You can help send a Cessna to Cameroon

The outcome seemed bleak. The JAARS team had already spent nearly a year looking for a Cessna to replace the one flown by our Bible translation partner in Cameroon. They weren’t sure they would find an affordable replacement.

This newer Cessna 206 is now at its temporary home at JAARS, waiting for modifications and upgrades.

JAARS had already sent someone to evaluate an aircraft in California but had to turn it down due to corrosion. When another aircraft appeared on a used-airplane website, JAARS sent two former pilots to Germany to check it out. Realizing the aircraft might still have damage from a previous accident, they left the decision to the Cameroon team. Their answer was No, they didn’t want to risk it.

Then…God introduced a new partner. Ethnos360 had decided to change their overseas fleet to turbine-engine aircraft. Since they no longer needed their Cessna 206 for training, they planned on selling it.

Enter another partner: Jeyson Braun, a pilot-mechanic who has flown with Asas De Socorro in Brazil and now serves as a mechanic at JAARS. He inspected the Ethnos360 aircraft. Ethnos had already upgraded its take-off gear to handle shorter runways at lower air speeds—a necessity for flying in Cameroon. Plus, the Ethnos360 Cessna had logged only 2,000 hours—compared with the 14,000 hours logged by Cameroon’s aging 206. Due to these considerations and the quality of the Cessna’s metal and airframe JAARS decided to purchase it.

Jeyson declares the Cessna 206 purchase a win-win for both organizations, “Ethnos needed to sell [the aircraft], so we were happy to see the plane that had served them in training would still be used to further God’s kingdom overseas! JAARS is blessed to be able to purchase a plane with a good history that has been excellently maintained and was already a tool for God’s work. It will continue as a tool, just in a different location for a different purpose.”

Our last, most important partner is you! You helped purchase this tool. But its journey is just beginning. It needs a new engine, up-to-date instruments, navigation equipment, and other modifications before it can fly in Cameroon.

You can provide the essential maintenance and aircraft needed for Bible translation in remote communities by giving to Aviation Solutions.

Cameroon’s aging Cessna 206 will be replaced with a newer model from Ethnos360.

Rachel Greco