That's Life

To all my Canadian readers: Happy Thanksgiving!

Sorry I’ve been quiet. Don’t expect things to change. I’ll try to write more, but I’ve been crazy busy.

<-My desk is marginally organized!

So I’m still in flight training, back in June I passed my PPL (Private Pilot License), so I was now a licensed pilot. I then spent some time learning how to fly in controlled airspace as well as learn how to handle long cross-countries.

After that, I learnt how to fly a conventional geared aircraft. For those of you who aren’t familiar with those, they are a lot more challenging to fly, though much more fun.

After that, I did some Advanced Time and Experience, in which I do longer cross-country flights (my longest was seven and a half hours) as well as night flying.

 <-Climbing above the clouds east of Edmonton.

<-The town of Red Deer as seen from the sky

Back in June I started ground school to get my CPL (Commercial Pilot’s License). To fulfill the requirements, I have to receive 80 hours of classroom time (to put that into perspective, an average college course is 32 hours of classroom time). I finally finished that last week. We split it into two courses, CPL ground school, in which we learn meteorology, general knowledge (theory of flight, etc.), air law, human factors and navigation. The second class is CPL Aircraft Systems, in which we learn about all the system in our aircraft (control systems, electrical systems, hydraulic systems, pressurization, engines, etc.).

 <-If you are unfamiliar with what a "conventional gear" is, this is the one I did most of my training in.

So I wrote the school’s Systems and CPL Ground School exams (two separate exams), I got 90.7% on the systems exam, but I haven’t received my mark for the CPL Ground School one yet. Assuming I do well on both, I will get a letter of recommendation from the school, and I will be able to drive down to Calgary to write the Transport Canada CPL written exam (CPAER). Yeah, I’m stressed.

 

 <-This guy came to visit one morning, out of the blue.

Once I’ve written, and passed my exam, I will begin ground school for my instrument rating (It seems there is no end of ground school in sight). Eventually I will get my instrument rating, which allows me to fly in clouds, with no visual reference outside.

Now for some more unfortunate news. I am sad to announce that due to lack of finances, I will not be able to go to Chad this Christmas. Thank-you all for your prayers and support. I will contact those who have provided me with financial support to discuss what they want done with their donation.

Thank-you all and blessings.

Î- In Slave Lake, the farthest from home I've ever flown.

Monsters In The Dark

Mom, you might not want to read this.

    When I was young, I was scared of the dark. I’ve grown out of that, I’ve learnt that there is nothing to be afraid of. There are no monsters hiding in the night.

    Usually.

    You see, the proper name for a storm cloud is Cumulonimbus Cloud. In weather reports, this is abbreviated to CB. In aviation circles, we jokingly refer to CBs as Cessa Breakers, because if you fly into one, you will most likely die. No matter what kind of plane you fly.

    So the other night, I was flying. Flying at night is fun, you can see all the towns clearly, and the air is usually smooth.

    But there are monsters hiding in the dark.

    On this particular flight, the weather forecasts looked good. The skies were going to be clear, and the winds calm.

    As I was cruising, I saw some clouds ahead. I didn’t mind too much, they looked higher than I was.

    Then I saw lighting. The frequency of the lighting grew and grew, and soon I was surrounded. I called Edmonton Center, and was informed that there were many CBs forming, and they were moving fast. I was stuck. No matter where I went, there was a CB.

    I couldn’t see the CBs, there was no moon, so I had to rely on Center letting me know where the storms were so that I could get around them. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever been that scared in my life.

    There really were monsters hiding in the dark.

    P.S. In case you were wondering, I did make it home. Center did their job, and I got around the storms.

99 Days 'till Christmas!

Well, not really. I'm about two days lat. Still, 96 days 'till Christmas! (Hmmm... Doesn't quite sound the same...)

Anyways, That is a reminder, Christmas is coming soon, and though I haven't been writting much (sorry!), I'm still working towards Africa this Christmas.

