“Don’t fool yourself,” warned Alan Klapmeier, co-founder of Cirrus Aircraft. “The industry hoped 100LL would survive, but it is going away.”

What does that mean for you?

That’s what the industry and federal agencies are trying to figure out now.

The demise of 100LL was a hot topic at this year’s AOPA Aviation Summit. It was discussed during the opening general session, as well as in several forums throughout the show. While a lot of uncertainty exists about the future of aviation fuel, one thing is certain: A change is coming.

“And we will be ready for it,” said Rhett Ross, president of Teledyne Continental Motors, who noted the company has tested “all different types of fuels.”

It’s also a top priority at Lycoming Engines, where officials warn that this is one of the most complicated issues facing GA today.

“Be wary of the five-minute sound bite,” said Michael Kraft, senior vice president. “We have just one shot at this, so we need to make the right decision.”

“Certification costs in time and money are such that the industry can only afford to make this change once,” added Earl Lawrence, vice president of industry and regulatory affairs for the Experimental Aircraft Association. “Whatever change we make, it better be right. We need to move deliberately.”

But why do we need to change?

A LITTLE HISTORY

Tetra-ethyl lead (TEL) had been added to fuel since the 1920s. After it was identified as a neurotoxin, it began to be phased out in the 1970s. In 1990, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) mandated that it be gone by 1995. “It is considered one of the EPA’s biggest successes,” said Glenn Passavant, director of the EPA Nonroad Center.

Through lobbying, avgas was exempt from that mandatory phase out because the aviation industry said it just wasn’t ready.

“Avgas isn’t mogas — it’s anything but that. It is made in specialty batches and transported separately. It’s the only fuel with TEL added at the terminal,” he added, noting that it’s an important ingredient to increase octane, which prevents knocking. “It’s especially important to higher compression engines. When you need that octane, you need that octane.

That said, “20 years is a long time to not have a solution,” Passavant noted.

Time is officially running out. New national air quality standards are set to take effect soon, while the EPA is expected to make a finding on a three-year-old petition from the Friends of the Earth that claims avgas endangers the public health and welfare. “The petition requires the EPA to take action,” he said.

He estimates findings from the EPA’s investigation will result in rulemaking in the next 12 to 18 months, while the agency is looking at the “2016-2017 time frame” for a final solution. “There’s still a lot of work to be done,” he said.

MOVING ON

That’s an understatement. As the EPA investigation continues, the aviation industry is searching for an alternative fuel, as well as developing engines that will fly safely on that fuel, whatever it is.

The big concern for the engine manufacturers are not the new engines — they know they can develop those. It’s the existing fleet that cause for worry, according to TCM’s Ross.

Making sure the existing fleet isn’t grounded by the demise of 100LL is the focus of the Future Avgas Strategy & Transition Plan — known as FAST — which is being developed to determine how the industry will get from “where we are today to the new fuel,” Passavant said.

The plan, expected to be complete this year, studied the viability of potential fuels, including low-octane 87-89 mogas — which was determined to be unacceptable — mid-octane UL94, which would require a lot of engine modifications and result in a loss of performance, and high octane synthetic or biofuels, such as the one being developed by Swift Fuels.

“That is very promising,” he said. “It is the equivalent — or better — than 100LL, but it is still in development, so it’s not available. Also, there’s no infrastructure, so it’s a complete uncertainty.”

That’s why the industry keeps coming back to UL94, which would require “some minor changes” to how aircraft owners operate, as well as some modifications. Those modifications could range from something simple, like a belt-on ignition, with a price tag of $5,000 to $10,000, to a requirement for electronic controls, which come with price tags up to $30,000, according to Passavant. “There also may be a portion of the fleet that can’t be modified,” he warned.

UL94 would be the easiest replacement for 100LL as the distribution structure is in place and it can be “more easily certified, which is an important point,” TCM’s Ross said.

But will it be compatible with your engine?

“There’s been substantial testing in low-compression engines,” Ross said. “Some will need just minor modifications — some changes could be just a change to the POH. For most normally aspirated engines, if 100LL went away today, they could be converted.”

There are some engines, however, that will require substantial — read expensive — modifications.

The assessment of UL94 continues, especially in the areas of performance and certification. “It will affect operating cost and range,” Passavant said.

So what’s next? A lot of work for everyone involved.

A fleet impact assessment is needed, as well as a transition plan. Then the modifications will have to be developed and certified — and installed and paid for.

Meanwhile, the industry also has to continue developing new engines and new fuels.

All this so we can “keep ‘em flying,” said the EAA’s Lawrence.

“This is really, truly here,” he said. “I feel like the boy who cries wolf, because I’ve been saying this is coming for 20 years now. What’s different now is that the EPA and FAA say it is going away.”

What’s taken so long, he said, is that when one problem is solved — a fuel is identified that will get an engine to run safely — another pops up — like “how are we going to make it work in the distribution system?” he said. “There’s a lot bigger picture here. That’s what we’re struggling with.”

EAA’s position is that it will support as many alternative fuels as possible, to ensure that a safe fuel is available — and perhaps more important — affordable.

Another important point: “No one says we must go to a zero lead fuel,” said the EPA’s Passavant. “If there are going to be multi-billion dollar effects, there must be another way to do it. Let’s come up with a creative solution.”

