Busy Summer

Much has happened here at Spokane Turbine Center since the last blog update.  Training continued on our normal, four-week cycle as scheduled through the middle of July.  This training consisted of three flight classes and two maintenance specialist classes on turboprop operation and maintenance, Kodiak aircraft systems, maintenance and flight training, and Garmin G1000 avionics operation and maintenance.  It's been exciting to see so many students come through our doors and to think of the many ways in which the training they are receiving here will benefit those they serve overseas including Bible translators, church planters, and medical evacuation patients.

Last week we celebrated our first anniversary of operations in our newly renovated training facility.  It's hard to believe only one year has passed, as much as we packed into it.  In just one year we've watched this training facility spool up from humble beginnings to the primary training center for turbine missionary pilots and mechanics.  We are exceedingly grateful for the Lord's clear guidance and for His blessing without either of which none of this would have been possible.

Late July through the month of August found us traveling across the country and into Canada on our 2010 Kodiak summer tour.  We visited churches, Christian flight schools, and aviation public events raising awareness of missionary aviation, our turbine training, and partnership opportunities.  We flew 94.3 hours, 9,329.4 miles and gave a taste of the future of missionary aviation to 936 passengers.  The most significant maintenance problem we had was a burned out light bulb, a testament to the reliability of the Kodiak and PT6 turboprop.

As we continue into our second calendar year of training here at our new facility, we greatly appreciate your prayers.  We're still a young organization with plenty of opportunities and associated challenges.  Please pray that God would continue to guide and provide, as we strive to glorify Him in providing the needed training to missionary pilots and mechanics worldwide.

Still Busy Training Missionary Pilots

We have not written on our blog much lately, you may have noticed. The primary reason is we have been in class. That’s probably a good thing since training is what we do. Since the first of the year we have conducted two full training groups for flight students and one abbreviated class. We have twice conducted the full PT6A familiarization course and conducted the G1000 avionics, Kodiak systems and Kodiak flight training three times.


In March we will be teaching our first maintenance training class of the year and second since we opened back in September of last year. We have eight students scheduled from four different organizations. We also have an instructor from Standard Aero coming to lead our training on PT6A hot section inspections.

In other news, we are getting set to release our spring newsletter featuring our flight simulator training and the relief work in Haiti. Several of the pilots with MAF and JAARS that are working down there have received training here at Spokane Turbine Center. We are honored to be helping even if in an indirect way.

We covet your prayers as we drive into our busy spring training schedule.