Week Six - The 206

I have a good excuse for the late blog this time, I promise!  I couldn't find my camera for a few days.  I actually considered writing this blog last Thursday, but didn't find my camera until last night.  It was hiding under a pillow on the couch.  Such sneaky things those cameras can be sometimes...

This week I worked with Paul again, which was fun.  (If you don't remember Paul, look at the picture on last week's blog.)  (Come to think of it, you should look at it again anyway.  It's a good one.)  I spent a day putting on the v-brace:

Recognize that picture?
The v-brace is the black metal that attaches to the front spar on the top left and right of the windshield and ties them to the instrument dash.  (It looks like a "V", eh?)  It is not standard equipment for Cessna 206s because for normal, paved airports, they are unnecessary.  It is good for floatplanes and airplanes flying in the bush because the brace prevents the fuselage from twisting when the gear hit uneven surfaces.  Twisting causes unintended stress on the metal, which could eventually cause it to fail.  This project saved Paul 2.5 days, putting him back on schedule!  I've been able to help him significantly, saving him almost 2 weeks so far.

I also got to give him an instrument proficiency check to get him instrument current.  As payment we went out to dinner!  The next day we got together and watched an old movie; we've become good friends, and I'll keep him in my prayers when he goes to Guatemala at the end of the summer.

The other projects I worked on this week were: preparing the tail of the airplane for the later installation of abrasion boots, which will prevent them from gravel and rocks that will be encountered on the airstrips this will be flying into:

removing the wheel pant attaching mounts and getting them ready to be sold on eBay:

and prepping the plane for paint:

(Paul is gone during week seven and hasn't seen the plane totally wrapped up, so the Scottish Andy suggested we get a huge red bow to put on top of it.  Maybe get some princess wrapping paper too.)

As for the weekend, I got to take Mater (the Cessna 172) to Cincinnati to visit Mike, one of my roommates from Purdue.  We had a good time and felt adventuresome :)

Now for "Facts That Don't Fit into Full Paragraphs and are Unrelated to Each Other":

I'm just now starting to get adjusted to living by myself in the house I'm renting from MMS here, which I'm happy about.  I guess I'm more of a people person than I thought!

It's getting to be time to figure out what I'm doing (or at least what I'm applying for) after graduation next May.  Please pray for wisdom for me and all the seniors this year as we battle through figuring out where God wants us in the next season of our lives.  Thanks again for all your support, y'all!

William

~ Freezer popsicles are really cheap and really good.

Week Five - Cargo Tiedowns

Sorry it's week six and I'm only just now getting week five out there!  [I'll make it up to y'all at the end...]

This week I got to work with Paul Jones on his Cessna 206.  Paul Jones is the fun, energetic, Thomas Fraley type person who is a blast to work with!  He works for Missionary Air Group (MAG), a small mission organization down in Guatemala.  He is working on the 206 that he will be flying down there:

We worked on a cargo tiedown kit that requires some extensive fabrication.  Paul made the aluminum reinforcements and primed them.  I installed nutplates, then we riveted them in place!  It sounds fairly simple, but it truly is amazing how long it takes to do anything on airplanes.  For example, the rearmost cargo tiedown points required removing all the rear windows, which are riveted and sealed in place!  Anyway, this is what the reinforcements look like on the left side of the airplane cabin:

It was a lot of fun, as I got to be somewhat independent while working, but still had people around to ask questions of and to joke around with.

Here's Paul's "early morning coffee time while making fun of William" face that he made just for you blog readers!

To make it up to you for getting the blog out late, I'll give you a sneak preview of what we're doing this week already, followed by an awful joke!

That's the only hint you get!

Awful Joke of the Week:

How do you catch a unique rabbit?

             

Answer:  You 'neak up on it.  (Say it out loud.  It's awful, I promise.  You'll get it.)

Thanks for another great week!

Will

~ I found out about a group that plays ultimate frisbee on Friday and Sunday afternoons!  I got to play with them Sunday, and had a BLAST!!!