Thinking about fuel is a whole new ball game for the FAA, added Mark Rumizen, a reciprocating engines/fuels specialist with the agency. “We had one fuel, historically, and airplanes and engines were designed and optimized to operate on 100LL. We didn’t have to think about fuel certification.”

When the EAA and others started developing autogas STCs, the emphasis was still on making the fuel fit the engines, he noted.

“But with the unleaded fuels and Swift Fuel, we’re working backwards,” he said. “It creates a challenge. We have to think differently.”

The FAA is depending on ASTM to develop fuel specifications, he said, adding the industry should look for a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) in 2010.

Meanwhile, the FAA’s 2011 budget includes funding for research on alternative fuels for GA. The agency also is working with the X-Prize Foundation to develop a contest for alternative fuels. “That should help spur development in this area,” he said.

WHAT IS SWIFT FUEL?

Swift Enterprises, Ltd. is developing an unleaded 100LL replacement fuel, called 100SF, that exceeds the energy content and octane number of 100LL, according to company officials. The new fuel contains two chemical components that, when mixed together, meet or exceed most performance parameters of 100LL. Because of this, 100SF requires minimal engine modification to run in the current GA fleet.

100SF can be produced from any organic matter that contains sugar of cellulose, company officials add.

For more information: SwiftEnterprises.net.

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This article originally appeared in GA News

Janice Wood · November 29, 2009

I digress…

I had to buy my own mains and looking at my budget had to decide where to spend $ for those little extras.  Landing gear was not on that list.  For what I’d spend on fancier Aluminum (and admittedly lighter, cooler looking and more straightforward) I could get standard steel legs, fairings and enough left over for a Todd’s Canopy, get my seats covered locally.

Thanks to Vern Darly for alerting me, one day someone put up a set of brand new gear legs (still in the wrapper from Vans), hardware and the fairings.  I got the whole shootin’ match for I think about $300 plus shipping.  ‘Nough said about costs savings.

However as I am in the gear install phase, I finally opened them up, laid them out only to notice they didn’t match.  Something was wrong.

The ears on each end were bent out with the end that attaches to the fuse out by about 3/8′ (see image below):

You get the idea (Click to enlarge)

I was a little concerned as Van’s has a policy that they will not replace or swap parts if you are a second hand purchaser, even for new parts.  I was concerned about how to best go about fixing this.  Without adjustment the right gear (bent gear leg) would cause the right side of the aircraft to be lower and not set level.

However as I talked to another RV builder (Smokey Ray) about it I happened to mention that there was also a bow in the main section  of that leg (between the two ears) and the light came on:  All I needed to do was get that section straightened by taking out that slight bow and the ends should be back in the correct angle.  I’m off today to get that done or find a shop locally to do it.

Here is a shot showing the bow.  I know it’s kind of hard to see, but you get the idea:

Notice the gap along the straight edge in center (Click to enlarge)

Closeup with gap highlighted (Click to enlarge)

My question is: How’d these get out of the door like this?  QC? Oh well, at least it’s fixable.

Whatever the case, no matter what paint you go with, well cured paint will last longer than improperly cured paint.  Curing refers to the paint becoming harder due to the solvents (carriers) working themselves out leaving the parts that won’t evaporate behind.  That takes time but can be accelerated by using heat.

Simple milk crate lined -shiney side up- with aluminum foil and clip on 250 watt restaurant-style red heat lamp. (Click on image to enlarge)

My work professionally in the Amazon rainforest with Mission Aviation Fellowship gave me a lot of day to day A&P experiences most don’t get here in the US.  We learned to make do with what we had at hand as there were no Walmart or Home Depot Aviation Departments.  We did a lot of painting as we touched up the planes, did minor sheet metal repairs and so on.  Add to that we didn’t use 2 part epoxy (ala Imron) unless we could mix up at least one pot and use it all.  Therefore often, we used rattle can paint for these small jobs.  It worked fine in a real world/production environment where safety came first.

But to do that in the rain forest where we got between 20-30 FEET of rain a year, we had to use heat boxes to cure the rattle can paint projects.  We often left them in these boxes over night.

That said, I needed/wanted to heat cure some of my small pieces from time to time to harden the rattle can paint and this was my $6/10 minute device.  The photo at left is of the tailwheel weldment for my RV-8 after spraying with Rustoleum Professional lt. gray primer and gray top-coat.

The point is, you don’t have to get fancy to get results.  Like Mr. Clark said when building one of his “devices” to use on the bad guys in Tom Clancey’s Without Remorse: “Good enough is good enough”.

It looked to be fairly simple, but as I tried to wiggle the tailwheel weldment (WD409) into place without removing anything significant  that proved impossible.

Then I tried simply to start the cutout for the tube, hoping it would free up enough room for rear part for the weldment to poke through the skin and allow the piece to settle into position.  No joy there either.

Finally the last resort choice was to drill out the skin, and lift it up, clam-shell style,  enough so that the weldment would pop into place, which it did. (see below)

Side View: Sorry, it's a little blurry, but it was late when I remembered to shoot this. WD409 weldment placed for alignment before drilling and painting. . But you get the idea. (Click on image to enlarge)

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Here is a rear view placing and preparing to drill.

Rear view: This just shows the assebly laying in it's slot (Click on image to enlarge)

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WD-409 painted and the AN4 bolts torqued.  The original primer got fairly scuffed in during the surgery but I’ll buff out and repaint everything before re-assembly.

