Oshkosh: Brough to you by MASA

Airventure 2010 in Oshkosh, WI is well underway. The dates are July 26-August 1.

To date, IAMA has collected all the fees for participation and has purchased exhibit the space. 26 Mission Aviation Agencies have registered and will be part of the exhibit tent with JAARS and MAF anchoring each end. Praise the Lord, we have the same location as last year. Jeff & Wonita Werley, New Tribes, will be managing the IAMA exhibit tent. The Fly4Life presence continues much like it did last year, but without the separate Fly4Life tent.

In order to pull off this massive event, IAMA, and all the participants, depend on the generous and extensive work of MASA (Mission Aviation Support Association) . MASA is lead by a governing board with Lee Smoll serving as Executive Director. Leadership teams have been assembled to care for those attending this event.

MASA provides 3 meals a day at the hospitality tent in Camp Scholler on the EAA grounds. They provide housing in area homes as well as loaner vehicles. They pick up and deliver from airports. For over 30 years MASA has made it possible for Mission Aviators to attend EAA. The cost would be prohibitive without their help.

More than just Oshkosh, MASA is also managing the IAMA store. If you have need of any tee-shirts, polo’s, caps, etc…you can contact leesmoll@tds.net to order them. These items will be available at EAA

IAMA Mission Aviation Podcast #7 – Jungle Flying Simulator at EAA AirVenture 2009

EAA Airventure Oshkosh 2009 – IAMA Blog – Fly4Life

The Fly4Life emphasis has taken off ans is a huge success here at EAA’s AirVenture 2009 in Oshkosh.

IAMA is front and center just off AeroShell Square in a 30′ by 40′ tent sharing the stories of missionary aviation around the world to the hundreds of thousand of people visiting the EAA Airventure 2009 this year.

Representatives from most of the nearly 100 IAMA member organizations ar eon hand to explain the history and ministry of the pilots and planes of missionary aviaiton around the world today.

We will be posting video profiles of many of the IAMA participants that will posted as part of our Missionary Aviation Podcast series as well (available on this site and on iTunes).

If you get a chance come by this week and visit us!

Sandy

EAA Airventure Oshkosh 2009 – IAMA Blog – A great MASA breakfast!

A great day starts with a great breakfast at EAA Airventure 2009!

Thank you MASA (Mission Aviation Support Association) for you hospitality.  Without you the mission community presence at the EAA Airventure 2009 in Oshkosh would be difficult to say the least.

Our days always start at the MASA tent (just behind hangar D in the camping area) with smiling faces and marvelous breakfast food.  Local churches in the area combine their efforts and cater our meals.  Because of thehuge niumber of aviatiors this year, we have three churches catering each meal in combination.  That is teamwork!

Today I met up with my first flight instrictor from Moody Aviaiton, Nard Pugyao.  Nard was a liot for many years with JAARS.

Next stop and next post will be from the Fly4Life tent.  Stay tuned!

Sandy

EAA Airventure Oshkosh 2009 – IAMA Blog – Sunday July 26, 2009

After a year of preparation, tomorrow is the start of the EAA AirVenture 2009, with Public Benefit Flying as a keystone emphasis this year.  IAMA will play a pivotal role in the formal introduction of many to this unique form of ministry.

Many are already there, assembling, testing, and lifting the parts into place.  Many more are traveling today from points all around the US and the world to be a part of this historic event for missionary aviation.

Stay tuned throughout the week as we update this site [and specifically this blog] with up to date photos, video, and podcasts from the event!

Blessings

Kodiak Kids from IAMA – Personalizing World Missions

PURPOSE

The purpose of the Kodiak Kids Program (KKP) is to provide an opportunity for local groups to be involved with missions through the raising of funds for mission aviation.

WHAT IT IS

The KKP enables groups, such as schools, churches, and businesses, to raise money for a mission aviation aircraft or project through a variety of creative means.  You and your group would interact with the mission aviation organization of your choice on a consistent basis.  This fosters a sense of ownership and personal connection.  In this way, you and your group can have a tangible role in helping fulfill the Great Commission through aviation.

The KKP is a service of IAMA, the International Association of Missionary Aviation (www.iamanet.org).  IAMA oversees the program and coordinates the initial contact between your group and the mission aviation organization you’d like to team up with.

HOW IT WORKS

1. Mission aviation organizations identify projects.
These projects could be for the purchase, maintenance, overhaul, or operation of an aircraft.  (Note: See the “requirements” section below.)
The program is open to all IAMA-member organizations and can include any airplane or helicopter type.

