Checking in From Church

Just a quick update on our ongoing involvement at Fresno Bible Church where Karen and I continue serve as part of the worship team. I play the drums and Karen brings her vocal skills into the mix. She's also part of the ladies' trio performing special music.

Karen

 Keith

I'm also back co-leading men's Sunday School with Chuck Ellis. We're about two months into a six month study of Christ's command to "abide" using Andrew Murray's devotional "Abiding in Christ" as the basis for our discussion.

MMS & MAG

It was a privilege to spend part of yesterday and today meeting with Sean Donnelly, President of Missionary Air Group (MAG). MAG is one of the many ministries we support through our maintenance services but more than that, Paul Jones, one of our recent graduates now serves as part of MAG, and even more that that...it was great to spend time with Sean because a very close relationship is developing between our two organizations.

Over the past year Sean and I have worked to brainstorm a partnership between MMS and MAG that addresses an unmet training need in mission aviation: how to take a pilot/mechanic candidate from zero flight time and no aviation maintenance experience to a confident and competent aviation professional qualified as both a pilot and a mechanic in five years without the candidate incurring any personal debt.

We believe we've come up with a workable model and it appears we may soon have our first candidate with whom to prove the concept. It's an exciting model which addresses several drawbacks in the traditional academic training package that has challenged mission aviation for many years. Both our organizations look forward to getting this unique program up and running and, once proven, to help others duplicate and multiply the method in other locations.

Me and Sean in Hangar C before he departed with the MAG Cessna 206 behind us. I'm the one on the left with all the hair on top.

Sean was in the hangar to pick up the Cessna 206 that Paul had prepared for him, to renew our discussion of the MMS/MAG training partnership, to work out some of the details of Dwight's upcoming trip to Honduras to inspect MAG's Cessna down in Rus Rus, and to meet with the apprentices in our hangar to discuss service opportunities with MAG.

It was good to see Sean, to laugh together and encourage each other, and to talk serious stuff. Once the serious stuff was concluded, Sean needed to get airborne and back to Burlington ahead of the incoming winter storm.

Sean begins his taxi from outside Hangar C,

past Hangar B and Hangar A,

and from our ramp to the taxiway.

Here I am waiting for Sean to take-off so I can capture a photo of his departure. It was 16 degrees and sunny at the time--which was quite a heatwave compared to the 1 degree it was when I arrived at the shop this morning. Nice hat, eh?

Sean departs Coshocton heading for Burlington, NC which serves as MAG's Stateside headquarters. It was a beautiful day for flying.

Thanks for your gifts and prayers that help make days like today possible.

Evening Snow Fall, Immigration Situation

Hey, we're finally getting some real snow. Maybe even two inches of the stuff. I had to go find and use my "ice melt" for the first time this season on the front walk. It's not necessary on the back deck as Tucker and Tanner prefer their snow unsalted.

It's heading toward 8 in the evening and Karen's at her computer taking a Continuing Education test to maintain her nurses license.

I just signed the Form I-20 for Andy (our apprentice from Scotland) providing him with the privilege of six more months of repeated entry into the United States--which is a good thing as Andy leaves for Papua New Guinea tomorrow as part of a three man, MMS Aviation Rapid Response Team. It'd be a real drag if, after helping repair a broken airplane over in PNG, he wouldn't be allowed back in the US.

Andy, Mark (from England...my signature on his Form I-20 is still good), and Jim (US citizen on our staff--doesn't need my signature to get back into the country) leave for Port Columbus International Airport at Zero Dark Thirty tomorrow morning. They'll spend the next 3 weeks helping one of our graduates repair a damaged King Air.

Andy

Mark

Jim

The Form I-20 is used by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Citizen and Immigration Services (CIS) to establish legal, non-resident "student" entry into the US. One of my roles at MMS is that of Primary Designated School Official (PDSO) which means I've been cleared/authorized/trained in immigration rules and regulations and have been given the authority to initiate documentation, verify compliance, and administrate electronic files and records related to international students attending MMS under U.S. Immigration and Custums Enforcement (ICE) via the Student Exchange and Visitors Information Service (SEVIS) within the Student Exchange and Visitor's Progam (SEVP).

