Local pilots talk about why they volunteer to transport patients to lifesaving treatment at distant medical centers through a program called Angel Flight, Inc.

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Sometimes the hardest thing about being sick is getting yourself to the care you need.

And sometimes, the best thing about owning an airplane is using it for a good cause.

Last year, 139 volunteer pilots transported 738 Pennsylvanians to potentially lifesaving medical treatment through a program called Angel Flight, Inc.

Those flights, which the patients received free of charge, cost Angel Flight pilots $346,352.

It's an expensive way to volunteer, and the pilots bear most of the hefty costs, flying their own airplanes or rentals.

"People do amazing things in terms of volunteering. Flying just happens to be a thing I really enjoy doing," Angel Flight volunteer pilot Jeff Dewey of Lancaster said. "It's not that hard for me to do because it's so enjoyable."

This year, Angel Flight has a chance to expand thanks to a $50,000 grant from U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families. Suzanne Rhodes, director of public affairs for Angel Flight Mid-Atlantic, one limb of the highly coordinated national program, said the money will be used to get the word out about Angel Flight.

"The grant is for the whole state to be able to recruit more pilots, notify more patients of the availability of this resource and also to have more community representatives who tell the Angel Flight story," she said.

Covering 10 states, Angel Flight Mid-Atlantic schedules lifts for patients to health care facilities, specialized medical treatment, participation in clinical trials and transplants.

Dewey has volunteered for Angel Flight Mid-Atlantic for about two years.

He said piloting his four-seat Diamond Star for fun is great, but transporting patients has added a new dimension to his hobby.

"It's a way to contribute to a good cause and get more experience flying to airports that I wouldn't normally go to," Dewey said. "It's sort of selfish because I love flying, but it helps out people who can get treatment they wouldn't be able to get otherwise."

Dewey has shuttled about 10 patients for Angel Flight so far. His flexible schedule as general manager of U.S. Durum Products allows him to volunteer. But he also has to work flights around weather conditions and other obligations.

Lancaster pilot Charlie Kreider has flown about 30 Angel Flight missions out of Lancaster Airport over several years in his four-seat Mooney Ovation.

Even taking into account the Mooney's superior fuel efficiency, an hour in the air still costs Kreider $190.

"That's about $3 a minute, so it does add up," Kreider said. "But I'm very charity-minded. I've had my career, so now I have something to give back."

Kreider owned Breathing Services, a company that supplied respiratory equipment to hospitals. He got his pilot's license in 1975 to make it easier to transport equipment. When he sold the business and retired a few years ago, he downsized his airplane but kept flying for fun.

"I didn't really need (the bigger plane) after I sold my business, but flying is a skill that takes so much time and effort to acquire," he said.

A fellow pilot told Kreider about Angel Flight. He liked the idea of keeping his piloting skills honed and getting his Mooney in the air, which he said is good for the plane.

"The patients are so grateful. They need to go some distance to a special clinic for treatment or for a transplant in some cases, and their insurance doesn't pay for transportation to get them there," he said. "It's a financial burden we can relieve for them with a free trip."

Rhodes said Angel Flight counts on pilots to be ambassadors for the program, to spread the word through their communities about its benefits and present it to fellow pilots as an opportunity to volunteer.

That's how Kreider came to the fold, and now his pitch has brought another pilot on board.

"Charlie is a great ambassador for Angel Flight," said pilot Jim Hamill of Reinholds. "When he told me about it, I asked a lot of questions and thought it was something I wanted to do."

Kreider is training Hamill, a retired state police trooper who owns a four-seat Cirrus SR20, on the ins and outs of volunteering for Angel Flight. In a few weeks, Hamill will be flying patients solo to airports in the Mid-Atlantic region — usually Boston, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh — where patients get rides to hospitals or connect with other volunteer pilots to fly the next leg of a longer trip.

On their second training flight, Kreider and Hamill flew an 18-year-old burn victim from South Carolina to Philadelphia for continuing treatment for injuries from a propane explosion when she was 12. The experience convinced Hamill Angel Flight is for him.

"The poor kid's looking at another five years of treatment," Hamill said. "Her sister said she wasn't supposed to live after the accident, and then doctors said she would never get use of her legs again. But she'll graduate with her class, and she seemed really proud of that.

"And when you can help someone like that, you feel genuinely good about it."

Patients who would like to arrange a flight through Angel Flight Mid-Atlantic should call a coordinator at (800) 296-3797. Pilots who want information about volunteering for Angel Flight should call Mary Jane Sablan at (757) 318-7149.

E-mail: slindt@lnpnews.com