hi again

I haven't posted in a while... To my avid fans, I apologize. There has been lots going on at the ranch. So I will give as brief a look as I can!


206 Tom

Tom Regier, an incredible aircraft mechanic, has been with us for a few weeks. He taught at A&P school for more than 30 years, and has a shop specializing in aircraft rebuilds. His most recent project was rebuilding a mooney that got sliced in half by a hangar falling on it. He has gone with MAF a few times, just to do rebuilds for them. He has been a ton of fun to work with in the hangar, and it has been amazing to watch things happen with him cracking the whip. We have a 206 that looked like a broken egg shell when he started, and a 150 that sat around as a fuselage the past few years. The 150 flew on Tuesday, and the 206 has wings and windows installed. It wont fly until at least next year though, as boxes of engine pieces are on their way to Tom's shop in california to be built.

The 150 flies!! After sitting in the hangar for so long, I am sure 402 is happy to be in the air again.

KAC summer flight ops are basically done
for 2009. Most of the pilot/mechanic types have returned home or to LeTourneau for the next year of school. That leaves me here, wondering what's next.

What's next for Liz?
The job hunt is the big thing I am working on right now. I have dropped off applications and resumes, so I am waiting to hear back from a couple of those. As I am waiting to hear back, I am making more contacts, praying that God leads me to the right job.

I have really been questioning Whether God wants me to stay in Alaska, or if it is just a Liz thing. But God keeps providing little things that tell me He really wants me here. Its going to take a lot of endurance on my part, but God will provide. He gave me a good car a few weeks ago for an incredible deal. Just yesterday, I met someone who lives in Anchorage with a guest room. She invited me to stay with her for a few weeks when I get a job to get into town and find some housing. Please pray with me that God brings me the job I need to get me through the winter and this next year. I am so thankful for what he has provided so far.

-thanks to Lydia and Drew for the pics :)-

“Hey Liz, you did this right? You need to sign it off.” Ryan told me one warm afternoon in the hangar in Nairobi.
“But I don’t want to!” I informed him adamantly.
“why not?”
“I don’t want to admit that I did that!”
“Well, part of being an A&P is taking responsibility for your own work,” he told me. Begrudgingly, i scribbled my initials in the box. He was right, I did have to take responsibility for my work. It wasn’t a deep revelation, but it was the first time I really had to sign off my own work, even though it was a simple discrepancy that anyone in the hangar could have fixed.

I enjoyed working with Ryan in Kenya. He taught me a lot about fleet maintenance and working in a third world country. When we weren’t working, he was talking about motorcycles or watching videos of motorcycles. He graduated from LeTourneau, so we had fun comparing notes on which classes we loved, which professors gave the worst tests, and life in the ghetto of Longview. He and his awesome wife picked me up at the airport when I first got there, and encouraged me throughout my time in Kenya.

I think I heard Saturday morning that something had happened to him. I found out that afternoon that there was a plane crash in Nairobi, right off the airport where I worked, less than a mile from where I lived. I put a few more pieces together, and by Saturday evening, I realized that Ryan had been in the AIM AIR plane that crashed. The official statement is here

Ryan is really beat up, but he is going to survive it. The pilot did not make it. I had met Frank while I was there, but didn’t get to know him as well as I did the guys on the hangar floor. Please pray for Frank’s wife and four kids as they work through this difficult situation. Please pray for Ryan’s recovery and his wife and kids while they are going through this.

Please pray for AIM AIR. While I was there, they were under a probationary period where they analyzed every aspect of the operation and made necessary changes to make the operation as safe as possible. The AIM AIR family is mourning the loss of a brother.

