OUR NEWEST ADDITION TO THE AVIATION MINISTRY

Up until this point in the ministry we have used our Cessna 172 for training purposes and it has been very effective and useful to this end. However, now that we have other faster airplanes for cross country flying, the usage of this airplane will decrease. Because it is more expensive to operate than a small training ship, we decided to look for, and found a Cessna 150 suitable for this purpose. The airplane shown here is that airplane.

We ferried it back from Vermont and it flew well and it performed flawlessly although it has a goodly number of flight hours on both the airframe and the engine. The compressions are good and oil consumption is low so we are anticipating being able to use this airplane for the training program as we move forward into 2008. Because the purchase price was low compared to the current market ($12,500 as compared to $18,500-$22,500) and fuel consumption is half of the C-172, we feel that is a good investment for the ministry. When it does require mechanical work, parts are readily available due to the fact that many of these airplanes were manufactured. These factors give us the anticipation of being able to train several students at a much better cost ratio than with the C-172. At present we have four students in the church who have expressed a burden for the future ministry and we have started working with them using this airplane to train them to carry the ministry forward. This alone will make it a good investment for us.