Geyman Steps

This past week was spent learning about turbine engines. In the past, the majority of mission aviation aircraft had piston engines. However, this has changed over the years as avgas, which fuels these engines, has become uncommon and expensive.  The reduction gear from the power turbine to the propeller Dan is conducting a borescope inspection of the Power Turbine blades. A borescope is essentially what the CIA uses for spy operations which means we are pretty cool! Well not exactly, but it is cool to take a camera on a long wire to inspect the guts of an engine. I love this picture. It is a wordless expression of the eagerness to work together in fulfilling God's calling. Ahn, is a Korean who is currently working in Indonesia with Yajasi, a partner organization of JAARS. One of the incredible blessings of working in missions is to see how God brings together the nations to do His work.  Parting the case to perform an in...

Earlier this week all the pilots, aircraft mechanics in JAARS training, and a few of the staff went to a few of the airfields which are used for training. These grass runways are privately owned but the owners have generously allowed JAARS aircraft to operate out of them. The purpose of the "field trip" was two-fold. First, it gave the pilots an opportunity to walk and assess the runways before flying into them. Secondly, these runways require periodic inspections. The first task was to measure the fields. Since JAARS operates out of short airstrips, performance numbers (how long it will take the aircraft to get off the ground) is crucial. Before flight, distance for takeoff and landing will be calculated and is accurate to within 20 feet. To do this, environmental factors such as humidity, slope, surface, wind, etc. will be measured to produce an aircraft performance number. As such, having markings on the runway to verify whether the aircraft is performing a...