2. Mission organizations register their projects with IAMA, who will post them in a special section of the IAMA website.

3. Your group selects a project and then contacts the IAMA Kodiak Kids Program Coordinator.

4. The KKP Coordinator will put you in touch with the project contact person at the mission aviation organization.

5. The aviation ministry organization will provide information to help your group connect with the project.
Such connection could be in the form of videos, photos, email updates, or other materials.  Field trips to the organization could be arranged.  Visits to your group by missionaries could be planned.
Connection is a hallmark of the KKP.

6. Your group raises funds for the project in whatever creative ways it devises.

7.  Working with its organizational partner, the group will see the fulfillment of its fundraising efforts and follow the aircraft or project as it goes into action on the field.

BENEFITS

To IAMA-member organizations:

1. Funds are raised for aircraft or other aviation projects.

2. Public awareness is increased and public relations are enhanced.

3. Relationships with the participating groups/individuals are forged, potentially leading to future involvement, either on a personal or group level.

To your group (and the individuals comprising it):

1. Opportunities to be tangibly involved with mission aviation are readily available.

2. A sense of community and teamwork is fostered.

3. Individuals (particularly young people) can learn about missions and have their horizons expanded.

4. Relationships with the mission aviation organization are forged, potentially leading to future involvement, either on a personal or group level.

REQUIREMENTS

Mission aviation organizations must meet the following requirements to participate in the Kodiak Kids Program:

1. Participating mission aviation organizations must be members in good standing of IAMA.

2. Projects must be identified and sufficiently described, to include:

TITLE:

For example: Mauritania Caravan Refurbishment.

NATURE OF PROJECT AND WHAT IT ENTAILS:

For example: The refurbishment of a Cessna 208 Caravan for service in Mauritania, West Africa.  The cost of this project is $400,000 and will entail an engine and propeller overhaul, avionics upgrades, and the installation of a pod, safety seats, and utility interior.

HOW THE PROJECT WILL BENEFIT FIELD MINISTRY:

This is a descriptive paragraph explaining the “what, where, who, how, and why” of the project’s outcome.
For example: This Cessna 208 Caravan is being refurbished for service in Mauritania, West Africa, where it will transport community development specialists, health care workers, and national evangelists.  By providing safe, reliable transportation, XYZ Mission will be meeting the spiritual and physical needs of the isolated people of Mauritania.  (Note: This is a short version; longer would be desired.)

SPECIFIC MECHANISMS FOR KEEPING THE PARTICIPATING GROUP INFORMED AND INVOLVED (e.g . email updates, photos, videos, visits, etc):

This also includes information, photos, or video of the people whom the aircraft or project will serve.

HOW THE GROUP’S MONIES WILL BE RECEIPTED AND HANDLED

3. The name, email, and phone number if a person who will be the point of contact (POC) with which the KK group will interact.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:

Teena Ray, KKP Coordinator for IAMA.  iamachristian@rocketmail.com or call my cell: 863-738-6434.

Mission Aviation Moments: A History Through Art

Mission Aviation Moments: A History Through Art – In keeping with the AirVenture 2009 “Fly for Life” theme, award-winning artist Sharon Rajnus has created a series of paintings depicting historic moments in mission aviation to debut July 2009 at Oshkosh. From the Andes to Oshkosh, the artist will tell the stories behind these paintings.

Name:    Sharon Rajnus
Company/Organization:    American Society of Aviation Artists
Sponsor of Series: Quest Aircraft Company
Website:     www.rajnusart.com
Biography:
Sharon has won awards from EAA, National Museum of Naval Aviation, Aviation Week and Women in Aviation, International, and others. She has piloted Stinsons, Maule, C-120 and Helios to out-of-the-way places.
Presentations:    Wednesday, 7/29/2009 – 4:00 PM – 5:15 PM – 027 Vette Theater – Museum Lower Level

Mission aviation pilots put faith in their wings

You expect commercial pilots operating in the bush to face certain occupational challenges: Unimproved airstrips. Mechanical problems encountered in remote locations. Lack of navaids and weather reports. But for one class of bush pilot, such hazards don’t always top the list of dangers.

“During the Ebola outbreak in October of ’07, we went into the hot zone two and three times a day,” said David Francis, a Cessna TU206 pilot from Memphis, Tenn., who operates out of Ndolo Airport (FZAB) in Kinshasa, the Congo. “Nobody else would fly in there. Even the UN pilots refused. They didn’t want to go into a contagious area. We just see this as firmly within our mission.”

But what kind of mission would require that kind of commitment and potential sacrifice?

“Helping relieve suffering,” Francis said. “That’s why God put us here.

