Weekender, Part 2

So here are some pictures continuing on where I left off with my last post.  These are all taken within the DRC.  Hope you enjoy.

In the Caravan on our way out of where we fixed the other airplane.  Climbing out with the trees coming quickly gives you a little burst of excitement.

A view of the beautiful countryside of DRC.

We spotted this little airstrip in some sort of national park or something.  It was full of water, and we were going through the light rain anyways.

I thought this little river was neat, snaking its way along.

We spotted some hippos playing down in this portion of river, not far from a village.

Can you spot the airstrip?  We were dropping an SP colleague at a village where he is based.  

We didn't even shut down...we turned, dropped him off, and off we went again.  This was the view as we were getting ready to depart.  These three little guys were like guards on the runway.

Climbing out over the village.

I spotted this "sprawling" Congolese town on the way to another village.  Pretty neat to see from the air.

Heading into another airstrip in eastern DRC to pick up some passengers.

The village below as we were descending to land.  Very cool!

We got our passengers and their cargo, fueled, and we were on our way again.  The guy in the forefront of the picture was so proud to be standing in front of the airplane getting his picture taken.  It was neat.

The runway.  It was "huge" compared to most.

The small little "FBO" at that airport.  Nothing fancy, but the traffic controller was certainly proud of his post.

Some more beautiful Congolese countryside.

The second captain of the day, Reini Schmidt.  Reini was getting some good DRC/Uganda checkouts that day from Linnie Weeks (in the right seat in this picture).  It was a good day.

Mountains in the background.

Heading into our last stop in DRC.

A friend in the middle of nowhere...a MAF Caravan.  This is a short Caravan, not the C208Bs that AIM AIR operates.  Note that it doesn't have the radome on the RH wing.  It's actually S/N 10...that's pretty early!  

Make that a pair of friends!  I can never resist taking a picture of another Cessna 206 used for mission aviation.  This is a MAF 206.  It is a later model 206, as I spotted the larger oil check door on the engine cowling.  After some research, I found that it is S/N 6373, which is less than 100 from N827DG.  Cool!  I heard that it has the Bonaire IO-550 engine conversion and it also has a McCauley prop.  I did also spot a little mirror hanging down from the RH wing, just inboard of the wing strut.  Interesting, what's that for?

Another picture of the Basler converted turbine DC-3 that was in the earlier post.  It was just a neat looking aircraft.  You can see the structural beef-up on the side of the fuselage under the co-pilot windows.  Wow.

There were a couple of the UN helicopters parked down the side of the runway.  This one is sporting the Bangeladeshi flag on the side.  

Weekender, Part 1

So as I mentioned in the previous post, I had quite a busy weekend.  There was a situation that arose in DRC which required some maintenance expertise to be involved and I was the one chosen for the task.  So Friday night, me and a couple of our pilots flew from Nairobi to Entebbe, Uganda, which is where AIM AIR has an "outpost base" or whatever you want to call it.  Saturday early morning we departed for our destination, where I utilized my skills the Lord has blessed me with to resolve the situation.  The "rescued" plane made it safely back to base and our crew continued on with a couple other scheduled stops in DRC before heading back to Entebbe for the night.  Then, a pilot and I stayed until our commercial flight departed back to Nairobi Sunday night.  It was great to worship with believers in Entebbe and then be able to see the town a little bit and also fellowship with one of our pilots and his wife.  It was a neat trip and has opened my eyes to the "other side" of AIM AIR.  Below are some pictures of the trip on Saturday; I will be cutting the pictures in two groups because of the number of pictures...I think we took over 500 photos total on the trip.  Enjoy!

This is the view from the Caravan departing Entebbe to the south over Lake Victoria.

This little village was just the right side of the end of the runway.  Notice the big church right on the shore in the left side of the picture.  It was beautiful.  

Beautiful sunrise over the water.  

Welcome to the DRC...the terrain was amazing.  

Coming into DRC on our first stop to clear customs/immigration.

The first stop airport.  There are tons of UN aircraft all over the place.  That's also a MAF Caravan parked just to the right of the building pointing towards us.  

We caught some pictures of this Basler turbine DC-3.  He landed and parked right over next to us.  It's a pretty neat looking aircraft, used for geological surveys and such.  

Here's our destination airstrip.  You can see the airplane sitting at the end of the strip, which was actually more of a road than anything else. 

The small village that was located just at the end of the airstrip.  

Taxying up after landing.  

This was the scene for about 3.5 hours while we were on the ground.  

They roped off the area and all the villagers came out to watch.  It was neat.  Every now and then I would spot a soldier in the bushes with an automatic rifle, watching what was going on.  

Talking on the sat phone with the bosses.  Don't I look important?! Haha!

The airstrip.  Thought this was a pretty neat picture.  

Looking down at the two airplanes and the villagers beyond.  We were pretty much...in the bush.  

A group of the local men praying for the safe flights of the aircraft as we were getting ready to depart.  I was so busy with the aircraft, I didn't even see this happening, so it was cool to see the picture afterwards.  

...And there she goes, heading down the runway/road.

Off and climbing fine.  Success!

Weekend Trip

So as you look at the photos below, you may wonder how or why I am standing next to probably one of the largest helicopters in the world.  Well, its sort of a long story, but the short story is that I spent the day Saturday getting to, working in, and departing from the DRC (west of Uganda), while Sunday was spent in Entebbe fellowshipping with friends while waiting for a departure flight back to Nairobi.  These two pictures are at the Entebbe airport just outside of the AirServ hangar, where AIM AIR has its Uganda program base.  There will be more pics and story to come, but for now...I just thought these would do to peak your curiosity...

Belly skins...

We've been working this past week or so on getting the belly skins ready to install on 5Y-CMA while also doing an inspection on 5Y-SIL, another Cessna 206 in the fleet.  As of now, the skins are ready to be riveted in place.  Below are some pictures of the work. 

Every now and then, we get some students passing through the hangar on a field trip.  Today, they posed for a picture with CMA. 

Jeremy (below the plane) and I riveting the first belly skin back into CMA. 

By the look on my face, that must've been one flat rivet...please pass the syrup!

...if you didn't get the joke about the syrup...flat rivets are called "pancakes."

The Prophet.  We laughed so much about so many people calling Jeremy, "Moses" or "Abraham" or something else.  It was so funny.

Making sure all the holes line up and are the correct size.  I have some crazy eyes look...

So this is pretty much how the airplane looks now (except without Jeremy underneath) with the skins all cleco'd in place and ready for rivets. 

Jeremy (bottom) and Tim Carpenter were match drilling all the holes in the skins as we did the "test fit."  We put all the skins on, match drilled holes, then removed the skins and cleaned and prepped the metal.  Then we installed them for the final fit.  Now...we rivet!!