So here we are...

Things are drawing to a close on this blog for N827DG. I know that many of you have enjoyed watching the progress, and I know that I certainly have had a great time keeping the blog going. Currently, the airplane has 2.5 hours on the Hobbs meter; two test flights where all things went fantastic. We are going to be doing some minor adjustments and also installing our new Leading Edge Exhaust System. Boy, I can't wait to put some pictures of it on here; it's wicked cool looking. Other than that...she's almost ready for active duty! I will officially have to hand her over to the Piston Fleet Supervisor, Ryan Williams, because my duties are only as Project Manager. Once they have paint on them and an engine and all works well, then my job is done and I move on to the next one.

And the next one is certainly going to be just as much work. N4790U is already in the side halls, ready for us to pounce with a vengeance. We have already begun some in depth sheet metal work on her, so she hasn't been totally ignored. It will be good to have a new guy in on this job; Nate Killoren of SIM will be lending a hand on the plane that he will be flying one day in support of the SIM work in the southern Sudan. 90U is the other silver bullet...for now anyway. Keep your eyes and ears open as you watch for her transformation!

Here are some good pictures I took last week. Hope you enjoy!

Results are in!

Well, sorry about the last post, I was trying to upload some video, but it wasn't working. I guess I just forgot to remove the post. Anyway, thanks for the comment, Scott; however, that's not the way it worked out.


SCORE:

N827DG - 1

NATE - 0



The airplane whipped my tail. And it performed fantastically while doing so.



The test flight began with somewhat of a hiccup. Denny Dyvig (AIM AIR General Manager) ended up being the test pilot, and he and I were all strapped in a ready to go. He decided to call tower before we started the plane. The controller told us we needed to file a flight plan, even though we were just going on a maintenance test flight in the local area. Sigh. So we sat there and talked about a few things while a dispatch guy zoomed down to the tower with our information. After about 10 minutes, we got the call and started the airplane, ready to taxi for departure.

The take off was ops normal (except for a directional gyro failure), yet thrilling as we roared skyward in our newly overhauled 206. We turned out over Wilson Airport and headed for the Ngong Hills and the Rift Valley beyond.

The first flight was basically just an engine break-in flight. Fly the first hour at 75% power and the second hour alternating between 75% and 65% power settings. We headed toward the town of Magadi to do our flight, as it has a landing strip that could be used if needed. Magadi is famous for its lakes, where they harvest the world's largest supply of soda. We flew long ovals around the lake for 2 hours. Much of it was uneventful as I scribbled numbers down, keeping track of the engine gauges while Denny and I made small talk. However, 75 minutes into the flight, the plane decided that it would hit a very hard patch of turbulence and make its mechanic barf all over the place. Yeah, you heard that right. For most of the flight, there was very bad turbulence, and while Denny is used to it as a pilot, I am not used to it, seeing that most of my time is spent on the ground. At 75 minutes into the flight, I just lost it all. Luckily, I hadn't had much to eat that morning, so it wasn't too much to clean up afterwards. I apologized over and over to Denny and he did so to me, too. We laughed about it afterwards, too, because if you can't laugh at yourself for doing it, then what can you do? Oh, well... Candace says that it just goes to show that I'm meant to be on the ground and not in the air.

The rest of the flight went well and we headed back to Wilson Airport after our designated two hours of flight. We landed with a crowd from AIM AIR watching and taxied up to the hangar and shut down, ops normal. Success!!

I have some pictures from the flight of Magadi, the Rift Valley, and the Ngong Hills, as wells as a video of us coming in on 7DGs first landing in Kenya. Hopefully I can get some of those uploaded. I also have a video of some of the startup, taxi, and takeoff, courtesy of a fellow mechanic.

All in all, things are looking very positive. The only major squawks we had was the directional gyro failure and an engine parameter where we did not get max RPM, both of which should be relatively easy fixes. We also have to do a few more test flights to do flight manuevers and stall horn tests. Yikes...not sure if I'll be on those. The plane already beat me once...maybe its time for me to win one. :)

Thanks for all the hard work on the airplane by so many people here at the AIM AIR hangar. The guys really have done a great job. It has been fun to able to oversee such a project that will enable AIM AIR to have another plane to serve missionaries here in East Africa.

AIM AIR...serving those who serve.

Test

Ready To Go

New pictures...

So here's some pictures from the last week. I'm trying to finalize some paperwork so that we can get the proper clearances from the KCAA so we can do a test flight this week. Pray that all goes well. Otherwise, I'm just trying to nit-pick some small cosmetic things on the airplane. Here's what happened last week:


Here's the green floor...primered one afternoon....

...and painted the next morning. Here's the medium gray it will be, with some of the safety-walk tape already being stuck on.

Getting weighed by the guys from Phoenix Aviation. She's the new featherweight of the fleet, weighing less than all the other 206s. Nice! That means we can carry more!

Sitting at the front door waiting for some fuel.

Instrument panel and pedestal complete...even with a hint of new JAARS seats in the picture.

...and this is where she is today! She's getting some final touches while we're doing the paperwork.

