With a thumbs up and a grin big enough to see from fifty yards away, Pastor Rick Cobb became the nation’s newest private pilot and the most recent Wings for Christ student to earn his wings.

The day was almost perfect. Mostly calm winds (for Central Texas, anyway), big puffy clouds and bright blue skies welcomed Rick, his instructor Monte and FAA Flight Examiner John Foster when they met early in the morning of July 12 at the TSTC airport.

First was the oral exam, covering all areas of aeronautical knowledge that a private pilot is responsible for. The examiner was especially impressed with Rick’s cross-country flight planning skills. When asked to plot a route for a night flight, Rick chose to make safety a higher priority than efficiency. His route may have taken a bit longer to get to the final goal, but kept closer to alternate airports in case an emergency should present itself. Mr. Foster said that safety is always the best choice.

Next was the practical exam, where Pastor Rick had to demonstrate all of the maneuvers learned during his training and also show his navigation skills. All went well during the nearly two hour flight and when they returned to the airport Rick was on pins and needles as the examiner completed some paperwork. After a few nail biting moments, Rick was rewarded with the news that he had passed the exam and was now an official Private Pilot.

Pastor Rick began his training at WfC in December of 2009, soloed in April and completed his Private Pilot checkride just before noon on Monday, July 12. With a beaming smile and handshakes from everyone around, Rick said he was so happy to reach this milestone in his pilot training. But this is just the beginning.

Rick recently acquired a Cessna 172 and is making plans to transition up to the larger plane as soon as possible. He will start to build cross country time so that he can start his instrument training, therefore making his plans of flying between new church plants to be a pastor to other pastors more effective. The ability to fly between locations will greatly improve his ability to personally mentor and lead pastors of small churches across several states during a critical time in their development.

Pastor Rick and his wife Gloria want to thank Wings for Christ and all of our supporters for the assistance in his flight training and helping him to reach this important milestone in his flying career. After the excitement settled down and he had a moment to reflect on his accomplishment, Rick said that he and his wife, Gloria, want to encourage people to support WfC with their time and financial commitments because of the direct impact WfC has had on their ministry plans. “Without the help of Wings for Christ, I would not have been able to afford to learn to fly. Wings has been such a blessing to my wife and me,” said Rick. He also expressed his thankfulness for his flight instructor, Monte Michael. Monte donated many hours to help Rick complete his training schedule and prepare for the check ride. Also to be thanked are the maintenance volunteers that keep Gracie Bird flying. An airplane as old as Gracie needs almost an hour of maintenance for every hour she spends in the air.

Rick’s journey into aviation is just at the beginning, and Wings for Christ is glad to have played a part. Our prayer is for many years of successful flying and ministry for Rick and Gloria. Congratulations, Rick!

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Monday, July 12, 2010 will be a day that WfC student and pastor of Journey Christian Community Church Rick Cobb will remember for the rest of his life. From that day on he will be a certificated Private Pilot (we’re trusting that all will go well). Pastor Rick has been actively preparing for that day since December 3, 2009, when he began his Private Pilot training program at Wings for Christ.

With lots of hard work, prayers and support from WfC, Rick is ready for his FAA Private Pilot Checkride, says Chief Pilot Monte Michael, who is Rick’s flight instructor. Monte says that Rick has been taking blocks of vacation time from his job to concentrate his training and make his push towards the checkride more effective. Rick took a similar approach before his first solo back in April, with great success.

Rick plans to continue his training as soon as he has built up enough cross country time to start the Instrument Flight Rules program. He plans to use aviation to facilitate church planting efforts all across Texas and even into some neighboring states.

Please pray for clear thinking, a sharp mind, good weather and a sense of fun and adventure on what will be a memorable day for Rick and the entire Wings for Christ family.

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The stormy early hours of Saturday morning turned into a glorious day of perfect temperatures and sunny skies for twenty volunteers from Highland Baptist Church in Waco, Texas. The volunteers were part of a city wide day of local missions awareness sponsored by the church, called ‘Q2′, according to Lisa Fuentes, the group’s coordinator. Each quarter of the year at Highland, there is a special emphasis on some aspect of missions work and the second quarter of the year has been devoted to local mission support.

“Not everyone can participate in national and international missions, so this is a way the missions committee at Highland can expose the congregation to places close to home where they can be involved,” said Fuentes. Nearly one hundred and fifty volunteers gathered at the church this morning and were sent out all over the Waco area to learn about and serve local missions and ministries. Mission Waco, Care Net of Central Texas, Generations of Hope and many other groups were visited by groups from Highland. The volunteers were allowed to pick which organizations they wanted to serve, and many were interested in learning more about Wings for Christ.

The team that came to Wings today worked mostly in three areas. One group made tremendous progress in our painting and rust prevention project in the maintenance hangar, painting all the exposed metal frame of of the structure from the top of the walls down a deep green color to match the exterior trim. A large part of the metal rafters were painted as well, but a lack of tall ladders prevented reaching the peak areas. The group even painted the air compressor to match and it looks like it is brand new.

Another group removed old sheet metal and wood from the old tee hangar. This is the first step of renovating the hangar in preparation for its use as the future home of Burt’s Blessing, our Cessna 172 project plane. This was difficult and dangerous work, and we appreciate the folks who climbed ladders and swung hammers to get the work done.

The final group worked on something you might not associate with the ins and outs of running a flight school, but is very vital to our mission. They worked with Cheryl Hull on a historic preservation scrap-booking project, taking multiple dozens of old pictures and newspaper clippings and organizing them into a visual history of Wings for Christ. Many of the images are from the early 1960′s and the very beginning of Wings for Christ. Cheryl filled in the details and the volunteers cut and clipped the pictures into a wonderful set of pages documenting our nearly 50 year history.

Overall, the volunteers from Highland Baptist Church put in over 60 hours of volunteer time in just a few short hours. They also had a chance to learn more about Wings for Christ International Flight Academy and how we are serving Jesus Christ through aviation.

All of the people at Wings for Christ would like to thank these great volunteers and Highland Baptist for their work and support. We welcome you back any time for more opportunities to serve or just to visit and do some hangar flying.

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