Click to enlarge

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Notch cut out started (Click to enlarge)

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Notice reference marks made with Sharpie before I removed the skin to help in repositioning the  skin correctly.  The reason is that the bulkheads are a little flexible and will shift as the skin is re-positioned so using the the rivet holes alone as a reference isn’t good.

WD 409 in, skin cleco'd and ready to rivet back (Click to enlarge)

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Tomorrow I’ll get it zipped up (i.e. riveted) and start on the main gear install.  Sah-weeeet!

As you can see there is a good 1/4" to 3/8" that the F802C can still go over (Click to enlarge)

What I noticed was that the F802-C (the top plate on the gear tower-see photo) and it’s overlap of the F887 top longeron seem off a tad.  According to Van’s drawings, the overlapping aluminum should pretty much cover the top lonergon up to the F822 side skin.  There is between a 1/4″ to 3/8″ gap (again, see photo).  It is possible for me to “nudge” it over, but only about another 1/8″.  This would give me reasonable edge distance for riveting, but still not cover the top longeron per drawings.

I placed a thred on Van’s Air Force forums and will see what some of the other builders say and post that here.  Feel free to post here as well if you are a builder and have input.

The reason I post this is that the parts are all -1 (pre-punched parts) and it would have been difficult if not impossible for me to have anything mis-aligned due to to my error.

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March 3, 2010 Followup

Here it is after drilling complete with 1/8" gap (Click to enlarge)

I was able to get good alignment with just palm pressure, but went ahead and used ratchet straps just to hold things in place while I drilled.  Ended with 1/8″ gap between  802C and outer edge of  F887 longeron.  Good  enough.  Here is a final photo (left).

This is not my design, but a common approach already completed by many RV-8 builders.  This is just a photo log of my gear tower mod project.

There are many people who have done this many ways.  Special thanks to Axel Alvarez for his template which he kindly mailed to me.  Thanks Alex! If you want to see any photos bigger for detail, just click on the image and it will enlarge significantly (800 x 500 pixels+/-)

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Here is the whole shootin' match, the RV-8 gear tower assembly, cleco'd together before the mod (Click to enlarge)

Essentially this revolves around one of the gear tower pieces, F-802C (in my pre-1 plans) being modified so that you can get inside the gear tower structure to (buck rivets, tighten nuts, fittings) without losing your religion.

Close-up of the offending F-802C (Click to enlarge)

First off, why do it? Well my hands and forearms are just too darn big to do much through those tiny holes, much less, hold a bucking bar or turn a wrench.

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Take a straight edge and draw two lines with a Sharpie (Click to enlarge)

So what’s a guy to do?  Cut out this web of .040 aluminum (the area between the Sharpie lines)

But the question is always, “Won’t that weaken this crucial area?”

Well, I’m just an A&P and not an engineer.  I understand what is going on (stress factors) but have relied on others (an aeronautical engineer/RV-8 builder for example) to run the numbers and show that the mod, may if anything make this area stronger!

Here is what the removed piece amounts to.  Not much!

It aint much! (Click to enlarge)

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Finished cutout (Click to enlarge)

Here is the completed F-802C top plate with cut-out done.(left side only here)

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.040 cover and template (Click to enlarge)

Next you need another piece of .040 2024 to make the cover plate.  Thanks to local RV builder, Mike “Fossil” Ballard, who had two 8 x 12 spare pieces in his shop, I was able to get it done quickly.

Several guys have good info on the Van Airforce site also on this (Mike Stewart, Dan Horton and Alex Alvarez)  They all ran the numbers and I was convinced it was a safe mod.  Mike’s is a little more straightforward, but he hasn’t had any problems with his version.

Alex went so far as to make his template available.  I made my own based on his description and was happy to see his template matched mine.  Nice thing about his was he already had the holes marked, which saved me a few more precious minutes.

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Marking the top plate for drilling (Click to enlarge)

Nuff said.  Don’t wonder or ask what the vise grip is on there for.  I forget.

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Match drilling the two pieces with pilot holes (Click to enlarge)

I positioned the cover plate over the hole in the F-802 piece with the side angles cleco’d on to make sure spacing didn’t get off (look at the back side of the F-802C). I then drilled the top (of radius) holes on each end, cleco’d those then drilled the rest all with #40 drill for pilot holes.

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Top plate with pilots for #19 holes (later) and additional holes for nut plates. (Click to enlarge)

Next I removed the top plate after match drilling, and marked and drilled for the K-1100 nut plates.

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Nut plates installed. Squeezer is great here! (Click to enlarge)

I went ahead and drilled all the holes for screws the correct sizes (#19 for the screws and others already done with #40 for nutplate rivets)

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Dimpled both pieces with dimple dies. (Click to enlarge)

I guess you could mechanically countersink these, but being where it is, I (personal preference) didn’t want to removed any more material.  So I dimpled these.

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Here it is temporarily cleco'd in for reference & scale (Click to enlarge)

In the end, there are several ways to skin this cat.  Of course, many people have built their 8’s without this mod and that’s fine.

But as for me and my hands….I’m pleased with the result.

O-360, Slick Mags and 14mm auto plugs (Click to enlarge)

I’ve seen this question pop up on forums: “Can you use 14mm plugs with Slick Mags?”

