Private Pilot

Dave Gets His Pilot Certificate

Finally!

Dave returns from his checkride with his pilot certificate.

It was a long, sometimes frustrating journey getting there, but finally on Sept 23, Dave passed his checkride and is now a licensed Private Pilot! Achieving that goal means that Dave can now fly anywhere (except into clouds), day or night, and without ever having to get an instructor's permission! And more importantly, now he can take passengers!

With the boys champing at the bit, Dave plotted out a nice little one hour round trip over the city of Huntsville and down to Lake Guntersville. Tucker was the first to go up, and thoughtfully provided a cooler with "in-flight snacks". He also brought along the camera so we could record the event. The weather was perfect and the scenery spectacular. Tuck even had the chance to take the controls for a bit over the Lake.

Tuck snapped this picture just after takeoff. The Space & Rocket Center is right of center, and downtown Huntsville is in the upper left corner. (click for full-sized image)

Tucker at the controls

Gerrit was the next to go up (the next day), and he manned the video camera. We called home as we passed the house so that the rest family could come out to watch us fly over.

Circling Lake Guntserville, looking down at the Guntersville Municipal airport (8A1).

After all of that, Karen decided it as her turn. The weather wasn't great, with lots of haze and clouds beginning to move in, but we finally decided to go anyway. It was a slightly bumpier ride than the boys had, but still plenty clear enough to see the sights. It was another fun flight, in what is sure to be a long string of fun trips through the wild blue yonder!

Improbable Connections

Talk about your small world!!

How the demonstration of a new computer monitor at my job led to
an amazing connection with the governor's office in Kentucky!

As part of my job here at Lockheed in Huntsville I am currently working on a program to design an air defense command and control system for the UK. As a part of the program, we have a British army officer working with us on a day-to-day basis. In order to keep him from getting too homesick, we have all sorts of British stuff around the office,...a framed photo of the queen, lots of posters, and of course, the British flag. Just to keep things balanced, there's also a US flag, and somewhere along the way the guy who's our boss wrote to his governor to see if he could get a state flag. Well, he got one! And you know how things get started among office mates,... That inspired another guy in the office, named Troy, to write to his governor for a flag. Troy wasn't so fortunate, however. Instead of getting a state flag he received a nice letter back saying they only did that for deployed military units. Left without a state flag, Troy framed the letter and proudly displayed it instead.

(click on the letter for a slightly better view)

Months later, during a demonstration of a new computer monitor that was positioned near Troy's cube, I happened to glance over at the letter and looked at it a little more carefully. I noticed that the state he had written to was Kentucky, and on further inspection, I was amazed to see that the letter had been signed by none other than Paul Gannoe, who just happens to be my cousin! During Thanksgiving break last year, when we drove up to Kentucky to see my Grandparents and my Aunt and Uncle, I remember there being talk about Paul working on the campaign of some guy running for governor. I hadn't really kept track of how the election went, but judging form the letter, it must have gone quite well! Well, I wrote to my Aunt Kathy about the amazing coincidence, and she forwarded the note to Paul. It seems that Paul even remembered Troy's letter and felt bad about not being able to send him a flag. Since that letter, Paul had received so many other requests from folks who didn't meet the official criteria for a flag that he acquired some others on his own. So not too long afterwards, Troy got his flag! Below is a shot of his cube, now proudly displaying the colors of the great commonwealth of Kentucky! (And that's the letter, still framed, hanging just below the flag on the left)

Summertime Adventures!

Our boys scatter across the country (and beyond)
until we all reunite in Venezuela in July

What a summer! Once school let out this year our boys started a dizzying series of trips and adventures that still haven't completely ended. First, Dave had to go to England on business for the third time in four months (missing his birthday for the second straight year). While he was gone, Tucker took off for M-Fuge in Nashville with a group of youths from our church. M-Fuge is a mission camp designed for grades 7- college, focused on students putting their faith into action. After an intense weekend of preparation the students go into the local community for a week to participate in various ministries. Philip getting ready for the rapids Before Tucker returned, Philip started his own adventure, heading first to Texas and then Colorado with his grandparents. After soloing on the plane ride between Huntsville and Dallas (!), he was met by his cousin, Grace, and Karen's parents at DFW. They drove from there out to Colorado for a week-long adventure in the mountains around Aspen, including some white water rafting! In the mean time, Tucker returned home and Gerrit departed for Venezuela with a team from our church that was going down to conduct Vacation Bible School for the children of missionaries during their annual meeting. Gerrit gets the prize for being the most adventurous of us all this summer, because when our church team returned to Huntsville, he stayed in

Venezuela! Pastor Jimmy, from the Miranda church we partnered with last year, took Gerrit in and kept him busy for over two weeks until the planned arrival of rest of our family with another group from our church in July. The Willowbrook VBS team in Venezuela When Philip returned from his trip to Colorado, he was thrown right into the all-star season withhis baseball team. He had missed most of the practices and some seeding games, but was back in time for the tournament. Good thing, too! After a winless regular season, he was able to be an integral part of an all-star team that went undefeated, winning the tournament in three games! And the night they won it, just before the final out, fireworks were set off over in the Huntsville Stars stadium, just a couple miles away. It sure looked to us like the fireworks were for our all stars! The undefeated All-Star team! With that accompished, the next thing to do was pack and get the the rest of the family ready to head to Venezuela where we'd finally be all together again! Oh yeah, then after that Tuck went to Kentucky on a spur of the moment trip,...

