Here
is the Bell 412 that came into the shop on Sunday. As you can see,
we have been busy. All of the doors were removed, the seats have all
come out, panels were opened up, and cowlings were taken off the top.
The
engines are now exposed and the transmission is much easier to get to
now that we can see it. With all of the interior removed, we have
much easier access to the inner workings of this old beast.
We
have a stack of inspection forms about 1 1/2” tall. With a
machine this size there are hundreds of items that need to be looked
at and checked. We have operational and functional checks to
perform. All of the driveshafts have to come apart to be inspected.
Anything we find that is worn or damaged has to be either
repaired or replaced.
Leaks
have to be fixed and messes from the leaks have to be cleaned. We
have a crew of three guys doing all of this work plus a fourth guy
that is ordering parts and making sure all of our paperwork is in
order. He will also inspect all of our work when it is completed.
If it sounds like a lot of work, it is. Every inch of this machine
will be looked over. There is a lot of work to be done and not much
time to get the work finished. The customer wants the machine back
in service by March 1st. This gives us one month to get
everything finished. Remember, this is February beginning tomorrow.
We lost two days already because of the short month. It would be
great if it were Leap Year, we would get one of those days back, but
no such luck.
Besides
all of this work, we have a Bell 212 that is going to be displayed at
HAI Heli-Expo which is the big helicopter trade show
for the year. HAI is short for Helicopter Association International.
This show comes along once every year and is being held in Dallas,
Texas on March 6-9. Our machine has to be primed and ready to go,
spit polished and shoe shined. It oughta be cool.
Along
with these two projects, we have recently sent to SEAT's to Chile to
help fight the worst wildfires in that country's history. A SEAT is
a Single Engine Air Tanker. Ours are Air Tractor 802 airplanes.
Yes, they are fire fighting planes. We are also getting a third
plane ready to go that the Chilean government has requested.
On
top of this, we have a single engine MD 530 helicopter that has a 100
hour inspection coming up soon and my helicopter will be returning
and needs more work done to it to be ready for the Alaska fire season
which will soon be here. It's going to be a very busy couple of
months.
I'll
keep you posted on the happenings here. I'll try and show you
different projects as we work through a massive list of maintenance
everywhere we turn. It's going to be a tough couple of months but
that's okay...this is what I live for.
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