I probably worked on that plane. I spent enough time on the 206s in Nairobi that it is very likely I turned a wrench on that plane. Sometimes I wonder why God wants me doing something as important as aircraft maintenance. Wouldn’t He be better off flying himself around with the angels? He doesn’t need me. He doesn’t even need these airplanes. But he loves us sooooo much that He wants us to be a part of His work. Even though all I do is drop tools on the ground, He wants to pick them up, just so He can stand next to me. Maybe he even wrote the laws of gravity so I would be reminded that its Him pulling the tools out of my hand and throwing them at the ground.
Even though all we pilots do is try not to bend the airplane when we get close to the ground, He gives us a nice soft pillow (we call it “ground effect”) to help cushion our landing, just so he can be there next to us. He created physics so we can get above the ground, to get a different perspective of the earth. Or maybe He let us figure out the lift formula so we can routinely jump into his arms in faith. We call it aerodynamics, but we know He is holding us up, getting us where He wants us.

what a wednesday...

Yeah I know its Thursday. But the excitement happened Wednesday. I got a car!

I have been hunting on craigslist for the past two months, and I found one for a really good price. The guy was selling for 350 dollas, a 1986 Honda Prelude with a few problems. So I took a couple of friends and headed down to check it out. Because of the problems, the guy lowered his asking price to 275. I was a little apprehensive, but I knew this was a good deal, especially if the car lasts. So we took it home to the ranch, about 60 miles from where we picked it up. It made it just fine, but it was apparent that the car was old and had some problems.

The neat thing about the Ranch is that people come from all over and just bring their expertise. It so happens that a japanese auto mechanic is here for a while helping fix up the cars on the ranch. Seriously? Could it work out any better? I told him about the problems, which he fixed, and did a tune up on the engine.

We took it out for a test drive tonight, and let me tell you it was full of joy. It will be a good car to get around, and we will be able to have some good fun with it. Its not exactly my dream car, but considering the price I paid, I am not going to complain. I named it shadow, as it is dark grey in color.

Thank you Lord for the blessing of a car. I needed it! I guess it is proof that I will be staying in Alaska for at least a little while.

Getting to Camp

As I said before, camp was absolutely incredible. I, along with the rest of us here at Kindgom Air Corps, could not have been more pleased. So here is a little of what happened...

Getting there
Dwayne has a phrase that has become somewhat cliche' around here: P.W.W.P. It stands for Pilot Willing, Weather Permitting. And most pilots know that one of the big go/no go decisions is based on the weather. Friday night as we were preparing, the weather looked beautiful, so we made the flight plan to head to Palmer for gas, then directly to Fairbanks from there where we would meet up with Jim and Cathy Congdon, and go directly to camp.
5 airplanes took off from the ranch around 9am, slowest leaving first and the fastest last. Beautiful sunshine greeted us, the terrible haze we had the past few days was clearing up, and we were all excited for camp. Palmer is the closest actual town to us here at the ranch, so it was just a short hop to the gas stop. But about halfway there, an unwelcomed guest made its presence known: low clouds. We got on the ground and went into the flight service station, checking up on weather. Mountain passes we socked in, and every way we thought to go, we wouldn't be able to make it through low clouds and poor visibility. So we stayed in Palmer a few more hours than we anticipated. As soon as the weather started breaking up, we loaded up and headed out. The flight to Fairbanks would take 2-3 hours, depending on which aircraft's speed is used for calculations. We went over Wasilla, probably straight over Palin's house, and up the Parks highway.
About halfway up the highway, the Cherokee 6 (6 seater, one of the fastest in our little fleet) started losing oil pressure. Thankfully there were several airstrips along the way, and it was dropping very slowly. We in the 206 landed to help them out. It ended up just needing some oil added and was functional from then on. Dwayne instructed them to fly at a higher altitude where the air is cooler to help keep the engine oil a little cooler.

Coming out of fairbanks, the 175 was having some radio trouble. Thankfully we had a handheld radio and capability to plug the headset into the radio. That problem being solved, we made our way to Bettles, crossing the arctic circle on the way. Dwayne gave the airplane a BUMP as we went over it so everyone would know where exactly is was. And he started telling story after story after story of flying over those mountains. At several points I used the pilot isolation switch and talked to the other guys on the radio.