The engine I have for my RV-8 is a zero time O-360 (B2B) from Schmidt Aviation in Florida (@ FXE).  It is set up with Slick mags and uses 14mm Auto plugs.

This is just a short post and photo of that about the plugs and Slick combo as opposed to the more common EI with auto plugs.

It was test run at Schmidt has new cylinders, fuel pump, oil pump, and starter.  Everything else is re manufactured at Schmidt.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here we are with new -8 skins cleco'd on. Yeah! (Click to enlarge)

Getting the twist in the lower longerons on each end and the “flair” to the rear of each longeron was more mentally fatiguing than doing it.

Once those were done, I cleco’d the side skins on, added the firewall, and began playing with relocating everything to match the firewall and existing top longeron holes and placement.  Again, no biggy.

Next, starting with the left side, using the tabs on the side skin for reference and some pincher visegrips I drilled through the sideskin holes in a few key locations, cleco’d those, then did the rest.  Ditto for right side.

Now slip in the bottom skin, cleco’d it along the spar on each front & back row, matched up the lower longerons with the side of the bottom skin and again, drilled a few key holes, cleco’d them, then did the rest.

Done.

Next step will be to dimple as needed, prep the lower longerones (countersink as needed, prime etc).

The ContourHD from VHold (Click on image to enlarge)

This is a video using the ContourHD video camera from a company called Vhold.

A lot of RV aircraft owners have used the Flip Video camera, which is good.  Then there’s the Sony Xacti.  Uses a card for memory, but has a pistol-grip like form factor.  The height on both these cameras I believe could lead to shake on both units if attached using the tripod mounts they come with.

However this ContourHD has a better form factor (low profile) for cockpit video (looks like a red dot scope for a pistol actually) and has mini SD card slot.

The Flip on the other hand has on board memory, meaning you’ll have to download the video when it get’s full. With the ContourHD you can just pop in a new card.  And let’s face it, SD cards (even mini SD) are cheap these days.

I do wish though, they would all add a microphone input!

Anyway, here’s Alex’s video basically straight out of the camera.  Thanks Alex!  (Watch him grin after each maneuver!)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Alex’s website: www.n66ap.alexap.com

Here I am drilling out the rivest to get the side skins off. I like to use a slightly undersized drill when doing this so as to minimize chance of buggering up the hole. (Click to enlarge)

Actually the process of converting the RV-8A to an -8 starts by removing the firewall, foreward left, right and bottom skins.  Because the previous owner thought ahead, he stopped before riveting everything together and used just enough rivets to make the fuselage sturdy for handling like moving around the shop.

I only had to remove a total of about 70 rivets and some AN hardware and the whole process took about an hour.

Next step will be remove the needed parts from the old skins (misc. brackets, nut plates & hardware I can re-use, etc.) and re-rivet onto new skins, dimple the new skins, twist and drill the new bottom aluminum angles, then simply re-install the three skins and firewall.

Everything off with only the two top longerons exposed and spar section. Notice to the left on the floor the old skins, and to the right on the floor the new skins (Click to enlarge)

After that, install the gear towers and bottom cooling panels.

Once I get the towers in it’s time get’r on her legs and install the tailwheel.

Stay tuned!

So tonight that was accomplished.  Pretty straight forward.

Make F-817 plate
Countersink and prime F-817
Attach F-817 (see notes on riveting)
Position WD-808 (seatback) in relation to rails & drill holes
Make spacer & prime
Attach WD-808 with AN hardware, torque 20-25 in. pounds
Done.

NOTES:

1. Main thing as I saw it was to make sure WD-808 is level and distance from center-top of rear seat bulkhead and any given hole (L&R) was the same. Make sure fuse is level, left to right, or leveling the WD-808 bar is exercise in futility.
2. Also, I was fortunate that the WD-808 fit perfectly without needing any pulling in or pushing out of the fuse structure as suggested might be needed in the manual.
3. Riveting the uppermost rivets in the F-817 plate are tough.  I ended up using some very large end wrenches (1-1/2″ & 1-1/4″) as bucking bars.  Worked surprisingly well (some are on floor in photo).
4. I had hard time finding distance from WD-808 to top edge of F-817.  It’s 8/32″ mas o’ menos.

Here are a couple of “enroute” photos of the process. Click on the images to enlarge them.

WD-808 in place. I measured every possible distance and used level to make sure we were okdoky. (Click to enlarge)

Close-up before final drilling. Almost missed the detail showing the approx 8/32 edge distance of WD-808 to top of F-817 to make room for spacer (Click to enlarge)

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Click here to view the embedded video.

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Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

With our daughter, Sarah (3rd from left) at her senior art exhibit at Cal Baptists University in Riverside, CA. Click to enlarge

Was just getting seat back weldment about ready to install [preparing to remove the forward structure] and had a previous trip for my daughter’s senior art show in Los Angeles.  Oh, well.  Really good part is she graduates from college in a month!

She is a talented artist who actually wants to work in art museums in the curator area someday.

Once I get back I’ll get the WD-808 bolted on for extra support laterally and just as an extra measure of rigidity, then off comes the bottom skins, side skins and the two bottom aluminum angle pieces.  That’ll take all of ten minutes.

Then I’ll just need to drill the angles to match the skins and “get’r done”.

Patience may be a virtue, but it’s hard to be virtuous being so close yet so far.

Videos will start flowing during this phase.

