Christian Aviation Ministries

Wednesday.  Spent some time at the Quest Tent drooling over the Kodiak then continued the hanger tour for more interesting stuff.  After that we made more planes at Kid Venture.  It was a lot busier in the afternoon than what it had been.  More kids, more stories.  It doesn’t take long to figure out a kid.  A few simple questions and you have a pretty good handle on what’s up with them.

This is our last day here at EAA.  Heading back tomorrow afternoon.  Its been fun but exhausting!

Here are some links:

Kidventure

Wed. Update

Tuesday, it already is seems like a long time here at EAA.  We were free again in the morning to look around.  We looked at some Shelby and Rouch Racing modified mustangs and finished up touring the hanger booths.

The P-51 and Corsairs were flying around too.  Man I love those things.  We listened a little bit to owner of the only privately owned Harrier talk about how he purchased this plane and rebuilt it. Talk about an expensive aircraft to fly… yeesh.

I had a chance to visit with some friends from Liberty and Letourneau Universities along with SMAT.  Everyone needs money to pay off training debt.  That’s our mission of course, however in this economy it is harder than ever to fill the enormous need.

We worked Kidventure in the afternoon and caught a bit of the airshow afterwords.  The afternoon air shows are cool for about the first two acts but after that it seems like they all do the same stunts.  There was a guy the flew a jet powered glider though.  I have to say that was pretty cool.  It looked so smooth and graceful looking floating in loops and turns.

We’ll see what tomorrow brings….

Tuesday update

The transformation of sleepy little Wittman Field into the “worlds busiest airport” has completed.  It is as overwhelming as years past.  Chad and I arrived at the grounds at around 7:30am to have breakfast at the MASA tent and to find out if we had the morning shift of making foam-plate airplanes.  We fortunately ended up with the afternoon shift which allowed us to look around a bit.  We started our quest for “free stuff” and by the end of the morning we secured 2 t-shirts and 2 hats in booty.  Not bad for the first day.

Ford Motor Company dumps a ton of marketing money into this thing, which I guess is good, since they are in better shape than any other US automaker.  They always have a great exhibit and this year they feature a SR-71 style Mustang–Very sweet ride. They also have every model they make there for you to look at and sit in.  It’s fun.

Oshkosh Truck also has a big exhibit of all of the vehicles they make.  They had everything from cement mixers to Airport firefighting trucks to the military’s replacement of the hummer. Lots of big, expensive equipment.

One of the strangest things we saw today was a 1 seat helicopter this guy invented that runs on hydrogen peroxide. It had little jet engines on the ends of the blades and flew for about 1.5 hrs.  It was very weird, but cool.  I’ll try and get a picture of it up here soon.

After our romp around the grounds, Chad and I had lunch and set out to kidventure.  This is a tent filled with all kinds of flight related crafts, one of which is the foam-plate airplanes that we were in charge of.  They also have helicopter rides, 3 hangers filled with very old vintage planes, RC flying for kids, and a ton of other things.  While working the booth, we met some Germans, Canadians, Chicagoans and a kid from South Africa.  Its pretty neat to interact with a broad range of God’s creation in a short period of time.  Our German friends said they come here every year and that we American’s are more “kid friendly” than over in Europe.  I thought that was an interesting comment.

Here are some more highlights from Monday:

http://www.airventure.org/live/

Sunday! Sunday! Sunday! The weather was perfect and the skies were filled with flanks of airplanes as we pulled into Countryside Christian Church. The service was good and it seemed to go faster than the one back home so that is always a good sign.  After the service, we all piled in the car and headed to Ardy & Ed’s Drive in in Oshkosh before going to the EAA Grounds.  Ardy & Ed’s is a “must experience” when in Oshkosh, its kinda like driving into Happy Days. Home made root beer and the best fries and burgers this side of Chicago.

We walked around the grounds for about 2 hours watching the planes come in and get moved into position.  People were scrambling to get their booths and displays set up. Ford had most of their cars there and their main tent was up and ready to go.  The Ford Tri-motor was just coming in off the line.  Busy times.

Photos to come soon! Stay tuned.

Saturday was a day of running all over the Fox Valley picking up sound systems, hand washing stations and other various dining hall accouterments.  Ben Campbell, Chad and I managed to pound an entire box of mint patty cookies from the near by Rippin’ Good Cookie factory in Ripon, WI while transporting equipment.  I have to say, Rippin’ Good mint patties beat the skirts off of a legion of Girl Scout Thin Mints.

MASA has a 40′x60′ dining hall tent that will feed approximately 250 missionary pilots 3 meals a day right on the grounds.  It is a fantastic ministry that saves organizations like ours all kinds of meal expense. This year they have pretty much everything to make the tent look like a banquet hall less the Ice sculptures, water feature and chocolate fountain. We even hauled in trees and planters to add to the ambiance. The only problem is the mud, there has been lots of rain and the airport is very saturated.  I’m sure it will dry out before the festivities start tomorrow.

In the evening, we grilled up some steaks for dinner and had great company of 12 people for dinner and a fun-filled evening of target shooting and movie watching.  Tim Dontje, a MAF MK came in for the week and was kind enough to share his Glock for the shooting fest. Pardon the pun but it was a blast.

Well, its that time again for the humongous EAA air show.  We arrived yesterday from CAM’s base in Grand Rapids, MI to Oshkosh, WI via the “mighty” S.S. Badger.  The Badger is a car ferry that travels Lake Michigan between Luddington, MI and Manitowoc, WI.  Its a 4hr crossing but well worth avoiding the mental anguish involved in driving though construction ridden Chicago in the heat of the summer.  My “photo specialist” and co-volunteer, Chad Spangenberg, and I arrived at Wittman Field in the midst of exhibit construction, aircraft arrival and all sorts of fine displays of organized chaos.

After scoping out the situation at the airfield, we proceeded to the new Sonic here in Oshkosh for some good ole fashioned fried cuisine. Thank goodness for the American franchise phenomena, that ensures the quality of goods and services throughout– not sure Sonic would have made it here in Oshkosh with out it–Did I mention it was a brand new Sonic?

We crashed at our very comfortable, exceptionally clean, rural oasis–the Campbell Estate– while the others finished up at the airport. At around 6:30 CST, we went off to the Campbell’s youth group as I had a pre-arranged speaking engagement as well as several very aggressive rounds of dodge-ball. Chad was more than obliged to partake in doge-ball and gracious enough to suffer though my speaking. It made for a hysterically entertaining evening and we both made some new friends–What more could you ask for?

That’s the day in review.

Our objectives this week are to promote CAM, volunteer at Kid Venture and the Missionary Aviation Support Association (MASA) and, of course, keep our faithful subscribers up-to-date on all the sweet happenings of EAA.  So, this week we will be posting a lot of videos and pictures and all that good media stuff.  We’d ask that you join in the conversation by chiming in with comments!

Here is a video of what Chad and I will be doing at Kid Venture: