Monday, November 16, 2009
TEXANS AGAIN!
Jill and I are both back in Texas now! October went by pretty quick. We moved Jill down to Wichita Falls the last week of Sept., then I went back up to Michigan to finish up my Commercial license. I got to pick up my high performance aircraft endorsement (more than 200 horse power) in a Piper Malibu. That was a sweet ride! 
I also got to make the cross country to West Virginia. I had to watch the weather for several days before I got a window of opportunity to make the flight. The day the weather finally broke I had all my plans ready, so I jumped in the plane and headed out late in the afternoon. The flight was awesome, passing over Ohio and seeing the mountains as I approached West Virginia. I had planned to make a touch and go in Ashland, KY, Huntington, WV, then stop at Milton, WV, close to my Aunt & Uncle. Leaving late in the afternoon, It would be night as I made it to WV, so I made a diversion and went straight to Huntington (didn’t want to fly in the mountains at night!). I decided I could make my three landings on the trip home. I had a great time visiting with family and since weather socked me in for four days, I got to see most everyone. 
One funny snag (in hindsight) was the scheduling computer was down when I took the plane. Didn’t realize another guy had the plane scheduled for his commercial checkride later in the week. He got me back though, the day I took my checkride he had the keys to the plane at home (After quite a bit of digging we found a spare set)!
I also got to make the cross country to West Virginia. I had to watch the weather for several days before I got a window of opportunity to make the flight. The day the weather finally broke I had all my plans ready, so I jumped in the plane and headed out late in the afternoon. The flight was awesome, passing over Ohio and seeing the mountains as I approached West Virginia. I had planned to make a touch and go in Ashland, KY, Huntington, WV, then stop at Milton, WV, close to my Aunt & Uncle. Leaving late in the afternoon, It would be night as I made it to WV, so I made a diversion and went straight to Huntington (didn’t want to fly in the mountains at night!). I decided I could make my three landings on the trip home. I had a great time visiting with family and since weather socked me in for four days, I got to see most everyone. One funny snag (in hindsight) was the scheduling computer was down when I took the plane. Didn’t realize another guy had the plane scheduled for his commercial checkride later in the week. He got me back though, the day I took my checkride he had the keys to the plane at home (After quite a bit of digging we found a spare set)!The last couple weeks of October introduced weather issues, so I worked my checkride in the first Friday in November. It was a gusty day, which made for a challenging test, but fortunately I practiced in similar conditions the day before. I had told many of you about the maneuver that frequently fails commercial checkrides. It is a simulated loss of engine power while you are flying in the landing traffic pattern. While you are parallel to the runway, you have to select the spot you are going to touch down on the runway. Then it turns into a process of energy management and decision making to glide the airplane to that spot. On the test, I nailed that maneuver perfectly. Wish I could say that about the rest of the maneuvers, but the Lord is keeping me humble! The sum of it is, I have my Commercial Pilot License!
I have made some shop and flying contacts in Wichita Falls already. Aviation is slow going around here right now. With the lack of opportunities on the surface, Jill and I are excited to see how God is going to work it out for us to get the experience we need before we can apply to mission agencies. We know He led us back to Wichita Falls and we are trusting Him to provide the opportunities we need. I am hoping God will have me cross paths with someone that owns a midsized plane that doesn’t have time to fly it, but would like to keep the rust off it! I need to build up another 150-250 flying hours depending on the agency we apply to. Much of those hours need to be practicing maneuvers and honing techniques. His plan & timing are perfect.
Jill’s job is going good. She is enjoying getting to spend a little more time in the field. She is back teaching Taekwondo, and is preparing to test for her 3rd degree black belt in December. She has
been reconnecting with friends and plugging in to activities at church. Jill started serving as a usher again when she moved back, and I joined up with her again this past Sunday. They even let us have our old door back to greet folks as they come in.
Kitty is doing well. Her hair is starting to grow in from the surgery. She seems to not be hindered much at all by her three-leggedness. She may have lost about a foot on her vertical jump, but that is about it.
Look forward to seeing family and friends over the upcoming holiday months. Thank you all so much for the continued support over the past 14 months. God has blessed us immensely. We will keep you posted on our progress!
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Flying South For The Winter
We had some very unexpected developments last week. Jill has been offered her old job back in Wichita Falls. We had planned to stay here in Michigan probably until we joined up with a mission agency, but God has opened the door for us to go back home to Texas. We were hoping to make Wichita Falls our home base in the future, and God has provided a way for that to happen. The tentative plan for now is to move down in the next few weeks, then I will fly back up here to complete my Commercial License. I shouldn’t have any trouble finishing that by the end of October, so hopefully Jill and I will not be apart too long. I hope to work on a flight instructor license, which is strongly encouraged by the missions, when we move back. While in Wichita Falls, I will work on Bible School requirements and look for flying and shop opportunities to gain experience. Our hopeful timeline should still be about a year and a half before we are qualified to join with an agency.
