Free Flight Time

Mike had the opportunity yesterday to acquire some FREE flight time.  It is always nicer to fly the airplane knowing that it isn't draining your wallet every minute that you spend up in the sky!  Servant Wings is the organization we are a part of that has been helping Mike with his flight training.  Servant Wings has corporate members that pay for the aircraft rental allowing candidate pilots like Mike to build flight time without going into debt.  

The airplane that Servant Wings uses for all of it's corporate flights is the Cessna 206 which rents out for $150/hr.  The 206 is actually the type of aircraft that Mike will be taking his technical evaluation in for Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) in late April.  We don't usually fly the 206 to acquire flight time because it is about twice the amount to rent as the Cessna 152, so you can see why these corporate flights are so valuable.  Mike flew out to Pasco, WA and back and gained about 3.7 flight hours.  After some quick math you can see that we saved a bundle yesterday!

Mike with the Cessna 206

Some fun facts about the Cessna 206:

• It served for MAF in Venezuela for almost 20 years
• It transported about 4,000,000 lbs. of cargo while in service
• 3 babies were born on it
• Tractors, a horse, bees, fish, medicine, Bibles, pastors, and many other vital supplies were transported on it
• A very generous board member of Servant Wings bought the plane and donated it to Servant Wings 

Bellingham and Back Again

Renting an airplane is expensive!  When Mike and I were first married and crunched the numbers to see exactly how much it was going to cost to obtain 400 flight hours it seemed impossible.  These past seven years, however, God has provided for our family in amazing ways and has taught us to have faith that he will provide what we need when we need it.  A recent way that God has chosen to provide for us was to offer Mike field work up in Bellingham, WA.  Since October Mike has worked out of town 4 days a week.  It was definitely an adjustment for our family and not always easy, but it supplied the much needed funds to help us complete the last few flight hours needed.

As of this week Mike is working back in Portland and we are very happy to have him back home with us.  Colton and I decided to have a little adventure and fly up to Bellingham to help Mike drive his stuff back home.  Macie had a sleepover with a very brave friend of ours so the adult to kid ratio for me was 1 to 1.  I myself prefer to play man-on-man defense and not zone defense while flying, especially when a connection is involved.  

Colton with the ever-so important blue blanket in SEA

Colton and I flew standby and batted .500 for the evening.  We were bumped in Portland once which wasn't a big deal, but then we were bumped in Seattle which was a slightly bigger deal because it left us with a 4 hour layover.  Luckily Colton is a well seasoned traveler and we actually had a lot of fun in the airport.  We ate some Ivers fish and chips for dinner while watching airplanes get loaded on the ramp and then we hung out in the play area for a couple of hours.  Colton made some friends and they soon were having a jumping contest off of the slide.  Colton had so much fun in fact that he asked me today if we could go to the airport again to play. 

Colton in the SEA airport play area

Colton and I caught the last flight out of SEA and finally reached the hotel in Bellingham at around 1am and crashed.  Mike got off work at 7am and after eating hotel waffles we all piled into our little 1983 Honda Civic hatchback complete with AM/FM radio and a whopping two front speaker system and took off.  The Civic is our backup/commuter car and we never drive it as a family because it feels like we are driving a clown car when we do.  I felt a little bad making the poor old Civic go over 50 mph, but it did suprisingly well and wasn't always the slowest car on the freeway.  

Since we were passing through Seattle we took this opportunity to eat at the Paseo Caribbean sandwich shop that we have been wanting to try for awhile.  All I have to say is BEST SANDWICH EVER!  If you ever have the chance to eat there take it.  While you are there do us a favor and order the #2.  

Posing with our wonderful sandwiches at Paseos