An Answered Prayer: PUC’s Aviation Program Receives Remarkable Gift

One day, Pacific Union College alum Jordan Wareham (2004) saw a raffle advertisement on Facebook for a 1968 Beechcraft Musketeer from the American Flight Museum in Topeka, Kansas. Thinking it was a scam, Wareham put his name in the raffle for fun and purchased six tickets, with proceeds going to the museum's aviation education.

Time passed without word on the raffle until April, when Wareham was at Bowling Green State University in Ohio for his doctoral residency. He saw the museum would announce the raffle winner and watched the live drawing. When the announcer said his name—Wareham almost fell out of his chair.

With 90 days to decide if he wanted the plane, Wareham and his wife determined this was not the time to operate a plane privately. They deeply felt this prize had been gifted to them for a greater purpose and knew they wanted to do something special.

Wareham reached out to PUC Flight Director Nathan Tasker, who, at the time, was preparing to return to PUC. The aviation program needed a second primary training aircraft, and through a generous agreement, the Musketeer (N6066N) would be leased to PUC essentially for free. PUC Flight Instructor Luke Butler traveled to Kansas, inspected the aircraft, and flew it to campus. Alongside PUC's Piper Cherokee and Seminole, the Beechcraft Musketeer is a blessing for the aviation program.

“It was an answer to prayer,” said Tasker. “I had been praying about our aircraft situation, and with the number of students we had inquiring about joining us for fall quarter, I knew we would likely need a second aircraft to ensure we had adequate availability for our students. God’s timing is perfect, it seems!”

Since last school year, the number of students in the aviation program has more than doubled. This gift makes it possible to accommodate the students and is essential to their timely and efficient flight lesson progression.

Tasker shared that the aircraft is already being used as a primary trainer for their beginning students and gives returning students a different plane to practice and improve their skills. PUC now has three aircraft: a Piper Cherokee, a Piper Seminole, and the new Beechcraft Musketeer.