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.