Wow...

...so I have really been slack about putting anything on my blog.  I'm sorry for that.  Things have really been busy, and I just haven't had a chance.  So here's some updates:

Our "silver bullets," N827DG and N4790U are finished.  7DG has about 50-something hours on it.  They are not yet allowed to fly in Kenyan airspace because they are US registered.  The paperwork should be coming through sometime this week for them to be allowed to operate here in the country.  In the meantime, they are looking beautiful at the hangar door all day.

We are still pressing on with our inspection of the C210, 5Y-BLG.  We have also begun working on a big inspection for 5Y-CMA, one of the C206s. 

The DC-3 is in for some extensive sheetmetal work, including a new airstair door. 

I will be leaving for the States the end of next week.  We have our home leave coming up and we are getting excited about heading home and seeing family and friends.  We will be sharing with some local churches about the ministry of AIM AIR/SP, so if you're interested, please send me an email and I can give you some more info. 

The blog will most likely rest for a couple months while I'm on home leave, unless I can find some cool aviation pictures during my travels.  Just be sure to check every now and then to see if I've updated.  Thanks again for all the interest you guys and gals have shown in this blog.  It really means a lot. 

Anyway, here's a couple pics for this week, and perhaps there will be some more before I go next week. 

This is Marko, a Rendille warrior who works with us here at AIM AIR. 

Jerry Hurd giving a tour of the hangar to some orphans.  Here he's explaining how the retractable gear works on the C210. 

This pic was taken today.  The DC-3 really takes up a lot of room in the hangar.  There's the C210 (BLG) in the front, and 5Y-CMA is just behind the tail of the C210. 

Moving on...

The two Project 206 airplanes are complete. Any day of the week, you can find them resting in the AIM AIR hangar here in Nairobi. We are patiently (or maybe not so...) waiting for permission to be granted by the local aviation authorities to fly them as US-registered aircraft in country. That would be such a blessing for that to happen.

Meanwhile, I have moved into the role of Piston Fleet Supervisor. This involves keeping track of our 5 Cessna 206s and a single Cessna 210. I am in charge of the maintenance on them and making sure that they are operating safely.

Currently we are finishing a large inspection on the Cessna 210, and will begin another large inspection on one of the Kenyan-registered Cessna 206s. Both of these are huge prayer requests, because we currently have only one Kenyan-registered Cessna 206 that is operational. One of the US-registered Cessna 206s is operating over in Entebbe.

Things are busy in the shop, and I will try to keep things updated on here, with some pictures when they come.

Hopefully, N827DG and N4790U will soon be operational here in Kenya.

AIM AIR - "Serving those who serve"

Ready to Fly

On Tuesday, 29 September, 2009, N4790U left the earth here in Nairobi, Kenya, and did not return for two solid hours. Reini and I were the only two aboard and we had a great flight as we did the engine break-in. We returned with very minimal discrepancies, mostly just items that needed a little bit of fine tuning. It was a beautiful sunny day with some clouds, and the air was just bumpy enough. However, unlike with 7DG's first flight, I didn't get sick this time!! Aha!

N4790U - 0
Nate - 1

HAHA! Anyway, it was a great flight, and I flew again this morning with John to do some flight maneuvers and check the stall warn horn after we installed a Horton STOL kit and Vortex Generators. We flew out over Karen and enjoyed our time together, reminiscing of the same type of flight we did last year with 7DG.

Below are some pictures of our crew in a circle of prayer about an hour before we did the test flight. Enjoy.

Reini and I with the airplane as we preflight it together.

N4790U video

10 months in 3 minutes from nate killoren on Vimeo.

First Run!!

This afternoon, we ran N4790U for the first time! It went great! It fired right up and sounded very smooth for having sat around in crates and on the airplane for about 2 years total without being run.

The video will be coming in the next couple days!

Keep your eyes peeled!

Blast from the Past

Here's some pictures of N4790U...before and after.

Final Preparations

This week we have been working hard to get N4790U finished so that we can do the first run of the new IO-550-N and then take it on its first flight here in Kenya. Things have been progressing well and we have taken care of some small items here and there that need to be fine tuned. We also took it to be weighed and will be doing the final fuel tests tomorrow. Here's some pics!


Jerry Hurd doing some final touches on the control yoke carry through cables.

Sitting in the doorway, almost ready.

Looking good.

That really is a nice looking engine.

Getting ready to go down to Phoenix Aviation to be weighed. We had to tow it down because we only put unusable fuel in it...just like the POH says.

On the scales at Phoenix. That's level flight attitude...how the airplane actually moves through the sky.

In the doorway at Phoenix. All the mechanics at Phoenix had to come over and inspect this sweet looking 206. AIM AIR was paid a good complement when one of the upper level engineers said that all of our airplanes always look so nice, that we always keep them well maintained.

On the way back to AIM AIR. Godfrey was our driver.