But, I'm very low on funds. Please, If you are willing and able to support me, please, comment or e-mail me at dominicvilleneuve1995@gmail.com

Thanks-you guys (and gals) so much!

Dominic

P.S. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, click here.

50 Shades Of Green

I don’t like living in the prairies.

If you live in the prairies, have lived in the prairies, or generally like living in the prairies, good for you. But I don’t like it.

You see, I was born in the mountains. Here in the prairies, I feel exposed. Also, there’s nothing to do here…

In the mountains, I can go on adventures. Here, not as much. Generally speaking, I can’t really go anywhere other than the roads, because farmers don’t like it when I trample their crops.

In the mountains, I can go wandering in the woods and no one cares because no one farms there.

But anyways.

I went to the highest point around, (a fifty foot hill), and watched the sunset.

It wasn’t a mind-boggling sunset. There weren’t any clouds in the sky, and everyone knows that clouds are needed for those amazing fiery sunsets.

But I went anyways. I parked my car at the top of the hill, got out, climbed on the roof and sat there.

I was a bit early. the sun was still high, but it had turned red.

The colours were fantastic. Who knew that there were so many shades of green?

Every hill, every bump in the fields stretching out before me was a different green. The light danced a different dance on each blade of grass (Or sheaf of wheat or whatever. I don’t really know agriculture very well).

Dust from passing cars had settled in the lower dips, creating quasi-clouds floating on the ground. I was being eaten alive by mosquitos, and my leg was going numb because the roof-rack digging into the back of my knee.

A truck rolls by, covering me in dust.

I go home.

Boredom and Words

So I’m kinda really, really bored, and I randomly felt like writing something, so here you go.

Life’s good right now. I got my private pilot’s license a month and a half ago, I spent a month building hours, doing insanely long cross-countries, learning how to fly in class C airspace (I also had a 737 overfly me at 500 feet), and now I’m learning to fly taildraggers (Which is way too much fun). For those of you who didn’t understand that, I have my flying license, I fly in places with big planes (and had a very big plane go right over my head) and now I’m learning how to fly planes that are really hard to fly (but are a lot of fun anyways).

Also, I have had some donations to my Africa fund, but nowhere near enough, so more donations would make me really, really happy! This trip to Chad is something that God has really layed on my heart, and donations are the only way to make this happen. Please, donate.

Also, my flight school just had flight camps. I was a cabin leader, which was a blast; all the campers were great! (Though one of my campers was older that me…)

I read the entirety of The Chronicles Of Narnia (like, all 7 books) in 6 days. I forgot how good they are. Though I do have a question that keeps bugging me. (Before I go on, warning: Spoiler Alert!) In The Last Battle, They make it clear that Susan is no longer a friend of Narnia. However, at the end of the book, we learn that Lucy, Peter, Edmund, Eustace, Jill, Polly, Diggory, and the Pensieve parents are all dead from a train crash. What we don’t know, is what happened to Susan. Was she with her parents? Is she dead? If so, where is she? If she wasn’t with her parents, what will she do now? She’s an orphan without siblings. Does she come to faith? I guess this is the brilliance of literature. The unanswered questions, the things that leave the readers guessing.

Also, after years of meaning to, I finally signed up to be a blood donor. I kept meaning to, but I kept forgetting when I actually had the chance to do something. Anyways, there’s a clinic in a few days, so I’ve already booked an appointment.

So yeah, I don’t really have an ending to this post, I just wanted to kill half an hour. Mission accomplished.

Actually, here’s an ending:

I was digging through my old files when I found this poem. Apparently I wrote it, but I don’t remember why or when, but based off how it’s written, I’d say it’s from my early high-school years.

Words

They ain’t my thing.

They never have been, and always won’t.

We use words to show our thoughts

But thoughts aren’t words

They’re different.

Completely.

A thought can be an emotion.

A thought can be a picture

But words

Words are marks.

We assign meaning to these marks,

But what about meanings that don’t have marks?

