Wednesday, October 30, 2013

About time for a hangar update

It has been a while since we have written about what has been happening in the hangar. So here is an update from Mark ...

There has been lots happening and I have been learning so much. Our general work is performing inspections of our 2 Cessna caravans and 3 Cessna 206's, as well as our customers Caravans, 206's, 182 and 150. In just one month we performed regular inspections on three Cessna Caravans, and two Cessna 206's. All of this has helped me learn so much about so many different systems on the airframes.

Alongside these 'regular' inspections, we have been doing some more in-depth maintenance. One of our Caravans was due for an engine change. Therefore, we had to disconnect the engine from the airframe, remove the engine and then strip it down so that it could go into a container and get shipped to Covington, a PT6 engine overhaul shop in Oklahoma, USA. Then we built-up our new engine (a newly overhauled engine from MAF Uganda), and installed it back into the airframe. Unfortunately, we have had a few problems with this engine (some historical issues that did not get sorted out fully), so after a Covington engineer flew out here it investigate, the engine has flown back to Covington for them to fix what needs fixing (for those in the know ... the engine was suffering from compressor stall, but only when the Caravan's air plenum was in place).




This same aircraft is also undergoing a major avionics upgrade. We have removed all the navigation indicators and units and will be replacing them all with a Garmin G600 suite. I have been busy removing all the redundant circuit breakers and wires from the Power Distribution Panel and then installing all the new circuit breakers and wires that are needed for the new units. I will also be fabricating and installing new avionics shelves in the cockpit, under the floor and in the tail section. I will have more photos and will write about this again later (I promise!).


Another large task that I have been involved with a lot has been the complete inspection, strip and repaint of a Cessna 206 that belongs to Foxes Safari. This very intensive inspection is known as a 'Check 3' inspection and it pretty much means that every single part of the aircraft has to be stripped down and inspected. During doing all these inspections we have found quite a lot of corrosion. Corrosion is like aircraft cancer, and has to be removed wherever it is found or it could become deadly. You can see just a few of the corroded parts that we found. What is worrying, is the top right and bottom centre photos shows the rear wing attach bracket and carry thorough. If you understand aerodynamics, you will know that it is the wings that 'picks up' the rest of the fuselage when the aircraft takes off, and the whole fuselage hangs from these brackets. Not a good place to have corrosion.



Therefore, you can see that we have had to remove quite a bit of structure, chasing the corrsion through the structure to make sure we catch it all and either clean out the mild corrsion or replace those that are too badly damaged with new parts.



Life is never dull working as an aircraft engineer here for MAF. One highlight in recent months was being flown out to act as the 'breakdown mechanic' on a safari plane. Landing on a dirt runway next to a couple of giraffes, having flown over a herd of 11 elephants, I fixed the plane before heading home ... so it's not all about being stuck in a hangar!



Friday, October 25, 2013

Visiting the Big Smoke!

Abigail had a two week break from school this month and now that we have our own wheels (finally!) we thought it was about time we took a trip to Dar Es Salaam for a few days! We've lived here for 8 months and not really had the opportunity to visit Dar and see what 'city-life' is like here in Tanzania.

It was an 8 hour drive each way with a stopover in Morogoro but the girls did great with all of it! Here's a couple of photo's of where we took our break on the way there and back. From the reaction we got, I think they were quite surprised to see Wazungu's (white people!) stopping there! We ate chapati's and chips mayai, (a Tanzanian speciality ... chip omelette ... sounds kind of strange but taste's yummy!) and used the 'long-drops' before heading off on the second part of the journey!


The long drive was worth it though! Here was the view that greeted us when we arrived in Dar!


We were staying just north of the city. Close enough to explore different areas most mornings and hanging out at the hotel and the pool every afternoon!




Dar Es Salaam has moved on a lot since Jenny used to live in Tanzania. It was really strange to find so much that was familiar about the western world right on our doorstep. The shops and restaurants had developed a lot and there were more English goodies available to us there, than on our trips to Columbus when we lived in Ohio! Having said that ... you definitely had to know what you were looking for and where in the city, as the 'western' niches were quite well tucked away and spread out amongst the crazy pot-holed and traffic filled roads! 


It was such a great opportunity to familiarise ourselves both with what there is to do, where to go and also what is available compared to what you can get here in Dodoma ... which is a LOT less, if you were wondering! Think 'kid in a candy store' and that accurately describes all four of us to each new place/shop/eatery!


It was a real treat, for Jenny especially, to go out for dinner each evening. There is so much effort that goes into the preparation of meals living here, that it was a definite bonus to swap that for being served in a selection of great restaurants that we'd been recommended by others who have lived in or visited Dar before! The girls enjoyed getting dressed up and driving out somewhere new each evening too!


We were on the look out for other places to go on future visits (and have a running list now!!) but two of our favourites this time was the Mediterraneo because of the amazing location right on the edge of the Indian Ocean and delicious food ...


... and Addis in Dar, an Ethiopian restaurant where the girls were super excited because they didn't have to use cultery, only fingers and we all got to share one huge plate, that we also got to eat! The fact that it was decorated with upside down umbrellas was also apparently a bonus, according to the youngest two members of the family!!


We all had a really good time, living in the 'real world' for a few days. The girls keep asking when we are going back to our 'home hotel' (as opposed to our 'home home'!). Learning to love a town like Dodoma is one thing ... learning to love somewhere like Dar Es Salaam is something else entirely ... but we're one step closer to that now and we are all looking forward to our next trip there!