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.