The organization is requesting pilots with aircraft able to volunteer, do so online by going to http://www.bahamashabitat.org. Organizations with medical and other supplies to donate should email: help@bahamashabitat.org.

Bahamas Habitat Delivering Relief with Private Aircraft

January 18^th 2010 –– Bahamas Habitat announced today their aviation relief operation is “up and running” to Haiti.  “Sunday was our third day of airlift operations into the outlying airports around Port-Au-Prince and we delivered a lot of medical supplies and evacuated 27 more people today”, reported John Armstrong, President of Bahamas Habitat.

Steve Merritt, the Treasurer and Chief Pilot for Bahamas Habitat answered the call last Thursday and launched to chart the course and prepare the way for other volunteers in the organizations recently donated Beechcraft Baron. He was joined by Cameron King and Matt Hansen, Bahamas Habitat long term volunteer pilots serving at their Eleuthera base camp.

On Friday January 15th their first two flight teams made it in to Haiti from their staging base on Inagua, in the Southern Bahamas, delivering medical supplies and evacuating people. Saturday more planes joined the efforts and a significant amount of medical supplies were moved in and more trapped missionaries moved out.

“We have had a rush of requests to help get people out and more medical supplies in. Private pilots with aircraft have been volunteering and making preparations to join the efforts from all over the country and even Canada. We have medical and other supplies in Nassau and Fort Lauderdale that need to be moved in and the list of people needing to be evacuated continues to grow” stated Armstrong.

“We are making a difference and the impact is growing. It is amazing to see what God is doing through these outstanding volunteer aviators.” stated Abraham McIntyre, the Executive Director of Bahamas Methodist Habitat and the chief in charge of the organization’s operation from “Command Central” on Nassau.

“We are focusing on getting to the airports of  Cap Haitien and Les Cayes that are north and west of Port-Au-Prince where the big aircraft can not serve. People are moving out to these areas seeking help and evacuation and the clinics and hospitals are over run there without enough medical supplies,” McIntyre explained.

So far the flight missions have involved everything from Cessna 182’s, Bonanzas, Barons, Aztecs, to a Cessna 340’s and a Caravan. More volunteers that have twin engine aircraft and high performance singles are needed to join in the mission. The organization is requesting pilots with aircraft able to volunteer, do so online by going to http://www.bahamashabitat.org. Organizations with medical and other supplies to donate should email: help@bahamashabitat.org.

The organization has indicated the following ways people can help.

1. Aircraft owners can volunteer to make flight missions. If you don’t have a plane they suggest you help get the message to other pilots that have suitable planes and then join in with them.

2. Help spread the word to pilots to request supplies, funds and additional airplanes.

3. Donate to support the effort via the website at http://www.bahamashabitat.org

4. Pray and then pray some more.

About Bahamas Habitat and Bahamas Methodist Habitat

Bahamas Habitat is a US-based Christian nonprofit organization supporting housing & disaster relief work in the Bahamas. Through our partner Bahamas Methodist Habitat (BMH), operating out of James Cistern Eleuthera, we are involved in hosting over 600 adults and youths each season for hi impact week long and weekend Christian missions and responding to disasters in the region. The organization hosts the Fly-In & Help Out Event and promotes mission opportunities to pilots, aircraft owners and aviation organizations in the US and Canada.  For more information visit: http://www.bahamashabitat.org or email to info@bahamashabitat.org

The organization is requesting pilots with aircraft able to volunteer, do so online by going to http://www.bahamashabitat.org. Organizations with medical and other supplies to donate should email: help@bahamashabitat.org.

Bahamas Habitat Delivering Relief with Private Aircraft

January 18^th 2010 –– Bahamas Habitat announced today their aviation relief operation is “up and running” to Haiti.  “Sunday was our third day of airlift operations into the outlying airports around Port-Au-Prince and we delivered a lot of medical supplies and evacuated 27 more people today”, reported John Armstrong, President of Bahamas Habitat.

Steve Merritt, the Treasurer and Chief Pilot for Bahamas Habitat answered the call last Thursday and launched to chart the course and prepare the way for other volunteers in the organizations recently donated Beechcraft Baron. He was joined by Cameron King and Matt Hansen, Bahamas Habitat long term volunteer pilots serving at their Eleuthera base camp.

On Friday January 15th their first two flight teams made it in to Haiti from their staging base on Inagua, in the Southern Bahamas, delivering medical supplies and evacuating people. Saturday more planes joined the efforts and a significant amount of medical supplies were moved in and more trapped missionaries moved out.

“We have had a rush of requests to help get people out and more medical supplies in. Private pilots with aircraft have been volunteering and making preparations to join the efforts from all over the country and even Canada. We have medical and other supplies in Nassau and Fort Lauderdale that need to be moved in and the list of people needing to be evacuated continues to grow” stated Armstrong.

“We are making a difference and the impact is growing. It is amazing to see what God is doing through these outstanding volunteer aviators.” stated Abraham McIntyre, the Executive Director of Bahamas Methodist Habitat and the chief in charge of the organization’s operation from “Command Central” on Nassau.