Retro

I was talking with Andy Keller (AIM AIR pilot) the other day about 7DG. He said that he was recently contacted by the previous owner who sold 7DG to AIM AIR. The previous owner was asking about the plane and how things are going. It got me thinking about the process that the plane has been on for more than a year. I rustled up some old pictures of N827DG as it was making its journey toward Kenya. Here they are!


This was the picture of the airplane that was used for advertisement.



Here she sits upon arrival at Preferred Air Parts in Kidron, Ohio. This is where the plane was dissassembled to ship over to Kenya.



Sitting in the hangar at Preferred.


Wings off, with Matt Near, one of the faithful employees at Preferred, and a good friend of AIM AIR.

Upon arrival at the hangar here at AIM AIR in Nairobi, Kenya.

Sitting with her new friend, N4790U.

The excitement builds!

This past week has yielded some good progress on 7DG. We put on registration numbers and unveiled the new prop and shiny chrome spinner. We continued to get the interior ready and the instruments received their final checks. Small details were being taken care of and final inspections were being accomplished as panels were being closed and flight control surface travels were triple checked. The engine was deinhibited from storage and pre-oiled, getting ready for the first engine run. The first run happened earlier this week, and was a fantastic success. There is always a bit of nervous expectations when running a new engine. Well, those nervous expectatations for me turned into jittery excitement. I think the run only made me want to fly the plane more and see how she performs in the air. Caleb used my camera to video most of the run, but I have been having trouble uploading a portion of it...hopefully, I can keep trying and get it on there sometime.

After the run, we made a few adustments while continuing to get the airframe ready. We painted interior plastic pieces this week, as well as the floor. The floor gets painted the dark gray of the instrument panel and then gets an anti-skid tape on top. On Monday, the guys will finish putting down the anti-skid tape, then we'll install the side plastic interior pieces. Once those are in, seats can be installed and arrangements will be made to weigh the airplane. All these things need to be done before we can sign the logbook entry and test fly the airplane.

Things still need to be done, but we are now on the home stretch...

Hey, that's my name...

Putting on registration with Caleb.

Oooohh...shiny!

Who wouldn't like that look?

Resting for the weekend.

Instrument panel looking very nice.

First run...

...went GREAT!

We ran the engine this afternoon and it was awesome! Fired right up and purred like a kitten.

I will be posting pictures as soon as I can...internet is running slow tonight. I even have some videos that Caleb took during the run. It was cool. Only a few small squawks came up that will be fixed tomorrow. All in all, it was a really good test run.

...it makes me more and more ready for the test flight to see how she flies.

Keep your prayers flowing...AIM AIR is always extremely busy, whether here in Nairobi at the maintenance hangar or at any one of the several locations throughout East Africa where our pilots are based. Every day, pilots fly many long hours to reach out to those around us with the gospel of peace through the use of the airplane. Lives depend on it. Souls depend on it.

Praise the Lord!

Some pictures of this week

We're getting ever so close to taking N827DG on her first test flight. We are finishing some minor squawks this week and closing things up so that we can prepare for the test flight, which will most likely happen sometime the beginning of next week. Keep your eyes open for pictures of flight!



Spaghetti! This is part of the electrical side of the engine monitor system. Looks more like automotive wiring than aircraft with all the colored wires.

Lookin' cool in my shades...sunny days are always nice and warm to work right at the hangar door where everything is so bright you can't see anything.

Fuel! Filling the tip tanks for fuel tests.

Pretty panel. This is the pre-placard instrument panel. Beautiful...

Ready to roar...can't wait.

These past few days...

We're getting closer and closer. While waiting for some parts to come in to finish some things, we are working on lots of other things so that we can hopefully soon start being able to run the engine, fly, etc.

Sorry this is sort of a boring post...we did get some good things done. Roy finished installing and rigging the flaps in less than a week, which is apparently an amazing feat here at AIM AIR. We did a lot of small things here and there that needed to get done. There was a lot of maintenance on the rest of the fleet, so 7DG got a little bit neglected by everyone else but me and Roy.

Anyway, here's some pictures.


A new AIM AIR logo on the tail. Soon enough it will have it's temporary registration, too.

This is a new style exhaust that a friend brought by. We are planning on buying them for the fleet, and this was a cool opportunity to see what it looks like. Definitely a different stack than the regular exhaust. 10-15 horsepower increase...

Radios and some gauges. The one right above the yoke is the new engine monitoring system. It will give the pilot Cylinder Head Temps, Exhaust Gas Temps, Oil Pressure, Fuel Flow, and Volts/Amps. Nice.

Here's a good side profile. New cargo pod, wings on, engine pretty much ready, prop on...This thing is itching to go.

Not much longer...

Past week...

Sorry I haven't posted for the last week or so...things have been busy. All last week I was in PT6A training class with some of my peers, which was a lot of fun. I've done a lot of work in the past on PT6s, but it was nice to have the formal training to either confirm what I was taught, or to help me understand something that I wasn't too sure about. I really enjoyed it, even though sometimes it was hard staying awake in class. :) Since I left seminary last December, this has been the longest stretch in my life where I haven't been in school. Crazy.

