I don't often brag about my husband, but in this case, I'm going to. If you like airplanes and training details, read on. If you don't like hearing a proud wife talk about her husband's cool airplane job, then you should probably stop reading. :-)
We've arrived at the end of our training in Arizona! As of last week, Josh has completed his training and is officially an NTM Aviation missionary pilot! He has worked very hard and we've both learned a lot during our time here. We'll still be hanging around here for a time before we pack up and make the long drive back to Florida, but there is no more curriculum for Josh to go through. Yay!
Here's a little bit of what that training looks like...
Josh has been getting up at the crack of dawn every day. Since it's now officially the dead of winter fall in the desert, it's been really, really cold this early in the day. The weather at the small airstrips tends to be better first thing in the morning, so that's when he went. He's a braver soul than I.
This airstrip is only 900 feet long, is just about as wide as the airplane itself, and is at an incline. There's not a whole lot of room for error. At this point, he had an instructor with him. The last flight of the curriculum is solo. You go from one small/challenging airstrip to another, and as they say in the hangar, "If you come back alive, then you pass!" Comforting words for a wife, don't you think? {cue eye roll}
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The chief pilot and Josh.
via Josh |
Yesterday, Josh completed his last flight with an instructor, and then did his solo flights. Since he's obviously still alive, he passed! I got to talk briefly with the chief pilot yesterday after Josh's flights, and he said that Josh did very well.
During the rest of Josh's day, he gets to work in the hangar with the other guys. Their big projects now are the two Kodiaks sitting in the hangar that need some modifications before they can go to Papua New Guinea. Josh has been able to work on them while he's here.
We may be finished with the training side of things, but there is still plenty to do before we can go to PNG to serve.
The next step for us is to pack up and move back to Florida. We'll be driving from Arizona to Florida just in time for Christmas. Then we'll hit the ground running and work on building our support team so we can get to Papua New Guinea and begin serving there. We're currently at 38% of the recommended amount for couples in PNG, and we can't go until we are at 75% at least; although, obviously, we're aiming for 100%. If you want to get involved, just shoot me an email or follow the GIVE link at the top of the page!
Labels: arizona, aviation, ntma, quest kodiak
