Bahamas Habitat

Please help us get the word out about the next Fly-In & Help Out Event
by Posting this notice at your airport, flying club or FBO.
Please Click Here: Bahamas Habitat Fly-In & Help Out Event Notice
Click to print the Press Release: Bahamas Habitat Press Release FlyInHelpOut Oct2010

We are partnered with Bahamas Ministry of Tourism at Sun ‘n Fun and you will find us at Booths 65 and 66.  Come see us and we’ll share more with you about the great mission flying opportunities with Bahamas Habitat. Mission Pilots are needed for upcoming missions to Haiti and the Bahamas.

Volunteers Needed

If you have flown with us or been on a mission to Camp, We Need Your  Help! We need YOU to help represent Bahamas Habitat at the booth to share your experiences with others.

You can volunteer for a half day, a whole day or multiple days. Please email our Aviation Coordinator, Cameron King with your availability at: cameron@bahamashabitat.org.

Haiti Mission Update

All together over 125 pilot volunteers flew over 3200 mission flight hours, moved over 250,000 lbs of vital supplies, and carried hundreds of people in need in and out of Haiti. We had over 32 states and 6 countries represented in the airlift.  It was truly amazing and its not over...

We are launching Phase 2 of our Haiti Relief
We have our first teams headed to Haiti to explore our best options for continued operations based either in the Dominican Republic or Haiti directly. The goal is to build a sustainable model that will continue to serve the needs of the outlying areas of Haiti and the missionary organizations we serve in those areas. We will be informing you of new flight mission opportunities soon. If you have supplies, connections, needs or other helpful suggestions we’d like to hear from you.

Fly-In & Help Out Event Update
Two weekends ago we had our Fly-In and Help Out event with about 30 people involved and over a dozen aircraft.  The weekend was a great success and we look forward to having you involved in our next one this Fall scheduled for October 21-24, 2010. If you’d like to fly over at a different time…no problem! Just let us know when you want to come.

Please contact Cameron King, our Bahamas Habitat Aviation Coordinator, for help with any topics in this email at: cameron@bahamashabitat.org.

We are very grateful to all of you who have supported Bahamas Habitat.

We hope to see you NEXT WEEK at Sun ‘n Fun!

John Armstrong

President

Bahamas Habitat

info@bahamashabitat.org

www.bahamashabitat.org

ph: 406-359-1669

PS: We offer an FAA Wings Credit Course on “How to Fly to the Bahamas”.

If you’d like to have us bring this course to your airport or group please let us know.

.



Less than 24 hours after our Fly-In and Help Out teams flew back to the US, a tornado touched down on Grand Bahama Island damaging port cranes, roofs and utilities. Three are confirmed dead. Abraham McIntyre, called us to advise he will be launching in the morning to fly to the Grand Bahama Island to see if there are needs we can help with directly.

Click for more info and photos.

Every Fly-In & Help Out event we’ve had has been a great success but our recent March event was a HUGE Success!

Over 30 people participated in the Bahamas Habitat Fly-In & Help Out Event in March. This event served several purposes including being a recap of the Haiti Relief operations and phase two planning for that aspect of Bahamas Habitat’s operations in addition to our usual introduction to the mission opportunities at Camp Symonette on Eleuthera.

The flying was perfect as usual and teams were able to work on numerous projects including tile work at the Pinder home, concrete work on the rehab of the James Cistern clinic, plumbing work in Governor’s Harbor and upgrade work on the cistern at Camp.  Pilots enjoyed the flying with some taking advantage of a half day fly-out to Norman’s Cay for conch fritters while others flew up to North Eleuthera to help prepare facilities for a mission team that was coming the following week. The north crew were treated to some of the best conch salad ever!

Camp Symonette was really humming over the weekend as our large group over lapped with two other mission teams coming in from Albany Georgia and another from Knoxville Tennessee for their week-long mission events.

During the Fly-In & Help Out Event we were able to recognize and applaud the work done by Abraham McIntyre, Director of Bahamas Methodist Habitat, along with our staff pilots Cameron King and Matt Hansen, for the amazing work they did managing the Haiti relief missions. Through their direction and tireless work and of course many volunteer pilots the organization delivered over 250,000 lbs of supplies and coordinated over 3200 hours of mission flying.