The mission, simply put, is mission aviation: pilots, deeply committed to their religious beliefs, flying in support of missionary and humanitarian activities around the globe. In addition to the challenges associated with bush flying, over the years mission aviation pilots have contended with armed insurgencies, government harassment, civil unrest, natural disasters and even death at the hands of indigenous peoples they seek to help.

The global mission

Dozens of missionary aviation organizations operate around the globe. The International Association of Missionary Aviation in Worthington, Minn. (this website) counts some 50 in its membership, according to president Chuck Daly. Francis, the pilot in the Congo, flies for Mission Aviation Fellowship ( www.maf.org), based in Nampa, Idaho, one of the oldest and largest such organizations. Operating in Africa, Asia and the Americas, its 130 aircraft conducted more than 88,000 flights last year, serving some 3,000 locations, the great majority of them remote and otherwise inaccessible.

“The kind of environment we fly in is hostile, not just in the air and in the airstrips, but in the countries in which our people are based,” said John Boyd, MAF president and himself a former mission aviation pilot. “Most of the time you’re living in situations with no running water, no constant electricity, no telephone, no shops. You have none of the support you would have grown up with here in the U.S.”

MAF’s roots go back to World War II, an outgrowth of prayer meetings held by a small group of pilots operating in the Pacific theater. The gatherings gave rise to the Christian Airmen’s Missionary Fellowship, MAF’s predecessor organization, launched in 1945. The following year the organization began missionary work in Mexico with its first airplane, a 1933 Waco

Initially operations were focused solely on the ministry, such as bringing translated Bibles to remote villages and transporting missionaries to their posts. But In the decades since, the scope and scale of MAF’s operations have grown dramatically.

“Basically, you become the logistics system of the country,” said Harry Berghuis, a Papua, Indonesia-based MAF pilot from Holland. “Everything that needs to be transported has to be done by the airplane. We form a big part of that.”
“Typically in a week we’re flying a mixture of freight, medicines and parts to the interior stations, and we do the mail delivery as well to a lot of the small villages,” said Francis of his work in Africa. “And we’re flying sick people in and out of the villages to better equipped hospitals, and flying missionaries and pastors.”

MAF also transports personnel from NGOs (non-governmental organizations) such as the International Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders. But make no mistake: spiritually rewarding though it may be, there is nothing glamorous about this work.

“It’s not about just jumping in your airplane and having a jolly for a couple of hours,” Boyd said. “You’re going out of eight to ten tiny airstrips a day, loading and unloading in 110 degree heat, flying around weather and over mountain ranges.”

Candidate requirements

Because of the demands of this calling, both in the air and on the ground, prospective MAF pilots are carefully screened and evaluated. All MAF pilot/mechanics must complete a minimum of 400 hours of flight time, and hold instrument and commercial ratings. And because they are expected to maintain and repair as well as fly the airplanes, they must also have an A&P (airframe and powerplant) license. Twelve credit hours of biblical training is another requirement. MAF also evaluates prospective pilots and their spouses – who will be stationed with them, along with their children, during the two-and-a-half to three-and-a-half year terms they are expected to serve – to ensure they are psychologically fit to handle life in the field.

“It’s not for everybody,” said Brent Palmer, another Papua, Indonesia-based MAF pilot. “I’ve seen a lot of people come and go. There are people who come out with good faith and they can’t hack it. The stress, the remoteness, the difficulty in living, whatever it is, it was just not what they expected.’’

Another requirement of missionary life further filters out all but the most committed: Missionary pilots are expected to raise the money to underwrite their service, typically from their church, community, and other sponsors. MAF pilot salaries are pegged to the cost of living in the country of operation. A pilot with a family of four earns an average $2,627 per month.

All applicants accepted for consideration undergo a technical evaluation at MAF headquarters. The evaluation includes ten hours, divided between flight time in a turbocharged Cessna TU206 to check their piloting abilities, and in a simulator to test instrument flight skills. That’s followed by a practical examination of their A&P talents. Thirteen to fifteen pilots undergo technical evaluation annually, and about 10 go on to the next phase, technical standardization training.

“Attitude is everything,” said Dave Ringenberg, an MAF instructor pilot. “It’s easy to teach a skill. It’s harder to teach an attitude.”

Training

Technical standardization consists of 40 hours of ground school followed by 30 hours of flight in a C-TU206 equipped with Garmin GNS 430 IFR-certified panel-mounted GPS, a Codan HF radio (used for transmitting position reports to a base station) and STOL kits. During this training pilots learn the standard procedures MAF uses everywhere it operates, focusing on three key areas: checklists, dealing with terrain, and making stabilized, power-on approaches.
“A written checklist is used for all phases of flight and preflight for MAF operations,” said Ringenberg.

