Visa

Still no sign of the work visa as my commercial license paperwork was lost and the visa cannot be processed without it :-(

The application has been resubmitted so please pray that both the visa and the commercial license/security check go through smoothly this time and without delay. Thanks

Prayer points

Prayer makes a real difference and because it's so important, you will now find my latest prayer points permanently on the left hand side of the page.

Happy New Year!

Wishing you all a very happy new year from Australia. This was a picture taken from the Yarra river in Melbourne where myself and 500,000 others came together to celebrate the changing of the year. A great display and a fun night.

Training Milestones

Nev's training milestones:

- Pilot’s license - USA - 2004
- Instrument license - USA - 2005
- Bible school - England - 2006
- Tailwheel endorsement - USA - 2006
- High-performance endorsement - USA - 2007
- Airframe mechanical license - USA - April 2007
- Complex endorsement - USA - July 2007
- Powerplant mechanical license - USA - Aug 2007
- US commercial pilots license - USA - Sept 2007
- Field experience – Philippines - 2007/2008
- MAF Technical Evaluation - Australia - Nov 2008
- Australian commercial pilots license - Australia - Dec 2008
- Secondment to MAF Australia - Arnhem Land, NT - Jan 2009
- Bacame a 1000+ hr pilot - Arnhem Land, NT - Feb 2010
- Wycliffe/JAARS Technical Evaluation (~Dec 2011)
- Wycliffe/JAARS Full-time field Assignment (~July 2012)


Green - Complete
Red - To do

It's been a long but rewarding journey to date, and one that’s taken me from N.Ireland, to California (twice), to England, Michigan, the Philippines ... and now Australia. Praise God for His strength, guidance and leading in all of the above. I am so grateful to everyone who has and is supporting me in every way imaginable. Without you I would not be able to serve others abroad with Wycliffe Bible Translators and Mission Aviation Fellowship. May you be richly blessed for your sacrafice.

Australian commercial License

Thank you all so much for your prayers. It was a really long and stressful day lasting around 11 hours. By the end of the day I was completely done, but extremely happy that I now had an Australian commercial under my belt to match the US one.

With my license in hand I can now finalise the work visa and then start serving up north in Arnhem Land. Praise the Lord!

The end in sight

Well the final hurdle is approaching. I flew last Monday and the instructor informed me that I was ready for the Australian commercial flight test. The earliest appointment I could get is for this Friday (5th Dec). Please pray for a good nights sleep before hand, strength for this long day, clarity of mind and sound decision making.

Also, the weather forecast at this stage is for borderline weather, please also ask the Lord that He will send blue skies, high clouds and low winds. Thanks, Nev ;-)

MAF Technical Evaluation

Well I have some really wonderful news. Last week I heard that the guy in charge of the MAF Technical Evaluations (TE's) was to leave for the next 3-4 weeks. That's not the good news by the way, read on. My original plan was to do the commercial flight test and then the TE while I was proficient especially as the flying would be in the Cessna 206, a great workhorse of a plane but you must keep ahead of it. Well with the possibility of having to wait around for a few weeks for the return of the MAF guy it was decided that I would give it a try BEFORE he left. And so it was, with just a day's notice I jumped into the 206 for my 5th flight in the high performance Cessna. It was a 'scenario' based test and I had 2 passengers who needed to do a runway inspection at a remote location. We had simulated bad weather with low ceilings causing me to fly low along valleys, cross mountain ridges and do lots of dead reckoning pilotage to try to find an obscure airstrip. I was given simulated engine failures, various maneuvers to do and also a runway inspection a short strip with an up-slope landing. It was really great to put some recent off strip runway analysis into practice doing things like timing runs over the strip and then working out mathematically from the air how long the strip actually is. Up to now I had only ever seen airstrips in video clips that had a one way in and the same way back out. But now I was finally flying this typical mission style ... what a blessing.

Anyway, after a long day of flight planning, testing and debriefing I finally heard the words, "congratulations you have passed the TE". Praise the Lord! Now the only remaining task I have is to finish out the commercial conversion and then head up north to Arnhem Land to begin serving the Aboriginal people. I don't want to rush the training



Coldstream airport (YCEM) where I am based at. Here is a pic coming in on base for runway 17.










Also, we had a local airshow last weekend. Here are a few more pics of some of the stars of the show.








A Yak 52








Galeb G-2 cold war grass runway jet










And for me the best was a beautiful P51 Mustang