We had some fun over the Labor Day holiday. Our local pastor has a partnership in a very nice boat on Lake Michigan. He took Jill and I along with some of the new SMAT guys out for a very nice cruise on Michigan’s ocean…Lake Michigan. It was pretty cool to see the lake from that perspective, and it made for a very relaxing Labor Day.
Kitty had to go back for a couple of follow up surgeries. The Doc was very pleased with her progress when I took her in to get a drain tube pulled this morning. She should get her stitches out in a few days. She seems to already be back to her old self - - 1st love - eating, 2nd love - sleeping, 3rd love - Dave & Jill. She has a pretty strange hairdo with all of shaving they did…good thing dogs aren’t vain!
8:20 pm est
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Instrument Rated!
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Instrument Rated!
At last, we were able to schedule my instrument rating checkride. I went in to meet the examiner at the airport early this morning, while the dew was still on the grass and the fog hadn’t burned off yet. After about two hours or so we had the oral portion out of the way. The examiner was a master at putting the examinee at ease, which was quite welcome. After my Private Pilot exam a few years ago, I was a little nervous about this exam.
We had some hiccups in the flight portion due to navigation facilities at the airport, but we called in an audible and got it all done. I would like to say I passed with “flying” colors, but I felt like I have had better flying days. The examiner gave me some good praise in the debriefing so I guess it wasn’t as bad I thought. The bottom line, I have my instrument rating.
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The next step is to work on the commercial license. I will be dedicating the majority of my time over the next month or so getting that done as soon as possible. I need a minimum of 50 more flying hours to get that knocked out, along with some specific requirements like looong cross countries. I am hoping to use one cross country to get out and visit family in West Virginia.
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Taekwondo Sparring Fun | |||||||||
Kitty is minus one leg now, but like always she just goes with the flow and learns new things fast. The day after her surgery, I went to pick her up at the vet. The doctor was explaining that we may have to teach her how to get up by placing a towel under her belly and assisting her up. However when the doc went in the back to retrieve her, kitty jumped right up after the cage door was opened. When I got her home I lifted her out of the vehicle and gently sat her on the ground and she ran straight to the door and jumped a step to get into the house. We did have to take her back for a follow up surgery, but she should be good to go now.
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Kitty - Three leg version
Sunday, August 16, 2009
FAA Certified A&P Mechanic!
The last four weeks have been busy, you might say. On July 21, I took my oral and practical exam for my powerplant license. After about 5 hours of testing, I was half way to my powerplant license.
Then the following week I went to Oshkosh, WI for one of the largest airshows in the world. This year they had an emphasis on mission aviation. There was a huge representation from mission agencies that utilize aviation. I had an opportunity to visit with several missionaries and made some good contacts. I flew in with five of my classmates, and we tent camped with the plane, along with a few thousand other aviation enthusiast. Some of the cool things we saw included the enormous Airbus A380, White Knight 2, and the earliest know missionary airplane.
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Dave at Oshkosh with the first missionary plane
It looks like Jill’s summer Taekwondo program at the church will get to extend into the school year and just a week ago they had their first test. Everyone broke their boards!
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Taekwondo Test
Last weekend we had a friend come up from Wichita Falls to visit, so we took a quick weekend trip through Canada to Niagara Falls. It was fun to go camping in Canada. We got rained on the whole weekend, but that was okay because you get soaked at the Falls anyway.
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Niagara Falls
This past Thursday, I took my written exam for the powerplant. Friday we had graduation, and now I am a licensed Airframe and Powerplant Mechanic. It is hard to believe it has been a full year now!
I still have a good bit of studying to do, if I can get it scheduled I will take my Instrument Rating oral and practical toward the end of this week. The next step will be to work on my Commercial license. That should keep me real busy for the next couple of months. Jill and I have also been doing some research on some online Bible schools. I am hoping to be able to take some Bible classes that I can work on in the evenings.
Next week we are planning to have Kitty’s leg amputated after two different vets told us that was her best option. Hopefully it won’t take her long to get used to being a three-legged dog and she won’t have to wear the cone collar anymore.
SMAT Graduation - August 14, 2009
Friday, June 26, 2009
Summer is here!
Well summer has finally arrived in Michigan and we have begun to enjoy the warm weather and the great outdoors. Memorial Day weekend we went camping with some of the SMAT families and even cooked s’mores over the campfire.
Dave is busy working on engines and building instrument time. He went flying over Lake Michigan with the hood on and missed seeing the Coast Guard doing helicopter rescue training. His class went on a trip to the Kalamazoo Air Zoo last week. Just today, Dave got his complex airplane endorsement and got to practice using retractable landing gear. Work has been busy for me too and the nice weather is making it hard to be stuck in the office all day…I’ve got to find some field work to do!
A couple of weekends ago we went to Detroit with some friends and went to the Red Bull Air Race looking over the Detroit River into Windsor, Ontario. It was pretty amazing watching the pilots maneuver through the course at blazing speeds! And as a bonus, the pilot from Texas was the fastest qualifier that day!
