Saturday, June 28, 2008

Pilatus Porter Readies for Flight

This Pilatus PC-6 "Porter," like the ones currently in use in our program in Southeast Asia has been in the JAARS shop undergoing equipment installation. Our mechanics and avionics technicians have stripped out the original radio and instrument equipment and are nearly completed with putting the instrument panel into a configuration that is standardized with the two Porters we have on the field. I have to say that at the early stages I wondered if this was going to go back together right! What these guys can do always amazes me.

In about a week this plane will be ready for its first test flight. Then for three weeks we will be conducting a course here at JAARS for some of our Training pilots with this airplane before we get it ready to send to the Pacific. First it will get a coat of blue paint to match the other two (pictured here on the field), then it'll head accross the Big Pond in a container. I'll keep you updated on the progress of this machine.

Monday, June 23, 2008

Who It's All About

I can't resist taking a moment to share some pix of those beautiful people I had the privilege of meeting in our eight years in Peru and six years in eastern Africa. OK, I'm showing off my pictures. But I think you'll agree that mankind is the jewel of God's creation -- and why not -- we're made in his image!























































Saturday, June 21, 2008

What It's All About



Access.

Aviation has always been about access. In our case, we're talking about reaching some of the most remote, forgotten people on the face of the earth. Forgotten by society, maybe, but not forgotten by God, and the thousands of self-sacrificing men and women who every day put their lives in His hands serving others, bringing them medical help, food relief, education, social validation. And above all they bring the liberating news about the One true God that loves them and is seeking to redeem them through the gift of salvation by his Son Jesus.

The focus of the Bible translation movement is providing the translated, printed Word of God. JAARS staff serve to enable the work of Wycliffe Bible Translators and the Summer Institute of Linguistics. We believe strongly that the Bible carries the deliberate expression of God's thoughts to Mankind. It is relevant to every culture, and transforms lives and societies everywhere it is read. On the field we also get to serve many different outreaches and ministries besides the work of Wycliffe.


My own father and mother dedicated their lives to bringing a translation to the Tacana people of Bolivia. Years of language study, grammar and dictionary development, then finally translation of a "vernacular" Bible that spoke God's message clearly in Tacana. All the while, they were served by a committed, professional team of JAARS technicians. Aircraft, radios, computers, were all tools that gave John and Ida Ottaviano access to the Tacana heartland, and gave the Tacanas access to God's Word.

The environment has changed in many ways, but the need still remains. Today, forty years later, there are still over 1,500 languages worldwide that have no translation of Scriptures in their "heart language." And where it is needed, aviation is still giving that access in Africa, Asia and the Americas.





It's also about Multiplication.



The old way of doing things has changed. It used to presume that the Westerner was going to do the job. Indeed, for decades, Western education and church support made this the reality. But today the Church in the develping world is addressing the challenge with resources and people. The role of the Western missionary is moving to one of training and building capacity. Transportation and communication services multiply the effect of workers as they engage in training and workshops. Bible translation is now conducted by committees of vernacular speakers, encouraged by consultants.


Many different creative aviation ministries work around the world, part of a tight-knit community of service to God's dedicated workers. JAARS is only one of many. As we move into a new technology of aircraft, we are amazed at how God is providing us the tools to continue to serve, machines like the Kodiak that we could only dream about years ago.

Monday, June 2, 2008

Two and a Half Weeks in April


Felts Field, Spokane, WA was the site of a new sort of inter-mission effort. In the Moody Aviation hangar (as in Moody Bible Institute - Spokane) we ensconced ourselves in a classroom and attacked several issues. The actual host was the new Spokane Turbine Center ("STC"), brainchild of some Christian and mission aviation entrepreneurs. STC's purpose is to provide quality, affordable training to mission aviation students, as well as veteran mission pilots transitioning into turbine and high-tech aircraft.

Jeff Turcotte, the STC Director, had asked us to come and help him through the early development of his curriculum. Our other objective was to work together on a Standard Operating Procedure ("SOP") for the Kodiak that would be generically useful for the different mission operators of the Kodiak.



The participants were Jeff Turcotte and Ed Robinson (from STC), Brian Shepson (Mission Aviation Fellowship), Bart Haines (New Tribes Mission Aviation), Jim Conrad (Moody Aviation) and myself. Jeff presented his courses in the Pratt & Whitney PT6 "turbine transition" course, the Garmin G1000 course, and conducted several flights in the STC Kodiak (serial no. 001, pictured here in orange) with the participants.



After roughing-out these courses, we spent three days on the beginnings of an SOP and cockpit checklist. The two weeks went by quickly. As an added bonus, Brian invited us down to MAF headquarters in Nampa, ID to do some flying in the airplane at a dry lakebed (Coyote Lake) they use for R&D work, plus one of the upsloped ranch airstsrips they use for candidate flight training. We gave the Kodiak a full two days of trials, testing the performance and our newly-created SOP and checklists. In spite of our relative inexperience in the Kodiak, we were able to take off and land the airplane in less than "book" distances.