Twin Rebuild Project Update Contributed by VFC President and Accountable Executive Colin Williamson
VFC News
On May 19th, our twin engine plane (currently C-GWCB) that we are going to completely rebuild arrived from Alberta. That was a bit later than hoped for but we needed good weather through the mountains to safely transport it and had to wait a bit for that. Once here at VFC its former owner Dave, and two of our staff, Cody and Murray, got to work unloading it. This was quite an involved process as great care needs to be exercised in moving large components to ensure they don’t get damaged, and to ensure those large components (wings, fuselage) don’t get bumped into the other planes in the hangar. Some good teamwork with Murray driving the forklift and Cody and I acting as spotters kept everything safe. Along with the acquisition of WCB, Murray negotiated
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receiving several boxes of spare parts and even an entire second airframe that we can use as a parts plane. This will save us large amounts of money down the road and enable us to quickly perform our own in-house repairs when needed. There was a lot of prep work that went into getting the project ready to start. Murray acquired two sea cans (large metal shipping containers) that we will use as additional storage. This has enabled us to clear out some of the hangar to make room for the project work. We have also acquired a new air compressor. The old one was getting unreliable, was very noisy, and could only support one tool at a time. The new one is much quieter (better workplace safety) and can power
three tools at a time improving productivity not just for the project plane but for all of our maintenance work. Our Maintenance staff are now busy working on the project. The aircraft will be completely disassembled and all parts carefully inspected. Depending on their condition they will either be re-used, repaired or replaced. So far it's good news. The aluminum airframe components that have been inspected are in excellent condition. WCB spent most of its life in the far North. We all know it is cold up there but it is also extremely dry, limiting issues with corrosion. Clearly there is a lot of work involved in restoring an aircraft. We expect to have it ready for students to use for instruction in the fall. It is not possible to pin down the schedule entirely accurately since it will be affected by the condition of the parts and the amount of work they need to bring them up to excellent condition. The schedule is also affected by the amount of work put on our staff keeping our existing fleet in the air. We will keep you posted with the progress of this exciting project both here in the Patrician and on Facebook and Twitter.
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