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.

December in Review

Well December has been quite the month. I should have kept up on posting cause now there is a bit too much, but I'll try to do a quick sum.


The month started out FREEZING and stayed that way for a few weeks. But the skies were clear and Chad was able to fly everyday pretty much. He actually got half of his commercial training done in those two weeks... I know nuts. He did multiple cross country flights with the longest being 7hrs. He flew to North Bend Oregon in the middle of the night and froze the whole time, the heater was broken in the plane.


Chad also got his share of plane mishaps. He had electrical failure once, a fire when trying to start the plane in freezing conditions, an instrument that was broken in flight...just to mention a few. But he handled all beautifully and now has some good experience with big malfunctions. What can I say he is pretty amazing eh? I think so :-)


At the beginning of the month we went and cut down our first Christmas tree. Last year we weren't home for Christmas so this was our first one married. It was so much fun, Lincoln even came along.

In the middle of December we got some bad news that the house that Chad owns flooded... and badly. Needless to say that has been a hard journey but God has been faithfully through it and we know He is going to continue to work. The insurance denied the claim to fix it so we are on to plan B. More updates on that as it unfolds, continue to pray for that though.

For me work has been hard and slow at the same time. We have had some pretty sick kiddos and sad sad ones too. And census (number of patients) has been really low until now too. Which made it hard to get all the hours in but its finally picking back up.

On the 18th we had the memorial service for my grandmommmy. She had passed away a couple of weeks prior. She was a wonderful woman who made us all laugh. What a joy for life she had. It was a great service where lots of memories were shared. She is greatly missed but no longer suffering and in heaven with our Heavenly Father.

On the 20th my mother and sister in law came into town to spend Christmas with us. They were here for 10 days which was fun. We spent Christmas eve at my moms. We had a great dinner , my mom rotisserie chicken. Mmm mmm! Christmas day we spent at Jennifer's house. She made her first ham and it turned out awesome. We finished the night there with a HILARIOUS game of jenga. I was so glad my mother in law could meet everyone and she loved it.

Porter in his new toy from Grandma, he sure does love it!!

Lincoln's Christmas morning!!

He forgets how big he is

The Dimons all together for Christmas :-)

All the girls on Christmas!!

We went to Vancouver, WA to see Chad's side of the family a few days later which was neat for me. There was a lot of his family that I hadn't met. And Chad hadn't seen them in like 5 years, well some of them. We ended that trip by seeing Avatar with his aunt and uncle, which was fun. I surprisingly liked the movie.

The highlight besides Christmas of December was our trip to Leavenworth. Everyone loved it so much. It was still decorated for Christmas, and it had snowed so it was beautiful there. FREEZING but beautiful. We drove home through a big snow storm in Stevens Pass but Chad drove through it without any problems, guess Spokane did us some good after all :-)
Leavenworth at night! Gorgeous

December ended with family going home and me going back to work. I had a wonderful week off. Luckily that's just how the schedule worked out :-) Chad and I are so thankful for God's faithfulness to us. We are so blessed and in the midst of our trials we are learning and experiencing more of God's love and joy.

*For more pictures look on facebook

November Festivities

I have become the world's worst blogger. Maybe it's night shift with a mix of not a lot of exciting escapades around here.

Lets see last weekend the weekend of the 20th we celebrated my sister's birthday. Had a nice little dinner at my mom's I think my mom got all the cute pictures on her camera but I got a few.





I have been enjoying my every other Tuesday's with my nephew Porter. He is getting so big he is 4 1/2 months now. He is strong and stubborn, but quite a happy boy, who does not like naps. :-)




Chad and I spent Thanksgiving at my dad's house this year. It was nice and quiet Thanksgiving. Just my parents, sister, brother in law, the baby, and Chad and I were there. The food and the company was great. I think Porter kept us entertained most of the time. Our friends Josh and Jen came over later that evening to hang out and say goodbye. They just got married Nov 7th and Jen is finally able to move down to Arizona. They are both stationed down there in the Air Force. Chad and I are going to miss them both very much.

Here is a funny video of Mimi (Michelle/Grandmimi) reading Porter a Thanksgiving Story. She edited the book a bit to talk about butter. For those of you who do not know Michelle, she loves butter, I do not remember how the conversation started or why she started adding it into the story but it turned into a thing and it was hilarious to us all.

This says it all

http://bethanymurphy.net/
Please go see this. Bethany was the photographer at Josh and Jen's Wedding and she did and AMAZING job. I am not sure that anyone else could have captured them better.