“We are focusing on getting to the airports of  Cap Haitien and Les Cayes that are north and west of Port-Au-Prince where the big aircraft can not serve. People are moving out to these areas seeking help and evacuation and the clinics and hospitals are over run there without enough medical supplies,” McIntyre explained.

So far the flight missions have involved everything from Cessna 182’s, Bonanzas, Barons, Aztecs, to a Cessna 340’s and a Caravan. More volunteers that have twin engine aircraft and high performance singles are needed to join in the mission. The organization is requesting pilots with aircraft able to volunteer, do so online by going to http://www.bahamashabitat.org. Organizations with medical and other supplies to donate should email: help@bahamashabitat.org.

The organization has indicated the following ways people can help.

1. Aircraft owners can volunteer to make flight missions. If you don’t have a plane they suggest you help get the message to other pilots that have suitable planes and then join in with them.

2. Help spread the word to pilots to request supplies, funds and additional airplanes.

3. Donate to support the effort via the website at http://www.bahamashabitat.org

4. Pray and then pray some more.

About Bahamas Habitat and Bahamas Methodist Habitat

Bahamas Habitat is a US-based Christian nonprofit organization supporting housing & disaster relief work in the Bahamas. Through our partner Bahamas Methodist Habitat (BMH), operating out of James Cistern Eleuthera, we are involved in hosting over 600 adults and youths each season for hi impact week long and weekend Christian missions and responding to disasters in the region. The organization hosts the Fly-In & Help Out Event and promotes mission opportunities to pilots, aircraft owners and aviation organizations in the US and Canada.  For more information visit: http://www.bahamashabitat.org or email to info@bahamashabitat.org

February 24, 2009

I wanted to let you all know of a very disturbing TSA Security Directive (SD) that is being implemented under the radar that affects ALL U.S. airports with commercial Part 121 scheduled airline service.

This is reality folks, and several of us here in good ol’ western Colorado attended a meeting with TSA personnel tonight in Montrose MTJ and confirmed this shocking news firsthand.

This SD would require that every person who steps foot in the airport operations area be screened for security clearance and badged before being allowed to have access on the ramp. If you are not badged, then you must wait to be escorted by a badged representative and escorted off the AOA.

Click here to finish article

The Perfect Aircraft for Sale at the end of the Rainbow

One of our readers sent in these phenomenal photographs of the End of the Rainbow, captured while driving with his fiancé in Southern California.

Jason, a private pilot, states “while maybe most people would wish for a pot of gold at the end of their rainbow, I was hoping to find the perfect aircraft for sale at the end of mine” He says he recently sold his Piper Warrior and is shopping for his next aircraft.

Light twins have always had retractable landing gear and while some single engine aircraft did, many others did not. Beechcraft made them popular with its Bonanza series, brought to market just after WWII.

The Beechcraft Bonanza uses an electric retract system that must be maintained at regular intervals to avoid problems.

It is interesting to note that the pre-war single engine D-17 Staggerwing Beechcraft also had retractable landing gear along with its biplane configuration. The term, Staggerwing, refers to the position of the lower wing which is located ahead of that of the top wing. The reason being that most biplanes had their landing gear attached to the fuselage while the D-17 had the landing gear attached to the lower wing in order to position the main wheels in the correct relationship to the CG of the aircraft. When the Staggerwing was upgraded to retractable in the mid 1930s, the forward positioned lower wing made it very convenient to fold the wheel back into the wing. Grumman’s military fighter biplanes had to use a very complex and heavy retractable system so the wheels could be pulled up into the fuselage.

When designing light single-engine aircraft to include retractable landing gear, aircraft manufacturers were faced with several obstacles,

The Beech Sierra has trailing-arm main landing gear legs. This feature assures very smooth landings.

About 1,000 N3Ns were manufactured by the Naval Air Factory, owned and operated by the US Navy, from 1935 to the early 1940s. This large biplane is often mistaken for the Boeing/Stearman PT-17/N2S. Many of these aircraft were painted bright yellow for easy visibility in the air and as a warning that a student pilot was aboard. It was the N3N that was nicknamed the Yellow Peril by Naval Aviation Cadets and not the PT-17/N2S. For a few years after the war a small number of N3N-3s were fitted with a single large float with two small wing tip floats. These aircraft were used for indoctrination rides at the Naval Academy. Eventually all N3Ns were sold as surplus. The N3N-3 was powered with a 235 hp seven cylinder Wright Whirlwind radial engine, also built by the Navy under license. It had a takeoff weight of almost 2800 pounds and a top speed of 126 mph. There are still 20 listed as airworthy. I have flown the N3N and it is not as maneuverable as the Stearman or the Waco UPF-7, another contemporary biplane trainer. The controls seemed a bit sluggish to me, but there was no doubt that this was a very rugged aircraft that could take the ham-handed abuse of Naval Cadets.