While waiting on some tools from Avery, I went ahead and cleco'd the towers just for fun. Click to enlarge

Well this is post number one on this adventure.

The first thing I will be doing  is converting a partially finished RV-8A (tricycle gear) to a conventional gear arrangement (i.e. taildragger) also know as the RV-8.  A lot of people on the forums cautioned and wondered if this was even feasible.  Yes it is in my case.  Here’s why:

1. I bought the project at just the right point to make the conversion relatively easy, albeit drilling out about 100 rivets and replace a few skins.
2. None of the 8A gear [tower] structure had been added
3. The replacement parts vs. the resale value of the parts on hand (all new: legs, towers, engine mount, front wheel/tire) will just about balance each other out even considering the discounting for second hand parts on the forums.

That said, let me thank Ken Krueger at Vans for his awesome efforts to help me.  We spoke at Oshkosh and he suggested I consider basically removing everything forward of the spar and reconstructing with new RV-8 side & bottom skins plus the gear towers and re-installing.  “Wow”, I thought.  That was more than I guessed I’d have to do ( just add gear towers).  But in reality it isn’t that big of a deal.  Just sounded a bit daunting.

Mainly that is because the previous owner had several people like me had mentioned they might consider changing his project from an 8A to 8, so he stopped at a good spot without adding too many more rivets than needed.  For example he had not installed the top forward skin making the tower install relatively simple for me.

Bottom line: Ken went through the drawings using my photos and sent me a good sized parts list.  What a dude!  But now that I’m into it (again watch the coming video), I see his wisdom.  Thanks Ken!

Basically here’s what needs to happen

1. I will remove & replace the forward side skins (L&R) and bottom skin.
2. I am replacing the bottom angle (L & R)
3. Bench build towers
4. Install towers
5. Install main gear/wheels
6. Install tailwheel weldment and assembly (wheel, spring tube, etc.)

Once this is finished things should move along at a good clip (again watch the videos to see where I am starting).

From our hometown newspaper after being accepted with MAF (click to enlarge)

I was involved in this area of aviation basically for 17 years.  Three in training at Moody Aviation (at that time in Elizabethton, TN, now in Spokane, WA), and 14 with Mission Aviation Fellowship (8 as pilot/mechanic and 6 as a stateside recruiter).  All that to say, this is based on my own experiences as well having talked with hundreds, I don’t know…maybe thousands of people over the years.

This posts title is one question that I heard a lot, maybe not always vocalized quite that literally, but you could hear it in the tone of other questions or statements like:

“How much do they pay you to do this?”
“Must be exciting, but isn’t your wife scared you’ll get killed?”
“What do your kids do for school?”
“Don’t your kids miss their friends here?”
“Aren’t there a lot of snakes?  I hate snakes.”
“Must be hard on your parents, you being so far away and all, them not being able to see their grandkids.”
“Aren’t you afraid you’ll crash in the jungle?”
“How do you communicate with those people down there?”
“Well you can always come back home and fly for the airlines couldn’t you?”
“How long do you think you do this before coming home?”

….they go on and on.  You get the idea.

First, my story.  How I got into this.

People are surprised to learn I was not in the military or an ex-airline pilot first of all.  That’s a popular misconception a lot of people have about this type flying.

I was actually a businessman in Atlanta, Georgia, doing fairly well. We lived in a nice swim& tennis subdivision in suburban Atlanta.

I was in my early thirties and had come to know Jesus Christ as Savior in my late twenties (aka “became a Christian”).  Then for the next several years I began to study what the Bible actually had to say about life and how to live it versus what I thought I knew. Simply put, I began to realize that we are not put here for our own pleasures.

We are put here for many reasons, and while self fulfillment of your God given abilities is not wrong, it’s at best only one of a myriad of reasons.  Others are: help people, learn to love the unlovely, go out of your way for others as a way of life and not for a pat on the back, and so on.  What I discovered that my specific area of abilities were more in the area of service to others.  Some are better at teaching, others and giving of their resources, others are very insightful, others encouragers.  But my gifts fell into the area of serving mainly.

So at the age of 32 or so I began searching for ways to serve people possibly as a way of life.  But let me be clear, it wasn’t a call to be in ministry or let alone be a missionary.  No I was just looking to get involved with a company, or organization where I could put my serving skills to work  as a layman or maybe even full-time in Atlanta.

“What about talents?” you may ask.  That’s different.  Talents (artist, speaker, mechanic, athlete, etc.) are useful in the area you are gifted in (serving, teaching, giving, etc).  Don’t confuse the two.

My talents were in the creative and speaking realm.  My college degree was in Communications with a minor in graphic arts.  That about says it all.

So I began looking into a lot of exciting opportunities.  One was with a Christian film maker in Atlanta, another with the Walk Through the Bible folks, another was just working with a successful Christian owned business. But they and many others all fell through over a period of two years.

Having actually given up on that concept I decided to just be a witness where I worked and that’s be that.

Then one day I was making marketing calls to potential clients and called Moody Bible Institute in Chicago.  You see at the time I worked for a company that brokered jet fuel and avgas (and I wasn’t even a pilot then).  I had seen their flight school (Moody Aviation) listed, that they had a number of aircraft  and wanted to sell them fuel for their fleet.  Logical thought.

