"God has called me to serve as a missionary aviator. This site is dedicated to glorify God by connecting with those He has put in my life to encourage and send me."
Purchased in Alaska, this Cessna 206 will begin a new life as a mission aircraft down in Brazil on the Amazon River with Asas de Socorro. We are doing a thorough restoration and placing the plane on floats.
What better way to enjoy the fall foliage than in an open cockpit plane. What better way to introduce someone to small aircraft flying than in an open cockpit plane!!! My friend Beth and I take a fall foliage tour while friends Scott, Brent, and Mary give chase.
CMML sent MMS an engine from one of their mission planes located in Zambia, Africa to be overhauled. After the overhaul we test and break in the engine on our test stand in the hangar.
The Moody Cessna 182 was delivered to MMS after a partial landing gear collapse. After nearly 2 years of major repairs, the aircraft finally returns home to train future mission pilots.
Those of you who serve with me in missions at MMS as prayer and financial support team members fill an extremely valuable role. You allow me to turn wrenches on mission aircraft at no labor charge to the organizations. This saves hundreds of thousands of dollars every year. These funds can be used to impact the world for God's glory!
Here is an overview of the projects currently being worked on at MMS. God has given us the unique opportunity to serve other aviation mission organizations with our hands. What an awesome way we get to glorify our creator!
It is always a rewarding experience to have friends and family volunteer in the hangar. It gives them an accurate view of what God is doing through MMS Aviation and also is a great encouragement to me.
It has been a whole new cultural experience living in the country. One of my good friends here in Coshocton is a dairy farmer. I can't imagine a healthier way to get my milk.
It's good to have old friends. My friend Matt Came to visit and volunteer in the MMS hangar for a week. It has been a fun change of pace to have him turning wrenches in the hangar. I invite any of you mechanically inclines individuals to come and volunteer sometime as well. Come see what MMS is all about.
Lots and Lots of paperwork!!! Like most cool jobs, there seems to be an outrageous amount of paperwork to be done as an aircraft mechanic. Some of the paperwork includes Service Bulletins.Every year aircraft manufacturers put out stacks of paperwork documenting service that is recommended on their aircraft. As a mechanic I must root through these stacks to find applicable Bulletins which apply to the aircraft I am working on. Watch this video to see an example of the work these Service Bulletins call for.
Here is the time lapse of the Moody Aviation Cessna 182 aircraft I referred to in the previous video. The several thousand photos that make up this short 2 minute video were actually taken over a couple week period!
I have the unique opportunity to be involved in another complete assembly of an aircraft. This aircraft belongs to Moody Bible College and was damaged in a training accident. Repairs were made and now we are completely reassembling the aircraft. Today we put the wings on.
Currently, I am working on a Cessna 206 belonging to Focus Aviation. Focus is an organization which prepares individuals to do the challenging type of flying they will do on the mission field. We are performing the annual inspection on this aircraft and my job today involves the control cables. Specifically I am increasing the tension on the elevator cables used to make the plane go up and down.
I'm on a new team now. My team leader is Mike Dunkley and I am enjoying my time with him so far. This project is a Cessna 206 (the workhorse of the missionary aviation world) that belongs to a mission organization in eastern Honduras. They use this aircraft for evangelism, emergency medical evacuations, training new missionary pilots, and many more practical purposes. I have the opportunity to work on an ingenious but complicated flight control system. This system allows the aircraft to be more effective on the mission field.
Well, just having a little fun here! But seriously, this was a tough project. I used up a ton of elbow grease to take these windows from scratched and dull to crystal clear and like new. Good exercise for me! I learned a lot - and chances are that operating off of unimproved strips in the future will result in some scratchy windows.
This aircraft was the first project I was a part of when I came to serve at MMS nearly 6 months ago. It took more than a year and I was able to participate in the last 4 months of work.
As a reminder - This Cessna 206 aircraft came from Chad Africa and belongs to Mission Aviation Fellowship. It was seriously damaged by storm winds and was shipped to us at MMS in order to return it to flight service in Africa.
This is a video made of several pictures taken in Africa as well as at MMS. The photos start with the parked aircraft the night before the storm and finish with the completed restoration. The video is Time Lapse photography I took of the disassemble of the plane which took place over a 4 day period. I took over 11,000 individual pictures with a digital still camera (one picture every 5 seconds)and wove them into a video (30 pictures = 1 second of video).
Enjoy a glimpse into what God has blessed me with the opportunity to be a part of!
Not everything is heavy duty repairs and restoration. Sometimes its a matter of the finishing touch. Here I share how my current job is to repair plastic instrument panels, repaint, and reinstall.