Not quite retired....

Although we work with MAF, while I am training at MMS I spend most of my time working on aircraft that serve with other organisations. For the last wee while though, we have had an MAF plane in the hangar, and I’ve enjoyed working with Chuck and Phil on this project for the last couple of weeks.

Hard at work in Haiti

N-6MF is a Cessna 206 that came back to the States at the end of 2010 after a busy missionary career. It started with MAF in the 80’s, and served in Nicaragua and Venezuela before spending four years between 2006 and 2010 flying as HH-PTL in Haiti. It looked like it might be retired from MAF work, but it was decided to give it a bit of a make-over, fix a few problems and return it to MAF’s fleet. It will be used in America as a training aircraft for pilots looking to serve overseas, and also as a demo plane that will be seen at air-shows across the country promoting the work that MAF do.  

Most of the work that needs to be done to this plane while it is here in Ohio is just the result of being a 31 year old plane which spent its last few years by the sea. There have been quite a lot of little bits of corrosion that we have been dealing with, and lots of parts that are just worn and tired.

Since I started working on this project I have been involved in a few different jobs on it. I disassembled the landing gear legs and the nose gear strut, then stripped them of the old paint and inspected them to ensure that they are in an airworthy state and good to be reinstalled. They are now ready to be repainted when we get to that phase of the project.

I then moved onto the gear box for the main landing gear. This was the same area as I was working on this time last year, on the Gabon 207, but this time the only damage that needed attention was one cracked casting that we have to replace after the years of landing on rough grass strips had taken their toll. I removed the old casting, leaving the rest of the gearbox in place, and cleaned up the corrosion that was underneath it. We are now just about ready to get the new casting prepped and installed.

Repairing rivets on the engine mounts

Another issue that had to be addressed was in the engine bay. Over the years some of the rivets that hold the engine mounts in place had started to work loose, and had to be replaced. As with many areas on aircraft, a lot of rivets are in awkward places, and give a bit of a challenge in getting them drilled out and then driven again. Also with “working rivets” like these, the holes that they are in have worn that little bit bigger, which gives its own set of problems when you are installing new rivets. Some of the holes we had here were ok and could be filled with the same size rivets as before, but some holes were a bit too worn and had to be filled with rivets of the next size bigger.

Bucking rivets for Phil

In between times, I helped Phil when he needed another pair of hands for some riveting jobs. He has been kept busy replacing a stringer in the cabin roof and the pilot’s door sill, among other things. In the picture above I am bucking rivets in the pilot’s foot-well as Phil drives them from the outside.

Last week had me working on the side skin below the co-pilot’s window. When the plane first arrived at the hangar it had been decided to pull that skin off to attend to some corrosion beneath the frames below it. When we pulled it off we found a section of channel that had quite a bit of damage, as well as some corrosion on the skin itself. We managed to source a new channel for a reasonable price, and I set to work fabricating a new skin.

Starting the skin removal...

Skin removed!

I used the old skin as a template to work from and drilled all the rivet holes to match where they fit on the plane. Then I cut the skin to the size of the original, dressed the edges, primed the inside surface (the outside will get painted with the rest of the plane) and checked to make sure it all fit together properly! 

Transfering rivet holes into the new aluminium sheet

Dressing the edges of the new skin ready for installation.

Last Friday, Chuck and I got started on riveting it in place, and by the end of the day on Monday we had pretty much finished installing the new skin on the plane.

I thought you might like to see this video of one of the more unusual flights this plane was involved in while it worked in Haiti.

  

Thanks for your interest and support as we train here in the States on planes that are having a real impact around the world. 

(The video link for those who get this blog-post by email is http://youtu.be/Fk_ls9WNpwM )

First visitors of the year!

It’s hard to believe how fast the time seems to be going by just now! I had planned to write another blog-post weeks ago, but between working to finish my theory chapter tests, getting ready for the arrival of “Little Swanson #3” and hosting our first visitors of 2012, time has just run away on me!

The first visitors we had this year were my mum and dad, who have never been to the States before. As this was their first trip across the Atlantic, they were keen to check off as much “tourist stuff” as possible, as well as seeing our home here in Coshocton, spending time with the kids (and me and Heather!) and visiting the hangar to see what we are actually doing here in Ohio!

Their tourist trail started in New York, where they spent the weekend while we were driving back from North Carolina (see the last blog post!). After a few days in the Big Apple, they flew to Columbus, where Matthew and I met them at the airport. Dad had planned on doing some driving while here, but when they saw the traffic on the Interstate I think they were glad that they had their own team of chauffeurs for their stay with us!! It was good to be able to give them their first taste of American life, and Abi and Matthew enjoyed showing their Granny and Granda around our home here. (Think demonstrations of “The Pledge of Allegiance”, “bug tour’s” of the garden, peanut butter milkshakes from “Earl’s”, and reading bedtime stories at the end of the day.) A great time was had by all!

Bedtime stories

The other tourist thing on the list was a visit to Washington DC. As most of the things to see in DC weren’t really of interest to Abi and Matthew, and a 7 month pregnant Heather didn’t fancy another 6 hour car drive, we decided that I would drive with my folks to the capital, and get my fix of museums and memorials without the rest of the family! We had a great weekend there checking off as many of the iconic landmarks as we could in the short time we were there! We also managed to squeeze in a Gettysburg battlefield tour visiting one of the most important Civil War sites in America, and learning a bit more about what happened there.

Climbing the steps outside the Jefferson Memorial with my mum.

When we got back to Coshocton, we had a few days to relax here; I was back at work, and my mum and dad were able to visit Abi at her school. They had lunch in her class room, saw some of the work she has been doing, enjoyed some “recess” time in the play ground, and met the rest of Abi’s class. We were also able to give Heather a “home day” to herself when the kids and I took granny and granda through to the zoo in Columbus. As it is still off-season not all of the displays were open, but it was also much quieter and we were able to have a good look around the zoo at our own pace.

Abi showing off her classroom

Abi and Granny meeting the shark at Columbus zoo

Matthew helps with some shopping at Miller's Bakery

Mum and dad went back home at the end of April, and then I had just enough time to finish off all my chapter tests before our next visitors arrived! The chapter tests are done to ensure we cover all the theory we need to know before sitting our FAA exams; even though I have finished those now, they did a great job of confirming how much I still need to learn, so the studies will continue!!

Last week we had our good friends Mitch and Elizabeth, and their wee boy Robert, visiting us here in the “north”. Although Elizabeth has been here before, Mitch hadn’t, so it was good to be able to spend time with them here, and show them around the hangar. They had a great time exploring Amish country, letting Robert have some time playing with his “Scottish cousins” and sampling the compulsory cheese tarts from Miller’s Bakery! It was also a good chance for them to relax away from their daily routine’s as Elizabeth is expecting their second child in August.

Mitch, Elizabeth and little Robert.

Thanks for your patience since the last post – we really appreciate your interest and support as we train here in Ohio. Up at the hangar I am working on a MAF Cessna 206 just now, and will hopefully have a post about that coming up soon!