In a special presentation, Steve Merritt, our Treasurer and Chief Pilot awarded Masters in Ocean Flying Certificates to Gene Schmidt and Sam Frasier for their extensive flying during the Haiti mission operations.  Gene flew 6 weekends in a row to Haiti and Sam flew 5 weekends.

Also attending this event were several special guests representing partner organizations that are helping us develop a phase two strategy for continued support of flight operations to Haiti. Included were Jim Lee of Rotary International, Scott Brallier of Wings for the Word, Darrell Roberts of Harvest Equippers and KC Carter of Missionary Supply Network. These partners along with our staff and experienced Haiti volunteers are working together to deploy an exploratory mission in April to evaluate basing flight operations either in Haiti or the Dominican Republic. We’ll be publishing more on that as things develop so stay tuned.

Thank you to all that participated and helped make this Fly-In & Help Out Event our best yet.

REGISTER NOW!

Bahamas Habitat Fly-In & Help Out Event

March 25th – 28th

You are invited to join in our next Bahamas Habitat Fly-In & Help Out Event. These events are one unique way that we support our mission operations in the Bahamas while expanding our team of experienced mission pilots. These events are introductory in nature and teach pilots the ins and outs of international mission flying while connected them to our mission activities in the Bahamas and Haiti.

Pilots will meet on Thursday March 25th for lunch at the Tiki Restaurant at Fort Pierce (FPR) airport and depart for our base camp on Eleuthera Island from there. The group will deliver supplies and labor for on-going projects there. Participants will also learn more about future mission flight opportunities in the Bahamas and Haiti during the weekend event.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE DETAILS

Click here to Register for the Fly-In & Help Out Event

Beechcraft Baron Donated for Bahamas Mission Support

Dr. Quinn is a native of Shreveport LA and is a practicing pediatrician in the Charleston SC area.  He and his family have made numerous trips to the Bahamas over the years.  He became aware of the mission work of the Bahamas Habitat through notices delivered through the AOPA (www.aopa.org) website.  Dr. Quinn is aware of the needs in the Bahamas and the value of the mission and decided that his Baron would be best used to support the work of Bahamas Habitat.

“I had considered donating my aircraft to a good cause and realized that the best fit for my Baron would be in a region of the world where a twin would be valued and where access to avgas would not be an issue” stated Dr. Quinn. “Bahamas Habitat was the ideal choice where it will bring significant value to the ministry work there.”

Dr. Quinn comes from a family of long time flyers. His grandfather began teaching him to fly when he was only ten years old in Shreveport LA in a T34 military training aircraft.  He reports that his mother and grandmother are both pilots too. Dr. Quinn’s most recent aircraft before the Baron was a J3 Cub on floats that he put over 500 hours on. He said he might go back to a similar grass roots aircraft for awhile and looks forward to being a volunteer pilot for Bahamas Habitat so he can participate in missions in his beloved Baron.

The aircraft is a six place twin engine 1969 Beechcraft B55 Baron Colemill 600 conversion with upgraded engine horsepower and Garmin 430 GPS Nav/Comm, 330 transponder with traffic, Garmin GDL69 XM weather and WX500 Stormscope. Performance is 200 knots which will make transport missions to and among the islands very efficient.

“The work of our mission will be dramatically benefited by this generous donation”, stated John Armstrong, President of Bahamas Habitat. “Dr. Quinn’s aircraft is the ideal tool for the needs of Bahamas Habitat and it will help to achieve and elevate the vision we have for the mission. We are extremely grateful to Dr. Quinn and look forward to his continued involvement in the work of the ministry and what God has in store.”

Steve Merritt, the Treasurer and Chief Pilot for Bahamas Habitat stated, “We often say the inaccessibility of some of the Bahamian Islands is their blessing and their curse. It can take all day to go 50 miles between islands via commercial plane or boat. This can be a real challenge in managing the mission’s multiple camps. We needed an aircraft that could make the trip quickly back and forth to the islands and then provide the lift and support needed between our camps there. The Baron is the perfect tool for the mission. We are extremely grateful to have this blessing and will put the plane in service immediately and look forward to Dr. Quinn’s on-going involvement in the mission’s work.”

The Baron will make its maiden flight for the organization for the upcoming Fly-In and Help Out Event being held October 29^th, 2009 where aviators will fly from the US to the mission’s base camp on Eleuthera in the Bahamas.