Willowbrook in Miranda

Our church's first official mission trip

to our partner church in Venezuela

In the midst of an already hectic summer of trips and travel, we set out in July with the first group from our church to visit our partner church in Miranda, Venezuela. The memories are still fresh, and there are far more stories to be told than can be captured here, but the following list may give you a glimpse: making the best time through the Miami airport,...or not Eric getting searched,..every timedifferent booth, different exchange rate 24 people, one house, two bathrooms "Te alabare, te glorificare!" journaling Pastor Jimmy street evangelism"Whassup? Whassup wichu?" Philip having a rough night,...all night don't eat the lettuce or the tomatoes! meditations at the new property playing ERS Marcial and Rachel de-lousing walking through the squatter village Katie playing soccer in the street racing Tim to the shower nametags Samuel the bus driver the sloths Pastor Roberto Tucker preaching down time at the farm teaching American football arepas, cachapas, and tequenos the parrot balloon animals Si bueno! getting outside our comfort zones Pequeno Juan! Grande Juan! team picture! chasing down scooters and cars with tracts do I need to brush with bottled water? Marcial's broken arm end-of-trip party at Samuel and Ana Maria Prato's Dios te bendiga! little David the souvenir shop we need to have a short team meeting when we get back! is the pool water OK? iguanas at the international hotel hey Tuck, you feelin' the heat? farewell gifts at the new property does everyone have their buddy? the saxophone and the trumpet the bus can't get through, we'll have to walk line dancing on the football field sleeping in hammocks a total of eight checkpoints before getting on the airplane in Valencia we're millionaires! (in Bolivares anyway) Hermana Josefa opting for ice cream instead of seeing a second park testimonies at the temple signing t-shirts Miguel, Lenin, Manuel, and all the rest

Check out our slide show!

Famous relatives!

Maltsberger appears on the History Channel!

Our brother-in-law David Maltberger was one of the esteemed Biblical historians tapped to share his expertise during an Easter week '04 History channel show about warfare and technology in biblical times. The show was an episode of a regular series called "Bible Tech". Here's the teaser from the History Channel web site:

Easter Week Programming Bible Tech Arguably the most influential book ever written, the Bible provides a glimpse into the origins of ancient technology and its use to withstand the elements, build great structures, wage war, and conserve precious water. We examine the technological plausibility of biblical structures and machines--including the Tower of Babylon, the Temple of Jerusalem, ancient bronze and iron forging, and shipbuilding skills that might have been employed to build Noah's Ark.

Watch for it in reruns!

Music City Bowl

Football Road-Trip!

Auburn and Wisconsin play neck-and-neck, until fourth quarter turn-overs give the Tigers the Edge Auburn 28 Wisconsin 14

Our annual "guy" road trip to a football game nearly didn't happen this year; since all attempts to get tickets to an NFL game were frustrated. Then, through some quirk of holiday magic, we were able to get four seats to the "Music City Bowl". It's not exactly one of the biggies, but it was close (played in the Titans stadium in Nashville) and it happened that Auburn was playing, so it was almost a home game!

What was even better was that, through no conscious effort on Santa's part, our tickets ended up being "Club" seats. That meant that our seats adjoined an indoor club with concessions, big screen TVs, and lots of sofas and easy chairs. So, while the rest of the unwashed masses fought their way to and from the stadium concessions and bathrooms from their seats, we just went into the club and were treated like kings! After the game, we reclined in the club until the unwashed masses cleared out :-)

The boys never actually got on TV, but that didn't stop us from faking it! (see below) For all of the amenities, the game also turned out to be a doozy! It was back and forth through most of the game. There were just six minutes remaining in the 4th quarter when the game finally broke open. Auburn capitalized on a turnover and never looked back. So, our third annual football road trip was another awesome success, and it leaves us wondering what next year will bring,...

Check out the picture on the Jumbo-tron! (the game-time camera guys missed us,
but we fixed that with a little photo manipulation!)

Mission Trips to Venezuela

Our church begins its new emphasis
on missions with a partnership

Our family trip to Venezuela in June of 2001 started something. Something big! At the time, it was just nice to be able to see where Karen spent most of her childhood. It also explained a lot of things about her :-) But then we found out that the Baptists of Alabama just happened to be in the midst of a multi-year partnership with the country of,...you guessed it, Venezuela! (what an amazing coincidence!) As a result, there had been several trips to Venezuela sponsored by the state convention, and numerous churches in the state had formed partnerships with churches there. Seeing an opportunity, Karen sent out some emails about the possibility of going down as a translator, and before we knew it, it was August 2003 and she was winging her way back to Venezuela as part of a trip to start new churches and establish partnerships. As it happens, our church was experiencing a real awakening to missions. (what an amazing coincidence!) Individuals from our church had recently gone on trips to places like China and Cuba; groups had been to Kenya as well as a number of places in the states; and we hosted missionaries from Brazil in our church mission house. The groundwork was laid. During the same time, our church was working through the book "40 Days of Purpose", and towards the end it really focuses on the fact that we were "made for a mission". (what an amazing coincidence!) So, not long after she returned from Venezuela, Karen was given the better part of a Sunday morning service to share what her trip had meant to her. The response was overwhelming!

Within weeks, our church had voted to form a partnership with a small start-up church in the town of Miranda, Venezuela. In November, a delegation consisting of a Pastor, a Trustee, and a Deacon (plus Karen as translator) was sent to make it official. The trip was very quick, but the relationships we established with Pastor Jimmy and the church in Miranda will last a lifetime! Two (or maybe three?) trips are planned for 2004, and more are being planned. On looking back, it's now clear that all the "coincidences" that brought us to where we are were obviously God's leading. It's an awesome thing to be involved so directly in His business!

Photos from previous trips:

Aug 03

Sep 03