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.

This week. A short week.

So this week was a short week. Friday is Moi Day, so that means a national holiday. Daniel Arap Moi was one of the past presidents of Kenya. Hey, I've never met him, but if he gets his own holiday, he must be pretty important. Anyway, here's some pictures of this week and the work we got done. I will have some pictures to post next week of the newly painted fuselage of 7DG. They are putting the blue stripes on it today or tomorrow. Cool!

Akivega has been paint stripping the wings of 90U. This was a neat picture because you can see the paint crinkling up on the outboard side.

Maroa (I forget if that's the way he spells it, pole sana) doing the wiring inside the instrument panel of 7DG. What a bunch of confusion back there! Just kidding, I'm glad I don't have to do it.

This was the beginning of a sheetmetal project on 90U. The bottom skins in the tail section were corroded so bad that a bunch of small holes had eaten through the skin. The easiest way to deal with it was to cut out the bottom skins and replace it with new. Wow.

Here we go! Cut, cut, cut!

The finished hole...it went from the bulkhead inside the step area all the way to the inspection panel back near the end of the tail.

Here's what it will look like when finished. This was just the fitting of the new skin to get it lined up and all the holes drilled.

Firewall stiffeners! Those two gray colored stiffeners that run diagonal down the firewall are usually used on 206 floatplanes, but AIM AIR uses them for added strength on the airframe. That is one of the standards that AIM AIR utilizes on all of its aircraft. (snicker)

Tavasi gets his toolbox

Occasionally, containers arrive from the States with fun stuff that people have sent over. This is just a small bit of the fun from this past container. I guess Tavasi had ordered a new Craftsman toolbox, and it arrived on the container. It was like Christmas that afternoon as Jose presented the new toolbox to him. I helped him out with some stickers to go on it. :) What toolbox is complete without stickers?! Hope you enjoy these pictures.

This past week...

Well, sorry about not posting too many pictures lately on the blog. Things have been busy with the arrival of Ruth into our family. However, I did find time to shoot a few pictures. Things are still getting prepped on 7DG for blue stripes, so maybe this next week, we'll see some stripes on the fuselage and the tail. Meanwhile, we're busy on 90U doing some structural cleaning and also dealing with a fair amount of corrosion in the aft cabin roof area, as well as the belly of the tail.

So anyway, here's some pictures.

7DG waiting for stripes. My friend Scott Whittaker came a week or so ago from North Carolina to visit some of the surrounding countries on a survey trip. He works for Atlantic Aero, the company that provides the STC for the new engines we're installing on 7DG and 90U. He had a look over 7DG and commented how nice it looked. That was nice to hear. Thanks, Scott.

(By the way, you can see his blog here.)

I'm taking out some stringers and other frame members of 90U so that we can deal with some of the corrosion in the roof area. (Mr. Blank would be proud; I'm wearing my safety glasses.)

I took a panel out of the ceiling, too, to deal with corrosion better. It was fun. I always enjoy putting holes in airplanes. :)

Here's the panel back in, along with some of the other stringers and such. The plane looked funny for a couple days while we were getting everything all back together to rivet. There were so many clecos sticking out all around it, the plane looked like a porcupine.

Caleb, working on doublers for the exhaust mounts. The firewall is stainless steel and the frame members attached to the back side inside the cabin are aluminum. You have to make a doubler for each side out of the corresponding material in order to patch the cracks caused by the vibration of the exhaust pipe. It's just lots of fun (note the sarcasm). Working with stainless is not the easiest thing in the world, but Caleb has done a good job.