I first saw it on a winter day. We sat in the Cessna 172 cockpit, 1,000 feet above a white ridge. The propeller pulled us through sub-freezing air, the heater warming my student in shirtsleeves, me in pilot’s uniform. Sierra Nevada Mountains rose before us, gray granite pushing up through thick snow spiced with dark […]
The game is very simple: fly over Merrill’s house undetected. Practically, that means before she can get to the radio saying she’s spotted me. If I’m spotted before I can pass her house, she wins; get past her house before the familiar “Nice try,” then I win.
It’s quite difficult to win, however—Merrill lives deep in […]
The phones started ringing earlier than usual one morning as we were commuting to the office in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). “We have 50 people we need to get out,” said a humanitarian aid worker. “We’re looking at approximately 110 people that may need to be evacuated,” said another caller, an embassy […]
Every pilot carries a bag. Some big, stuffed. Others small, concise. As an instructor, I carried headset, ear plugs, sun glasses, local chart, lesson plan, small paper tablet, and pen. As an air taxi pilot, I ditched the lesson plan, but added more charts, a flashlight, flight calculator, Bible, and lunch. For the Forest Service, […]
Never have I seen so many people at one place in my life, I thought, as I set the plane down and came to a stop on the dirt airstrip. Literally thousands of people encircled the runway and airplane, all trying to get a glimpse of what and who was arriving and departing. This was […]
Missionaries return to a Congolese village to build on the legacy of their grandparents—and share the love of Christ.
The greeting at Ipope, western DR Congo.
The singing began even before our Cessna Caravan shut down. A few hundred people had gathered in the middle of nowhere on a small dirt and grass strip to […]