History
For centuries, Christians have been committed to ‘go to the people of all nations’ and to ‘preach the good news to everyone in the world’. Since the advent of the aviation industry, the use of aviation and its associated technologies has become a fundamental way to reach the peoples found at the very ends of the earth.
In 1994, the dream of creating a mission aviation training facility that was laid on the heart of a number of Christian men became a reality. In 1995 Bruce Searle was appointed as Dean of the Department of Mission Aviation at Bible College of Victoria (BCV). Later it morphed into ACMA (The Australian Centre for Mission Aviation) and Bruce Searle was appointed as CEO.
The Mission Aviation Course (ministry studies and flight training) were the key products. Ministry studies was delivered by BCV who was the Registered Training Organisation. Flight training was provided though Mission Aviation Fellowship’s Ballarat facility for the first 6 years of the course. The first aircraft maintenance engineering course started in 2000 and was delivered out of the BCV campus at Lilydale.
In 2001, an opportunity to build a new facility came to fruition at a privately owned airstrip at Coldstream. This provided facilities for theory and practical training for one-stop mission aviation training. So flight and aircraft maintenance engineering was being delivered at Coldstream. This continued until the end of 2014 when funding challenges (which led to a lack of resources) forced the closure of the nationally accredited training operation.