End of October: Saturday Update

Here At Home
We're enjoying a slow start to our Saturday. It's 31 degrees outside, the sky is clear and the sun's just rising over the hill to our east. Karen's in the basement exercising. The dogs are curled up and asleep in their bean-bag beds. I did my workout earlier, have had my devotions, and am enjoying a pot of fresh-ground, fresh-brewed coffee. For the first Saturday in quite a while, we don't have any expectations we need to meet or ministry to fulfill or house projects to attend to. It almost feels like a vacation day.

Tucker

Tanner

The biggest question we face right now is what to have for breakfast...that's kind of refreshing. I believe Karen's going to make blue-berry muffins.

One of Karen's homemade muffins...

At The Hangar
The Cessna 337 didn't fly on Thursday but it did make its first test flight on Friday. The flight went very well. I shot video but didn't end up having the time to edit the clips. Fridays at the mission have a way of getting very, very short very quickly for some reason. There' s still 8 hours in the work day, but time always runs out before the task list does. And on Fridays, everyone also has weekly clean-up responsibilities. I clean the administrative area. Lord willing I'll put that video together when I get up to the shop on Monday and will have it posted shortly thereafter.

I'm currently involved in the application process with a young couple, am still supervising five families raising support, am producing short videos for the mission and some of the families in the mission, am updating orientation materials in preparation for the Swanson family's arrival from England, sent the December GroundCrew off to our graphic artist, recently re-wrote our training agreement with MAF-UK, met with my candidate evaluation team to debrief the four evaluations we conducted in 2010, and am involved with our leadership team in discussions related to operations in 2011. Actually, I spent a good part of Friday (when not shooting 337 video) reviewing and updating my binder related to all the BHS, CIS, ICE, and SEVIS regulations regarding my responsibility for our international apprentices.

Karen worked her usual Thursday for me and her Friday handling the MMS receipting and mailing list. She also supervised the stuffing/mailing of the 2011 MMS pocket calendar mailing. Those of you who have donated to MMS over the past year will soon receive your 2011 pocket calendars. Thank you to Dana, Sherry, Rachel, and Laurie who helped label, stuff, and stamp the envelopes!

At Fresno Bible Church
Karen just rotated off worship team, I'm still playing the drums, and Karen and I are about to wrap up 12 months of leading the young adult Sunday school class. We have four more chapters to go in order to complete discussion of Abiding in Christ, by Andrew Murray. Prior to starting Murray's book, we went through Steve McVey's Grace Walk.

We both continue to disciple individuals from church.

Thank You!
Thanks for your prayers, your friendship, and your gifts. We're blessed to be here in Coshocton serving on your behalf. We look forward to finishing 2010 well and being prepared for what God will reveal in 2011. We greatly appreciate having you with us each step of the way. And don't be afraid to stop by for some homemade muffins!

Muffins!

Oh, those muffins...

Cessna 337 Rear Engine Installation

I shot these clips prior to the last video posted of the Cessna 337's engine runs and taxi test, but never had the chance to go back and edit these clips until recently. So, even though the airplane is going to be test flown later today, here's an earlier record of Scott and Paul installing the rear engine. I did add in some of the previous test run footage at the end.



Right now the guys are "swarming" the 337 while Scott puts the finalizing the mountain of paperwork that accompanies every aircraft project. Ian, Andy, Josh, and Jim are down there taking care of all the small details before they roll the aircraft into the fall sunlight and prep it for its test flight later this afternoon.

This airplane will be used for ministry in northern Canada.

The Arctic Barnabas Navajo Arrives from Alaska

Here's a snapshot of the Arctic Barnabas Piper Navajo as it pulled onto our ramp this afternoon.

The Arctic Barnabas Piper Navajo

Arctic Barnabas flew their Navajo down from Alaska so we could replace the windows and windscreen, replace the belly skins, remove an engine and ship it out for overhaul, remove its flaps and elevators so a specialty shop can repair them, repair the engine cowling, install a new crew door, and conduct an annual inspection. We've committed to have all this completed and the airplane back in service in three months, by the end of January 2011.

Ian checks some details on GCI's King Air.

