Astoria Flight

For those of you wondering what my training looks like, I thought I'd give you a firsthand sampling. The pictures I'm going to attach are from a solo flight I conducted from Harvey Field in Snohomish, WA to Astoria, OR.

The purpose of this flight was to satisfy curriculum in my Commercial Flight training syllabus. The "lesson", or experience, which more accurately describes the objective, is to successfully plan and execute a "cross country" flight of a given distance. Some flights require me to go 100 nautical miles (1 nautical miles = 1.15 miles), while the granddaddy of them all have me flying a straight line distance of at least 250 NM and including at least 3 different airports to fly to and land at. Just to give you some perspective on what 250NM looks like, first open Google maps. Find Snohomish, WA. Now Google places such as North Bend, OR or Libby, MT. Compare the distances and you'll find that I'm covering quite a bit of ground considering the aircraft I'm flying is the Cessna 172, which is a light trainer aircraft... definitely not the Boeing 737s you might be used to. Additionally, the entire flight usually lasts at least 6 hours, so there's plenty of time for me to either get lost and watch my plan fall apart, or demonstrate to myself that my ground planning and inflight execution was solid because I hit all of my checkpoints on time and on course.

As I write this, I am nearing a major milestone in my training and preparation for service as a Missionary Aviator. I have 15 more flight hours to obtain before I will be eligible to take my Practical Test and become a certificated (licensed) Commercial Pilot.

I ask for prayer from anyone who is reading this and loves Jesus. Once I have my Commercial pilot certificate, all that would remain practically is flight time and experience. I am still passionate about Mission Aviation and still believe that the Lord has called me and placed me in a ripe position to obey His leading to go support the evangelism and eternal saving of people whom I haven't met, but have been commissioned to make disciples and followers of Jesus. I simply ask for prayer that I will stay true to the Lord and that I will follow His leading, and that He will open doors and make those opportunities abundantly evident to me.

Here's the pictures!

Cessna 172

Entering Astoria's airspace (Feet wet)

A handful of aircraft carriers that I happend to fly past.. very unexpectedly sweeet

Enjoying the outdoors

So Chad's flight was cancelled today due to a broken nose cowling (I think that's how you spell it). They grounded the plane for maintenance. It stinks that he couldn't fly but I'm glad he is diligent in his inspections so he doesn't fly with a broken plane.



To make up for the day we decided to go on a family hike. We picked a random place we had never been to and it was great. Twin Falls just east of North Bend. We did 4-5miles. Lincoln was in doggy heaven. He got brave and tried to swim in the water (BRRR), but the current scared him I think. He was so obedient and we were able to have him off leash, it was such a nice day.

Lincoln was hilarious at one point and was afraid of this tree. He must have thought it was another animal but he was going nuts and kept barking at it, he would not pass it, eventually chad had to block it and I had to go past it to call him. I videoed some of it it was too funny.

(Ok video to come later it is not loading)

More pictures were uploaded to our "Life Happenings" album!!!

Chad's flight pictures to come

Flying, Friends, and such

Wow I cannot believe February is almost over. The beginning of the month stunk for Chad because the weather made it impossible for him to get the needed flight time in. BUT he has been flying lots this passed week and after his 6 hour flight to Montana today he will have about 9hours left to go. After those 9 hours we are hoping he will be ready to take his commercial oral and practical tests. Praise God that he has come this far I can hardly believe it.

** Chad has some pictures of his last flights I will post them as soon as I get them :-) **

Chad also interviewed for a position at Boeing. We are still waiting to hear back and if we don't then God has something else for him. We are just grateful for at least one interview to come about. Please continue to pray that God opens a door for work for Chad especially now that his training is coming to a close. He does want to become a certified flight instructor so if no job then he will move on to that while we wait for a door to open for employment.

God has been so faithful to us and we are learning more through all of our experiences lately how to love God more and seek him more. I know we will have a great story to tell someday at the conclusion of all our this.

We are still trying to sell the house that Chad co-owns, that's another faith walk and only God has the answer to that situation.

This last weekend our dear friends were in town for a quick visit. Chad was able to spend some good time with them while I was in bed sick. Bummer!! But I did make it out for a quick dinner! Chad spent the afternoon in Seattle on Friday and then went snowboarding on Saturday at Mt. Baker. He hadn't been snowboarding in over a year and a half so he was VERY excited to get out there. We are hoping to go back and get me up there, not on a board but skis.

I still watch Porter (my nephew) every other Tuesday, and its so fun to watch him grow. Its amazing how much he changes even in two weeks. Chad went with me last week, and was pretty awesome with him. We took Porter for a walk with Lincoln because we had Lincoln kenneled up outside. Lincoln thought Porter was pretty cool. You should have seen Chad in action when Porter was upset. He marched right up the stairs took him out of his crib and talked to him until he was calm, wish I had it on video :-)

I'll try to better and post more often. I'll have more pictures to post later of Chad's flights. We are also hoping to get another update letter out soon, things have definitely changed since the last one :-)

I apologize

I'm sorry for my lack of updates. Life just seems to pass by and I forget. Lets see the biggest news is that Chad is down to about 24hours until he can take his commercial pilot exam. Which means he will have all of his qualifications to become a missionary pilot. This does not mean that we will be going anywhere right away. He still needs to build some more time and experience both flying and in maintenance, so be praying for that. His goal is to get his certified flight instructor rating so that he can build time while teaching private pilots. Yay and praise God for how faithful He has been to us.

I'll update more soon but just wanted to give a little more info on Chad's progress. We are doing well here in Everett but waiting for a few of life's storms to pass, updates on those soon.