The training location takes advantage of Idaho’s wealth of challenging back-country strips, giving trainees a taste of the kind of terrain and rugged landing sites they’ll encounter in the field. These operations also hammer home why power-on approaches are a necessity for bush ops: shifting winds and up- and downdrafts require power management to negotiate while maintaining a precise approach angle and airspeed. The end result is a predictable touchdown point.
Given the training, commitment and skill required for this kind of aviating, it’s noteworthy that many who find their way into MAF were not pilots when they decided to enter this line of work.

“I had a desire to be in full time ministry, the Lord just hadn’t shown me what it was going to look like yet,” said Texas-born Palmer, who before coming to MAF was a software engineer for Morristown, NJ-based Honeywell International, working on TCAS II, the airline collision avoidance device. “Right after I got married I heard about mission aviation, how they could use airplanes in ministry. I wasn’t even a pilot.”

“We asked the Lord what he wanted us to do,” said Berghuis of he and his wife, Willie. “And over and over it came to our attention there was a shortage of pilots in mission work. We thought, ‘Hey, maybe this is it,’ and decided if the Lord wanted us to do that, he’d show us how. We don’t have to worry about the details.” According to Berghuis, support just seemed to fall into place. “He provided in a miraculous way,” Berghuis said.

Even Ringenberg, the instructor pilot, heard the call of his faith before that of the sky. “I had a desire to serve God, but I didn’t know how. One day a friend encouraged me to be a missionary,” Ringenberg said. “That same friend encouraged me to look into aviation. I never thought of that before.”

Education of a missionary pilot

A number of Bible colleges offer aviation programs, enabling students to graduate with all the ratings, licenses, and religious training a mission aviation career requires. But it seems each pilot finds his own path to the left seat, and each represents a tale of persistence and faith rewarded. Palmer, after four years at Honeywell and a lot of soul searching with his wife, Melanie, and church members, enrolled in LeTourneau University in Longview, Texas, a Christian school with a mission aviation program. In three years he had his requisite licenses and a bachelor of science degree and a minor in Bible studies.

“That got me about 250 hours of flight time,” Palmer said. “MAF required 400, so I had to get another 150 hours.”

Palmer went back to work as a programmer and convinced his company to give him the cash equivalent of an airplane ticket when he had to travel on business. He used the money toward the rental of a Piper Warrior and flew himself on the trips, building up hours while he honed the pilotage navigational skills of a missionary aviator.

“I flew from east Texas to Toronto, Ontario, and I never turned on a nav radio,” Palmer said. “I flew the whole trip 1,000 feet AGL (above ground level). I had drawn exactly on the sectionals where I was going to go – you have to recognize every landmark you fly over.”

Palmer was accepted for his technical evaluation by MAF with 401.2 hours total time. He passed the flying evaluation with glowing reviews but failed the maintenance check.

“That was pretty devastating at first,” Palmer recalled. “They said to go work for a year as an aircraft mechanic and come back. But I was over 30 at that point. I had been working on this goal for many years.”

After considering his situation, the evaluation team told Palmer to get a C-206 service and parts manuals, study hard, and get some A&P work. Six months later Palmer came back and passed the maintenance exam, and then the month-long technical standardization course.

“From there they put you on a pretty well thought out regime preparing you to get overseas,” Palmer said.

Field conditions

But the novice’s training is far from over. After arriving on station, pilots often spend months before they fly. Rigorous language instruction and cultural orientation courses come first. Flying begins only after the pilot and his family are settled and integrated into the community. It commences with more training, applying the standard operating procedures learned in Idaho to the specific locations in which they fly. Typically MAF operates out of one or more main bases in a given country, from where pilots access to a network of remote locations. MAF operates both C-TU206s and the turbine powered C-208 Cessna Caravan.

The en route terrain often has no distinct features: no roads, power lines, or human settlements to help with pilotage. Everyone involved in mission aviation acknowledges that GPS with moving map displays has revolutionized the task of navigating in these remote landscapes.

“The GPS has allowed us to operate with more precision and safety, and with a lot less stress,” said Francis. “I don’t have to get down so low and look at all the individual river bends, the little-bitty landmarks they had to use in past, just to keep from being disoriented. We can get above the cloud layers.”

Francis, by the way, came to mission aviation after 17 years of designing advanced military aircraft for Lockheed Martin, the Bethesda, Md.-based defense contractor. “Be prepared to follow God’s leading – no matter what stage in life you may be in,” he said of his late start as a missionary pilot. “Don’t be surprised if that path may make some big turns along the way.”

