Late Friday afternoon, +5C, heavy rain, wind up to 36 kts… I was sitting in my warm car by Albatros flying club, and waited for others to arrive. We were going to complete the 1000 hours service work we began the week before on our club owned Aeroprakt OY-9465.
Soon all who wanted and could attend were there, and we turned up the heat in our club house:
Short briefing and work planning session. From left to right: Anders, Mogens, Thomas, Peter, and Ulrik. Frederik joined us a moment later.
Past two years the month of March was the one when I logged most of my airborne hours, but this year it has been raining day and night, with only few occasional breaks. At least our work didn’t affect anyone’s opportunity to fly! We got delivery of oil by Steen (right on the photo below) from Danaero, our supplier of spare parts, care products, and aircraft.
It started raining again, the TAF for EKCH promised wind gusts up to 45 kts, and we pulled the aircraft’s nose into the hangar, so that we’d stay dry and to minimise the risk of being blown away. It was also going to be dark very soon…
It was damn cold, but we had a great team of pilots who were eager to make our OY-9465 ready to fly, as soon as the right weather for a flight comes, and everybody was happy to be a part of it.
We openly shared our knowledge, asked questions, learned how to use various tools, and watched each other performing different tasks.
We checked the carburettors’ float chambers, among other things:
And we learned lots of tips and tricks that made our work more fun. Peter taught us how to check the spark plugs with one special instrument, and to make sure they all were equal:
And later, when changing them, we had some interesting discussions:
Though the work was intense, there was always time for a joke or two:
Engine compression test:
Inspecting the old oil filter:
Everything had to be documented, of course:
I did the last engine run and test, and to do that I was pushed out into the rain – I admired those vikings who easily can move an aircraft around with just one hand – and me inside! I sometimes use hours trying to pull it out of the hangar and in again after a flight.
The magneto drop-off check went perfect, everything ran fine, and I joined the team for the sign off.
We successfully completed our first 1000 hours service in two Friday evenings! Everybody was happy; we learned and practised new things, shared our knowledge, did something good for our club, and had a great time together. Personally,
I was proud of our men who dedicated their time for this work, I admired them for their skills and positive attitude, and enjoyed working together,