N4790U work...moving ahead and moving back.

I'm sorry about the lack of pictures and info for the past couple weeks or so. My parents and sister are back to the States, so now I'm back to work. They had a great time and are looking forward to their visit back to Kenya.

Anyway, we've done a lot of work in the past couple weeks and we've also had more work generated for us unintentionally. Besides the normal progress, we found a couple cracks in the nose access tunnel which required some repairs. Also, one of the wings was damaged when some of the guys in the shop tried to move it. The wing was dropped on its tip and a very large crack (more like a gash) was the result. Oh, well. Nothing we can't fix.

We're hoping to have the gear all installed by the end of the week and I'm going to get going on the wing tip fuel tanks once I finish the repair to the tip. David Marwa of Radio Base has been doing awesome getting the airframe wiring installed. Liz...well, she's hating work these days because she's doing paint stripping. Sorry, Liz. Someone's gotta do it. :)

So here's some pictures of the last few days/weeks.


New Monarch fuel caps installed.

Here's the nice crack/gash/wound in the tip of the left wing. Luckily it didn't damage the Horton leading edge cuff.

David Marwa measuring for some wire lengths.

The instrument panel looking good. Already have circuit breakers and engine controls in. Nice!

Looks like a bunch of spaghetti coming out the front. That's good, though!

This is David's temporary office space...right next to the plane.

Freshly assembled and painted landing gear waiting for installation.

Liz doing her paint stripping work.

Wait, haven't we seen this picture before? If you look back in the archives, you'll find a similar picture of N827DG with Josh crammed into the nose tunnel.


Nate Killoren doing the repair on the cracks in the nose tunnel. I figured this was a good advert for SIM. Praise the Lord for mission organizations that can successfully work together.

This past week...

Here's a few pictures from this past week of work on N4790U. We have been slowly moved back to the project, so we're trying to get as much work done before we get yanked for something else again. The main push has been to get interior structure work done so that Radio Base can send David down to do his awesome work on avionics wiring and things of that nature. He finally was able to start doing some of that this week, and we've moved to some other things, like landing gear and wings.

Anyway, I'm going to be gone for about a week while my parents and sister are here, so Nate K. and Liz will be working on the project and then hopefully some of the other guys in the shop can help, too. Caleb is up north for a few weeks vacation (who else do you know who takes vacation there?!?). Pray that they can get a lot accomplished and that my vacation time with my family is good.

Here's the pictures!!

Nate 1 and Nate 2 sportin' the onesies.

Wearing new coveralls to do paint prep work.

Liz prepping a main gear leg for paint.

Hey, it's not chai time!! Back to work!

Stamping out the holes in the instrument panel...if you look back into the archives, you'll find a very similar picture when we were doing 7DG...except it was with Brandon Waggoner.

Contemplating the new additions to the panel...new engine control cables...what next?!

Project what?

Sorry I haven't posted any pictures of N4790U. There has been a lot of maintenance going on in the hangar, so we haven't been working on the project. Nate Killoren has been doing an annual inspection on N342EA, Caleb has been helping with fleet maintenance and doing magneto overhauls (don't feel sorry for him), and I've been working on N208EA helping with the Phase 9 inspection. All the Kenyan guys are also helping with all those, so 90U is sitting in the corner looking lonely. Sigh...

On a side note related to fleet maintenance, we had a Cessna 208B lose half of a power turbine wheel blade the other day on climbout. Luckily, it only nicked 5 other blades on the way out of the exhaust. The pilot was able to safely bring the plane back to Wilson Airport and AIM AIR. Praise the Lord for safety!!

I will update as soon as I'm back on the project. I have a few pictures I might get online soon.

Nate

Funny airplane video

This is a funny video that includes some funny airplane stuff. All in all, it's just pretty much funny.

N4790U happenings.

So...works been happening on 90U, but not as much as I had hoped. I guess the DC-3 does take a little more priority in most peoples' eyes. In fact, this week I was yanked to go help with the Dak, and Caleb and Liz were taken for piston fleet maintenance. So, Nate K. is the remaining one still working on 90U. He's been cleaning and painting the instrument subpanel getting ready for Radio Base...

Progress!! But still more to come, of course.

Liz and Nate K discussing the fabrication of the nose gear tunnel access panel. It turned out good. Great job, Liz!

Hey, it's supposed to be white, not green!

Nate K. cleaning and preparing the forward cabin interior for some primer and paint. Notice the ear plugs...he's tired of hearing about piki pikis.

Wow...pretty gray instrument subpanel and center console.

Here's the newly painted instrument subpanel and console. The light gray is primer; those areas will be covered with the plastic interior panels.

Here's Liz's Flint wingtip fuel tanks gauge panel that she fabricated and installed. It will be powder coated gray to match the rest of the subpanel, center console, etc. Third time's the charm, Liz!! Nice job.


AAARRGGGHHHH! Why is it so hard to find parts that I need sometimes!! It sure doesn't help that we're halfway around the world from Wichita, either. Thanks to the Cessna reps who have answered back so quickly in my quest to find non-part numbered parts. You guys ROCK!!

Overdue update on N4790U...

Wow, so it's been awhile since I've actually put a post on the blog that actually concerned one of the silver bullets. Sorry about that. Things have been crazy and I just haven't done it. Anyway, here's some new pictures of N4790U. We are currently trapped in the back of the hangar behind the DC-3, so we're making the best of our tight spot and getting work done inside the fueselage so we can be ready for Radio Base to come install their wire bundles.


Joseph Tavasi, making some of the stainless steel cargo tie down doublers/brackets.

Here she is...without any legs.

Here's our current position, tucked in by the tail of the DC-3.

Nate Killoren working on the Radio Rax installation.

Caleb (L) and Liz (R) working on getting some of the radio mounting brackets fabricated and fitted.

This was an interesting picture. I took it through one of the holes in the firewall, looking into the backside of the copilot instrument panel. Sort of weird...

Gotta see it to believe it...

So the DC-3 is in for some major maintenance. It's getting main gear replaced and new flaps. The problem was that it needs to be in the hangar to have that sort of work done. So they plan to put it in the hangar. They took off the wingtips (which are like 5 feet long) and maneuvered the thing into the hangar. It's amazing. Here's the pictures.


Starting towards the hangar...doesn't that door look a little small?

Oops, that's a little close, isn't it? This picture was taken to the background music of Ryan Williams yelling, "Push harder, it'll fit!!"

This was a neat picture. My camera LCD screen is broken, so I can't see the pictures that I'm taking; just have to guess and shoot. Anyway, somehow it got switched over to the panoramic view without me knowing it, so this is the result.

Hmmm, what now?

This is the view from the corner offices. Looks a little big, huh?

This is where I left it last night.

And this is where it is today. Wow. They actually did it. First time it's been in the hangar without the wings being taken off.

Gotta see it to believe it...