I-Tec Built Plane Gets Presidential Recognition
By Steve SaintJune 24, 2009
Dear aviation enthusiasts with a bent toward ministry and Missions enthusiasts with a bent toward aviation,
The president of Ecuador just made a visit to the little community called Shell Mera where my family lived in End of the Spear. From news I have just received, it sounds like one of his significant reasons for visiting this small community on the edge of the Ecuadorian Amazon was to visit our little airplane building operation. The president did not send one of his many functionaries, he went himself and inspected a plane we have just built as part of our program to develop an affordable, easy to fly, easy to maintain "Preacher Pilot, Plane".
As we get ready for the "big event" at Oshkosh where 'ministry and humanitarian aviation' are getting special billing this year (and where Itec has been asked to be a major contributor), we thought the debut of the Maverick (flying car) and N5156H from End of the Spear and the RV-10s built in Ecuador - were going to be the big news. But what has just happened in Ecuador is another piece of the 'Ministry Aviation' news that may develop into significance in the near future.
A LITTLE BIT OF BACKGROUND
Ministry aviation has historically depended on 'off the shelf' equipment which has always been expensive and has become more and more complicated to operate and maintain. In keeping with the Itec concept of training and equipping indigenous God Followers to meet the physical and spiritual needs of their own people and their own region, we have been working on possible solutions to the major TRANSPORTATION OBSTACLE in frontier areas of the world, since our inception, 13 years ago.
We have worked on projects as diverse as modular aluminum molds for making fiberglass canoes, shaft motor propulsion systems for shallow water and have evaluated land vehicles that can be used to plow, haul cargo or serve as a low speed passenger bus. But the reality in many frontier areas of the world is that using the 'Sky-Highway' is the most practical way to get from one place to another where population densities are low and it costs more to build and maintain even a simple road than it does to build and maintain a small fleet of aircraft that don't need roads.
Hanging in our Itec hangar is an early prototype of a small modular aircraft that proved to be very easy to build and maintain but too complicated to fly. Our next attempt to use the 'Sky-way' with an affordable and easy to use aircraft was much more successful - the Powered Parachute that Tementa made famous in the documentary "Beyond the Gates of Splendor".
It has become clear to me that no single machine is ever going to solve the transportation needs in frontier areas whether the end user is ministry oriented or secular humanitarian, or government or military. What is needed is a well thought out progression of machines that can work together in a manner similar to the system the major airlines have developed. They use small turbo-prop planes to feed regional jets that feed short haul 757s that feed long range 'jumbo jets'.
The development of the Kodiac, a 9 passenger 'clean sheet' design has received a great deal of attention in the last few years. I have followed its development with great interest and have flown it. The Kodiac is an impressive plane, and the vision and fortitude it has taken to get it through FAA certification and into limited production is amazing. Unfortunately, contrary to proliferating expectations, the Kodiac is not the answer. It may be part of the answer, but no single machine is going to be 'THE ANSWER'.
Three steps are needed to tie 'unreached' peoples and places to the rest of our planet. I am convinced that:
- Step 1. is a multi medium vehicle that combines car, boat and aircraft capabilities. This vehicle needs to be affordable, easy to use and so easy to operate that it is largely intuitive. That is a huge order to fill, but I believe it is possible given sufficient talent, time and financing. Apparently Popular Mechanics and the Experimental Aviation Association think we are close to a workable solution on this first level machine.
- Step 2. is a utility aircraft that can go into and get out of the shortest, roughest airstrips imaginable while costing less than half of what an 'off the shelf' plane of similar capabilities costs. It must be easy enough to fly that the operator does not need to be a professional pilot. That is where we came up with the "Preacher Pilot" moniker. This 'link' in the transportation chain also needs to be simple enough in design that it can easily be maintained and repaired without requiring complex equipment or specialized professional mechanics. It also needs to be capable of operating on floats for use in areas where landing strips are difficult to build and where people tend to live on the banks of navigable waterways.
- Step 3. is a larger capacity aircraft that can carry larger numbers of passengers and larger cargo packages. The Kodiac would fit this category. It would most likely be flown by a professional pilot and would be maintained by a professional maintenance expert. It needs to be able to work out of unimproved airstrips and needs to have sufficient power to operate on floats.
THE CHALLENGE
In the very early baby steps of missionary aviation, missionaries tried to become aviators. The result was short life spans for both operators and aircraft. It was determined that it was more practical for aviators to become missionaries. The early missionary aviation pioneers decided that frontier missionary air transportation needed to be left in the hands of professionals. My Dad, Nate was one of those pilot / mechanic pioneers.
The concept of reliance on a "professional elite" in ministry aviation fit well with a similar concept in areas of spiritual leadership and healthcare. There is nothing wrong with technical, spiritual and physical paternalism as long as it is understood to be a short-lived stage of normal development. Unfortunately, missions in the twentieth century seldom grew out of the "paternalism" stage of ministry and rarely progressed to the "partnership" and the "participation" stages of Biblical ministry.
Today, ministry aviation, is largely still locked into the "only we can do it, unless you become enough like us so that you can do it too" mindset. I am quite sure that very few people who have raised, given and spent sixty some million dollars of 'Kingdom Funds' on the development of the Kodiac have worried over the economics of evacuating a single critically ill patient out of an isolated community. Attention has focused on the aircraft's capability to operate from that small community's airstrip. A Kodiac could evacuate a patient from the little community where I lived with the Waodani a few years ago. But at about 45 gallons per hour of Jet-A fuel costing $5 per gallon, such an evacuation in a million dollar or million and a half dollar plane would cost somewhere in the range of $500 to $600 without including the cost of the professional pilots and mechanics. Based on the current "opportunity cost of funds" and the existing real cost of supporting missionary personnel, I think I could defend a real cost of evacuating a patient from Nemompade to Shell at about $1,000.
I know it seems crass to consider 'cost' when one of God's children's lives is on the line. Being in ministry, however, does not exempt us from a responsibility to be good stewards of Kingdom resources.
Let's figure the cost of meeting that same need using a "Preacher Pilot" plane like the ones we have started building in Ecuador (which could be built in almost any small shop anywhere in the world); using real certified aircraft engines, propellers and high tech instruments and navigation equipment.
First of all, the cost of the "Preacher Pilot" aircraft would be about one thirteenth to one fifteenth the cost. The "Preacher Pilot Plane" engine burns about one fifth as much fuel as a Kodiac but it is significantly slower so it would burn about one third the amount of fuel. The biggest difference in my mind is that no professional pilot would be needed. It is entirely within the realm of possibility that a member of the tribe could be flying the "Preacher Pilot Plane" and would be able to add spiritual ministry for the patient and loved ones to what would otherwise be just an air-taxi flight for all practical purposes.
I would guess that a comparative cost for such an evacuation in an 'appropriate aircraft' would be somewhere between $100 and $200 dollars. It would not require a large infrastructure or high level of subsidy. What it will need is a miracle, to become a reality.