Week Four - The corrosion

This week went very well!  I finished up the glue removal in a couple hours on Monday, then moved on to removing the floor panels in the Cessna 402.  Not surprisingly for this airplane, there was corrosion underneath.  One of the panels had started to delaminate and might need to be replaced, while the others were still useable.  After inspection of the inside of the plane's belly, I found a couple more places that were corroded, but my supervisor hasn't had a chance to take a look at them yet, so I'm unsure of the extra work that will cause.  The 402 project is headed in the right direction, but more problems are still being found every day.  It's running out of areas that could contain problems though, so maybe it will be completed this summer!

While I was working on that project, a Super King Air came in!

Beechcraft makes great airplanes!  However, the landing gear actuators are required to be overhauled every 6 years, and they were at the end of their lifespan.  This King Air is used to transport people to minister to Chinese immigrants in the United States, along with a few other planes owned by the same mission.  This one is the flagship of the fleet, so we want to get it back up and running as soon as possible!  However, we found a couple universal joints in the system that needed to be replaced, so its departure has been delayed.  It dwarfs the hangar in its disapproval.  It would rather be out flying.  I know this because of the difficulty Ben had safety wiring the nose gear switch!  Clearly the only explanation for the four hours spent on that endeavor. 

I'm settling into the rhythm here now, and it's a lot of fun.  I got to give a Flight Review to one of the pilots here in an airplane named Mater!  I'm told its previous paint job was horrendous and deserving of the name.  It was one of the most fun flights I've had in an airplane, as we visited five really neat grass strips around the area and had a landings competition after the flight review was completed!  I look forward to flying with him again soon.

William

~ This weekend is the hot air balloon festival here in Coshocton.  I went last night to see them launch, but they had to cancel because of weather.  Bummer.

Week Three - The Glue

Another week has been completed at MMS!  This week was really kinda funny.

I spent almost the entire week on one single task!  We had Monday off, so on Tuesday we finished up the final touches on the wing we had been working on.  (I got to drive a couple rivets on the actual wing!)

But then we were tasked with removing the de-ice boots on the Cessna 402.

"Boots" are basically a bunch of rubber tubes that run along the leading edge of the wing.  When ice starts to build up on them, the pilot activates the system.  The tubes then inflate and expand, breaking the ice off. Unfortunately, the boots on this airplane were leaking terribly and needed to be replaced.

Miraculously, it only took us about an hour or a little more to get them off, leaving us with a wing that looked like this:

The black still on the wing is rubber left over from the boot, and the brownish stuff is the glue that held it on.  To install the new boots, the wing needs to be totally perfectly clean.  So I went to work:

To get the glue off, I had to apply some very strong paint stripper, let it sit for fifteen minutes or so, then scrape it off with a homemade plexiglass scraper.  It sounds easy enough, but the glue ends up being really sticky again and difficult to work with.  It also looks like...well...here's a picture.

Box-o'-boogers!  Anyway, I spent the rest of Tuesday through Friday getting most of this nasty stuff off. The wings went from this:

to this:

While working on this "grunt work," it was clear to me that I was being helpful.  If God hadn't put me there, one of the mechanics would have had to spend the week doing it, and they were all busy enough working out the landing gear issues created by the previous maintenance shop!

As for the weekend, I broke out the dirtbike and took it somewhere to ride!  After struggling a bit to get it to run, I met a few new friends and rode around in the deepest mud puddles I've ever seen and up and down the steepest hills I've ever seen!  Ohio is more extreme about their dirtbike courses I guess...

[I forgot to take pictures but if I had remembered, this is where I would have put them.]

The real highlight of the weekend though, was that God gave me the opportunity to have spiritual conversations with two of the guys and witness to them!  I'm truly blessed to have such an easy way to turn the conversation toward God because of my internship.

We exchanged phone numbers and plan to go riding again many times before I go back to Indiana.  Please pray for me as I witness to them.  Pray for them, as they need Jesus.

Thank you all for pushing me!

William

PS:  I ordered a bunch of tools that should come in tomorrow!  They should be included in next week's post.

~ Respirators are astoundingly comfortable to wear for 8 hours straight.