What about home?

That’s more than a building, or a place

A thought or an emotion?

It’s more than either. It’s all and then some

We don’t have a word for it. How can I share it?

Words

I don’t like them

They contain

They hem in

If I can, I won’t use them

because being with you

Is truly the best I can do.

Taking It For Granted

So on Sunday I went to a small town called Brooks to help with some scenic flights.

You see, a friend of mine is off to Zambia for two(ish) years to help with aircraft maintenance as well as probably some flying. To fundraise this endevour he has been offering scenic flights by donation, mostly to give people exposure to what he's going to be doing.

Back to Sunday... He had 90 reservations or so, and had asked the flight school if he could bother planes and instructors (to fly said planes). He also needed people to help calculate weight and balance, brief passengers, help with re-fueling, crowd control, etc.

So that's what I did all day Sunday. It was great fun. But I must admit, the biggest thing for me was the reminder that I'm unbelievably lucky.

You see, many of the passengers (if not most of them) had never been in a small plane before, and were nervous (to say the least) while they were waiting. But once they were back on the ground, the look on their faces reminded me that what I do everyday is one of the coolest things in the world.

I should never take this for granted.

Flowers!

So not everything I do is aviation related, or really has anything to do at all with college...

A couple months ago, my roommate walked into our room with a big bag of potting soil, some pots, and seeds. he had randomly decided that we were going to grow flowers so that we could impress the girls!

I was dubious to say the least, but hey, what's the worse that could happen?

I honestly didn't think that the plants would survive or even sprout, so you can imagine my surprise when I checked on them and saw this.

Success!

Since these photos were taken, we've had even more flowers bloom. Who said college guys can't garden?

Flying, Car Shows, Races and Africa

So, last week (was it really last week?) I passed my flight test. In theory, that means I'm a licensed pilot, but in practice, I still need to finish off the paperwork. (I probably could have gotten it done a day or two after the test, but I'm lazy). I've started the next module of my flight training called IT&E (Initial Time & Experience). Basically, I do lots of cross-country flights and get introduced to class C airspace.

Yesterday I did my first flight since the flight test, and my first ever flight into class C airspace. (For those of you who don't know, Class C airspace is a busier airspace where the planes actually communicate with a control tower.) For this flight, I went to Springbank (A nice town a few miles west of Calgary). The Calgary class C airspace is the third busiest airspace in Canada, and Springbank airport is the ninth busiest airport. With all that information, you might think that I had a hard time, considering that I learnt to fly in the quiet airspace of central Alberta! but it was a piece of cake! Other than a minor incident involving the map telling me to use a radio frequency that wasn't right, that flight went great! My next flight (which was supposed to be today, but we're having some really ugly weather) will be again to Springbank, but solo this time!

The weekend after my flight test, Three Hills had a car show in town. Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera, so I couldn't get any pictures. That Sunday though, we closed the airport and hosted drag races! That was pretty darn cool! I volunteered to help out in the pit, parking trailers and what have you, but that meant I got to be up-close and personal with the race cars! And boy were they loud! Again, I didn't have my camera, so I don't have any pictures. (Sorry)

My Africa trip this Christmas is going very slowly, there is so much to do and so little time! Right now my greatest concern is financial. God has blessed me with many people saying that they are praying for me, but precious few people have said that they will support me financially. Chad is an expensive country to travel to, tickets vary between 3000 and 3500$, and I still have to get food and have somewhere to live. Once everything is said and done, I'm looking at a cost of around 4000$ possibly more. Please, I need support if I am to go on this trip. If you want to know more, you can read my previous posts here and here, or you can comment this post, e-mail me, or send me a letter. Also, if you want me to send you a prayer letter for our church or small group or what have you, let me know! And thank-you in advance!

PARTY!

So, I had my flight test this morning...

