Wings off, wings on!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gu2lOc_4H-E

King Air B200, N468SP

 We greeted our newest member of the fleet at the end of March.  Actually, it arrived in Nairobi the same day that we arrived back in Nairobi after being in Addis Ababa.  It is a King Air B200, with the registration of N468SP.  We de-registered the other King Air and gave this one the same name.  It's a 1998 model, like 15 or more years newer than the other one.  So far it looks pretty good.  There are a few differences from the other one, but it's still a hot rod machine!  

 Where she sits in the hangar these days while getting some final things worked out before going active.  

 This one has a different cargo door arrangement.  The little door in the back is a modification done to the normal airstair door.  It's a bit different, but should meet the needs out here in Kenya. 

Note some differences: different exhaust stacks, different paint on the cowlings, different landing gear doors.  I'm sure there are more, but those are some of the obvious ones.  It looks good anyway! 

Floatplane!

 Wow, sorry about the hiatus from my blog.  We had family here a couple weeks ago and then we went up to Addis Ababa for part of our adoption process.  If you're interested in that, please see my wife's blog here.  While I was gone from work, the guys completed the installation of the floats onto N341EA and it actually had gone down to Lake Victoria, near Mwanza, TZ for some of the pilots to do some training.  It came back just this past Sunday night for a few days, so we had it in the hangar to fix a few things before it departed again for the lake and some more training.  And for those of you wondering, it flew GREAT down on the lake!  The guys were very impressed and we have seen wonderful performance from this airplane.  It's just another reminder that God is leading along in our journey and while sometimes we are unsure of life's outcomes, He is in total control. 

  Sitting in the front of the hangar while we were working on it. 

 I showed the line maintenance guys how to get the water out of the floats.  James was surprised to see so much water coming out! 

 Any ideas who this is?  Ha!  It's Peter Williams, working on the depth finder down inside the float.  The depth finder allows the pilot to "see" what's down in the water so they can avoid hitting things they can't see, just like when boating. 

 Lookin' good outside the hangar.