SERVANTAIR MINISTRIES, INC.
ANNUAL REPORT
12/31/2013
Servant Air Ministries, Inc., in 2013 had a good year in providing flight training and air transportation. Servant Air Ministries, Inc. was able to fly a total of 150 hours in 2013 utilizing our three aircraft. This is down from 2012 by 93 hours, partly due to the increasing fuel price and the Aztec being out of service for some time. Also, we lost the generous services of a couple of our Aztec pilots for a variety of reasons, limiting the ability to promote the use of that plane for many flights. This being the ministry’s 19th year of the organization’s existence, Servant Air continues to provide quality missionary flight services to the Southeast part of the United States and the Bahamas. The ministry continues to meet its mission statement of providing chapel services, on the field at Merritt Island Airport and providing individualized missionary flight training and ground school experiences. Air transportation consisting of mercy flights is provided for various ministries and churches, throughout the state of Florida and the Southeast part of the United States.
The Officers was presented to the Board in our June 2013 meeting, and the following officers agreed to serve in their same positions. Dr. Robert E. Lehton was again elected as President; Mr. Dick Todd was elected as Vice President, Mr. Ryan Roberts as Board Secretary, and Mrs. Lydia Dixon as Treasurer. The Board kept its same composition as last year.
The Board officially thanked Mr. Kyle Dixon and Mr. Dick Blondin for continuing to coordinate the air show evangelism. Mr. Dick Todd will be responsible for supervision of the maintenance of the aircraft. We would like to especially thank Dick Todd, Steve Miller and Bud Campbell for taking excellent care of all 3 aircraft. This year we had 3 annual inspections and rebuilt the right engine on our PA-23 Aztec, installed 4 new fuel bladders, and installed vortex generators for safety and better fuel economy.
Mr. Richard Van Esselstyn continued as our Executive Director and certified flight instructor. Richard continued our connection with Dwight Bell’s Wings of Grace to offer ground school and flight instruction to those students interested in becoming missionary pilots. Richard has flown fourty students this year. In July of 2013 Dick Blondin took over as Executive Director and Richard was put in the position of Flight Director. Scott Langston was added as Business Manager to round out the Executive Team.
This year we flew 29.7 hrs. in our C-150; 102.6 hrs. in our C-172, and 17.7 hours in the Aztec. A total of 150 hrs safety flown. In this year we flew a total of 158 children in young eagles flights with Dick Blondin, Scott Demasso, Dwight Bell and Bob Lehton. Dick and Judy Todd handled the registration and ground work. And we want to thank Glenn Gray for his faithful support flying the Aztec on several flight to the Bahamas.
For our nineteen years of ministry we have flown the following:
3345: Total Missions hrs.
2639: Mission Flights
2313.7 Flight Training hrs.
This year we flew 15 missions and 99.7 hrs. of flight training. Combined with the flights from the previous years, our 19th year shows a grand total of 5658 flight hours.
We continued to promote SAMI and Pilots for Christ with a booth at the major airshows in our area including Valkeria, Tico-Titusville, Cocoa Beach/Melbourne and Sun N’ Fun with Tim and Lori Layne in Lakeland. Kyle Dixon again did an outstanding job as our Airshow coordinator, making all the necessary contacts and getting us “Free” spots at most of them. We also had tables at mission conferences and mission week services at Calvery Chapel M.I., First Baptist Church of Orlando and First Baptist Church of Merritt Island.
The financial position of Servant Air Ministries, Inc. remains stable, with a positive cash flow. This year we continued the work on the Aztec, getting it in excellent condition.
Mr. Dick Todd, who is Servant Air Ministries’ A1 and A&P mechanic has kept all three airplanes in outstanding shape, along with the help of Mr. Steve Miller and Bud Campbell. Mr. Todd continues to be a blessing to the organization by supervising maintenance of all three aircraft, which includes annual inspections and routine progressive maintenance throughout the year.
Mr. Ryan Roberts continues to manage our web site and it continues to run smoothly. Ryan had put “PayPal” on the web site and we continue to receive regular donations by credit card. The Web site will be going through a total rebuild as Ryan continues programming and collecting content for the update.
In October 2013, Dr. Lehton was again elected as Vice President of Pilots for Christ at the Convention held in Monroeville, Alabama’s annual convention and Mr. Dick Blondin was elected as a General Board Member at large. Bob Lehton and Dick Blondin presented the Chapter report for the year at this convention. Next year’s convention, Pilots for Christ’s 30th Anniversary, will be hosted by SAMI on a date projected to be October 31-November 2nd. Location TBD.
SAMI once again joined Lori and Tim Layne of the Michigan Chapter at the Fun ’n’ Sun Airshow. Dick Blondin traveled in the C-172 with volunteers daily to support the booth. We also participated in the Prayer Flight Ministry, flying over and praying for our country on May 2nd, 2013.
Even with the escalating price of fuel and maintenance, Servant Air Ministries, Inc. continues to fly. Again, it has been my privilege to serve as President of Servant Air Ministries, Inc. for the past 19 years and I again thank the Board of Directors and volunteers for their efforts in service in Jesus’ name. We will continue to make Young Eagle flights twice a year and numerous trips to the Bahamas and Southeast part of the United States providing mercy flights. We’ll continue our efforts to provide evangelism at air shows and work with all ministries throughout the Southeast part of the United States in providing charity and missionary flight activities. We have flown a lot of missions but knowledge that God is our pilot and with all these statistics we only serve one God.
We sincerely thank all the members, Board, pilots and supporters of Servant Air Ministries, Inc. for a fruitful year in 2013 and expect the Lord to produce great fruit in this coming season.
Respectfully Submitted,
Dick Blondin, Executive Director
For:
Robert E. Lehton, CFII, MEI, President
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