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Red Bull Air Race in Detroit
This past weekend we celebrated our 10th Anniversary….hard to believe it has been 10 years! Dave’s parents, sister and girls came for a visit and we had a nice time visiting Lake Michigan’s beach at the state park in Holland. Dave flew his dad to Holland and we met up with them at the airport.
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A visit to the beach at Lake Michigan...water was freezing!
Our church does a service at a local nursing home every couple of months and this past Sunday Dave gave the Father’s Day message which went really well. The summer Taekwondo program at church is in full swing and we have about 25 participants…we just wrapped up a series of devotions on the armor of God. Easy to correlate needing armor after you’ve been punching and kicking at each other!
Kitty’s tumor on her leg has opened up and we have been trying to get it healed, but we can’t get her to leave it alone… I guess it is time for a satellite dish collar. The vet said they can’t remove it and has given her some meds that will hopefully shrink it some.
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Kitty getting her leg bandaged by Dr. Dave
Also, if you haven’t found us already, we are on facebook at www.facebook.com/jilljholmes
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
I'm Certified!
The last couple of weeks have been exciting. I passed the written test for General & Airframe the week before last. I scored a 98 on General and 99 on Airframe. I guess all that studying paid off! Last Tuesday I took my Oral & Practical exams. The oral lasted about 1 hour, and consisted of close to 100 questions. I didn’t miss any of them, so it made that portion go a little quicker. The practical portion took about 6 hours, and I successfully completed all the tasks. I am now a certified Airframe mechanic! This was a major step toward us reaching the mission field. Now on to Powerplant!
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Certified Airframe Mechanic
I have been doing well with Instrument Rating lessons. It is looking promising to have that completed by August. Now that I have the Airframe completed I will start putting a more concentrated effort toward studying the Instrument exams. I have also been practicing with the tail dragger. That has been a fun experience.
Jill got to take a quick trip back to Texas for Mother’s Day. She had a good visit down in San Antonio, and got some good R&R from work. She has been very busy preparing projects for Federal stimulus money. She has also started a Taekwondo class at the Church for the Summer. She even has me participating, if you can believe that!
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Jill with Nathan after his haircut
I will be playing in a golf tournament to raise funds for a Christian Camp near Ionia this Saturday. I can’t remember the last time I swung a club, so that should be interesting. It will be fun to enjoy an outdoor activity for a change, since the weather is nice.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
There have been some exciting things going on in the last few weeks. Dave finished his instrument class and is looking to take his groundschool test soon. He also has been working on his instrument and taildragger flying. When he practices his instrument flying he wears a hood that doesn't allow him to see outside. In the taildragger he has been doing take-offs and landings on the grass strip. Just this Saturday he received his tailwheel endorsement! The Airframe section ends this week so he should be taking the General and Airframe written test towards the end of the week and the oral and practical test will follow shortly after. That will make him a certified airframe mechanic and put him 2/3 the way through is mechanics training.
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Dave with the taildragger after getting his endorsement
I have been busy at work in Lansing and am even getting some overtime in since we are so busy. I have started taking a jujitsu class in Lansing that meets twice a week right after work which has been a lot of fun. | ||
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Doug Deming with Dave in SMAT Hanger.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Brrr!
Last week we experienced sub-zero temperatures for the first time...instead of whining about it, we have decided the easiest way to get through it is to brag! Fortunately, we didn't get a lot of snow, so we (and by we I mean Dave) didn't have to shovel in that weather. What is interesting is when it finally warmed up, it made a 16 degree day feel warm...weird! After a week of really cold temperatures, the Grand River, which runs through Ionia, looks quite icy. Now we are back into the teens and are getting more snow. We are already ahead of the average seasonal snow with another couple months to go!
10:05 am est
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Happy New Year!
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Happy New Year!
With the new year, it is amazing to see what changes have occured and what God has done for us this past year. In January 2008 we would never had imagined that we would be in Michigan less than a year later! Although we both knew we were called to foreign missions, and have delighted in our summer trips to Brazil and Africa, this year we took the first step toward full time missionary work. Back in March we got God's call to missions specifically in aviation. In August, Dave moved to Ionia, Michigan to attend SMAT to work on getting his mechanic's certification. After finding a job in Lansing, I joined him in October. Given the economic situation in Michigan, what a blessing from God!
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We have been experiencing a "real" winter here in Michigan...something we Texans are new to. Dave has become quite the expert shoveler (after lessons from an 11 year old neighbor) and I am learning to drive in snow and ice on my commute to Lansing. Even Kitty, our dog, is adjusting to the change!
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| Piper Aztec rigging - - in the belly of the whale! | |||||||||
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| Citabria with wings added. | |||||||||
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| L-19 "Bird Dog" Cowling. | |||||||||
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| Dave riveting | |||||||||
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| A wing skin for a C-172 that we are rebuilding in class | |||||||||
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| The wing from our class project plane | |||||||||
