Dear Reader,

As you read this issue of FlightLines, I hope you will appreciate how God has been moving in the machine shop at JAARS to keep the planes flying for Bible translation.

Did you ever have a tool, whether a spatula or a car, that did the job just exactly like you wanted it done? The spatula fit your hand perfectly and the car cornered so nicely. Then it got old and you thought, This tool works so well I’m going to buy another one just like it. But then you found out that the tool wasn’t made anymore. Not only that, you weren’t able to get parts to fix the one that you still owned. I’ve heard this called "Perfected Obsolescence."

JAARS has experienced this again and again with our aircraft fleet. Almost all of our planes are at least 20 years old. One was built in 1954! To make matters worse, about half of the fleet’s manufacturers are not building any planes at all. Repeatedly we are having to build our own replacement parts in order to keep the planes flying. This is one of the jobs of our machine shop—making critical parts that can’t be secured any other way.

Terry Heffield
Research & Development Supervisor

Back in 1962 I worked in the engine shop at Yarinacocha in the Peruvian jungle. One day I noticed two aircraft that were off to the side on the grass. They caught my eye and curiosity. I learned that the planes weren’t flying because they needed parts. The parts had just arrived after waiting six months, but—they were the wrong parts!

I had joined Wycliffe Bible Translators in 1958 as an aircraft mechanic. I also had had experience as a machinist at Bendix Aviation during World War II, so I asked the head of aviation maintenance if I could see the parts needed to get the planes flying. He showed me a small vacuum valve out of a vacuum pump. I looked at it carefully. It was something I could make immediately and the plane could fly the next day! The equipment to machine the valve was right there. And that’s how I began making parts for JAARS aircraft.

Later I was assigned to Miami to purchase aircraft parts for JAARS. Many aviation parts took months to arrive at our Miami warehouse, parts that I knew I could make. Then in 1980, the purchasing department was moved to Waxhaw, North Carolina, and I moved with it. Every time an aircraft engine was overhauled, it required some machining and I would be asked to do it. It was always a challenge: the aviation department at the JAARS Center only had one broken-down lathe, and then if I needed to drill a hole, I had to go to another department to do it.

As the shop became better equipped in the late 1980s and 1990s, we were able to machine many parts for the DC-3 that was being prepared for Africa. The main landing-gear and tail-wheel assemblies for the Helio Couriers were needing major work too, and the machine shop was able to lend a hand. We were also able to make parts for the S-frame seats that JAARS developed.

Yes, we really do need the machine shop…and we give praise and glory to the Lord for what He has done!

by John Funk

(Below) The part with the red tag is a defective tail-wheel fork for a Helio Courier, and the part with the yellow tag is a new tail-wheel fork that was machined at JAARS. Most parts for Helios are no longer manufactured, so the machine shop is important in keeping the planes flying.

Recently a large U.S. company with a division in Charlotte was divesting itself of all its machine-shop equipment. They chose to give it to JAARS. Since February 2000, JAARS aviation men, with the help of JAARS Materials Transportation Services, have loaded trailers full of this equipment and brought it to the JAARS Center. Some of it has been installed in the machine shop. 

Over the years, John Funk and others serving in JAARS Aviation have had a vision for expanding the machine shop. Additional equipment would produce a higher-quality product with a greater degree of accuracy. In the past, some work had to be sent out to other machine shops that had the right equipment for the job. In other cases, some parts that might have been repaired had to be replaced at a much higher cost. The whole purpose of the JAARS machine shop is to save both time and money.

Through the years much money was saved whenever we were able to make replacement parts and do inspection tooling and other such things. Now with an enlarged shop and upgraded equipment, we have fabricated parts for the Hiller UH-12E helicopter during its recent overhaul, machined a tow bar and other items related to the King Air, and fashioned thousands of dollars worth of inspection tooling for Samaritan’s Purse’s Bell 206 Jet Ranger.

Our current vision is to build upon what has been started and trust God for everything. That includes one more full-time machinist and provision of all of the right tooling and equipment as we expand our goals.

by Daryl Beltz, 
Machine Shop Supervisor

Volunteers at JAARS donated 17,198 hours of their time in the Aviation Department in 1999 and 3,330 of these hours were in the machine shop.

Some of these volunteers are Wycliffe Bible Translator members who have retired but are continuing to help part-time.

Some are long-term volunteers, folks who either live near JAARS year-round or who come for extended periods of time each year.

Others are short-term volunteers who contributed several days to several weeks in 1999.

You could be a part of this team of volunteers!

To FlightLines Winter-Spring 2000

In answer to years of praying, the Lord has brought new men on a full-time basis to the machine shop at JAARS. Gordie Kooistra, a pilot formerly in Colombia, came alongside John Funk in 1995. Then Al Brightsen, a retired machinist from IBM, came a couple of years later. And, in 1999, the Lord brought Thom Elkinton, formerly a machinist for Big Sky Laser, and, finally, Daryl Beltz. Daryl is now the supervisor in the machine shop. He comes from a family of tool and die makers and learned his trade as a youth, picking up a wealth of experience along the way. Three of these men are members of Wycliffe Bible Translators and two came as long-term volunteers. Al Brightsen has moved on to serve in Vernacular Media Services, so there is still a need for one more full-time machinist now that the machine shop has expanded and has the potential for increasing services.