DHS, CIS, PDSO, ICE, SEVIS and SEVP. Got it?

Please pray for Andy, Mark, and Jim as they make the long trip to Papua New Guinea leaving wives and children behind for the next three weeks. Some guys will do anything to get out of the Midwest winter.

And on another Rapid Response trip...Scott leaves Saturday for a three week trip to Florida to assist Agape Flights with aircraft repairs following on Terry's trail as Terry returns Saturday from spending the past three weeks helping Agape. Scott and Terry will probably pass each other on the road. Scott and Terry would appreciate your prayers as well.

Scott

Terry

Not Much Snow, But Tanner Likes It

For all the snowing and blowing over the previous 24 hours and all the hyperventilation on The Weather Channel about this most recent weather-threat to civilization...we ended up with less than an inch of snow. There's still a few flakes floating around but no reason to get any snow shovels out yet. A light broom works just fine on this, thank you very much. It certainly was a bit WINTERY for a few hours but now it's just overcast and cold.

After spending a good portion of her morning creating greeting cards on her computer, Karen's working on a sewing project in the basement.

Karen sewing a baby blanket for a friend who's expecting.

Me? I've been writing notes and emails, paying quarterly estimated taxes (less government = less taxes, less government intrusion = more personal liberty), and updating info on the computer. Today seems to be a day for household and missionary logistics. We do need to run to Ace Hardware for a couple small things, I have some workbench projects I'd like to get to later, and of course there's Tebow vs. Brady at 8:00 this evening. That should be worth the time to watch (though out here in the East it means a very late night and we need to be at worship team practice tomorrow morning by 7:45).

Tucker's down in the basement with Karen hoping that Karen will give her one of the LARGE bones from the dog biscuit box stored down there. Tanner's up here hanging out with me. If I go outside, he goes outside. If I'm on the couch, he's on the couch. If I'm on the chair, he's lays very close by. Tanner follows me around. Tucker follows Karen around.

Speaking of Tanner, Tanner likes snow. He likes to eat it. He likes to root around in it. Of course, when there's so little snow, he just licks it up. He'll be at the back door wanting to go out on the deck just so he can go lick up some snow and run right back in. He is one funny dog.

Tanner on the back deck.

Tanner with a bit of snow on his nose.

TANNER

From 43 To Zero In A Matter Of Hours

Weather Change
When we went to bed last night around 10 PM, it was 43 degrees and rainy. By midnight the wind was howling and the snow was blowing. There was a "0" degree windchill factor when I walked out of the house to head to the mission this morning. Not much snow, but a lot of blow. Looks like we're going to have light flurries for most of the day. There's about a half inch of snow on the ground. Coshocton County is officially in a "Level One" snow emergency status...which means there may be snow on the ground and the road may be slippery in spots. "Level Two" is a bit more serious with driving allowed only as absolutely necessary. "Level Three" shuts the county down for all traffic but emergency vehicles. We very seldom have "Level Three" situations declared.

No great snow shots to share as we still don't have any real snow so we'll toss in a couple more snaps of me and Karen in the MMS office today.

Karen opens and sorts the mission's mail.

Karen's busy opening mail, receiving donations for the mission, and entering them in the receipting program. Soon she'll organize the mailing of each receipt to the respective donor.

Me? I'm focused on candidate development again today.

Sorting through candidate files.

Sounds, Not Sights
The phone just rang with a call from a missionary asking about the instrument panel our guys are building for his airplane. The sounds from the hangar floor drift up through the back wall of my office: voices in conversation, rivet guns chatter, the hum of an engine under going its break-in run on the stand in the test cell across Hangar A. An air drill whines. There is some laughter. I can tell the difference between the door closing on the Parts Room beneath me as compared to the door closing on the Supervisor's Office. I've been here long enough to recognize intricate sounds and get a feel for the pulse of the hangar without seeing what's going on in the hangar.

Continuing with sounds, it's windy, so the ceiling structure above my office stretches, sways, and pops. It reminds my of being on a sailboat at the dock. Do you know the sound the lines make on the moorings as the boat shifts and pulls against the lines, stretching them? It's kind of like a rapid fire popping. At other times it sounds like a creaky door slowly opening. The ocean, a harbor. Seagulls always wailing about something.

