Well, we are headed to Florida! Nope, not for the warm sandy beaches, not for Disney, we are are going for 10 days to volunteer and serve at Missionary Flights International (MFI). This will be the third year that we will have the privilege of helping out during MFI's Family Day/Open House held during the first Saturday of March. Cayton usually helps with the kids games, and this year her and another friend are in charge of all the kids activities. There are usually around a thousand people or so that come through the hangar throughout the day. There are free hot dogs, chips, soda, and popcorn for all. You can also take an inexpensive airplane ride in one of MFI's DC-3's. I (Jake) usually help out on the ramp parking airplanes or do whatever else I can to be of assistance. I love being around so many people that have a love of aviation like myself. I also really enjoy the older folks that come out and tell stories of their first ride in a DC-3, for some of them it was during WWII as they bravely served our county, for others it was when they were kids flying on a commercial flight somewhere. Then there are the younger parents with little ones that are excited to go on there first airplane ride. What a great way to spend a Saturday!
The rest of the time there I will be around the hangar helping work on the planes and doing whatever needs to be done. Cayton usually helps out at the hangar a couple of days but usually stays with our host family and helps with home-school activities and lends a hand wherever else she can. I may have the opportunity to go on a scheduled flight as a "flight attendant" and for a few short hours serve the missionaries and short term teams that are going to and from Haiti, the Bahama's, or the Dominican Republic. We always have a great time and will have lots of pictures to share for the next blog once we get back. Please pray that we have a good trip again and come back encouraged and inspired to share our vision and passion for missionary aviation and that the Lord would raise our remaining 38% of support need so we can head to MMS Aviation (Missionary Maintenance Services - Aviation) in Ohio and start our service there.
Here are a couple of photo's from last year's trip to MFI.
(click the photo's to enlarge)
(click the photo's to enlarge)
This photo is one of MFI's DC-3's that I took from there DC-3TP (Turbo Prop) on our way back from Haiti.
You can see the nose of the one we are in in the reflection on the spinner (top-left corner).
A view of the hanger with everything parked inside ready to go.
(in front is their Cessna 310 used for emergency flights)
A pretty morning in Fort Pierce, Florida
MFI's workhorse is their DC-3 with modern turbo-prop engines that run on readily available jet fuel
A view of MFI's hangar complete with DC-3 in front. Can it get much better? :)
Thanks again for stopping by! We'll have some "fresh" photo's for next months update!
Thanks Again,
~Jake Heath~
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