Fallen behind...

...on posts, that is. I haven't posted in a while; I'm sorry. Things have been a little crazy around the hangar and home...can you blame it? We live in Nairobi after all. Oh, well.

Things have been going well. We've done a lot of work (including some "two steps forward, one step back" work) and are moving forward slowly but surely. I hope you enjoy the pictures of the progress.

Don't hesitate to leave comments or become a follower. Especially those who regularly visit the blog. Thanks.



Nate Killoren doing some riveting on an aileron.

This is how you look when you're bucking a rivet with your fingertips. Ouch!

Nate working on a flap, replacing some damaged skin.

David Marwa has done an awesome job getting the engine wired up as soon as it was installed. If he worked any faster, the engine would have been running before it was installed on the airplane.

The look. Nate and his flap.

Our new helper on the project, Paul, working on getting the fiberglass tips off the horizontal stabilizer.

Nate had to go and "hangar drive" the DC-3 for a little bit the other day, so I couldn't resist the picture.

Nate and John Mosby (AA Chief Engineer, on left) trying to figure out a stretcher.

And then here's me, trying to figure out what they were trying to figure out in the picture above.

I think David and Kituo were doing some sort of African Traditional dance...

I was deep in thought about cowl flaps. Apparently so deep in thought that I didn't notice Jerry Hurd about to drill a hole in my head.

Jerry and Paul installing the vortex generators on the horizontal stabilizer.

Painting some control surfaces. Left to right is Paul, Adamson, and Joseph. Looks like snow...

Adamson, the "Chief," one of the best painters at AIM AIR.

I caught Jerry with his arm stuck in the wing...I think he was hoping I wouldn't notice.

Here I am, putting the V-brace in.

Caught!

Non aviation...

Well, I'm going to put this here anyway. My wife is giving away some Nariobi Java House coffee and some Kenyan chocolates on our family website. If you're interested, visit the site here.

Make sure you read the rules of the giveaway.

Thanks...

Nathan

An engine, some sheetmetal, and an avionics guy in the tail.

Well, we're halfway through our short week this week and have gotten a lot done. I finished getting the engine installed on the airplane and have been working on getting the induction system installed...next are engine control cables and lubrication hoses. I've also been working on getting the engine cowls cleaned and ready to paint as well as the mod to move the oil check door. I used my angle die grinder for about an hour solid yesterday and my whole arm hurts today...maybe I should space that cleaning out a little bit...

Nate's been working on swapping the left hand elevator trailing edge due to corrosion in the foam. He's going back on with it today.

Waldo and Steve from Radio Base have stepped in while David's on leave and have been doing some good work throughout the fuselage.

It's been a good week and hopefully we'll be able to get a lot more done, even with just two days left.

Check out some pictures...


The tuned induction IO-550-N. Just neat looking, huh?

Frontage.

How about that exhaust?! What a sweet looking setup. So many swirly things all over this engine.

Nate K. working on taking the trailing edge off the elevator...

...and working to get the new one installed.

Who is that? Is that Waldo back in the tail?

Well, it sure is! Waldo's been working on getting some of the navigational/radio equipment installed in the tail.

Test fit of the cowlings. You have to modify the removable cowl on the left side by moving the oil check door to the rear to accomodate the new position of the oil dipstick on the new IO-550-N. You also have to modify the front nose bowls to clear the air filter and alternator.

More frontage. It's pretty snug in there.

Time for an engine!

So this past week was a short one due to Good Friday holiday; this week is short also, owing to Easter Monday. Last week I got the engine out of the crate and built it up according to the Atlantic Aero STC. This STC allows us to put this TCM IO-550-N on our Cessna U206Gs. It really is a fantastic modification, because it allows like 25 more horsepower coming from a much better designed engine. There are reports that on N827DG, we are already burning like 1-2 gallons per hour less than the older IO-520 engines on the rest of the fleet. That fact alone is wonderful news to AIM AIR.
Anyway, I got the engine baffles installed as well as the dry air pump, the prop governor, some drain lines, the CHT and Oil Temp probes, and some other brackets. I got everything ready and later in the afternoon, we started to get the engine ready to install on the airplane. We didn't get very far, as it was getting later and later and we kept having to fight it more and more. You know, six bolts are harder to align than four...
We kept working until we all had run out of energy and had no success. Upon some advice from someone, we decided to let the engine rest for the weekend and perhaps it would settle down into place (we were sitting too high on the isolator mounts). We'll see tomorrow morning.
Here's some pictures of the engine getting ready to go into the airplane. I'm sorry that I don't have many pictures and these aren't the best. My camera screen is broken, so I'm sorta just shooting blind and see how they turn out.


Here's the TCM IO-550-N ready with new baffles, new prop gov'r, etc. Check out that Leading Edge Exhaust System. Cool, huh?!

AIM AIR's Chief Inspector Jim Levander with the new engine ready to go in.

Our new guy, Jerry Hurd, giving it all he has to get some bolts lined up.

