In the engine shop...

I had planned to give you an update from the hangar before we went on our Christmas break, but since that plan didn’t work out, I will start off our 2013 blog posts by filling you in on the end of 2012!

We made our usual trip down to North Carolina to spend our last American Christmas with our good friends down there. Unfortunately the plan didn’t work out, and a nasty flu bug took it’s toll on all of us at different times of our holiday week. We are all more or less back to normal again, and glad to be heading back towards a bit more of a healthy routine!

Since we got back from our trip to Scotland, I have been working with Josh in the engine shop. Most of the work I have been involved in since I started here in Ohio has been on aircraft airframes, but the A&P licence exams that I will be sitting at the end of the summer cover both Airframe and Powerplant systems, so it is important that the experience I get here covers all areas of aircraft maintenance.

Over the last few months we have had two aircraft arrive in the hangar that have engine overhauls on their lists of jobs for us to do. One plane is used by an organisation called “Heartland Embrace” serving across north America, and the other is used in northern Canada by http://www.lampministry.org/ . By the time I came back from Scotland, both engines had been stripped down and the various components that we aren’t able to work on ‘in-house’ were sent out to specialists to be inspected and overhauled. As well as the steel parts which we send out for inspection, there is a big list of parts that are ‘mandatory replacement at overhaul’ parts. These were all ordered up, and by the time I got back to work in the hangar, everything was on it’s way back to Ohio for us to put back together. 

Inspecting new pistons ready for re-assembly

Every engine relies on all the right components being put together, with the right clearances in all the right places, and the all the nuts, bolts and screws being tightened to the right torque. When you are relying on that engine as the only thing keeping you moving through the air in a small aircraft, then the need to make sure all your i’s are dotted and your t’s crossed is even more obvious. Aircraft engine manufacturers provide a manual with lists of all the allowable clearances, dimensions and torques for every bushing, bearing, nut and bolt in the engine. A large part of the time taken assembling an engine is spent measuring every component, ensuring that everything is within the dimensions allowed for it, and that everything is written down to be included in the records for that engine.

Measuring parts before reassembly

Since we started back in the hangar on Wednesday, we have been doing our annual inventory check, so tomorrow will be our first day back into the engine shop, and working on this engine. We managed to get the cylinders installed before the Christmas break, but we still have a bit to do before it is run-able.

Partially assembled engine...

Once we have the engine fully rebuilt we will put it on the engine test bed and run it in, making sure everything is functioning as it should. I will hopefully get another blog posted soon with an update on the engine run!

Thanks for checking in with us!!