On the Wings of God

By Grant McLaren

Professional Pilot Magazine October 2005

Crenshaw Christian Center ops Gulfstream GIISP for faith services worldwide.

In days gone by, preachers used silver crosses and elaborate rituals to ward off demons. Today, the task is often accomplished with state-of-the-art technology including the latest in broadcast facilities, 10,000 seat plus churches, electronic terminals to accept debit card donations and legions of corporate jets. From coast-to-coast, preachers have snapped up all sorts of turbine flying assets over recent years. While these airborne sanctuaries typically take the form of older, large cabin, jets – frequently Bombardier Challenger 600s and Gulfstream IIs – there are ministries that now have their eyes on Gulfstream Vs, Global 5000s and even supersonic business jets (SSBJ). Los Angeles-based Crenshaw Christian Center (CCC), and its Ever Increasing Faith Ministries, has successfully expanded market share over recent years with major facilities in Los Angeles and New York seating 10,100 and 2500 attendees respectively. To tie the operations together, and to maximize the mobility and reach of Pastor Dr. Frederick Price, the ministry operates an Aviation Partners Blended Winglet equipped Gulfstream II based at LGB (Long Beach, CA) crewed by 2 full time pilots and a flight attendant.

Welcome to the world of mega churches and celebrity preachers.

"Make no mistake about it, this is a business and we have the same needs for corporate jets and productivity tools as any other business," says Dr. Price who is considered one of the most respected preachers in North America. "Through the ages, churches have been slower than other industries in taking advantage of productivity multiplying tools like corporate aviation. Because we're a business, and because we're here in the Earth realm, we must do things in a business-like way with the same tools everyone else uses."

For Chief Pilot Rick Handlin, Capt Connie Engel and Flight Attendant Jennifer Auks CCC's Gulfstream II, ‘Air Faith 1,' is an ideal tool for its missions. In the process of setting up the New York church in 2001, the Gulfstream and its crew accomplished 48 weekly round trip flights. Many of these bi-coastal commutes carried not only Dr. Price and Dr. Betty Price, to lead sermons, but also the church organ player, singers, booksellers, financial people and donation collectors as well. Typical missions, however, carry only Drs. Price and a single bodyguard. "For our needs, the GII is close to ideal," says Handlin. "It gives us the range, under most conditions, to go coast-to-coast nonstop, the cabin is very comfortable and we have the capacity to transport larger groups as needed."

Building market share

Price set up his first ministry, complete with a 158-seat church in Los Angeles, in 1973 and expanded to a larger 1400 seat facility in 1977. As his flock grew, multiple daily services were initiated but it was soon time to expand operations once again. In 1981 Dr. Price acquired the former 32-acre Los Angeles campus of Pepperdine University, just east of LAX (Los Angeles, CA) for $14 million and built the $10 million FaithDome, one of the largest geodesic domes in the world. Today, the FaithDome, beautifully sited at the end of Royal Palm lined Price Drive, accommodates the church's local flock of over 10,000.

Dr. Price got into the TV broadcast business in an innovative way back in 1978 and can now be seen on numerous TV stations worldwide. "Dr. Price broke with tradition in the early days by wearing a suit on stage, not using a pulpit and talking uninterrupted for the entire hour. All the other TV preachers at the time wore robes and ran a variety show concept with choir and singer interludes," says CCC Dir of Marketing Michael Evans Jr. who is also Dir of Flight Ops. "Today, 90% of the television preachers you see are in suits and many mimic Dr. Price's style."

Expanding operations to the east coast, and orchestrating weekly sermons on both sides of the country, would not have been practical without a corporate jet. Today, the New York circa 1800's property on Central Park West is well established and runs with its own local pastor. Dr. Price and his flight team have been able to cut back on the former 2128-nm weekly commute to a once-a-month routine.

