Sunday, July 1, 2012

Brigade Air


 I (Tyler) had an opportunity given to me to go and help a flight camp in Columbia CA with Brigade Air.   Brigade Air's mission is to inspire young teens towards careers in mission aviation.  Brigade does this by holding camps for young people that have an interest in aviation and talking and showing films about aviation missions and individuals missionaries.  They are held all over the States with volunteers donating their flying skills and aircraft for the camps.  Moody was gracious to lend an aircraft and I was more than happy to give my time to the camp. 

Ryan and I flew a Moody Skyhawk to help with camp


Ryan is making sure that we are on course


Some of the views we see from our front windshield 


Mount Shasta in Oregon



Crater Lake

It is really hard to claw your way to 10,500 feet in an old Cessna 172 at gross weight.  But we made it and were rewarded with these beautiful images from crater lake in Oregon




Lava Flows


Did you know that Oregon had so many lava flows?  I didn't and to see all these old lava fields and domes was just an amazing testimony to God's creativeness


The city built all the way up to the lava field and it looked like the lava just stopped short of their houses

 A lava "dome" kind of reminds me of Sarlacc at the great pit of Carkoon from StarWars: Return of the Jedi


Camp


 The wonderful cabin we stayed in and slept out under the stars since it was so hot inside


The conference center on the airport where the campers learned in ground school about missions and the physics of flying

 Ryan Wolff, Jordan, Nathan, Nathan and Jake

 
This was a great time for myself as I get some flight time but even better was to help some fledgling pilots get behind the controls and experience flying the airplane instead of just watching.   Can't you see how excited I am trying to stay alive? *smile*
Nathan is a typical young man who is looking for purpose in his life.  He sees mission aviation as a good possibility for his future.   He is a Christian but he is struggling to make that more than a Sunday gig.  Please pray with me that Nathan will make Jesus more than just a label but a life changing commitment. 


 Jordan was our youngest camper at Brigade this year and a very bright kid.  He caught on very quickly to the flight sessions in how to control the aircraft and was very excited each time it was his turn to go flying.  At the moment he is looking to got to the Navy to become a pilot and then go to missions.


Jake (right) and our second Nathan (left) in the camp were both great students and pilots. Jake was the quickest to grasp the theoretical talks about flight in the ground school portions.  He shows a great heart for other people and for missions.  Nathan was the more advanced camper in flight since he is involve with Airforce cadet CAP group, and also showed a lot of interest in missions.  I hope to see these guys on the field hopefully in the future.


 

Many wonderful hours spent in my "office" with an excited camper in the left seat


The earthen dam that we flew over every flight

 Our flight took place over a lake and it afforded us some good views of all the water traffic that takes place on the weekends

 

Forest Fires


Can you guess what aircraft this is?  It is a Grumman S2T, an old submarine hunter from the navy converted successfully to a fire bomber


In between two flights I saw 4 new fires start up.  Here is one that has been going for a day and because of the inversion layer the smoke hugs the ground


 OV-10 observation plane, this would be one sweet airplane to fly