The 207 finally takes to the skies!

Today has been an exciting day in the hangar. After 7 months of hard work, the Gabon 207 was finally able to make it’s return to service flight! Steve Straw ( http://gabonpilot.blogspot.com/ ) arrived back in the States the day before we left for Glasgow, and I thought that by the time we got back to Ohio, he would have completed the RTS flight, packed up, and headed off back to Gabon. A couple of hiccups with parts not doing what they were meant to do after such a long time out of service, meant that the re-commissioning of all the systems couldn’t go past the ground runs while we were back in Scotland. But the delays that came about from waiting for new parts to arrive gave another opportunity to improve the plane for the work it will be doing in Gabon.

The air traffic control network in Gabon is not as developed as it is here in the States, so the distance between people that can hear you on the radio is much greater. To make for a safer operation, and to open up more opportunities and resources from other people on the ground, a radio system with a greater range was needed. The radios that are installed on most light aircraft are VHF radio, and have a limited range because of the frequency they transmit on. HF radios use a longer wavelength, which gives them a much greater range.









When it comes to aircraft, you can’t just kit your plane out with “go-faster” spoilers and alloy wheels. Every modification that changes a plane from the way it was when it rolled off the production line, needs to be approved by the FAA. The application for the HF radio upgrade went in quite some time ago, but these things take time. Returning the plane to service was more urgent than waiting for this approval to come through, so the plans looked like they might have to be shelved. A little delay in getting off the ground was just enough time for the FAA approval to go through at the 11th hour, so Steve will now be able to return to Gabon with an aircraft that is much better equipped for the work it is meant for.

Having spent so much time working on this plane over the year, it was a bit sad to see it fly off, but knowing it will be back at work in Africa soon is a good compensation… and it free’s up quite a bit of hangar space for the next project… I wonder what that will be???

Off into the next chapter...

The video!

I have just realised that those of you who receive our blog by email probably won't be able to see the video I posted last night.

If you can't see the clip, follow the link below and that should get you to it!

Thanks for checking in!

http://youtu.be/uuF_1BITgK8

When Heather posted our last blog and said that it would be the last one for a while, a bit of me thought that I might get a chance to blog again from Scotland while we were home… I should’ve known that we would be so busy we would have no chance of writing blog posts!

We had a great trip back over to Scotland for the best part of October – we flew into Glasgow on 13th October, then spent the next fortnight driving about 850 miles, with another 800ish on the sleeper train. We slept in 5 different homes (and the sleeper train!), shared at three Sunday morning services, one midweek meeting, and held a Saturday morning presentation and lunch in a coffee shop. We got ourselves up to date with the dentist’s and the optician’s. We got our fix of Scottish food and enjoyed a bit of Chinese and Indian foods as well!
We were also able to catch up with lots of our friends and family, which was incredibly encouraging for us. Thank you all!! It was a real shame that we just didn’t have enough time to catch up with everyone we wanted to – if we didn’t make it round to you we are sorry.
The main reason for being back this year was to renew our visas. We are here on a vocational student’s visa, with a one year validity period, so every autumn will see a trip back to the UK. The visa interview went without problems, and despite my not being able to follow the instructions on photo’s for the kids visa applications, our visa’s were renewed and we were able to return home to Ohio as planned! After finishing at the American embassy around lunchtime, we had lots of time for a bit of sightseeing in London before our train back north.

Big Ben!!

Our trip back home didn’t go quite to plan. When we arrived to check in at Glasgow airport, we were told that our connection to Columbus had already been cancelled. They managed to book us on a later flight on Saturday night, and off we went to New York. By the time we arrived in Newark, the East coast was caught in the teeth of the first winter storm of the season – a whole 1.3” of slushy snow had fallen, and the airport had ground to a halt! After finding out about our 2nd cancellation of the day, we were able to rebook to fly to Columbus on Sunday morning. We were fortunate enough to find a hotel room to stay in for the night, and all four of us had a great night’s sleep! It probably worked out for the best, as the only option we really had was to go to sleep at 7:30pm – had we been able to get home on Saturday, we would have likely been up too late unpacking, and Sunday would have been spent like Zombies!
Monday morning had us all getting back to normal, with Heather and Matthew running errands around the town, Abi back at school catching up with her friends, and me back in the hangar. It was good to be back at work, and getting my hands dirty again.

While we have been away, the Gabon 207 had a few teething problems as it was being prepared for its Return to service flight, and the FAA gave an 11th hour approval for an HF radio installation which has been pending for a while. The problems have all been straightened out now, and Mike, Phil and Jim are busy working on the radio system. Hopefully it will be back on it’s way to Africa soon, although from a purely selfish point of view, I am glad I will be around to see it’s first flight since arriving in Ohio, having spent so much of this year working on it!

The Gospel Carrier Internation Cessna 172 I am currently working on, in front of the Gabon 207.

This week, I have been helping on an annual inspection on GCI's cessna 172. Yesterday we were overhauling the nose landing gear strut, and today we removed one of the main landing gear wheels for inspection, and to clean and re-grease the bearing.

When we were back in Scotland it was good to be able to show a short video clip of the work I am involved in here in Ohio. Just in case you didn’t see the clip while we were in the UK, here it is!