CCC has 350 full time employees and 2500 volunteers. Ministry operations in the field include everything from jail outreach programs and music ministries to an annual Ministry at Sea event which takes over entire cruise ships and helps bring in new clientele. Dr. Price is an in-demand speaker at churches throughout the country and his travel schedule "Is a handful to keep up with," says Michael Evans. Church members are encouraged to tithe 10% of their annual income and may use the remaining 90% to make donations as they see fit.

Investing in a jet

In 1998, having traveled constantly on airlines for over 20 years, Price (now 72 years of age) was ready to give up on travel. But, daughter and CCC VP of Finance Angela Evans, said, "No dad, you can't retire. You have too much to offer people." Evans then began looking at jet charter options.

After a year of chartering everything from Learjet 35s and 55s to Hawker 800s and Gulfstream IIIs, the CCC Board of Directors approved acquisition of a church jet. Price prefers the size, comfort and performance of Gulfstreams and, after a year of evaluating options, Volkswagen's former GII (SN 153) was purchased, winglets were installed, the interior was completely re-done and a midlife was accomplished on the Rolls- Royce Spey engines. "Other aircraft types may have done the job for us," says Dr. Price. "But, we got stuck in the Cadillac showroom and we didn't get any further."

CCC's GII had less than 9000 hours on the airframe with no history of corrosion and had been previously upgraded with a GIII-style Honeywell EFIS panel. More recently, CCC upgraded Air Faith 1 to RVSM compliance with 2 new air data computers (ADCs), installed a Sandel ST3400 TAWS, Rockwell Collins Airshow 400 and is on the verge of replacing its 2 Universal Avionics UNS-1K FMSs with upgraded UNS-1K+ models.

Dr. Price considers his turbine transport to be not only a productivity tool and lifestyle enhancement but a life extender as well. The success of his ministry depends upon the preservation of his health and vitality as well as his ability to travel nationwide and as far afield as central and southern Africa.

"In the kind of business we're in, we don't make widgets," says Dr. Price. "I'm the product of this ministry and a business aircraft both preserves the product and extends the reach of our ministry."

Dr. Price understands the high cost of operating a business jet and advises other preachers to make very sure that they have a need for such a tool before making the investment. "The idea that ‘Pastor so-and-so down the street has a jet or a turbine helicopter so we're going to get one too' is the wrong approach. You've got to be sure you have all your ducks in a row or owning a jet will take you to the cleaners. In our case, the payback far exceeds the cost but to gain that payback you have to be able to pay the costs."

DOCs of CCC's GII run $2525. per flight hour (at an average fuel cost of $3.25/gallon) says Handlin. Now that the weekly TEB (Teterboro NJ) runs are down to once a month requirements, the jet is deployed primarily to take Drs. Price to church speaking engagements around the country. Longest trips to date have been to STN (Stansted, London, England), NAS (Nassau, Bahamas) and HNL (Honolulu, HI). For his yearly African sorties, Dr. Price takes an airline sleeper seat to Europe and charters GVs from there. CCC utilizes Universal Weather for international trip planning and uses Avfuel, Multi Service and UVair cards for fuel purchases. Favorite FBOs, says Handlin, include Jet Aviation TEB, the Millionaire and Avitat chains and home base, AirFlite LGB.

Flight Crew lifestyles

When CCC acquired its GII in 2000 it was operated by Clay Lacy Aviation VNY (Van Nuys, CA) under a management contract with a dedicated captain, Rick Handlin, and contract first officers. At the beginning of 2002 Handlin, a 13,000 hour TT pilot, hired on full-time with CCC. Capt Engel, a retired Air Force T38 pilot who was a member of the first class of women trained to be pilots in the military, loves her new civilian job. "It was a challenge moving up from the T38 to the GII. From flying fix-to-fix with TACAN in the military I had to adapt to a whole new world of avionics and FMS. But, I enjoy the work, the schedules are great and I like the chance to be able to support our ministry."

Auks joined the department in mid-2001 as a full-time flight attendant and makes a point of visiting local markets at destinations and preparing all meals from scratch. Most requested entrees at FL410, says Auks, are chili cheese dogs and salads. Nina Tunzi, who has the dual role of scheduler and Dr. Price's executive assistant, assists in CCC's aircraft dispatch function.

