit: Rachel Gwole)

Since June 2021, Ulrich has supported a range of partners and is enabling incredible work across Liberia. His skills have saved days of dangerous travel on pothole-ridden dirt tracks, which turn into impassable mudslides during the rainy season.

Ulrich loves to make his passengers feel comfortable:

‘The most important factor is passenger comfort. I don’t want my passengers to sit in a hot and humid cabin bumping around for hours! That’s why we often fly higher above the turbulence in smooth, cool air.’

Ulrich loads patient onto MAF plane bound for hospital in Monrovia (credit:Dave Forney)

Ulrich also undertakes critical medevacs to the capital Monrovia where patients receive better care. He regularly works with ‘Partners in Health’ who are transforming healthcare in the remotest places in the country:

‘I’m fortunate if I’m able to save a life with my skills. I pray for patients to get the treatment they need in Monrovia, but ultimately, God is the healer.’

Ulrich loves to make his passengers feel as comfortable as possible (credit: Dave Forney)

When he’s not saving lives, Ulrich is certainly helping to transform them.

On 19 March, he flew a team from Immanuel Lutheran Church from Monrovia to Zwedru in eastern Liberia where girls don’t have access to period products and miss school as a result.

MAF saved Immanuel Lutheran Church team a week of road travel (credit: Rachel Gwole)

A cargo of menstrual kits containing reusable sanitary pads accompanied the team who would have endured a week of overland travel without MAF.

Reusable sanitary pads flown by MAF change lives (credit:Immanuel Lutheran Church)

Thanks to Ulrich’s smooth, swift flight, the team arrives safe, refreshed and ready to raise awareness about menstrual health and provide girls with essential period products that will ultimately pave the way to a better future:

‘These kids are the future. I hope and pray that they will get the education and chances in life that they deserve. Some of them will become engineers or pilots someday.’

Potential future pilots and engineers of Liberia (credit: Paula Alderblad)