When you set goals and make plans to accomplish those goals, I normally go into it with a mindset of it not all going as planned, being flexible, and expect the need to readjust those plans. The past several weeks have gone exceptionally well and better than I hoped for! The Lord has blessed and moved in ways that have once again strengthened my faith in Him and reassured me to continue following where He leads!

By the grace of God, on May 17th I traveled from Tampico, Illinois to Bowling Green, Ohio in the little training helicopter and took and passed the checkride/practical test for the commercial helicopter certificate. I then flew back to Tampico, and began training with Norman Headings to become a flight instructor in helicopters. About half a week later, I flew back to Plymouth, Indiana to a flight school to complete the remaining training. The training went very well and moved along rapidly and we scheduled the checkride/practical test for May 29th. I stayed with relatives in Nappanee, Indiana over the weekend, and on Tuesday the 29th flew over to Toledo, Ohio and completed and passed the flight instructor helicopter checkride/ practical test!

The other day I was flying solo in one of Norman’s largest helicopters transporting it back from an inspection, and I caught myself verbally saying, “what in the world” and in shock of where I am already at with the whole helicopter transition. The Lord has provided so many opportunities and blessings for this to happen!! All glory be to God!!

The commercial helicopter certificate is a requirement to serve with JAARS in the capacity I plan to serve in and I will be using the flight instructor to build my helicopter flight hours to meet those requirements.

So what’s next? Norman Headings owns a business that does aerial agricultural application (crop dusting) with helicopters here in Illinois during the months of July and August. He has graciously started training me to do crop dusting for him this season as a way of allowing me to build hard-to-acquire helicopter flight time. This opportunity to spray for him is not set in stone, but we are making that the goal and trying to make it happen. This would be a huge blessing in multiple ways if this continues to come together!

After spray season in August, Lord willing I will come home and get a job teaching in helicopters to continue to build flight time until I meet JAARS requirements and acquire the helicopter instrument rating. Then…Lord willing, the next step, JAARS!!

 

Prayer Praises

  1. God is answering prayers! Thank you to all who have been praying for me!
  2. That God has opened the opportunity to potentially spray for Norman this year!
  3. That God has faithfully supplied funds to acquire the helicopter certificates!

 

Prayer Requests

  1. Alertness and safety while we complete crop dusting training.
  2. That funds would continue to be available to build needed helicopter experience and remaining training.
  3. God would open the opportunity in His timing to get a helicopter flight instructor job in Clearwater, FL.