Ready to Fly

On Tuesday, 29 September, 2009, N4790U left the earth here in Nairobi, Kenya, and did not return for two solid hours. Reini and I were the only two aboard and we had a great flight as we did the engine break-in. We returned with very minimal discrepancies, mostly just items that needed a little bit of fine tuning. It was a beautiful sunny day with some clouds, and the air was just bumpy enough. However, unlike with 7DG's first flight, I didn't get sick this time!! Aha!

N4790U - 0
Nate - 1

HAHA! Anyway, it was a great flight, and I flew again this morning with John to do some flight maneuvers and check the stall warn horn after we installed a Horton STOL kit and Vortex Generators. We flew out over Karen and enjoyed our time together, reminiscing of the same type of flight we did last year with 7DG.

Below are some pictures of our crew in a circle of prayer about an hour before we did the test flight. Enjoy.

Reini and I with the airplane as we preflight it together.

N4790U video

10 months in 3 minutes from nate killoren on Vimeo.

First Run!!

This afternoon, we ran N4790U for the first time! It went great! It fired right up and sounded very smooth for having sat around in crates and on the airplane for about 2 years total without being run.

The video will be coming in the next couple days!

Keep your eyes peeled!

Blast from the Past

Here's some pictures of N4790U...before and after.

Final Preparations

This week we have been working hard to get N4790U finished so that we can do the first run of the new IO-550-N and then take it on its first flight here in Kenya. Things have been progressing well and we have taken care of some small items here and there that need to be fine tuned. We also took it to be weighed and will be doing the final fuel tests tomorrow. Here's some pics!


Jerry Hurd doing some final touches on the control yoke carry through cables.

Sitting in the doorway, almost ready.

Looking good.

That really is a nice looking engine.

Getting ready to go down to Phoenix Aviation to be weighed. We had to tow it down because we only put unusable fuel in it...just like the POH says.

On the scales at Phoenix. That's level flight attitude...how the airplane actually moves through the sky.

In the doorway at Phoenix. All the mechanics at Phoenix had to come over and inspect this sweet looking 206. AIM AIR was paid a good complement when one of the upper level engineers said that all of our airplanes always look so nice, that we always keep them well maintained.

On the way back to AIM AIR. Godfrey was our driver.

Early Morning Rest

N4790U...getting closer.

We've been really pretty busy here in the shop the past couple weeks. I'm sorry for not posting. Hopefully, I can get back into it better.

We finished N342EA and it went back to Entebbe, Uganda.

We are currently working on 90U to finish it up and also on 5Y-SIL changing the right MLG fitting, which has a crack in it. Thanks to JM, the pilot who reported a "funny sound, not something normal." Upon further inspection, I found a crack that was about 3 inches long and not in the "normal" place that cracks occur.

Anyway, here's some pictures of 90U. Nate Killoren got the cargo pod installed and is working on closing up the wings and the fuselage so that we can install the seats and then work on getting the toe and camber adjusted. Then the plane is to be weighed, fuel tests, and then a test run will be in the near future.


Getting the cargo pod aligned to begin installing the screws.

Nate K. putting the screws in...

Nice interior. Looks good enough to fly...

Pod installed. Ready to go soon.