One thing led to another. That was in 1989.  In 1990 our family found ourselves in Elizabethton, TN enrolled at Moody Aviation. I was there for the next three years (1990-93) getting my commercial pilots license, instrument rating and the airframe & powerplant mechanics license.  I graduated in 1993 and joined Mission Aviation Fellowship (aka MAF) that same year. One year after that (1994) we were in San Jose, Costa Rica studying Spanish for one year before eventually arriving to our base of operations, Shell, Ecuador in 1995.  I was forty.

I hope I captured the speed at which this all happened.  It was a whirlwind indeed.

Training to be a missionary pilot is more than stick & rudder

Doors opened to Moody Aviation almost effortlessly it appears to many.  However the training was hard and we had our days there when we asked ourselves “What have we gotten ourselves into?” .  God knew we needed training in more ways than one: Learning that God is faithful and to trust Him completely even when it hurts a little, maybe even a lot.  Examples?  My mother died while at Moody after a month in ICU.  My sister became terminally ill during that time. My wife had a miscarriage.

But while these situations were heart wrenching, we also saw God work so many incredible miracles.  Let me give one example.

The first winter there was brutal to a southern boy like me.  We were cold most of the time it seemed with only a small wooden stove for heat.

I had decided we would use a credit card and buy a nicer, bigger wood stove.  They ran about $500.

Then one day a I got a call from a recent Moody Aviation grad who said someone had told him I was looking for a bigger wood stove and that he had an older one that just needed a little work.  So I went to look at it and was surprised at what good shape it was in.  The guy just gave it to me saying someone had given it to him (Paying it forward before paying it forward was cool).  But here’s the really cool part.  Read on…

So I bring the stove home after making a few repairs in the shop at Moody, set it up, and realize, now I need a lot of wood.

The next day while I am at Moody Aviation, my wife gets a knock on the door.  It was a tree trimming foreman working with a crew on our street.  The city was cutting down all of the old Maples and Oaks on our street.  He asked if he could use our phone.

Noticing the stove he asked, “You all need wood for that stove?”

“Yes!” Trish said.

The next thing she knew he had measured the firebox and said, “I’ll have my crew cut all these trees on your street up the right size for your stove”.

That was eight cords of wood neatly stacked in front of my house and that supply lasted us nearly the next two years.

Total cost for the new wood stove and two years of wood: ZERO!

That’s how I’ve seen God work in the lives of others as well.

But when you experience this first hand, it should cause a chill to run down your back on the one hand and smile come on your face on the other.

God is perfect.  His plans are perfect.  Sometimes we just tend to want to do it our own way and frankly…. we just slow things down.

Training to be a missionary pilot is more than stick & rudder.  It is a family affair and everyone has to be on board and God will use the flight and maintenance curriculum yes to prepare you technically, but as importantly, as a backdrop for His greater training in faithfulness and for His greater purpose.

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In Part 2: Discussing the role of the missionary pilot.  If you want to be a missionary pilot just because you like to fly and want to use your skills for God, please think again.

RV Builder Tom Berge talks with Bob Collins of RV Builder's Hotline (Click to enlarge)

This podcast comes from the RV Builder’s Hotline (www.rvbuildershotline.com) developer Bob Collins.

Bob writes:

“The Upper Midwest — Minnesota, specifically — is one of the hotbeds of RV airplane building; it certainly ranks with Texas and the Pacific Northwest. And there, everyone who knows RVs, knows Tom Berge.

Tom has built two RVs, and he certainly enjoys flying his RV-7A and visiting the world that a good experimental airplane opens up to us, but he also has found a love for helping other RV builders.

In the first (of what I hope will be many) “airport conversations”, Tom and I discuss his RV-building history, tips for the RV builders, and the motivation to keep going.”

What makes the RV community so rich is the diverse group we are.

Enjoy

Normal day flying in Ecuador was 15-20 take-off & landings per day. Typical strip length 400-500 meters. Strip conditions dry to muddy. We got 30 feet of rain per year.

My first website was about our family’s ministry and lives in the magnificent rain forest of eastern Ecuador.  This was it kind of,  Junglepilot.org

The goal here is to add back a lot of that content and go down memory lane.

As I pull up stories from those days I will add here.

This article is taken from Christianity Today and is based on a recent study by Dr. Kurt Ver Beek of Calvin College.  His findings are surprising I’m sure to most rank and file Christians.  However I’m not so sure those of us who spent years on mission assignments are shocked.

Each year in Shell, Ecuador, we as mission community (4-5 mission agencies) hosted hundreds of people who came with genuine, good, heart-felt reasons no doubt.  However in the end you have to ask: What was the actual financial cost and would it be better stewardship of time (of both missionaries and the work teams) and of those resources to have just supported the work of the mssionaries directly and more substantially with those finances?

Read on…

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Missionaries don’t keep giving after they return; hosts prefer money to guests, Calvin sociologist finds.

Short-term mission trips to foreign countries are the biggest trend to hit the evangelical Christian outreach scene since vacation Bible school. Between 1 million and 4 million North American Christians reportedly participated in STMs in 2003, and the number keeps rising.

Praises and critiques of the trend tend to be proportionately extreme, touting STMs either as miraculous recruiters of long-term missionaries or insidious sowers of third-world dependency.

But a new study, to which I contributed the literature review, suggests both sides are off the mark.

According to Kurt Ver Beek, professor of sociology and third-world development at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, traditional STMs don’t do much at all.

