Hangar Dedication

Recently we celebrated our Hangar dedication and the official opening of the Moody Aviation program here at Felts Field in Spokane. It was some party. We hosted the president of Moody, local officials, supporters and Church leaders from our community. There was lots of food and even the Kodiak showed up for us to gawk at.

So many people showed up that some of us had to enjoy the show from the rafters. It was worth it though because Kelly, the test pilot for the Kodiak, joined us and brought us up to speed on how the certification is coming. We also had a nice view through all of our flags which represent all of the countries graduates from Moody Aviation are currently working in.

Here we are gawking at the Kodiak, what will hopefully be our office in a few more years.

AWANA

Awana has started. Awana stands for "Approved Workman Are Not Ashamed." I am a leader of 9 boys in grades 3 through 6. We meet on Wednesday nights and the evening is broken up into four sections. We have an opening ceremony where we say a salute to the flags and hear anouncements. Then we go to game time which really is a blurry whirlwind. Then it is off to handbook time where clubbers recite memorized verses of the Bible. The evening finishes with a short lesson and some singing time. This is the first year our church has done Awana and it has been a blast. Leslie has been working as the game director for the girls and younger children.

Here is my beautiful wife enjoying the sunrise along with an early morning fisherman on the beach near Chattam on Cape Cod.

The summer wrapped up with a wonderful time in Cape Cod. It was very relaxing and a great time to soak up some sun and hang out with the family.

I had to return to Mt Rainier a little later with Ian Hodge. We had a great hike and enjoyed some cliff jumping before lunch. It is a lot safer than it looks. Thanks Photoshop!

Eventually we made it down again but not without some well deserved rests along the way. It was a long day, Muir to the summit and back to the car in 23 hours.

After a number of long hours we arrived at the summit and enjoyed a spectacular view from Canada to Oregon.

A week ago I decided it would be fun to climb Mt. Rainier. I called up my Dad and dragged him out of mountaineering retirement and we headed for the hill. We had probably the most spectacular weather ever and a wonderful hike.

Happy 4th of July (A firework from the Woodinville show)

January 2006 is the 50th anniversary of the deaths of 5 missionaries led by Nate Saint and Jim Elliot in Ecuador. Every Tribe Entertainment has produced a documentary that is available through their site and a feature film to be released to theaters in January. The story covers the missionaries encounter with the Waodani tribe and the amazing story of forgiveness that followed. For more information and a trailer, visit the site HERE.

We enjoyed wonderful weather and beautiful scenery the whole weekend. It was so nice to have a weekend to be with friends, make new ones and just enjoy flying. It was also a blast to encourage the pilots and the many people from Idaho who have been diligently supporting them for over 30 years. For more pictures of our time in Idaho click HERE.

During my flight with the MAF pilot, Leslie captured our challenging landing in a stiff tailwind which we managed narrowly due to the great skill of the pilot. It was exciting.

Johnson Creek is a small airstrip nestled in a canyon near Yellow Pines Idaho. It was a lot of fun to gain some mountain flying experience and get some pointers from the MAF pilots. It was certainly an adventure.

We flew down with our friends Jake and Gina (eight months pregnant).

This weekend we had a wonderful oppourtunity to fly to Idaho for an MAF fly-in at Johnson Creek. We spent the weekend talking to Missionary Pilots and I was lucky enough to go for a flight with one of them in a Cessna 206.

1 Year down, 3 years to go. I wrapped up the first year of A&P school this week. It was a wonderful first year and I feel as though I have learned so much. I can't wait to get started again in the fall. Our class also voted for student counsel and I was elected to represent my class next year. It has been neat to see how our class has really grown close over the year. Many people in the class have big plans for the summer for travel, missions trips and time to be with family. Leslie and I hope to make it back to Seattle frequently this summer to be with family and friends.

The Tools have finally Come. Hooray! Now I will set about organizing them and engraving them for safe keeping. Here is the whole story as told by Leslie:
Ian had been like a kid -a seven year-old, more precisely- waiting for Christmas to come. He looked forward so much to getting his tools. For months his anticipation mounted as he counted down to the day of delivery. And finally the day came! But not the tools. For weeks after Ian would go to school with his hopes high and come home just devastated. The order from Moody at SnapOn must have hit alongside an order from China because the April 15th deadline the salesman had set had come and gone, and May was only building steam; as were a few student mechanics.

