A friend and a teacher

When I was 10 years old Dwayne King and I had already become friends. Or, more accurately, he didn’t mind having an undersized chatterbox listening to his conversations.

But that is how Dwayne is.

No matter who you are, he is willing to talk to you and listen to your ideas. I often saw Dwayne at church, and he was always encouraging me to come fly with him. When I did, I would often bring a freshly baked apple pie, courtesy of my mother. We would talk for a few minutes, then hop into his Supercub or the Cessna, and take flight into the crisp Alaskan air.

For weeks, all I could think about was how great it would be to be able to fly. Dwayne has always been like that to me. He inspires and encourages me to greater things, to grow deeper in my faith.

When asked, Dwayne says that the most interesting event in his career was being one of the first to open up the Russian far-east (Siberia). He was one of the first American pilots to be allowed to fly a private plane in the far-east, and has since sent several more people over and has even seen the construction of one of the first private airstrips in far-east Russia.

Dwayne first got into aviation and missions when he was 17 years old, around the same age as some of our generation. He attended Leterneau University and studied aeronautical sciences. He then spent two years acquiring his private pilot certification and aircraft mechanic’s certification.

Dwayne has spent more than 47 years as a “missionary pilot.” In fact, one of his most influential projects is Kingdom Air Corps. After 35 years of flying all over the world, Dwayne saw the need to go where no one had gone before to carry the message of Christianity.

To accomplish this, he started a program to prepare missionary pilots and mechanics for the world of aviation, train them to fly in the mountains and their myriad weather conditions north of the Arctic Circle, and build flight time.

Each trainee undergoes a 10-hour mountain flying course, building flight time in a high-performance tail wheel light aircraft. Flight hours are accumulated in Cessna 150, 170, and 206 aircraft, as well as Aeronica Champ and Supercub airplanes. These planes can often be seen in the sky as new pilots earn their wings.

One of his other projects is the Brooks Range Bible Camp. During the summer, he and 25 to 30 other staff members fly 375 miles Northwest of Palmer, and conduct Brooks Range Bible Camp.

For two weeks, local children are flown in to attend,

Children ages 7 to 13 attend during the first week and children 14 to 18 are there the following week. Seven planes are used to carry staff, supplies, and campers.

“The local kids look forward to this all year, it is their favorite thing to do,” Dwayne said of the camp.

The camp is a source of hope and excitement for kids who don’t have much to look forward to.

Dwayne King has a vested interest in the community of Glacier View, and in seeing young people learn skills that will benefit them later in life. His goal for the future is to continue the expansion of Christianity through missionary aviation and other efforts. I firmly believe that Dwayne will continue to help people mature and gain experience in a variety of fields. I am proud to have known as great a man as Dwayne King.

Christopher Martin is a senior at Glacier View School and contributor to the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman Schools section.