I must say that there are days when I think I have the best job in the world, and the best office view ever. This Thursday Dick Eckels and I flew a two day mission. We meet at the hanger at 6am and made short work of the pre-flight. The sky was looking ominous, the wind was picking up, the sky was punctuated with flashes of lightning, and the winds were at 13 gusting to 20, ah, what a beautiful morning to fly!(not). Dick and I decide to scram before the real nastiness arrives. We took off and climbed out in slightly bumpy weather and made it up to 18000'. We check our ground speed and learn that we have a 70knot (105mph) tailwind! Why do we always have a tailwind when we don't need it and a headwind when we don't want it? So now we have to circle for a half hour to avoid landing before 9am. (We have to pay $90 extra if we land before 9am).
Its this kind of flying that makes it so challenging. Flying in the States is so easy, we really don't know how good we have it! When you go out of the country the chips start to stack up against you. The customs paper work better be spot on. Don't be an ugly American, and always say please,t hank you, and have a blessed day. When getting into Haitian airspace the chips get stacked even higher. Bad ATC (air traffic control) poor or non-existent radar, and BIG mountains. Now fly without being able to see out the windshield. Call me crazy but this is the kind of flying I do for Agape, and I love it! Am I complaining? Not at all, I have the best job in the world, and I do it while in the mighty hands of the Father.
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Captain Mikarts
Mark always says he has the best office view!
Hispanola
These are the mountains on the island of Hispanola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic)
Haitian Airport
Here is a picture of an airport in Haiti!
About Me
- Mikarts Family
- Mark and I created this blog so that our friends and family could see all the blessings God is pouring on our family as we serve Him through Agape Flights. Mark is one of the captains, a flight instructor and maintenance man for God! We believe that through the thick and thin of life, you have to find the humor. We want the joy we get from the Lord to be evident in our daily lives. Our children have unidentified developmental delays, because of this, we have a heart for parents of children with special needs. Our kids have brought us the biggest joy - and the biggest challenges. Through our experiences, we pray we can help others.
1 comment:
Mark,
Just dropping you a quick note to tell me how inspired I am from reading your blog. I am 43, married, coming up on my 25th wedding anniversay, have seven sons and just started flight training here in Lynchburg VA. Crazy right? I stumbled across your blog after a recent short missions trip to D.R. I have a whole 2.2 hrs towards my PPL. (started Dec.1/08) The weather has been brutal. When you instruct, do you do so under Pt.141 or 61? Are you looking for students? Old guys that have dreamed to fly their whole life and have no idea why God has brought the opportunity at such a late stage...that's me. If you have the time I'd love to chat about possibly getting together for some training. My current instructor is a great guy but is 73 years old and only wants to fly once per week. When the weather finally gets decent I find he's not interested except on the one day he holds for me. I'm tempted to jump on a plane to sunny FL and get some instruction and hours in the book. I have been doing my ground school through Liberty University but now that I'm ready for flight lessons I'm finding I can't get off the ground. If you have any suggestions I'd love to hear from you. Keep up the great work! Sincerely, S.Clark (clarkboys7@gmail.com)
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