Bat-Enkh Update

The past few days have been rather busy. We did have some nice weather on Saturday which allowed me to prune the roses and also to get out and golf for the first time in five months. Of course Sunday then began with rain and finished with a wintery mix of sleet and sloppy snow flurries. In Ohio...you pay for nice weather.

It was cold this morning, 36, but finished out clear and warm with temps in the low 60's.

We had fun with Bat-Enkh this evening. We wore our traditional Mongolian hats from Bat-Enkh's visit in 2004, Karen whipped up a "Mongolia beef" stir-fry dinner, and we finished with traditional Mongolian New Year bread and tea.

Here we are on our back deck wearing our Mongolian hats.

We snapped a picture of Bat-Enkh holding a bag of "Mongolian Beef Sauce" we found at a local clearance store. He said he'd never heard of "Mongolian Beef Sauce" before but judged the sauce to be very delicious and gave it his Mongolian seal-of-approval. It made the beef and veggie stir-fry very tasty indeed.

Bat-Enkh with the Mongolian Beef Sauce bought here in Coshocton.

Bat-Enkh then brought out a "loaf" of bread they traditionally make to celebrate the Mongolian New Year. He brought several loaves to take with him to Philadelphia on Wednesday. He has a Mongolian friend he's going to visit in Philadelphia who greatly misses the bread. He'll stay with his friend for a week before returning to Mongolia.

Karen and I with the bread before breaking it up to eat it.

It's a very hard bread made with flour, water, oil, and maybe a little sugar and salt. The bread can be steamed to soften it. Bat-Enkh said he remembers making them as a child with his parents. They stack these things up in a circle and build a little structure on the dinner table which they then cover with milk products or candy as the family tradition requires. To see a picture of what the whole thing would look like, click here.

Tomorrow we're off to Cleveland as Bat-Enkh has asked to do some site-seeing up there. Then on Wednesday we'll leave Coshocton about 3:30 AM to get Bat-Enkh to Columbus in time to catch his 6 AM flight to Philly.

Having Bat with us again has been wonderful. We're going to greatly miss having him as part of our daily life and routine at home, at MMS, and at church. We would love to go visit him in Mongolia one of these days. We'll see what the Lord has planned!

Bat-Enkh Passed the IA Exam Today!

It was a great day today as Bat-Enkh passed the FAA exam to receive his Inspection Authorization! Bat arrived from Mongolia, March 2, has been living with us since, and had been studying all month for the exam.

We left about 8:30 this morning to drive to Columbus to visit the FAA district office. We were treated very well by the FAA representatives and they found Bat-Enkh's papers to be in order, verified his experience, and authorized him to test. One of the inspectors had been to the Coshocton Air Show and the Balloon Fest in his official FAA capacity so we had plenty to talk about while they reviewed paperwork and procedures.

With the test authorization in Bat-Enkh's hand, we left the FAA office and drove straight to the OSU Airport, registered Bat-Enkh for the exam, and two hours later...Bat had passed the test!

The last time Bat-Enkh was out in 2004, he lived with us for six months as he gained additional mechanical experience, prepared, and tested for his FAA Airframe & Powerplant mechanic's certificate. We celebrated then by stopping at BD's Mongolian Barbecue which is just up the street from the testing center. We continued that tradition today.

We're so glad to be able to play a part in Bat-Enkh's continued growth as a missionary airplane mechanic. Now he can sign-off aircraft as being ready to return to service. This will be a great help to their aviation program in Mongolia.

Thank you for supporting us and praying for us and making it possible for us to serve God's Kingdom through hospitality. Bat-Enkh's success is your success too!

Bite-sized Newsbits

• Tomorrow morning, Karen and I are driving Bat-Enkh to the FAA's District Office in Columbus to have his documentation and qualifications reviewed. From there we'll head over to the Ohio State University Flight Education Center where Bat will take the exam to receive his Inspection Authorization.

• Our house is rewired! What a joy to have light where we need it, plugs where we can access them, new switches where we can reach them, and everything grounded and up to code! Thank you Ben and Kathy for such wonderful and consciencious service over these past weeks! Ben found several areas of concern with the 80 year old wiring as he methodically worked through our house.

• I've spent the past two days focused on pulling the April issue of the MMS GroundCrew newsletter together. There's at least another day of work yet to go. I've selected and organized the photos, now I need to write the copy. This will be an exciting issue covering a wide range of events and project updates. Once I get this wrapped-up and off to our graphic designer, I hope to work on the next issue of our own newsletter, Coshocton Flyer.
  

• Work continues in the hangar as the guys push ahead with the GCI 172, the Moody 182, and the Honduran 206. The Cessna 337 project (overhaul both engines, annual inspection) for LAMP has been funded so that's going to work it's way into the production schedule once we get a 206 or two finished!

Scott uses a cutting wheel to trim aluminum sheet he's fabricating to make a leading edge repair on one of the wings for the Honduran 206.

Projects and Rapid Response Trips

With the GCI King Air back in the air and the LeTourneau University missions team back in Texas, the normal maintenance routine is settling back over the hangar: drill a rivet, drive a rivet; measure aluminum, cut aluminum; remove a cover plate, inspect behind the cover plate. It may not always be exciting but, at one level or another, it's always rewarding to contribute to the expansion of God's kingdom

Projects Underway
GCI's Cessna 172 is new in Hangar A for several squawks to be checked out, work continues on the avionics installation in the Moody 182, Williams dropped by in GCI's 310 for a short visit, and two Rapid Response trips are in the works.

Ian oversees, Bat-Enkh, Gertjan, and Paul as they work on the avionics installation of the Moody 172.

Josh tests the vacuum system on the GCI 172.

The GCI 310 departs our facility.

Rapid Response Trips
Tim is currently organizing two Rapid Response trips requested by ministries in Florida and Zambia.

One of our mechanics will head to Wauchula, Florida this weekend and spend two weeks helping Harvest Aviation finish a couple projects before they move into their new hangar facility.

Another mechanic is scheduled to depart for Zambia, Africa next month to spend about five weeks helping CMML modify their newly purchased Cessna 182 for mission service.

Thanks for being part of our ministry through your time, your gifts, and your prayers. It's through your partnership that we're able to expand God's Kingdom one rivet at a time.