Captain Ronald Charles Gluck led a distinguished flying career.

He first served as an Airman in the U.S. Air Force and Air National Guard flying an F-86 Sabre jet in the 60's. After receiving his airplane mechanics certification, he served with JAARS (Jungle Aviation and Radio Service) as a jungle pilot through the 1980's. He flew different STOL aircraft in Papua New Guinea and the Cessna 206 in Cameroon, West Africa.

Mr. Gluck survived several close encounters flying in the jungle yet always arrived home safely. His experiences deepened his faith and dependence on God.

In raising funds for the JAARS flight program, he led others to realize it would increase the number of people who would have the chance to read the Bible in their own language, something many of us take for granted.

Mr. Gluck used his dry sense of humor and relationship building skills with all of his passengers. His passengers included missionaries, village chiefs, government officials, and international diplomats. Additional passengers included pigs, goats, snakes, motorcycles and once a dead, wild hog, quite ripe - food for a proud hunter.

In Papua New Guinea, he routinely flew with a native possum in his pocket for fun. And he would deliberately tease passengers by 'looking' for the instruction book on how to land the plane.

As a child, I remember Dad bouncing over clouds like a roller coaster and zooming through holes in clouds to come down for landings. When flying over countries he would ask me to look for the letters (such as Nigeria) as we flew over.

Often when flying he would remark, "Let's see if this thing works," and turn on the emergency beacon to see if anyone was listening. No one ever was. If we had crashed, chances are we would not have been found.

Outside one village, he routinely landed and took off from the road, which ran parallel to the air strip and was in much better condition.

Every gorgeous day, he would gaze at the sky and remark wistfully, "It's a beautiful day to be flying."