Week Two

Hello again, everyone!

I have completed my second week at MMS!  This week, I finished the portion of basic training that I will be put through and moved on to the shop floor to help with whatever projects I was assigned.

Chuck and I were tasked with assembling and preparing this wing of a Cessna 207 for painting.  This airplane, the front of which can be seen in the background here, experienced an engine failure.  The missionary pilot put it down on an ultralight strip, but he could not get it to stop within the very small runway intended for much smaller aircraft.  It hit some obstacles at the end of the roll and suffered substantial damage to the right wing and fuselage.

One seemingly insignificant area of damage to the wing was the fuel finger screen.  It had come loose out of its housing.  After some searching online, Chuck was able to find a new one for around $300.  We investigated the housing, machined a new one ourselves, and installed it for just the price of the brass, saving the mission agency some money.

We also installed the fuel tank, all the tank fittings, the wingtip, and a wing fence as part of the short takeoff and landing kit (STOL kit).

STOL kits are installed in many missionary aircraft because of the short rough airstrips that they must be able to serve.  One of the most significant changes in the kit is the leading edge of the wing, as in the picture at left.  The green area is the old side view of the inside of the wing, and the lighter area just ahead of the green is the new leading edge.  It's altered shape allows the airplane to approach the airfield much slower so it can land in a shorter distance.

So this week was definitely a good one!  Thanks for all the prayer, everyone.  8 more good weeks to come I'm sure!

Will

First Week at MMS

Today concludes my first week at Missionary Maintenance Services here in Ohio.  So far I've learned a lot!  They decided to put me through basic training, which is the training they give to all their apprentices.  That's really cool because I'm not an apprentice yet, just an intern!

So far I've learned about a lot of specialized tools for aircraft maintenance, including an overview of what I'll need to get eventually.  After that, I spent a lot of time learning about the big huge shear machiney thing that is used to cut sheets of aluminum precisely where you want.  I then spent a day or two refining some sheets of metal to VERY exact dimensions and sanding them to make the edges all shiny.  Irritatingly, with a good ruler you can tell if the sheet is out of dimension by 1/64th of an inch or smaller.

The past few days have been spent riveting.  It took a while, but I'm fairly competent at riveting now!  Drilling out the mistakes was easier for me.

All the people working here are great!  I love working with people who know where they want to be.
That's all for now, just a preliminary post!

Will

~There are about 5 guys here from MAF UK with British accents and it's great.  Favorite quote so far in a British accent: "What is it with dustpan brushes in this place!?  It's the sock monster gone mad!"