Saturday, August 17, 2019

2019 Gabon Airplane Projects



As Alace and I move back to join the Gabon work full-time, we are excited to be joined by a short term visiting team of 4 who will give us some wonderful technical support.  It is incredible that these men would take vacation time away from family and friends to sacrificially serve us!  Please help support them by your prayers and donations to this project (see below).  The work will take place from mid-September to mid-October 2019

THE PEOPLE:

* Ben Wigton- from Salem, OR, fellow LeTourneau U grad, avionics wiz


* Dale Coates- from MMS Aviation in OH- has worked on our aircraft multiple times

* Dr. Drew Huang- an American missionary from Gabon, a Bongolo Hospital doctor also certified as an A&P mechanic



* Dan Snow- a JAARS mechanic based in Waxhaw, NC, has worked on the aircraft last December, and previously lived in Cameroon.


THE PROJECTS:

AVIONICS  MODERNIZATION- Need $3070.00
The main tasks will be removal of older style "dial" gages and installation of more modern screen instrumentation (dual Garmin G5 units).  The instruments being upgraded are the Attitude Indicator and the Directional Gyro/HSI.  This also solves a challenge we've been having with other finicky systems that have resulted in not being able to fly into "instrument" (IFR) conditions- into the clouds and through weather that brings lower visibility.
Dual Garmin G5 installation

OTHER AIRCRAFT UPGRADES- Need $4808.00
Additional improvements to the aircraft will be items such as Refueling handholds added to the nose, a more effective tailskid, and switching from an old, HF radio style flight-follow system to a satellite-based system (Spider Tracks).

AIRCRAFT REPAIRS-  Need $2228.00
Utilization of the aircraft always leads to wear and tear.  Some of those items that we'll be repairing are a malfunctioning fuel pump microswitch and the bracket that supports it, a couple exhaust brackets, and some sticky buttons on our Garmin GPS unit.
Spidertracks satellite based flight following 

REGULAR MAINTENANCE ITEMS- Need $3595.00
At set intervals, we change out particular things, such as oil filters, air filters, fuel filters, gaskets, o-rings, spark plugs and more.

OPERATIONAL COSTS for AIRCRAFT-  Need $8,667.00
A first-rate insurance policy, flight permits, parking fees, landing fees, and navigational GPS database subscriptions are some of the items that make up the operational costs we will be facing in these next couple months.

OTHER OPERATIONAL COSTS- $13,250.00
Our largest expenditure for ramping up the aviation service will be the critical items such as the annual flight permits and annual recertification of the airport at the Bongolo Hospital.  Other costs are recurrency flights for the pilot as well as the "return-to-service" flights that are important after the aircraft has been in the hangar for maintenance and repairs.


THE PLAN- PRAYER & PARTICIPATION

Please partner with us in this work!  Please pray for our PEOPLE and PROJECTS... and consider PARTICIPATION through a generous gift to this important work.
Yes- there is an airstrip there!

ONLINE GIVING:  visit www.cmalliance.com/give and scroll down to "Select International Worker/Special Project" and enter "Gabon Airplane" (note- the entry will not come up as an automatic selection, but it will still work).

BY CHECK:  Send your check made out to "The Alliance" and write "Gabon Airplane" in the memo line.  Mail to: 8595 Explorer Dr., Colorado Springs, CO 80920

Thank you so much for considering supporting this critical effort to bring health and hope to the Central Africa region through teamwork with the local churches there.

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