I got up at 0530, and got cracking. I had to check what the winds were so that I would be able to properly calculate headings and ground speeds. Then I got my butt to the airport for 0700. The oral brief started at 0900, and lasted about an hour and a half. That all went well, I knew all the information. Then we took off at 1130.

Now, you must understand, there were thunderstorms building several miles to the west, and coming our way... So as the flight went on, things got turbulent! But at first, the skies were silky smooth. I didn't even need to hold onto the yoke! Then things started to get bumpy, and I started to get tired. The last few exercises didn't go so well. After simulating an engine failure, I started to do some low-level exercises. Those are difficult and stressful at the best of times, But I had some good turbulence, a tired brain, and the stress of an exam... It wasn't very good to be honest.

Finally, we landed. I shut down the engine, and the examiner got out almost right away without a word. You can guess how I felt. Almost an hour later he sits down with my instructor and myself and starts to pick apart the flight. It took about half an hour for him to get through all the things he had to say. By the end, I was positive I had only gotten a partial and would have to fly again.

Then he told me I passed! Man was I excited! He gave me the sheet with all my marks, and I realized just how small the things that I thought I did bad on really are. I guess it goes to show that generally the things that you think were terrible usually aren't that big of a deal.

I'm really tired now, so if you'll excuse me, I'm going to get some rest!

Test Stress!

So tomorrow I'm doing my flight test for my Private Pilot License... I'll be spending tonight planing for that. I'm a bit stressed... Like a lot!

There's a lot of work that I have to do, a lot of paper work, and a planing, and even though I'm confident that I will do well, I'm still stressed out of my mind...

The state of the kitchen table... My desk is a bit to small. And this is just the beginning!

Updates

So I realised it’s been almost a month since I’ve posted about Africa, so I figured I would let you guys know what’s up.

Not a whole lot. Things are going slowly. I’m having to trust God and pray a lot for the finances and other logistics.

I’ve been reading up about missions and the problems it’s facing. One thing that I know I’m guilty of is thinking of missionaries as quasi-divine beings. When in reality, they are human as well. Mistakes happen. I’ve been looking at these mistakes and trying to figure out how I can not make the same ones. I’m being challenged particularly with what I’m planning on doing. I want to go there to find out whether full-time ministry is for me, but I need to be very careful that I’m not doing something that one of the nationals could do.

I don’t want to get too caught up in missions philosophy, but I do need to be careful about what I’m telling those I interact with through my actions.

On the financial side, fundraising is going very slowly. I need to raise 3500$. Every little bit helps. if you want to help me, comment this post, or e-mail me at dominicvilleneuve1995@gmail.com .

I would appreciate it so much.

Also, I have some prayer points, please pray that I would know God’s will, that I would be able to walk in step with Him, and that the finances would be available.

Thank-you soo much!

Why Alberta?

So it’s May 3rd, I look on Facebook, and all I see are pictures of green grass, growing flowers, sunshine, camping trips and swimming in the lake.

Then I look out the window, and I see snow falling.

Fairly heavily.

And I ask one question: Why did I move to Alberta?

Seriously though, there are no mountains (I feel so exposed!), It’s windy like you wouldn’t believe (Biking against the wind is worse that any hill I’ve ever faced), and it’s cold (yuck).

I must be crazier than I thought.

Africa!

As the title suggests, I’m going to Africa. Or rather, I’m planning on it. There are a lot of logistics to sort out, and a lot of things that I still need to figure out. But I’m going to give you what I can. When I was younger, I was taught the 5 “W”s, I figure they’re still valid…

Who: Me. Obviously. Seriously though, I will be going alone (at least, that’s what it looks like for now). I’ll be under the care of an organisation called Mission Aviation Fellowship. MAF is an aviation organisation that uses technology, particularly aviation, to reach people around the world with the gospel.

What: As for exactly what I’ll be doing there, I’m not exactly sure. That’s one of the logistics that still needs to be sorted out. What I can say with relative certainty, is that I’ll mostly be helping out with more “hands on” tasks, as well as getting an idea of what life is like for a MAF missionary. That being said, I’m still very much hoping to spend time with the local people, and see their side of the world.