At Bettles, we discovered the 152 starter was broken. It can still be hand propped to start, but it isnt quite as safe an operation. Before planes had electrical systems, the hand propping method was the only way to get the birds flying. Starters really are a luxury item if you think about it that way!

We arrived at camp late enough Saturday that we just went straight to bed, ready to pick up kids Sunday and get camp started Monday.

down south...

We are back at the ranch. Camp was excellent. It was really great to hang out with the kids from last year as well as a few new ones! More later :)

almost there

We leave Saturday morning for camp, as I mentioned before, so this is the last you will be hearing from me for the next few weeks. Things are going REALLY well with prep so far!! I feel like we are more ready than we have ever been before.

The inspections class, a group of 8 students from LeTourneau, will be returning to texas tonight. They have been here for almost a month, running annuals on several of the planes as well as working on some projects. They have been a huge blessing to have around working in the hangar, and we will miss them.

In honor of their departure and our heading off to camp, we are having a big "wing fling" as Dwayne calls it. He doesnt want to call it a "wing ding" as we do not wish to curse our flying. A few of us decided that a fling would be more detrimental than a ding while in flight. Hal will be singing, and we will be doing a skit that we are planning on doing up at camp. You have probably seen it before, but here it is in case you havent...


I am playing the part of the alcoholic... and during practices, everone tells me I do a great job acting drunk. Because THATS something to be proud of.

some things to be praying about the next few weeks:

-kids at camp. Pray that they will recieve the gospel and their hearts will be changed to accept it.
-safety in travel. Old airplanes, not very experienced pilots.
-good weather. There has been A LOT of smoke and haze in the area, reducing visibility to less than 5 miles in places.
-camp staff. pray that we will stay healthy, happy, unified, rested, and anything else you can think of :)
-those who aren't here this year. We have several who cannot be here because of various reasons.


Thanks everyone, over and out until I am back!

a weekend away and prepping for camp

I flew the 152 with Mark to Lake Clark this weekend for the 4th of July. It was a really fun trip. We got off a little later than intended, but we still made it fine. Unfortunately, after landing, we realized that we had burned a lot more gas than we had anticipated. The problem has not been solved yet, but we need to figure it out soon, as that plane is going to camp. At least I got to help find the problem!

Lake Clark pass is one of the most beautiful places on earth. Glaciers clinging to the walls of rugged mountains, and incredible water falls flowing from where the glaciers were melting. The glaciers weren't quite as incredible, as they were covered in ash from mount redoubt going off a few months ago.

A big picnic was going down at the farm lodge right across the runway from the Bible camp where we were staying. it was really cool, as I have several long lost friends from the good ol homeschooling days who work there during the summer.

Also, Samaritan's Purse's Casa showed up with the crew for the picnic. They do a lot of flying for the camp, bringing kids in and out, aside from actually building the camp buildings several years back. I continue to be impressed with their organization. I spent some time that afternoon talking with some of the pilots. Jay Hibbard, who I met in Kenya, showed us around the Casa, and described a lot of the work that was done to it. Its a really sweet plane. They have put a ton of work into it, and it really shows. We came back Sunday afternoon with no problems.

This week we are hitting the camp preperations as much as we can. It is going to be great this year. We will be leaving Saturday. Here are a few of the numbers:

Kingdom Air Corps people going to camp: 20
Airplanes flying to camp: 6 or 7
number of reconditioned old sparkplugs keeping us in the air: around 60
cost for the various village kids to come to camp: free
cost for us to run camp: 10,000 dollars

We had around 40 kids come to camp last year. I saw 2 girls in my cabin accept Christ as their savior for the first time. Its not the first time these kids have heard the gospel, but it could be the first time these kids get the gospel in a way they understand.

Our theme this year is Jesus' teaching and miracles. Pray that we prepare effective messages for these kids to really get the gospel!