CHAPTER 14

Land the Plane

God doesn’t give us all the details, because He trusts us.

Each of us has a place that feels like heaven, a place where it’s easier to

sense God’s creativity expressed in love and joy, mountains and streams.
For my family and me, it’s a lodge we built at the end of an inlet in
British Columbia, Canada. It’s a place where the waters of the Pacific are
rimmed by eight-thousand-foot snow-capped mountains. A few times a
year, killer whales bob slowly through the inlet and you can hear them
exhale across the glassy water. Untouched cedar forests are filled with
trees that were saplings before cars were invented. The Lodge is a dream
more than twenty-two years in the making. It started with a couple of
tents the first year, then eventually we added a lodge and surrounding
buildings with enough beds for seventy people. It has become our place
for restoration and adventure. God is somehow easier to find there.
But with all the beauty come some small inconveniences. There are
no roads for one hundred miles in any direction. We make our own
electricity off a glacier on the property, grow our own vegetables, and
catch dinner in the ocean and rivers. Getting the things we need, like
engine parts, is no small task. Taking a boat to this place is possible, but
it’s a long trip. So, when I stumbled on an old DeHavilland Beaver
seaplane for sale, I knew it was the solution we needed. All I’d need to
learn was how to fly it. What could possibly go wrong?
Beavers are guy planes. If they could make them out of beef jerky,
they would. The nine-piston, 500 - horsepower engine— called the “Wasp
Junior” by the manufacturer—is junior to none and all steel and power.