Guidance from above notwithstanding, MAF pilots must be prepared to fly all their routes without GPS. Equipment failures have occurred in the field, and the units have to be considered as back-up gear. Pilots typically use ONC charts for navigation, and in the parts of the world where MAF operates, large swaths of the charts may be blank, accompanied by a simple printed legend noting that relief data is unavailable; the pilots are operating in uncharted territory.

The airstrips are typically hacked out of jungle, sometimes on mountainsides. Cleared areas can be little more than 1,000 feet in length, and sloped 20 degrees or more. Rain can render them unusable with no visual indication. Swirling gusts created by orographic lifting can routinely render strips unusable after midmorning. Some are tucked into valleys so steep and narrow that a mile out on final the pilot is committed to landing; there’s not enough lateral room for a 180 degree turn, and the terrain ahead rises too steeply to outclimb.

“You take a pilot who hasn’t been exposed (to such conditions) into those strips, he’ll be blown away,” said Berghuis. “We can do it because of our training. And even more important is the proper decision-making. You have to be able to decide, ‘Is it safe to land?’”

Keeping the faith

Truly the dedication and sacrifice mission pilots routinely make is a testament to their tremendous conviction. Yet some might contend all pilots are creatures of faith. How can one not believe in the miraculous if he is willing to bet his life time and again that a hunk of metal weighing more than a ton can move through the sky, seemingly impervious to gravity’s pull? And most aviators regard the cockpit as a sanctuary, and flight as a spiritual experience. How else to explain the aviator’s axiom, “God is my co-pilot”?

Boyd chuckles when asked for comment about that phrase, and whether it carries increased weight for mission aviation pilots.

“We tend to believe that very openly at MAF,” Boyd said. “I have been a pilot and have been in situations where I can honestly testify I know God was with me. Certain things happened and otherwise I would not have survived. And there are many instances daily where we can truthfully testify that is a distinct feeling, call it what you will. (But) you try not be flippant about it. (MAF) pilots have lost their lives.”

And not just in accidents. In 1956, missionary pilot Nate Saint and four colleagues were killed in Ecuador by the Auca Indians they had come to help. News of the tragedy spread worldwide, drawing attention to missionary aviation and bringing more volunteers and supporters. (Seven of the nine Indians who attacked the missionaries and many of the tribe members subsequently converted to Christianity.) No MAF pilot has been lost in more than a decade, but overall, 18 have died in accidents.

“And the question is,” Boyd continued, “‘Where was God then?’ As Christians we have to say that is part of God’s plan.”

However one regards the plans and designs of the divine, MAF and its brethren organizations are witnessing an increase in mission aviation. And that is a blessing for the multitudes who depend on the aerial lifeline they provide.
“We think that missionary aviation is going to be around for a long time,” said Ringenberg. “There will always be people in need in remote locations around the world, and people who want to serve God by serving people.”

_____________________________________

By James Wynbrandt
Reprinted with permission of Pilot Magazine.

IAMA 2010 Aviation Art Calender

Missionary and aviation artist Jim Rendel in association with IAMA has produced a 2010 calendar that will be on sale at Oshkosh in the IAMA tent.  After EAA AirVenture you may still buy them by using the Buy Now button below.

 

For as long as he can remember, Jim has always loved airplanes! He grew up in northwest Nigeria where his parents were missionaries with SIM (Serving in Mission) for 35 years. Before he was even in grade school he was building model airplanes with his two older brothers. Their uncle who was back in the States owned a hobby shop and kept them supplied with model airplane kits to build and fly.

Growing up in a remote area meant that Jim and his siblings were 500 miles from the mission boarding school. Flying home in the small mission plane was always an exciting event! That early interest in aviation turned into a lifetime passion and he went on to train as a missionary pilot and mechanic at Moody Aviation in Elizabethton, TN. In 1973 he returned to Africa to fly for the SIM mission in Niger, the country just north of Nigeria.

Read more

“Jungle Flight”, a book about missionary aviation.

The gritty reality and harrowing adventures of JAARS mission aviators and technicians living and working on the edge of the civilized world come to life in this new book by Dane Skelton.

Based on a personal trip to the jungles of Southeast Asia and private interviews with the pilots and technicians of JAARS, this book tells it like it is, taking the reader inside the cockpit and into harms way with men and women of deep faith and profound commitment to service through professional excellence.

JUNGLE FLIGHT was written to motivate future mission aviators and technicians and to inspire the “senders” who support mission aviation.

The book is a great gift for your flight school students, supporting churches and anyone else interested in mission aviation.

David Reeves, President of JAARS says, “I could write pages about the accuracy of the stories. I recommend it!”

This book is available at  Amazon.com or   Xulonpress.com. 

Contact the author at daneskelton@hotmail.com.

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