Thursday, January 7, 2010

Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to work we go . . .

The first week of a new year is always busy. The fellows do a physical inventory of our aircraft parts, material and hardware. In the office, contributions sent in December are processed first. Because MMS Aviation takes a break between Christmas and New Year's Day, quite a few donations accumulate. Rena shares receipting duty with Karen Dodson, each working different days of the week. They teamed up on Monday, however, to take care of the accumulation. Rena then worked her regular schedule Tuesday and I took this picture of her.
My agenda this week was altered by a one-hour fifteen-minute phone conversation with the FAA Inspector in Columbus, Ohio that oversees our certified repair station. Just before Christmas, we sent drafts of a major revision of our repair station manuals. Our Principal Inspector saw several points that could be clearer, so Tim Obarow, MMS' Production Manager, and I have spent some quality time this week polishing the manuals. We should send a copy of the finished manuals to the FAA tomorrow.
The fuselage of a Cessna model 206 we're restoring for mission service in Brazil was just moved from the paint booth back to hangar B. Apprentice mechanic Mark Beckwith (left) and staff member Ian Hengst plan a more stable tail stand. The plane will leave MMS on amphibious floats which aren't here yet, and the airframe was shipped to us without regular landing gear. Ian and his crew has to devise something that will support the plane and make it portable until it is placed on the floats.

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