Perhaps the most unique aspect of this flight operation is that schedules are typically set 1 year in advance with short notice pop-up trips, considered anything less than 2 months advance notice, very rare. This allows Handlin to live 2 hours from LGB and Engel to live with her family in Maryland. CCC trains to Part 135 flight standards, goes twice yearly to FlightSafety LGB on a full service contract and is very careful with duty day limits. The GII's current 260 flight hour/year schedule is straightforward to manage with 2 pilots and it's only on rare occasions that contract crews are brought in.

Pay scales are better than industry average, says Handlin, and benefits include full medical/dental, a 401K plan, 5-year disability insurance and a 40% discount at the church bookstore. Profit sharing, at least at this point in time, is not an included benefit.

Maintenance

CCC moved its GII from Clay Lacy Aviation VNY to AirFlite LGB in 2003 due to Stage II restrictions at its former base. Maintenance tracking and coordination is tasked to Jose Naranjo of locally-based Aerospace International. With a Gulfstream service center at LGB, maintaining the aircraft has never been a problem and product support has been excellent says Naranjo. In the near future, the church will likely hire its own fulltime on-staff mechanic.

Mega church economics

The uninitiated may wonder what churches are doing with multi-million dollar business jets in the first place. However, business jets, if carefully deployed, are highly effective in increasing market share, productivity and the value-enhancing mobility of any business or organization.

Market dynamics are constantly shifting in this industry and successfully television ministries must closely track Nielsen ratings while keeping up on attendance-to-income performance ratios and finding innovative means to increase their flocks.

Michael Evans notes that the 80/20 marketing rule – 80% of income generated by 20% of customers -- applies to the ministry business and therefore it's important to hold onto core clientele. New area ministries pull some market share from time to time but the impact has not been revenue significant. According to Dr. Price, competition in the industry is not something he worries about. "Each ministry is unique and the world has enough people for everyone to have a slice of the pie."

State of the world

Fortunately, if we can use that term, the Devil is not going away anytime soon and Dr. Price will have as much work to do for as long as he wants to do it. Modern tools, including business aircraft, make it easier to fight demons but this is counterweighted by modern technology in the hands of darker forces. "The world is better off today for certain people in certain situations but, overall, the world is as screwed as it was when I started 30 years ago. The difference today is that we have more modern conveniences and now we can get ourselves messed up in style. It's the same old ball of wax -- dishonesty, corruption, killings and needless wars -- but now we can do all of this in a more sophisticated manner."

Looking forward, mega churches will continue to acquire business aircraft and may soon begin to make the leap to later technology, large-cabin intercontinental models. Dr Price likes the GV but Handlin suggests a GIV might be the next logical step. "A GIV would give us guaranteed transcontinental range back from the East Coast, as well as 1-stop capability to most of Europe, and we'd have better operating flexibility with a Stage III compliant aircraft." DOCs would drop, according to Handlin, from $2525/hour to $1450/hour by changing out the existing GII for a GIV.

While Michael Evans envisions potential church interest in a SSBJ, Dr. Price remains hesitant. "The clock is running on a business aircraft whether it's flying or sitting on the ground. It's like pumping gas at the gas station, except that the meter never stops turning. I can't even imagine what kind of meter we'd have running on an SSBJ!"

Moving into the corporate jet world, says Dr. Price, has been the best thing that's ever happened from a productivity point of view. Although Dr. Price, at 72, has a goal of learning to fly and piloting the GII he's an unqualified supporter of his professional flight team. "It's an absolute blessing having our flight crew. We operate like a team and we're working toward the same goal. There's a great deal of dedication and expertise in this flight department."

Next time you're on approach to runway 24R or 24L at LAX look down. It's hard to miss CCC's geodesic FaithDome. "You'll see us when flying in from the East over the outer marker," says the pastor. "If you land at LAX, come over and visit us at the FaithDome. Services are every Sunday and you'll be most welcome."