N341EA

For those of you interested, our new floatplane is just a few months from coming out here to Kenya/Tanzania.  You can see a few recent pictures of it here while it is being worked on in Ohio.  It is a 1984 Cessna TU206G.

Paint stripping and fuselage jigging...

The following is a picture sequence of the fuselage of 5Y-CMA being paint stripped, cleaned, and then placed into the fuselage jig. 

We put the fuselage onto some sawhorses and took the main landing gear legs off so that we wouldn't get paint stripper on them. 

Me and Caleb...I sorta look scared or something. 

The paint stripping crew.  L to R is Andy Keller, Tim Carpenter (other side of the plane), David Akivega, and Caleb.  This was a neat picture due to the "half paint" scheme. 

Carpenter and Akivega.

They laid the whole thing over onto it's side to facilitate easier paint stripping on the belly and roof. 

It sorta looked like a fish swimming sideways. 

Drying outside the hangar after a good pressure wash.  DC-3 and King Air 200 in the back. 

Now the dance...we had a fun time getting it into the jig.  It was sorta like parallel parking an airplane. 

We stuck the tail in first as far as possible and then side-walked the fuselage into the jig.  It actually worked pretty good and saved a lot of time because the jig was already built and we didn't have to wait until after paint stripping to build it around the airplane. 

Ahhhh, got it in.  (sigh of relief)

There she sits...now we can start diving into some of the work. 

Carpenter...the master of the jig. 

Silver Bullet rebuild...Part 3

We have officially begun our third "Silver Bullet Rebuild" here at the AIM AIR hangar in Nairobi.  Since I got back from the States, we have done a few inspections and routine maintenance on the active planes, while also getting things ready for the Check 3 inspection and major airframe overhaul of the airplane shown below, 5Y-CMA.  It is a 1979 Cessna U206G, with a serial number that is just over 300 below N4790U.  It seems like those two planes are sisters...N827DG and N342EA are the other two that are close together.  

Anyhow, we have taken the wings off, the tail feathers off, and the engine off.  Actually, this past week, we took almost everything off of the fuselage, including the paint.  Right now, the bare aluminum fuselage sits in the airframe jig, where it will be mounted on Monday.  From there...the work begins!  

Keep your eyes open now, because the transformation is underway of 5Y-CMA from silver bullet to another beautiful product of the AIM AIR maintenance hangar!  

Welcome back...

...to AIM AIR.  Below is the link to my buddy's blog, where he wrote a wonderful account of one of his flights a week ago.  I was blessed to be a part of the whole situation on my second day back in the shop.  It was really exciting to see things falling into place and I hope that through his account and more like it, we can help to encourage the Wings of the Dawn project that AIM AIR has begun.

Hope you enjoy reading it here.

AIM AIR - Serving those who serve.