That conclusion might sound odd to those familiar with any of the with the 50-odd dissertations written on the subject in the last 15 years, or with Roger Peterson’s well-known studies in the subject. Most of these papers conclude that STMs significantly increase participants’ spirituality, financial giving to missions, prayer for missions, likelihood to become career missionaries, and so on.

But in his survey of 127 North American short-termers and 78 Hondurans for whom they built new homes after 1998’s devastating Hurricane Mitch, Ver Beek found that neither group had experienced notable life changes.

Why such different conclusions? Ver Beek ascribes the difference, in part, to methodology. Many previous studies involved small sample sizes, interviewed short-termers soon after their trips—while they were still on a missions “high”—or failed to take into account social desirability bias, the human tendency to exaggerate one’s goodness in surveys and interviews, he writes.

Few checked reports of increased giving against other sources, such as church giving records, and almost none solicited opinions from people in the third world who received STM groups, he says.

Ver Beek’s study is unusual in that it does both. The results, therefore, are also unusual.

While 52 percent of respondents claimed to have increased their giving to the sending organization after the trip, according to the organization’s records 70 percent of the participants in their STM trips to Honduras didn’t send in a single direct donation in the three years after the trip.

Collection-plate giving from the congregations involved did go up by an average of $2,600 a year, but Ver Beek says that’s nothing worth shouting about.

And when he interviewed the Hondurans whose homes the missionaries rebuilt, he found that if given the choice, they’d prefer short-termers stayed home and just sent down money, “thereby using less resources on their own travel expenses and more on the people they intend to help.”

“The truth is that they don’t have to come here to build homes. … If they come, they should come for the friendships, for the cultural exchange,” says one Honduran NGO worker quoted in the study.

Unfortunately, Ver Beek found that few lasting friendships were built. While 92 percent of the North Americans said they had meaningful contact with Hondurans for at least part of every day of their trip, less than a quarter stayed in touch with their Honduran friends after they returned home.

“While we were there, you know, you have notions of maintaining contact with them, but we never have,” says one short-termer quoted in the study.

“This study shows that short-term missions as done now are not having the impact that people think or want, even if done to levels of excellence,” says Ver Beek. “If that’s true, it requires a whole rethinking of whether or not we’re going to do this, and if so, how.”

His proposal: It’s not enough to stress the importance of orientation and debriefing as ways of augmenting the short-term mission experience—something you’ll hear from any STM expert worth her salt. Instead, the STM needs to be treated as one small module that augments a much longer and more intense course of learning.

Peterson, for his part, applauds Ver Beek’s attempts to verify giving reports and fill in the third-world side of the equation, but questions some of his calculations. “The data appears to be manipulated with a strong bias,” he says.

Ver Beek freely admits that others could interpret his data differently. “It’s true, there was a small increase in giving. But after all the time and effort and money spent on these trips, is an increase of a few dollars success?”

For Ver Beek, who has lived in Honduras for most of the last 20 years and worked closely with community development organizations, the answer is no.

Peterson, president of STM sending agency STEM Ministries, also questions the assumption that the money raised for STMs would be available for direct donation to third world organizations. Most people are simply less willing to aid a distant cause than to help a friend or coworker go on a trip, he says.

“What I would do would be to increase fees to hire Honduran workers to work side by side with the volunteers,” says Peterson. That way, the money would be sure to be raised, third world workers would be given work, and North Americans could still participate in valuable cultural and spiritual sharing.”

Ver Beek is directing a follow-up study involving more than 1,000 STM participants and third world beneficiaries in Honduras, Haiti, Kenya, and Thailand.

He plans develop orientation curriculums for both North American STM groups and for the third world communities they visit. Until now, orientation for third-world beneficiaries has usually amounted to, “They’re showing up next week! Clear out the church, and here’s the mattresses!” says Ver Beek.

Abram Huyser Honig is a freelance writer and photographer living in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

Enjoy!

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MAF in Ecuador

This first one is of a landing into Tiweano.  This strip is the base where Wycliffe Bible translators labored for twenty five years on the New Testament translation for the Waorani Indians.  I made a bunch of takeoff and landings into Tiweano.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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MAF in Indonesia (Excellent! Five stars!)

Click here to view the embedded video.

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SAMAir Jungle flying video. They work in South America in Peru.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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MAF in Ecuador – Pilot Sean Canon (here’s his blog/website)

These are great talk-you-through-it videos of high precision jungle flying ops.  Definitely not for the timid or under-trained.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Getting ready to head on down to Coral Springs to look at my future project. Rob can be seen in the background working on the rear seat cushion, taking out foam so my head won't hit the canopy in the rear seat. (Click to enlarge)

I began wanting to build my own airplane in 1998 while flying for Mission Aviation Fellowship in Shell, Ecuador.

The first remembrance I believe I have of wanting build my own airplane came after seeing  an RV-4 on the cover of an EAA magazine in 1998. “Wow!” I thought.

Then I met Rob “Smokey” Ray this past summer (2009) in a work related opportunity.  Smokey is a former AF F-16 pilot and Major and now Captain’s a Boeing 737 for Southwest.

One evening Rob, his wonderful wife Teena and I had dinner and surprisingly the topic of flying came up .  Rob asked about the flying I’d been doing since returning from Ecuador to which I said, “Not much”.  So, he said, “Why don’t you build an RV?”.

