The Right and The Wrong

Here is a snapshot of some things that Mark is learning and implementing here at MMS Aviation.

To safely secure bolts or screws in place, so they will not come loose due to vibration, they are secured with safety wire. (The Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) document, AC43.13-1B - Acceptable Methods, Techniques, and Practices - Aircraft Inspection and Repair, Chapter 7 Section 7 shows the acceptable method of safetying bolts and washers with safety wire as shown below.)

Whilst working on the Cessna 402B Wing Spar modification (will be blogging this later on in the year once we've moved on a little bit more), it came to our attention the way some of the engine mounts had been safety wired. On the left engine, only one set of bolts that had been safety wired was any good, the other 3 needed attention.

The first had been wired completely wrong. The safety wire should look like a backwards 'S' as shown above in the diagram, so that nether bolt can undo itself. If it tries, to undo, it will tighten the other bolt. The bolts safety wired below would be able to vibrate loose.

This second photo shows the correct 'S' shape, but the twists between the two bolts are far too tight. By twisting the wire too much it makes it susceptible to snapping due to vibration. (The AC43.13-1B document states that there should be between 6-8 twists per inch. This is more like 12-14 twists.)

The third one is okay, it would stop the bolts from undoing but is not ideal as it has wire coming straight out of the bolt on the right. It would have been best if the bolts had been swapped over so that the holes in them worked better for wire locking.

This is the fourth bolt set, and is the only one that was safely safety wired together.

The photo below is after the engine mount had been removed, cleaned up, etched, dipped in alodine and sprayed with primer. The bolts have been torqued and the safety wire has been installed correctly. See how much better it looks now.

This is just a little look at some of the things that we have to keep an eye out for whilst working on the aircraft that come in.

The Joy's of Parenting!!!

Early one morning recently when Abigail was calling out that she was ready to get up ... we had a real surprise!! It was definitely one of 'those' moments that we will store away and use as ammunition in the years to come!!!

At first glance, in the darkness, it looked like the light through the curtains was playing tricks with our eyes ... but there were no tricks ... it was all very real!! It seems that as Mark put Abigail to bed the night before one of his pens fell out of his work shirt pocket ... not just any pen ... but his black permanent marker!! ... and Abigail spent the night being very creative with it!!!

See below the scene of the crime!!!

Here's a photo of our artistic little girlie just a few minutes after we found her ... thankfully she decided that her arms and legs were a better canvas than her face, as it took several days for it all to fade and disappear!!

Lots of the toys are becoming successfully less marked as time goes on ... but sadly THE favourite ... her little monkey that goes everywhere, was the biggest casualty ... he is still just as loved ... it goes to show that outward appearances aren't so important!!

All we can say is, roll on her 18th or 21st birthday so we can dig out these photos again!! ;o)

The 'Venture continues!!

The rest of last week, back in Coshocton, was just as fun as our time in Columbus! We began each day talking about the 'venture we were going to have for that day!! Water fights in the garden continued as well as a trip to Forest Hill Lake ... a fresh water lake complete with little fishes that you can go paddling and swimming in! Abigail loved it ... still not sure about the fish nibbling at our ankles though!

We spent some time in the garden too ... clearing up here and there ... but also harvesting some of our veggies ... needless to say Abigail was straight in there to help out!!

As we said at the beginning of our gardening adventure ... it was a first time experiment for us ... and we're pleased to say that we had another success ...

Abigail thought it was really fun to get the carrots out of the ground and helped pull the tops off ... with a lot of huffing and puffing and "help please mummy's".

We've still got a load more carrots in the ground and have already been able to give some to some friends! They taste yummy and fresh!

Our butternut squashes are beginning to look positive now too ... watch this space!

Another new 'venture in those few days was our first family bike ride! We recently got Abigail a bike seat so we can go for rides together (an early birthday present from Nana Kukhu), it's on the front so she can see where we're going and she LOVED it so much!

She was full of giggles the whole time ... this was the beginning of the ride ... followed by an ice-cream break ...

... and this last photo was taken just before Abigail threw a major hissy fit when we tried to get to her off the bike and into the car ... obviously too much fun!!!

As you can see we had a great week of fun together and made the most of every opportunity! Holiday time is so much fun!

A few days in the 'BIG' smoke!!

Mark had this last week off from the hangar ... and we had a lot of fun planned for us as a family. We figured that most people don't tend to explore the places nearest to them ... we know that to be true from our own experiences ... so we booked to stay in Columbus the nearest city to us ... it's only about an hour and a half away ... but just a lot easier to be based there. We got a good deal on a room with a separate living/room kitchen area ... and Abigail felt at home there right away!!

Columbus isn't a big city like London ... but having lived in Coshocton for the last 11 months it certainly felt big to us and a little more like home as well!! Although now we feel a bit like hillbillies in comparison!! When we arrived we went for a swim in the hotel pool and drove around to see what was nearby.

On our first full day we went to Columbus zoo (www.colszoo.org) ...

... and saw lots of animals close up!! Many of them were just behind a VERY thick sheet of plexiglas (perspex) ... but you were so close up you felt you could touch them! Abigail was a bit wary of some of them ... like this silver-back gorilla who was huge ... she much preferred the baby gorilla we saw who was only a few months old!

We all loved the manatee's and ray's ... so big, yet so graceful .... and Abigail kept wanting to go back to her favourite animals of the day ... the elephants and rhino's!!

As you can see there was a lot of fun, including bronze elephants and measuring ourselves against a full grown brown bear (cut out) ... we felt very small ... and the polar bear cut out was even bigger!!!

On our second day we went Cosi (www.cosi.org) a 'hands-on science experience' ... they have a Titanic exhibition on at the moment where we started our day. We were pleased to see that there were some Beckwith's on board ... not only did they travel first class, but they survived the disaster after drifting for 6 hours in a life boat.

There is a whole area called 'kidspace' which Abigail loved ... there was so much to do in there it was difficult to get her out ... she especially loved all the water play things they had.

There were many parts of Cosi to visit .... it was fun to watch Abigail's reaction to it all ... she was just all smiles the whole time!

Abigail really enjoyed every thing we did ... every day she woke up and we told her we'd be going on an adventure ... to which she would excitedly say 'venture 'venture and get ready really quickly. All the excitement made her sleep really well ... so well in fact that we had to wake her up in the morning to go to breakfast instead of the other way around!

On our final day, before we headed back home, we visited the German Village part of Columbus. A new favourite TV show of ours out here is 'Man Vs Food' where the host visits three restaurants in each city they film in ... so we found one restaurant to try out for ourselves!! Schmidt's Sausage Haus (www.schmidthaus.com).

These photos were taken after we'd had the most delicious meal ... with the yummiest sausages we've had since we moved to America (They don't do them very well out here!!) ... Abigail ate 5 huge pieces of the different sausages, that's how good they were!!!

We had the best time while we were away ... finding lots of yummy restaurants and new shops ... Abigail was on her best behaviour the whole time and we made many happy memories together as a family. The fun continued when we got home ... we'll fill you in on that in a later entry!