As I sit here in east central Ohio, the icy wind bashing against our hangar, with 17 degrees indicated on my computer's "weather bug," my thoughts drift back to that sail boat, the sun, salt air, a cold drink, and a hot summer day. I can't help it, the sounds in my office ceiling automatically transport me there.

Tuesday At The Shop, New Year Thoughts

Now that the year end/New Year crush of craziness is over...things are settling back into more of an administrative routine in the MMS Aviation Mobilization Office (as if there's EVER an administrative routine in this office!).

Speaking of mobilization, I'm currently the resource person for three families raising the support necessary to begin apprenticeship, am cultivating relationships with six families as part of our long-term candidacy development program, and am maintaining regular communication with eighteen families and individuals in various stages of determining whether or not MMS is part of the Lord's will for their lives.

Today I'm focused on candidate development, answering emails, arranging a hangar visit for a couple interested in learning more about our ministry, and hope to distribute the reference forms for a young couple from PA in application for the apprenticeship program.

In my "Media Supervisor" hat, I look forward to shooting/editing/producing/posting video of the 402's return to service flight, Lord willing, later this week. The guys are waxing the airplane right now in anticipation of the pilot's arrival.

In fact, I was just down in the hangar shooting stills of the guys working on the Cessna 310, the 402, hanging an engine in the test cell, and of one of our staff leading our newest apprentice though our "Basic Training" process. They were talking about aircraft hardware...otherwise known to us non-mechanics as "nuts and bolts." I'll use those photos later on the MMS blog or as part of some other communication project.

As a guy who grew up developing his own film and printing his own photos the old fashioned way...I must admit the digital dark room is much easier to work with, takes up a whole lot less space, and eliminates all the noxious fumes and chemicals. Though I do miss the art aspect of controlling all the variables of time, temperature, solution dilution, exposure, paper texture and speed, and the step-by-step deliberateness of the process as contrasted with the simple click of a mouse today. Thoughts of Kodachrome and Tri-X bring back pleasant memories.

Thanks for following our ministry. We couldn't be here without you there. Yes, we're graced to serve, but YOUR gifts and prayers make it possible. Have a great day.

From the Mobilization Office

First Mission Flight Report on the Asas 206 in Brazil

Here's the "first mission flight" report with photos from Ryan Joy, MMS Aviation graduate and Chief Engineer, with Asas De Socorro in Brazil. From Ryan Joy:

Good morning,

Last week I was invited to accompany one of our pilots Tim Ault in picking up a missionary from the interior of the Amazon. I don’t get many opportunities to go along and so I accepted the invitation. Our destination was an hour and a half flight Northeast of Manaus to a small village called Kassawa’. The people in the village have had the New Testament translated in there language Hixkariana but it is out of date and needs to be revised. There is a New Tribes Mission family and a single woman Maria that have been working on the revision for the last 10 years. During conversations to plan the trip we decided to use our newest Cessna 206 N5209X that had just arrived two weeks earlier to make the flight. With a better instrument panel, more comfortable seats that are safer in the event of an accident, a more powerful motor, and amphibious floats that allow the plane to land on water or land. The plane was an easy choice.

Missionary Maria

Tim and I departed from the hanger at 9:00 am and Tim wanting to practice landings in a short area (Kassawa’ has a river that has two bends one on each side of the village with rocks in the water making the landing area small.) we made 4 take-offs and landings in front of the Hanger. We then proceeded to the air club airport that is close to our house and again since the landing strip is very short Tim wanted to simulate short landings to see how the wheels that are deployed from floats would handle the strip in Kassawa’.(Rachel and the kids were able to watch us take off several times as we flew over the house) On the first landing the plane stopped in an adequate distance for Kassawa’ but what really caught my eye was the number of people that stopped what they were doing to admire the plane. In my experience any one that works in aviation usually will stop what they are doing to look anytime a plane is flying over and at an airport a new airplane will draw that much more attention. After making 4 take offs and landings with a crosswind no less we stopped to look at the weather and lots of people came around to admire the new plane. One of the guys asked if the plane was an H model ( The H model is the newest 206 model that is still in production) and other people asked other questions about the airplane. On a funny note when Tim and Marcio were bringing the plane down from the States they had bought some chocks with the manufacturers name on them. The name of the manufacturer is ASA and being that our mission name is ASAS someone thought we had personalized chocks made. He said “Where did you get those chocks they cost an arm and a leg here in Brazil to have made.”