Now here's a couple personnel pictures of the people here at AIM AIR. I figured this would help put some faces to some names and stories about our crew here.

Faith - She works in stores and helps us out where she can on the maintenance crew.

David M. - Our Radio Base technician. He's a hard worker and great fun to talk with. This picture is of him tying his shoes...creative.

Pilots in onesies and airplanes on the move...

We've had a lot of maintenance this week. All three Caravans are in and the DC-3 has been in for weeks. Also, a good portion of the 206s are around, too. So the solution to lots of maintenance and not many workers is to recruit some of the pilots to come down and give a hand in the hangar. It was fun to watch, but kudos to the ones who really worked hard.



Amanda Kleist with Jose Reyes, learning about Caravan nose wheels.

And again...

AIM AIR chief pilot John McNeely working on 5Y-XPA.

Jay Mundy working on a first aid kit for the Caravan.

New AIM AIR pilot, Jerry Hurd also working on XPA...he didn't have a onesie on, but I wanted to have him in here, too.

They decided that the DC-3 was ready to move outside this afternoon.

Doesn't really look like its going to get out, huh?

Stuck in the doorway...

And check it out!! She's on the ground! N4790U finally sitting on its own three legs.

Our project space back again with no big airplane sticking its tail in our work.

On the ground again...it's been a long time.

On again, off again

Well, we've been working hard at getting some good visual progress on N4790U. There is a lot that happens sort of "behind the scenes" that you just don't see until something big gets installed or something like that. Nate K has been working hard to get the landing gear installed, but not at the expense of forgetting something or not doing it right. He's just meticulous in his work ethic, which is always a good thing when you're going back together with a project like this. He did finally get the gear on this week, without too many hitches along the way. I finished the LH wing tip fuel tank installation, stall fence installation, and vortex generator installation. I moved on to the RH wing to do those three things and came across a lot of corrosion in the wing tip and aileron trailing edge area, so I'm going to be replacing some pieces of skin. Liz has been doing all sorts of things...sometimes I feel bad for giving her jobs to do that just feel meaningless. However meaningless they feel, though, they are still important to the job and thus for the ministry of AIM AIR. She did have hiccup in her work, though, when the pressure washer broke and she had to figure out how to fix it. We've all moved off of the project, though, with Nate K and Liz working on a Check 2 inspection on 5Y-SIL, the U206G from Loki. N827DG came back from Uganda yesterday with a few minor squawks, so I've been working on those today. Praise the Lord it's nothing big, and the airplane has been doing lots of good, hard work over in Uganda and the Congo with Ron Pontier as the pilot.

Anyways, here's some pictures of the week so far...



Nate K with a gear leg in place! As of today, it has all three legs and sneakers to run in...

A stall fence installed. Notice the lack of work space...

Stall fence.

Liz, resident pressure washer mechanic...just goes to show that as a missionary aviator, you never know what you'll be called to fix. She's done a great job here at AIM AIR.

Vortex generators installed.

Liz posing with the VGs she helped me install.

Something old, something new...

Well, this week we got some good things accomplished, but also didn't get as much done as we were hoping. Isn't that always the case, though?! Nate K. got the nose gear installed, even after running into some holdup just about everyday. Liz did some good cleaning of part and got the new tie down installed in the tail with its specially fabricated doubler. Nice job, Liz. I spent the week learning how to install the Flint wing tip fuel tanks and the associated pumps, plumbing, etc. If you remember back to N827DG, Caleb and Brandon did those; well, Caleb is in Sudan for who knows how long and Brandon is back living in the States. So, I'm doing it this time around, although I didn't get any pictures of that...maybe next week. Anyways, we're working hard and trying to keep moving forward. We're hoping this next week to finish installation of the main landing gear, the wing tip tanks, and to begin starting get the wings and the flight controls ready for paint.

We'll see how it goes...in the mean time, here's some pictures.



Nate K. getting the nose gear ready to install. This plane was being used in Florida as basically a corporate taxi (carried the boss men of a company). It had the standard Cessna nose gear which includes a standard nose fork and wheel assembly. At AIM AIR, we remove those and install a heavy duty nose fork and a bigger, stronger wheel assembly. This is due to the nature of our flying into very unimproved airstrips.

Here's Ryan Williams (left) hoisting the nose gear into position while Nate K. (right, the tan pant legs) is installing the bolts to hold it in place.

And here it is, a newly installed nose gear assembly, minus the wheel assembly. Notice the nice big access panel made possible through MAF's engineering department.

Ryan giving some instruction to Liz on how to install the new tail tie down. They both went to LeTourneau University in Texas. Pray for Liz as she finishes her ministry here at AIM AIR in the next few weeks and heads back to the States and eventually Alaska, where she wants to pursue a pilot career. I think we might have scared the mechanic out of her. :-)

And here I am helping Liz rivet the doubler in place. Actually, there's the tie down sitting on top of the tail.