Day 5

MAF's display has heavy traffic today. Here is a picture of MAF Advocate and Alumni Mike Roarke talking with a visitor at the MAF tent.

The Kodiak is a big hit. Brian Shepson is busy showing guests around.

Nice sunny day today. We had a lot of visitors to the MAF tent. The big attraction yesterday was the White Knight, launch platform for space ship 2. (pictured above) Today on the flight line was the new Airbus 380, the worlds largest airliner, I will post pics later.

We are here at Oshkosh and it is really exciting. I don't mean the airplanes (yes they are exciting to see) but I am referring to the people here. There are 30 mission organizations and over 400 missionaries, mostly pilots, here to talk to the public about what we do in mission aviation. Pray for us as we have conversations and divine appointments. Here are a few pictures of the opening day.

Aviation Camp

Wow! Did we have fun! And learn a lot about God's work around the world. Mission Aviation Adventure Camp was held in Cascade, Idaho. This is the first one in Idaho and it was a great experience for everyone involved. We had 11 students attend the camp, one from Washington State and 2 from Montana. The remainder of the students were from the Bosie area. The students had flights everyday (weather was nice) and ground school. Activities in the afternoons included building balsa wood models, canoeing on the North Payette River, swimming and playing games. One night we had a wonderful time around a huge campfire. Christian Zimmerman made a special appearance and spoke about his aviation experience along with being hijacked. He is currently teaching English in a University in China.

From May 20-22 two of us recruiters attended the annual IAMA (International Assoc. of Missionary Aviation) conference at Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA. Brian Behal and I (Ron Hilbrands) represented MAF there and had good time connecting with other mission groups and schools that train specifically for missionary aviation. There were over 80 attendees there and Liberty did a great job of hosting all of us. Next year the event will be at UIM (United Indian Mission in Tucson, AZ. MAF will be hosting the conference next in 2012 here at Nampa, ID.

At the conference we heard from all the groups as to what was happening in their organiziation and how the economy was affecting them. There was discussion and a presentation on safety and security training for missionaries. We also discussed the major changes involved in moving toward turbine aircraft. IAMA is always a great place for networking. There was also a lot of talk about how IAMA and missionary aviation will be highlighted at the EAA Airventure in Oshkosh.

MAF Kodiak # 2

While visiting Moody Aviation in Spokane I took the short drive to Sandpoint, Idaho to tour the Quest manufacturing facilities. It is very impressive to see how far they have come in a short time.  Here is a picture of the next MAF Kodiak. It is in stage 5 of a 6 stage process. Each stage takes 10 days to complete. This Kodiak, #17, should be out the door in less than 20 days.