New floor in U206G, 5Y-CMA

I have been working on installing the floor back into CMA the past few days.  We replaced the old floor with all new skins, bumping them from .032" thickness to .040".  We also put some more stiffeners under the floor on the ribs to help with the often heavy items that pilots put into the airplanes.  You don't necessarily think much about it until you see a guy put 2 or 3 200liter fuel drums FULL into the back of the airplane.  THEN you understand why we beef up the aircraft the way we do.  It's been fairly slow going because it just takes time to shoot a lot of the rivets that are hidden down behind/under/around a stringer where the hole is just barely big enough for my hand to fit through, much less try to balance a bucking bar with my fingertips.  There's been a lot of yelling and many frustrated words have been directed at the airplane, but it's coming along slowly.  I'm also dealing with re-installing a gearbox mod that allows for easier removal of the outboard gear castings in the event that they get cracked.  Below are some pictures of my progress. 

This is about halfway done, maybe.  You can sort of see the outlines where I traced the Brownline seat tracks.  All the stringer rivets that pass under the seat tracks, I made flush so they wouldn't interfere with the tracks.  The same goes for the cargo door sill area (lower right portion), as we install a stainless sill cover to help protect the door sill from damage. 

All the pink circles are where a rivet needs to be flush so that it won't interfere with something else.  The rectangular patch with the inspection hole in it is the gearbox mod. 

This is what it looks like at the beginning.  Some notches were cut in the main bulkheads where the casting can be removed.  To provide the reinforcing strength, some angle pieces are re-installed. 

You can see how it is removed.  Just unbutton the casting and slide it over, pull it up through the notches, and there ya have it...or something like that. :D

So here's the reinforcements installed. 

And the final product with the cover installed.  It really was tough to put all together because the reinforcements are held to the top panel here with rivets and are held to the main gear bulkheads with screws.  It's a bit of a chore...but supposedly is easier than unbuttoning half the floor to pull the casting out that way.  I guess we'll see...with time...

So here I am working on getting the rivets into the gear casting mod.  This was still early in the morning, so no hard feelings had occurred yet. :D

Bangin' some rivets.  I've been using my new Sioux 3X rivet gun that I bought from Brown Tool.  It's pretty nice!  I like it pretty well so far.  Thanks, Jeremy, for the encouragement to get it! 

Personnel...and floor skins...

Things have slowed down a little bit here in the shop this week.  It's a bit nice, because there isn't a HUGE rush to get something done RIGHT NOW.  We flew the 210, 5Y-BLG, on Wednesday, and the test flight went great!  We're just taking care of a few squawks and waiting for word regarding the paperwork at KCAA, and hopefully she'll be on the flight line before too long.  We have also moved back towards CMA, the 206 project and are just about to put in the new floor skins.  We're waiting on some parts and an engine, and she will be coming along really nicely!  Enjoy some pictures below of folks around the hangar and some work on CMA. 

Darvid Marwa, our avionics technician.

Alyssa Roffler (ST from Moody) diligently studying the Cessna 206 parts manual.

Justin Drafts (ST)...doing...something.  :D

Rob Wiens (ST) doing some much needed welding on our work stands.

Smile for the camera, Rob!

Justin and John Holtz doing the happy dance on CMA's old floor skins.  Glad to get rid of them!

New skins, freshly primed, ready to get installed.

Doing some final cleaning to the floor area before installing the floor skins. 

Time to go...

As I've mentioned previously on the blog, we are finishing up the major inspection on 5Y-BLG, our Cessna 210M.  We have been doing a lot of the final checks in the past week and today we are hoping to do the test flight if all goes well.  It is an exciting time, because BLG hasn't been on the flight line for over a year and a half, and we're ready for it to be flying again.  The pilots are excited about getting it back in the air as well. 
Here's some pictures of the final work being done with it.

Tim Carpenter (top) and Nicholas Pool (ST from LETU) were getting a fuel sending unit re-installed after resealing it due to a small leak. 

Somebody's been workin' out. 

Here she is at the door, getting fuel back into the wings to test the new sealant. 

This is actually where the airplane sits at this very moment, at the door, all ready for the test flight. It will be exciting to see it flying again.   

Leading Edge Repair, Cessna 206

So the last few weeks have been pretty busy here in the hangar.  I've been heavily involved in two Cessna 208B Grand Caravan inspections as well as keeping an eye over the progress of the leading edge repair on the Cessna 206 and keeping the ball rolling on finishing 5Y-BLG, the Cessna 210.  This post is about the leading edge repair on the 206. 

A couple of the guys got the Cessna leading edge and the Horton leading edge cuff installed, as well as the Vortex Generators.  They did a pretty good job.

The next thing to do was to prep for painting it all.

Andrew Roberts (R, no relation to me) and John Holtz (L) doing the painting on the leading edge. It turned out pretty good. 

What an action picture!  My camera has goofy moments and this was one of them.  Andrew (R) looks like he's moving his hand really fast with the paint gun. 

Ahhh, the new registration number!  I'm sure you all have been waiting patiently for this one.  This is ex-N4790U.  It was sort of a bittersweet moment, because the airplane had retained that registration since it was delivered to the customer in 1979.  That's 31 years of the same number.

Here she is sitting just outside the hangar, looking good in the sunshine cloudy overcast Kenyan morning.  We're waiting for some paperwork to go through the right channels, then we'll be doing a test flight and hopefully then she can be back on the flight line!