Cool missionary aviation video...

This is a neat video I found on the UIM Aviation website...some of my old colleagues are there working with UIM in Tucson.


United Indian Mission Aviation - STOL Flight Demo from IAMA on Vimeo.

A new airplane...

...to me, anyway.  We had to run over to the SP hangar to pick up some paperwork and I got to see our Kodiak.  It's definitely an interesting airplane.  John and Mike were there working on it with a guy from Quest.  I had the chance to give it a once over look and chat with the guys.

It sure isn't a C206 with a 550 in it, but I guess it will get the job done.   Hahhahahahaa....

The C210...

So for the last however many months, we have been tinkering away at the Check III due on our C210M, 5Y-BLG.  We've recently been doing some landing gear work, so it's been up and down on the jacks, with some gear retractions going on.  It's such a funny looking project, I thought I would take some pictures of it up in the air. 

Here it is at about 17 inches up in the air...the minimum amount required for the gear to be retracted safely. 

Side shot. 

Side shot...no legs.  It looked like it was going to fly down into the floor.  Definitely weird...

Front shot...no legs.  Lotta space under there. 


I am officially not working in the shop anymore.  We are departing Nairobi tomorrow night, so we are feverishly packing and trying to make sure that all things are in order before we leave.  It has been a great time here at AIM AIR and I look forward to coming back in January.  But now we're looking forward to some good home time with family and friends back in the States.  I will update the blog as I see fit...and when I come across some cool airplanes.  

See ya'll!!!!

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.