“Yeah, right”, I said.  He then proceeded to layout a scenario and well, that was in May, 2009.  Today I have a partially finished RV-8a I am converting to an 8 sitting in my garage.

All that said, here is Rob “Smokey” Ray’s Harmon Rocket in his driveway at Greenswamp (FD33), the airstrip community he lives at in the Ocala/Lakeland area of Florida.

This was taken the morning we flew down to Coral Springs to look at a possible project to buy.

The Rocket is fun if you want to climb out fast at about 40 degrees!

Thanks Smokey for bringing me into the fold!

Smokey and his wife Teena also volunteered as Directors for the International Association of Missionary Aviation’s 2009 EAA AirVenture spotlight.  It was called Fly4Life and IAMA was featured on Aeroshell Square.

Here is a link to an article about them and the IAMA site.

You see I bought an RV-8A kit partially finished and will be converting it to a more traditional RV-8.

Page in progress. Stay tuned!  No pictures yet but the fun is about to start.

At one point I had them all on one page, but by breaking them up into unique categories and page groupings it makes it easier to share them with you own friends.

Enjoy!

But today as I read through Deuteronomy 8, God showed me that no, what He means by discipline has more to do with training than punishing. True, (and I believe where my concept came from) punishment can be a component in the discipline process, but not always.

Listen to what God said:

“All the commandments that I am commanding you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the LORD swore to give to your forefathers.

2“You shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.

3“He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD.

4“Your clothing did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years.

5“Thus you are to know in your heart that the LORD your God was disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son.”

However we are told in verses 11 thru 20, that when we finally see God’s blessing in our lives, to remember where it came from and not become proud. That’s where the punishment comes in:

18 “But you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth, that He may confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.

19“It shall come about if you ever forget the LORD your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I testify against you today that you will surely perish.

20“Like the nations that the LORD makes to perish before you, so you shall perish; because you would not listen to the voice of the LORD your God.”

So what’s the take-away from this for me?

I think back to my high school days and our football coaches and how they worked us and pushed us. The purpose wasn’t that they hated us (though that concept came to mind once in a while) but rather was to make us stronger physically and mentally so we could do our best in the battle of Friday night competition.

Friday nights for me as a adult Christian are my life, each day. Jesus’ discipline is his way of coaching me daily to do my best for Him.

First it isn’t something that I ask God for. He gave it when I came to Christ. Christ did everything already. As Tony Evens said during one of our Chapels when I was at Moody, “You don’t need to do anything because it’s already been did”.

Sanctification is giving my life over to Jesus and allowing the holiness that is His (that is now mine as a believer) to pour out and through me.

My wife once read a book about the rooms in her life. The premise was that we all have rooms that we are more than willing to share with God; our works, our church attendance, our sacrificial giving of our selves to ministries within our church, so on and so forth…the pretty stuff. But there are always rooms we keep locked and say, “No Jesus, you don’t want to go in there. I haven’t made the beds and well, frankly (in a whispered tone we say)…it’s a mess.” What am I talking about? A short list might be; anger, jealousy, addictive behaviors, laziness, gluttony…you get the idea.

Jesus knows that already, before you told Him.

And that’s what sanctification is all about. You and I unlocking those doors [of our own free will] and saying, “It’s a mess, I want to clean it up…will you help?” [because we still believe it's us doing it].

When we get to that point, and come to Him, He will. But when we open that door we find the room in already in order. He was already there, working, we just had to acknowledge His sovereignty in our life completely and not just in the chosen, best-of-show areas.

When I left Ecuador I had flown nearly 3,000 hours without one accident or even and incident. Not a scratch on any plane I flew.

And it wasn’t because I only flew on pretty days. In fact, the last two and a half years there I flew 20% more than any of the other pilots. I took extra flights when the weather was crummy, or the legs were long over the Andes in IFR conditions, or just exhausting days on the weekends with 20 or so take-offs and landings.

How did I do it?

Of course God’s protection first and foremost. But one of the moving parts in God’s protection mechanism for me was in how He wired me. You see, my nature is always to say, “What if?” Some people say I’m a little paranoid when it comes to safety issues. That was a trait that was developed while a flight student at Moody Aviation [where it was inrgained in the training]. Then after joining MAF it was one of our mantras; “What if?”. It’s a key link in breaking the accident chain.

What if:

• A child is hiding in the grass by the strip”?
• What if their’s a mountain inside that cloud on that ridge?
• What if the wind direction changes on this one-way strip on final approach?
• What if the surface of that dirt strip has more water standing on that I can see?
• What if the turbo fails on take-off?

The answers to all of these had answers and I practiced thinking through my responses through out the day as I made decisions that ultimately affected the lives of hundreds of people I carried on-board my MAF aircraft the 7 years I flew in Ecuador.

But this natural safety device is a two edged sword I have found, something I have to turn off in my walk with God somedays. Sometimes, I have to admit, that I don’t have the answer to some of the what-ifs in life. I have to recognize that only He does and I have to trust Him. (Proverbs 3: 5,6)

Some days, many days actually, I am like Peter getting out of that boat and walking on top of the waves in that tumultuous Sea of Galilee. Once I take my eyes off Jesus, though, and realize I am in deep water, I begin to sink.

So what’s the point?

Sanctification then is taking my eyes off of myself and putting my gaze back on Him. I have to open that door to that messy room in my soul and let His holiness manifest itself.