The river approach at Kasawa. The village is in the center right section of the photo.

After making a cursory look at the weather and filing a flight plan Tim said we were ready for departure. N5209X lifted off at about 11:30 am with two aboard heading Northwest at 90 knots. We were bucking a 15 knot head wind but the ride was smooth. The airplane is a pleasure to fly, many times Tim would take his hands off the control yoke and the plane would fly straight and level with no tendencies to one side or the other. The instrumentation is some of the best in terms of functioning that Tim has ever flown with. Normally here in Manaus we put up with instruments that have some bearing noise but none of that is evident in N5209X’s instruments. The engine monitor (MVP-50) is easy to read and once the pilot get used to it, it becomes very helpful during the flight as it gives a lot of information about how the engine is running. The engine runs as smoothly as a turbine with no vibration felt in the cabin and burns less fuel. Using the engine monitor we were able to make adjustments so that 12.5 gallons an hour were consumed at 75% Which is about a half to a gallon an hour less than the older original engine and we gain 10 horse power to boot. We finally arrived at Kassawa’ about ten minutes later than planed because of the head wind. It was my first time to visit the village but as with other villages the people were all out on the bank waiting for us. As we pulled up to the dock I was surprised at amount of cell phones that were filming our entrance. There were about 20 children and teens on the dock and several phones all taking pictures. (there is one phone in the village it is a payphone that sends its signal via satellite I don’t think there was cell phone coverage there. ) For the most part the villagers just watched us as we met Maria and loaded her bags. Some of them spoke Portuguese but for the most part they only speak their own language.

The Kassawa reception committee.

When it was time to go we climbed into the plane and I noticed that as with most runways we had obstacles that needed to be cleared. There are two bends in the river that limit the take of run but it is the rocks at the one end that really are the incentive to get off in a certain distance. there are are of coarse trees all around as well so Tim had to think out how we would take off. He spoke aloud “ok I want to be up on the step here. This will be our abort point. We will start our run around the bend and be off before the abort point.” I was thinking the whole time boy this looks like a short runway and those are tall trees. Maria the single missionary was very calm and so I chatted with her a little about how long she was there in the village to which she replied 10 years and that she was working on the revision of the New Testament. She said the people are very receptive to the gospel and that they also intermarry with the Wai-Wais a group of Indians that received the Bible in its entirety.

Ryan, Maria, and Tim

The Floats are incredible as they get up on the step almost immediately and with the more powerful engine the plane was off the water and into the air long before the abort point. On the way home Tim explained that he wanted to test the airplane and run one tank dry before switching to the other that way all the fuel would stay concentrated and it would actually be safer later on. I must admit I don’t like running the tank dry in my car let alone the airplane but curiosity got the best of me and I wanted to see what would happen. (My life insurance in Christ is paid in full) The engine monitor shows when you get low on fuel by the number turning red on the screen and the numbers of gallons finally went to 0.0 and stayed there. We flew almost all the way home on that tank until we were on final and Tim said he needed to switch tanks for safety sake. We never did run the tank dry. We finally made it back to Manaus and instead of lowering a cart down the ramp to pull the plane up we motored up the ramp using the engine. It was a good trip, the plane proved that it will be a huge blessing in terms of comfort and safety and the smile on Maria's face as she stepped out on to solid ground was worth the trip in its self. I want to thank everyone that had a hand in putting this plane together. The pilots Tim and Marcio have already grown to appreciate the planes capabilities. The Lord has blessed Asas with this piece of equipment and me as well to be able to accompany the plane on it’s first mission flight.

Lord Bless you all and a Happy new year!

Ryan

First Snow of Winter 2011-2012

Well, it wasn't much, just a dusting, but we did have our first series of snow showers today!

Karen was really excited...