When week four rolled on by and barely a word had come on the status of their order, the disgruntled yet-to-be SnapOn owners pulled out the big guns.

Now you have to understand the nature of the tool sales industry. It is highly competitive. There is no punch pulled when speaking of the enemy. SnapOn is the cream of the crop of professional-grade tools. This is the tool that everyone wants, but would be crazy to pay for without a tax write-off. SnapOn has the upper-hand on durability and professional quality, and is big in aviation and commercial use. Their rival, Mac Tools, is the heavyweight in the car mechanics’ market: A quality tool - though not as pristine as a SnapOn, but with a price one can afford. This mean that though SnapOn has the "superior product", Mac still gives them a run for their money. With each a major threat to the other's profit margin, you can see why the sparks might fly.

The SnapOn guy had given Moody an amazing discount of 60% for ordering as a class. Still, some guys preferred to go with Mac. And when the Mac Tool truck showed up on time, and boys were getting their Christmases in May, something snapped in the SnapOn loyalists. The Mac tool guy noticed their frustration and decided that this was a key moment for Mac Tools. Soon he was distributing black Mac hats and other assorted paraphernalia to the entire class, carrying on with anti-SnapOn rhetoric, and coaxing the SnapOn boys in their moment of weakness. Over the noise of the salesman and the lucky buyers ripping off their bubble wrap and tape, someone shouted, "SnapOn's here!"

The ten or so frustrated SnapOn buyers present at the time all looked at each other. Without a word, they grabbed their hats and began marching for the open shop hanger door. Before John, the SnapOn salesman, had even put the truck in park, there was a line of determined mechanics barring his entrance to the school - legs spread, arms crossed, Mac hats on. After a pause in his truck, John stepped out, and without missing a beat, said, "Well, I can see you all have your Stupid Hats on today." Ian was the first to move. "John, we need to have a word with you..." Needless to say, when their tools arrived a week later, there were a few extra goodies included in their orders, priced at well above the average Mac Tools hat.

Thank you to all you men who contributed to Ian's "Tool Fund." The total for this major purchase was the exact amount you contributed at his tool shower. You carried what would have been a great burden for us to come up with over those months before the order, and these are tools that Ian will use for the rest of his life and ministry. God is so good! Thank you so much!

I went flying with a friend over Lake Couer d'alene and enjoyed the scenery so much I thought I would share it with you as well. As much as we are enjoying the maintenance side of our training we are all anxious to begin the flight portion next summer. Our hanger is nearing completion and we have two planes inside it already.

We have fish! Pirate and Treasure respectively.

This is the gear box of the plane that we are working on. We have made a number of new parts and the deeper we dig the more problems we have been finding that need repair. It has been a great learning experience. We also have a friendly reminder from our teachers of the seriousness of our work posted prominently.

School is going great. We are half way through the first quarter of Airframe. Right now I am staying busy with this Cessna 170 which has been in four crashes (that we know of) since it was born in 1949. It has been a neat privledge to work on and I am anxious to get it up flying again before too long, as is the owner.

We have graduated from General and are now in the Airframe portion of our A&P (Airframe and Powerplant) license. The past week we have been learning how to rivet and I took the liberty of practicing my new skill on an extracurricular project for the wife.

Tools

Today's adventure,

It's Tool Time. We broke the piggy bank and now we wait for that bright red Snap-on truck to show up.

School started soon after we arrived and I have been hard at work in the hanger learning how to fix airplanes and dreaming about flying them (summer of 2006). Moody has been a great school to be a part of and I am excited to learn how to work and fly with 24 other talented and focused young men. The picture here is of the Kodiak being built by Quest Aircraft Company in Sandpoint Idaho specifically for Missionary Aviation.

Leslie has settled into her job working for Beneficial Financial Group

...and small ones

We made friends quickly, Big ones...

We went on our first backpacking trip to Montana, only after I attempted to cut my finger off with our sharp new knives, so we met the local medical staff quickly.

Our little Home (Just the main floor anyways) 

We settled in amidst the boxes and were excited to begin our new life in Spokane

We survived the move with the help of our families

We had a fantastic time in Hawaii on Kauai and Maui

Narrowly escaped the reception

We had a wonderful time at the wedding