Anyway, the guys carried on work on 7DG while we were in class, and this week, I'm back on the floor, so more pictures will come. Below are a couple pictures from last week.

Here's the PT6 that we worked on for the class.

Adamson and Isaac concentrating in PT6 class.


One afternoon I peeped out the window down at 7DG, and caught the guys putting the prop on.

PT6A class...

...is where I'll be tomorrow and all of next week. Bill Kolafa is here from Standard Aero in Winnipeg, Manitoba doing mid-size engine heavy maintenance course. So I'll be in class all day for another 6 days. We started today...it was alright. Mainly introductory stuff and some information about engine overview. Most of it I already was familiar with, but there are some new things on the -40 series PT6A that are nice to be learning. The SP King Air B200 that is scheduled to arrive in the next few months will have PT6A-42 engines, so this course is at a nice time for me to have formal education on the PT6A turboprop engine. That is, of course, if I ever get to work on SP planes. Sigh...

Anyways, I'm still going downstairs to do some work and keeping abreast of the projects. I'll be taking some pictures so keep looking...

Getting closer...

Lots of visual progress.

This week was full of big pieces of the airplane coming together. It was also full of comments like, "Hey, it's finally starting to look like an airplane." I didn't really understand that one...I always thought it looked like an airplane, just in pieces.

Anyway, we got a lot of work done this week and hope to next week as well.

The end is drawing near...


David doing some avionics work in the cockpit. He's been dutifully tying up all the spaghetti strings into reasonable wire bundles. He probably has the most tedious and detailed job when doing a big overhaul like this. More power to him...

Me putting vortex generators on the bottom of the horizontal stabilizer. They also went on the wings and the vertical stabilizer. Obviously this is not the best position to be working in, but the vortex generator kit did not arrive until after things were painted and installed. Well, they were installed on the wings before painting, but not the tail surfaces. Oh, well; next time we're doing it the easier, better way.

Check it out - wing installation!

A one-winged bird.

Caleb was busy multi-tasking during wing installation.

Here's the hangar on an average day at AIM AIR. 5y-BLG is the Cessna 210 on the far side of the hangar near the door. 5Y-SIL is the Cessna 206 in the foreground. It is based up in Loki. N827DG is in the middle, getting the left wing installed. N341EA is the Cessna 185 floatplane hanging from the ceiling behind N827DG. It is based over on Lake Victoria. Tucked back behind N341EA in the corner is N4790U. It's not getting much work done with it because the focus now is on 7DG. Soon enough, though. Oh, and outside is 5Y-XPA, one of our Cessna 208B Grand Caravans. Sorry the picture is a little blurry.

Installing Flint wing tip tanks. This mod allows for a higher fuel load, which is always nice. There are so many little things we learned on this installation that we will utilize on the wings for N4790U. Brandon, someone screwed up our nutplates in the trailing edge. Nuts.

Timothy putting the static wicks on the ailerons.


As far as a good comprehensive update, lots has been accomplished and will be done this week. The following items were installed this past week: wings, wing tips, ailerons, flaps, and vortex generators on the tail. The cargo pods for both planes were painted grey and lots of inspection panels and other small things were painted white. Avionics work continued and some good progress was made.

This next week holds a lot of work in the shop. The DC-3 and one of the Caravans have major inspections. PT6 class begins on Thursday, and I will be attending that for a week. In the meantime, we're going to be finishing work on the floatplane and continuing to press hard on 7DG so that we can bring it to a close in the near future.

Soon enough, we'll be doing engine runs and flight tests.

Keep us all in your prayers as we're working hard in the hangar here at AIM AIR. Pray that safety is in the forefront and all attitudes are honoring to the Lord.

Thanks!

This week...a busy one.

Before we get to project pictures, here's some pictures of the DC-3 and another Cessna 206.




Jose watching the DC-3 taxi up to the hangar...looks like they've been muddin' somewhere in the Sudan.


Stephen Musyoki (in the bright green reflector vest), one of the dispatch guys, faithfully washing the mud off the plane even before Jose can get it into the parking place. (notice the mud hanging off the tail on and behind the tailwheel)

Cool picture.

Sitting in front of the hangar with lots of mud.



This plane is ex-N756MS, now 5Y-LMB. It was getting ready for its maiden flight in its new registration when a rain storm came through.


Here it is in front of the hangar.




Now to N827DG...it was given blue stripes the end of last week, so this is the new front view.



Side shot...no registration numbers on it yet...or wings...or prop...all that will come in due time.



This is me and Timothy putting vortex generators on the right wing. We install vortex generators on on the wings, the vertical stabilizer and the horizontal stabilizer. They are supposed to allow the plane to perform at lower airspeeds.

Painting! The guys are priming the two cargo pods for both airplanes and the wings for 7DG.

Timothy (with the light), Jose (with the spray gun), and Caleb (in the bottom of the picture) priming the wings for 7DG.

...and the finished product. They will dry fully over the weekend and go on the airplane the beginning of next week.