Togo--post 9

Stephanie said that you were anxious to hear some shop talk, so here we go... The airplane that is here is a 1964 C-206 - 180. It has an IO-520 with roughly 985 hours onit and the normal 206 utility package (no co-pilot door, just two big cargo doors in back right side). It has been sitting for quite a while but thankfully, fully preserved. It hasn't run in 2 years and has been here, non flyable for 10. The prop and engine are in great condition but alot of the electric cables and hoses are dry rotted. We did an almost 100 hour type inspection while were worked on it to clean it out and rigged the ailerons, rudder and elevator. We installed a Garmin GPS antenna on the roof and tried to check as much as we could. A crate with a bunch of new and refurbished parts that were supposed to come here ended up not ever leaving the states so we were limited to what Dale Fogg could carry in his luggage. However we did find a big box of new parts like tires and gaskets, o-ring etc. We installed new wing strut ferrings, a new ignition switch, cleaned and lube all the door latching mechanisms, NDT'd some major items that there were some service bulletins and AD's for and tried to make a good list of all that needed worked on in the future. We repaired the rotating beacon, installed the step and handles on the cowling to aid in fuel level checking, Tested all the lights and electrical circuits, including the flaps that had some major damage on them.We replaced the wing strut bolts on both sides as well. None of the damage on the flaps and plane however is airworthiness stuff, just big dents and dings from carelessness in shipping of the plane. We installed a few little things here and there, and mostly cleaned and inspected to somewhat preserve it from getting any worse until the next time someone can work on it. We did not do much with the radios and instrument panel even though the present radios and antenna all work fine. Someone in the states is sponsoring a new instrument panel with all new avionics package from King. It really needs some corrosion-x sprayed all over and most of the control cable should be replaced with stainless steel though the present ones are in usable condition. The plane could be flown it just would not be a good idea especially since the nose strut needs rebuilt. They say that the strut is one of those items that needs rebuilt quite often due to the weather and sandy conditoin here, along with of course the air intake filter and fuel filter. Everything needs to be covered or screen covered to prevent mud daubers from nesting. We found bunches of there nests during inspection. There is a lot of potential for this aircraft, it just needs love, money and people to do the work to get this ministry going. Most of the items that it needs are sitting in Michigan just waiting to be shipped here and installed or repaired. We took some time to organize, sort and inventory the shop here as it sits so whoever comes in the near future, Hopefully Dale Fogg again, can get rolling. The shop has all the lines run for electricity but just needs someone to hook it up correctly as well as hang the shop lights that, I might add, are brand new and just sitting here in a box waiting for installation. The shop needs a compressor as well and a bunch of other things. Well that's all for now. It's hard to realize that even with full support we still have to go to language school for a year and a half, so right there you're looking at at least two years before we can be here full time if we started raising support as full timers upon our return. But we do with all our hearts want to return and be apart of the misnitry here with our lives. So, see you soon.
Hope all is well,
God Bless,
Ryan