Pilots and aviation organizations interested in the mission and learning how to fly to the Bahamas with us should sign up for updates at: www.bahamashabitat.org and select Fly-In and Help Out Event to receive further info.  Online event registration is also available on the website.

Bahamas Habitat has established a support fund for the ongoing maintenance of the aircraft and is requesting donations via their website at www.bahamashabitat.org.

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Attention Pilots:
Come Fly to the Bahamas With Us!

Bahamas Habitat is a Christian mission organization providing support for ongoing missions in the Bahamas. We help aviators fly to the Bahamas and get involved in our vital work. We’d like for you to know about these opportunities.

1. Fly-In & Help Out Event October 29^th – Nov 1st 2009
   This is the perfect way to get involved and fly with us to the Bahamas.
   Sign up and receive info: www.bahamashabitat.org -  Fly-In & Help Out Event,  Direct link: http://www.bahamashabitat.org/wordpress/?page_id=7
   or contact: info@bahamashabitat.org
2. We are excited about this new FAA Wings Credit Course entitled:
   “Over Water Flight to the Bahamas Made Easy!”
   You’ll learn all you need to know including the new international procedures that took effect May 18^th, 2009.
   This course features our very own Bahamas Habitat Chief Pilot, Steve Merritt

   Your first opportunity to participate is:
   Wednesday, May 27, 2009, starting at 6:30 pm.
   Click for details and to register
   Direct link: http://www.bahamashabitat.org/wordpress/?p=980

3. If you would like to have the “Over Water Flight to the Bahamas Made Easy!” course at your home airport, email steve.merritt@mindspring.com .

Flying to the Bahamas is always rewarding but especially so when you can be a part of a mission that helps others. See the news of our previous missions and what our participants had to say about their experience.

We look forward to seeing you soon!

Make sure you register for full Fly-In & Help Out info. You’ll get all the details by email.
Don’t miss the “Over Water Flight to the Bahamas Made Easy!” course.
Let us know if you’d like to bring the course to your group or home airport.

Happy Landings,

The Bahamas Habitat Team

Attention Pilots:
Come enjoy our very own Steve Merritt as he shares his vast knowledge of international and over water flying in this new FAA sponsored course.

If you’ve not come on a Fly-In and Help Out Event before this is a great way to get introduced to the adventure and earn FAA Wings Safety Program credits. Links for registration are below.

If you’d like to arrange to bring this course to your airport please be in touch and let us know.

	Title		“Over Water Flight to the Bahamas Made Easy!“
	Topic		Introduction to Low Altitude Oceanic Flight and Navigation Procedures
	Date and Time		Wednesday, May 27, 2009, starting at 6:30 pm
	Speaker(s)		Steve Merritt, NC/DOT
	Brief Description		Are you uneasy about oceanic navigation to the Bahamas? Are you uncertain about Bahamian Customs procedures and flight regulations? This safety seminar will familiarize you with all the necessary requirements and safety precautions you should consider before launching a flight over blue waters. You will learn about pre-flight planning, oceanic weather, emergency preparedness and equipment, regulations, and more.
	Select Number		EA3925368
	Location of Event		Brunswick County Airport 4019 LONG BEACH ROAD Southport, NC 28461
	Directions to Venue		Located at the Jump School Hangar. Look for signs/directions. View Map
	Fly-in Event?		Yes  SUT
	Seating		50 seats at the facility, 35 remaining for online registration. Click here to register online now!
	Sponsoring Division		FAASTeam & NC/DOT
	Contact Information		Steve Merritt Phone: 919-840-0112 Steve.merritt@mindspring.com
	Additional Event Information & Acknowledgement of Industry Sponsor(s)		WINGs Credit This Safety Seminar will cover multiple topics to educate airmen about oceanic navigation procedures when planning that ultimate dream vacation trip to the Bahamas: 1. Pre-trip planning 2. Weather trends in open water areas. 3. US and Bahamian Customs regulations 4. Aircraft requirements 5. Navigation over water 6. Bahamian Flight Rules 7. Bahamian airport rules 8. Required emergency gear 9. Emergency preparedness and procedures 10. New e-APIS rules 6:30-7:00: Registration and Refreshments 7:00-9:00: Oceanic Navigation to the Bahamas, Steve Merritt, professional CFI and ADS-B specialist.