Where: Chad. An average sized country about the same size as British Columbia north of the Central African Republic and west of Sudan. I’ll probably be spending most of my time in N’Djamena, the capital. (If you want to know more about Chad, here’s a good website)

When: Christmas break. I’m not exactly sure of the dates (partly because my college only has a tentative schedule for next year at the moment), but this trip will take place during my Christmas break.

Why: Now that’s the million dollar question. There are a few reasons why I want to do this trip and they are mostly quite long. (except for one that is only two words: The warmth) But the main reason I decided to do this trip, stems from a friend of mine who went on a christmas trip a couple years ago. She was sharing about her experience, and I started thinking about how cool it would be to sacrifice my Christmas to try and help spread the Gospel. I haven’t been able to shake this thought, so I decided a couple weeks ago to see if it could work. They said they would love to have me. So here I am, trying to follow through with a crazy idea.

The second reason I want to go is that I have felt called into full-time service as a missionary with an organisation like MAF. This trip will give me an idea of what this will look like.

Back in my first paragraph, I mentioned that there are a lot of logistics to sort out. Some of these I don’t even know exist and/or need to be sorted out, but I’ll share what I’ve got: In my mind, the greatest challenge is the fact I’ve never done this before; I have no idea what I’m doing. What I mean is this: although I’ve been on missions trips (one) before, and I’ve travelled plenty (twelve different countries, some of them multiple times), I’ve never had to do it alone. I’ve never had to organise travel tickets, visas, money etc. This is where you come in, if you could pray for me, that would be appreciated.

This leads me to the second big challenge that I can see right now: I’m a college student. I have few things, and money isn’t one of them. Chad is an expensive country to travel to, and to be honest, I don’t have nearly enough money. Again, this is where you come in, if you have it in you to give, please, comment at the bottom of this post, send me an e-mail at: 

dominicvilleneuve1995@gmail.com 

send me a letter (snail mail!) at:

Box 4852
Three Hills, AB
T0M 2N0

 Heck, send me a message via homing pigeon (on second thought, please don’t. I don’t know how to clean bird poop off my carpet. Also, what do you want me to do with the pigeon?), and I’ll get back to you about how to send me financial help.

Thank you guys for supporting me, prayerfully and financially. I appreciate it tremendously. Also, I promise to keep you guys up to date with what is going on, so that you can pray more specifically for me.

GCC!

So these last couple days Praire hosted an event called Global Connections Conference (GCC).

I must admit that at first I wasn’t very interested in going. I was busy with flying, and I didn’t feel like I would get much from it (boy was I wrong!). As well, it bothered me (and still does) that they had made attendance mandatory for all students.

In the end, the conference was totally worth going to. We had two speakers: a couple from an organisation called Move In, and a man named Joseph D’Souza (I hope I spelled his name right) from The Dalit Freedom Network.

In brief, Move In is a movement where Christians move in to very poor neighbourhoods and share the gospel with their neighbours. (It can also be done in very rich neighbourhoods, but the missionaries have to be fairly wealthy since those neighbourhoods are usually also very expensive to live in)

The Dalit Freedom Network is a freedom movement for the Dalit people. In brief, the Hindu belief is that all people are made from different parts of their God. The body part you come from dictates your position in society. The Dalit do not come from any body part but rather are complete outcasts. THey have no rights, and live in a condition of complete slavery. In fact, anything they touch becomes “dirty” and must be destroyed. It’s a lot more complicated than my 63 word explanation, but you get the idea. The Dalit Freedom Network is working to overthrow this system and free the Dalit people.

Both these speakers had some amazing things to say (If you want to watch the sessions, click here), but for me the highlight was all the mission organisations that were also present. I can’t remember off-hand how many organisations there were, but there were a lot.

