Off To Africa

Dale, Paul J., and Andy are off to Gabon, Africa to disassemble and crate a Cessna 207 for shipment to MMS. Clipping a taxi cab and a light pole during an emergency landing on a dirt road, the airplane was damaged beyond Air Calvary's ability to repair. Air Calvary contacted us to see if we could help them and we are blessed to send this Rapid Response Team over to start the process of returning this airplane to mission service.

Dale, Andy, and Paul J.

The airplane, the taxi, and the light pole.

Damage to wing strut, leading edge of the wing, and the landing gear.

Damage to flaps and control surfaces

Damaged tail section

You can see the airplane is in need of substantial repair. Dale, Andy, and Paul J. should have the airplane disassembled and crated over the next two weeks. We expect the guys back in Coshocton the first week of September. It will take the airplane a bit longer to arrive as it will travel by boat and then truck before arriving at our hangar facility sometime in October.

We appreciate your prayers for Dale, Andy and Paul (and their families here) as they're away in Gabon, Africa.

Back on the Blog

After being out of the hangar for the past week and a day, it's time to catch you up on some of the projects.

Jim makes some electrical repairs to the Cessna 210.

Terry installs a wing root fairing on the 210.

Paul G. works on the Cessna 337's instrument panel.

Tim troubleshoots a fuel problem with a local RV-8.

Mark works on the right wing of the Cessna 402 while waiting for parts to continue repairs to the left wing.

Tropical Training

This week is another week of "tropical training" at MMS. No, the guys aren't sitting around in lounge chairs, under palm trees, sipping iced drinks with umbrellas in them...it's just HOT (93 degrees) and HUMID (80%) with rather regular, intense thunderstorms rolling through every afternoon.

Once such storm just rolled through just a few minutes ago which did its best to blow, blast, and wash us off the top of the hill here at Richard Downing/Coshocton County Airport. Yee-haw. Of course in a few very short months we'll go into our "Arctic training" mode. When you prepare people to live and work in all parts of the globe it helps to have a weather range representative of the varied climates in which they'll serve. And here, in east central Ohio...we see it all...sometimes in a matter of hours.

Andy, Mike, and Mark make a plan for drilling the spar strap.

Terry begins work on the right main landing gear of the 210.

Paul works behind the instrument panel in preparation for installing instrumentation in the 337.

The Pfeifer Aztec Returns to Service

The guys wrapped up work on the Pfeifer Evangelical Association's Piper Aztec this afternoon. With the left landing gear successfully repaired, they finished troubleshooting an electrical problem and fixed a leak in the left fuel bladder. The Aztec's now back in service!

Terry troubleshoots a problem with an electrical component.

Josh repairs the fuel bladder.

Mike and Josh cowl the right engine.

The Aztec leaves our ramp for the taxiway.

Dynamic's DC-3 Visits MMS Aviation

On their way to AirVenture 2010 in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, this morning Dynamic Aviation flew their DC-3 to Richard Downing/Coshocton County Airport for fuel and to visit MMS Aviation.

Test Run of the Rear Engine for the Cessna 337

This is an exciting way to end the week! Scott and Paul are currently in the engine shop conducting the test and break-in runs of the engine they just overhauled for the LAMP 337. This is the rear engine. The front engine was overhauled first and is already mounted in the airframe.

It's always satisfying to see and hear the engine run after the overhaul process is complete. Next week this engine will be mounted on the airframe. Chuck is nearly completed with the airframe repairs and it looks like we should have this airplane back in missionary service by the end of September. We're gathering momentum as we near the finish-line for this project.

They're shutting the engine down to cool at idle. How do I know this? Even all the way over here on the other side of the hangar in the administrative section...you can hear the engine and feel its power.

Thanks for your gifts and prayers that have enabled us to keep this project moving ahead.

Scott & Paul measure cylinder components.

Paul builds-up the engine.

The completed engine on the "run-up" stand.

Paul operates the engine while Scott monitors the stream of performance data.

Fly In Service

We've been blessed to serve two different missions over the past two days that had immediate maintenance needs.

First, Pfeifer Evangelical Association flew their Piper Aztec in yesterday for us to troubleshoot and repair a problem with their left main landing gear strut.

Here's the Pfeifer's Aztec taxiing to our hangar. Notice how the wingtip on the right is lower than the wingtip on the left.

Tim and Mark (an apprenticeship candidate undergoing evaluation), positioned the aircraft in Hangar C, jacked the aircraft, and removed the gear strut. They disassembled, cleaned, and inspected the strut and its components finding two O-rings that needed replacement. The parts are on order. The Aztec should be ready to fly by Friday.

Tim and Mark remove the landing gear strut for inspection and repair.

Second, Gospel Carrier International flew their Super King Air 200 in this afternoon for a compressor wash.

Gospel Carrier International's King Air 200 on the ramp in front of Hangar A.

Mark B. and Chuck prepare the left engine for its compressor wash as Mike supervises and Paul G. observes.

The guys have since completed the wash of the compressor sections of the King Air's turbine engines and the fuel truck is on our ramp pumping jet fuel into the airplane's fuel tanks for departure. The King Air will be back in the sky shortly.

Thank you for your gifts and prayers that allow us to perform these maintenance services labor-free for Christian mission organizations. Thank you as well for your gifts and prayers toward "Raising the Roof" here at MMS. The recent rains, with all the resultant leaks in the administrative areas as well as in Hangar A, are reminders of the necessity of this capital improvement.