Late last week, GCI flew their King Air down for a wash. Here's Ian checking some details before washing the airplane. The airplane in the foreground is Pfeifer Evangelical Association's Piper Aztec which was in for an oil change and to have an instrument replaced.

Indications of Fall

We've had our first frost warnings of the season. As I drove off to the mission yesterday morning, our neighbor was outside scraping the ice from the windshield of her car. After living my first five years in Coshocton without a garage, I've praised the Lord nearly each morning over the past eight years that we've been blessed to have one. As a guy raised near the beach in Southern California, it's rather depressing to stand outside in freezing temps, in the dark, dressed in several layers of clothing, just to scrape ice off the windshield before going to work. Not an issue when you can park inside a garage. Praise the Lord for garages, all you His people!

Dad & Jane were out for a visit. We had a nice week together exploring local and regional culture, eating at Tom's Ice Cream Bowl, spending time in Charm, lunching at Grandma's Homestead, browsing at Lehman's Hardware, and eating more ice cream at Hartzler's Family Dairy. We even went south to try Jack's Steakhouse and to ride the Hocking Valley Scenic Railway. Tip on the railway...it depends on how one defines "scenic" as to whether or not the railway is as advertised and if you have any loose teeth...don't get on the train...they'll be knocked out by the rough track...

Locally, the Coshocton County Fair and the Apple Butter Stirring Festival are over, the Fall Foliage Tours have ended, and the natives are closing down most tourist related activities in preparation for winter.

We are getting a new pizza parlor in town...Little Cesar's lopped19 feet of the Family Video outlet to put in a storefront. Putting a pizza parlor in Coshocton is like putting another crater on the moon...this town must already have more pizza parlors per-capita than any other town in the US. We will soon have 15 pizza retailers for less than 11,ooo residents. There's some sort of odd ratio in Coshocton that demands more pizza for less people. In the nearly 14 years I've lived here I only know of two pizza places that started and closed. At least in Coshocton itself, pizza is more Midwestern than meat and potatoes...unless you're ordering a meat and potato pizza...

Karen and I are doing well, are 3 weeks into an exercise/diet program that we're actually enjoying (only gained 3 pounds during Dad & Jane's visit), and Tucker and Tanner are fine.

Thanks for making our ministry possible through your friendship, gifts, and prayers.

An Update From The Hangar

Wings With The Word's spar strap installation is in the home stretch. Once this strap is fully secured, the next steps will be to finish updating the wing wiring and re-install the engines.

Jim and Andy work on the right wing spar strap while Mike pulls wires through the left wing root.

Gospel Carrier International's King Air was in for a phase inspection. The inspection is complete and the airplane returned to mission service yesterday afternoon.

Ian inspects the King Air's right engine.

The Cessna 337 project continues toward completion. Paul J. and Scott are taking care of the final systems squawks before replacing the airplane's interior prior to its scheduled test flight next week.

Scott and Paul with the 337.

Pfeifer Evangelical Association flew their Aztec in for an oil change this morning. While the airplane was here it was decided to keep it for an additional repair. Lord willing the airplane will be back in service this Friday.

John Pfeifer talks with Terry about aircraft repairs.

You can see we're enjoying some very nice fall weather right now. Karen and I have been rather busy on several fronts lately and we hope to be a bit more bloggy over the next few weeks. Thanks for your patience, your prayers and your gifts that enable us to serve!

Roll-out, Run-up, and Taxi Test of LAMPs Cessna 337

King Air Phase Inspection

Gospel Carrier International's King Air 200 is back in our hangar for a "phase inspection." A phase inspection is performing an annual inspection in "phases" over an extended period of time. Phase inspections are an efficient way to maximize the airplane's availability through less down-time while meeting all the safety and maintenance criteria in an ongoing manner.

Performing these inspections for GCI (and other mission operators) provides our apprentice mechanics with unsurpassed experience working on high-technology airplanes, under real production pressures, in positions demanding a high level of personal responsibility.

When our mechanics finish their thirty months of apprenticeship they've already experienced two and a half years of missionary service, have over 4,800 hours of experience responding to and managing maintenance events of all shape and size, and are uniquely prepared to meet the challenges of cross-cultural service in the mission aviation community worldwide.

Here's a video clip of the guys in the early stages of the GCI phase inspection.