More Airplanes

We have two new additions to our fleet here.

The first is a Piper Navajo that was stationed in the Philippines. JAARS is moving out of there (at least the aviation program) and selling the airplane. It was ferried back and arrived on Friday of last week. It took about 60 hours of flight time, according to one of the pilots. What a trip! They stopped at such places as Guam, Christmas Island, Hawaii.

The other is a new purchase. It is a Cessna 207 destined for Cameroon, Africa. It is basically a stretched 206 that sits 7 to 8 passengers, depending on configuration. It will be outfitted with a turboprop engine and then customized to JAARS standards. I don't know if there is a timeline yet of when they hope to have it in Cameroon.

I am still working on the engine for the 206 in Cameroon. It is going much faster now, and should be ready to put on the test stand by mid next week, if all goes well.

I have gotten permission from my family to look for flight instructing work again. I have put out a couple of resumes to local and not so local flight schools in hopes of getting about 2 to 3 days a week of evening or weekend work. I am going crazy without flying, and there is not really any hope of me flying JAARS planes until my technical evaluation in October. We will wait on the Lord for his provision.

We had a very nice visit from Brian Behal, the MAF recruiter yesterday. It is the third time he has been to visit us. He stayed for dinner and for conversation well into the evening. It was fun hearing some of his "jungle flying" stories!

Yesterday was somewhat of a milestone for me. Friday of last week, a cracked cylinder was found on the Cessna 206 used for training here. After the cylinder was removed, it was brought into the engine shop to be rebuilt. I did most of the "guts" work and turned it over to the other guys to be put back on the airplane. Yesterday it was returned for service and was flown again. So, that is the first time that I did any major work on an airplane that has flown! Small thing, but rewarding for me.