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!