Things that help you fly...

 ...like flight controls!  We have installed the flight controls on 5Y-CMA and have succeeded through most of the rigging of those flight controls so far, still working on a couple systems.  It has been a busy month or so, forgive me for the lack of blogging.  We have been working hard on a variety of projects in the shop, and are really now getting to really push on CMA.  It's getting closer to being finished!  Please enjoy the photos...

 Sometimes it takes more hands to get something installed. 

 Which usually results in one person doing the work while others are watching!  From left to right: Joe (short term from LETU, John (attachee), and Tavasi. 

 Joe working on getting some hardware installed correctly.  Joe was only with us for about 10 days, but it was a pleasure to have him around. 

 Had to do some re-touches on paint...

 Where the plane sits now...in the back of the hangar...but not for long!

 Well, at least the flaps go up and down again! 

 Timothy working on getting things sorted out in the ceiling area. 

Timothy getting some input from Paul on flap rigging. 

DC-3 in Colombia

Check out this link below to a video about some DC-3 flying in Colombia, South America.  It has some great shots of DC-3s in the air and on the ground.

The Daredevil Pilots of Colombia

The latest on 5Y-CMA...

 ...sorry for the long overdue blog post.  Things have been a bit crazy around here in the hangar and just in Nairobi in general.  We have been working on all sorts of things, inspections here and inspections there.  We would get a couple days to work on CMA, then back to something else "more important."  I snapped a few pictures here and there as we worked, so I'm FINALLY being able to post some pictures of what we've been doing.  I will try to keep it going in the future!  I'm sure you, my loyal blog followers, have been wondering what the heck Nate's been doing to not update his blog!  Well, busy busy is the name of the game around here, so please forgive my negligence.  Please enjoy some progress below...

 This was a day sometime a week or so ago, where we had a lot of guys working on the airplane.  The guys at the tail were installing the abrasion boots on the horizontal stabilizer.  Pete's up there installing the cargo pod, and Aaron was working on engine wiring. 

 A shot from the front...

 Aaron doing some wiring for the JPI EDM-930 engine monitor.  Doesn't he just look thrilled. 

 Pete got the cargo pod all installed, which was great!  It is definitely a very visual sign of progress. 

 Lookin' good!  We're getting closer...

 ...and closer means that you have to put on stickers! 

 Aaron did a good job with the AIM Air logos on the tail. 

 Very nice. 

 The guys also reinstalled the wing tip fuel tanks.  They are simply the old ones repainted.  There was nothing that required us to get new ones, but they ended up looking new with that snazzy paint. 

 Marko likes hamming it up for the camera. 

 

 I've been slowly working on getting the new plastic interior installed whenever I get the chance.  It's been coming along pretty nicely. 

 The big panel down the co-pilot side.  The side plastics are courtesy of Vantage Plane Plastics. 

 How the inside looks today...the work is progressing...

Rest time...all the guys like to sit outside during lunch and discuss the latest topics.  For all your aviation junkies out there, there's a few items of interest in this picture.  First, see the two Delta Connection tails on the back left; those are a couple of CRJs that made there way over here, owned by FLY540.  Second, that Cessna 206 next to the blue F27 is from Ethiopia!  It is ET-ALF, operated by Abyssinian Flight Services.  I saw this plane when I was in Addis back in March. 

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. 

Aerocet 3400s on a Cessna 206

Below is a progress of the float installation for N341EA, the Samaritan's Purse floatplane.  It was a really fun installation.  As always with a new installation, there are some snags and stuff, which for us can be amplified since we are in Kenya.  This makes things difficult for support and also for getting parts in a timely manner.  Aside from that, we made things work as much as possible and got some really good progress.  Enjoy the pictures!

 The floats unpacked and ready for assembly.  

Getting the spreader bars ready to install.  

The "taka taka" - all the parts that come along for the install.  

Got 'em pointed the same direction and spreader bars ready to be installed.  

The water rudder.  This enables the aircraft to be steered while in the water.  

Tavasi getting the water rudder installed.  

Getting things in position.  The floats were "together" and the airplane was being prepped for hoisting.  

We have a really nice set of hoisting cables that we used.  Cessna recommends using cables at least 60 inches long, so the attach points are not damaged.  

Up in the air.  Time to get the land legs off!  

Sleek!  It almost looks like a 210!  

Tavasi looks happy with the installation of the ventral fin.  This is part of the floatplane modification.  

Up in the air!  I was on top manning the hoist, while Tavasi is measuring how high we are in the air.  We needed something like 72 inches from floor to belly to slip the floats underneath and allow some jiggle room.  

Seriously!  It looks like a 210 flying through the hangar!

Sliding the floats underneath...you can see we got a little higher than we needed. :)

Myself and Marko getting the front struts installed.  

Tavasi drove the hoist while we got all the struts semi-attached.  

View from the rear.  

Myself and Tavasi discussing the location of one of the cable pulleys.  Gotta love the ramen shirt!

Rear steps.  

Here's the emergency hydraulic hand pump (front) and the water rudder retract handle (the black thing closer to us), which are located on the floor between the front seats.  

The electric hydraulic pump assembly.  This is located on the left side of the rear fuselage, back in the tail cone.  You can see the empennage flight control cables on the left.  

Assembled.  You can see the crew steps mounted between the aft and mid struts.  Looks good!

Frontage!

So working on the engine is a little bit difficult on floatplanes, since it's so high up.  I found a nice long box that the ventral fin came in, and it worked really nice to work off of.  I was doing some work on the supercharger in this picture.  

Look closely in this picture...what do you see?  The gear is retracted!  This was my first retraction test...and it worked great!  I worked through the gear retractions a few times, trying to work out any bugs.  We only had a few small leaks, but everything worked great!  Praise the Lord!

Last shot of the day...