I talked with representatives of almost all of them. God really challenged me with what I was going to do with myself, and some new plans are coming to light (I’ll talk more about them as I know more).

All in all, GCC was totally worth it, and I recommend that you check it out.

A Solo And A Hike

So I did my solo on Friday… Yeah… That was awesome…

Basically, I went flying with our chief flight instructor, he decided that I was up to par, so he got out and let me do two circuits. Yeah, that was awesome. If you’ve never done your first solo before, I don’t know how to describe it in English. It was something completely different. If you want to know what it’s like, you’ll have to do it.

Word (or rather, picture) of warning…

Yes you get wet and, if you do it at the right time of year like me, cold as well.

Anyways. A few days later, I went for a hike with my Impact group in Banff along the Johnston Canyon. That was a lot of fun.

If you’ve never been there, I recommend it. The trail is mostly boardwalk that follows the bottom of a narrow canyon. It’s not a very difficult trail, though if you do it in winter, I recommend renting ice cleats (they’re cheap), as the trail is slippery with ice and packed snow.

We did rent cleats, so we had an easy time of the trail. We saw plenty of people who didn’t have anything, and we had a good laugh (with them) as they slipped and slid around.

The canyon is beautiful though, and it was great to get out for some time of fellowship with my friends as well as being out in creation, admiring God’s handiwork. 














Oh yeah, and we made a snow unicorn...

Multi Use Headsets

So I like listening to music. I know I’m not alone, many people like listening to music. And like me, most people are not happy when they want to listen but then suddenly realize that they forgot their headphones at home. Well that happened to me today.

So I got creative

I grabbed my 800$ aviation headset (which has an aux in port), grabbed an aux cable, and started listening… 

Not what it’s designed for, but it’ll have to do.

Spring?

So Friday I had a flight. I was the first one of the day, and the plane had been sitting outside for a few hours. Suffice to say that it was quite cold and was not happy about starting. At all.

Then Saturday came around. I stepped outside, and suddenly realised that I had over-dressed. I went back to my room, took off my jeans and hoodie, and put on shorts and a t-shirt, and went back outside. It was quite warm out. Relatively.

It’s funny how that works. Back in October when it was +6 like on saturday, I pulled out my parka and went into hibernation. Now in March, when the temperature comes up to +6, I throw on shorts and a t-shirt and go out for a walk.

The seasons remind me that God can do some amazing things. Especially when we have such sudden changes as we did this weekend.

Not Much To Say

Six weeks left. That can't be right... Well, I suppose that I still have to stick around for the entire summer, but it's still kinda strange. I'm past 3/4 of the way through my first year of college. Crazy

Flying is going quite well, I have to write my PSTAR exam tomorrow then once I've got that, I'm ready to solo! That really excites me. Hopefully I'll do my first solo next week. Look out below!

Private pilot ground school started this week, it's not too bad so far, though I imagine that it could get a lot worse very soon.

Other than that, everything is going well. I'm flying quite a bit, almost every day!

Deutschland

At this time 365 days ago, I was at the airport about to go on what turned out to be one of the greatest adventures of my life.

I was off to spend 6 weeks in Germany on a student exchange. I had no idea what was coming, and I certainly had no way of knowing what that trip would do to me.

I had been studying German since grade 9, I was now in grade 12. I thought the language part would be a piece of cake… It wasn’t. I could only maintain really simple conversations and even then it was often touch and go as to how well I was understood and how well I understood.

It was humbling to say the least. I had to either improvise or speak english, and english wasn’t always any easier than German. As well, I felt bad when I spoke english because I was there for the German culture.

But I persevered. I had an awesome host-family, and some amazing friends who at least pretended to tolerate my incompetence.

Food was fantastic, though it kinda ruined food for me back here in Canada… 

I discovered that the world is a very small place; it only seems big for us here in America because we made it massive.

I made friends with people I couldn’t even really converse with, and I discovered the value of sign-language.

To everyone I met in Germany: Danke! Ich vermisse euch!