Ricky at MARC

In this update I hope to show you what I have been working on for the last couple of weeks. The following three pictures are from different airplanes. Click on them for a MUCH LARGER view.

The first is a six cylinder engine that failed in flight. The pilot was able to fly it back to the airport and asked me to investigate why he had an “unrequested decrease in power”. Turns out three of the six cylinders had the heads coming off. He is lucky to be alive as there was fuel spraying all over the engine and exhaust. The plane should have been on fire!

Second is an exhaust stack. The owner came in with an “exhaust leak”. I found where it was leaking, and even though he was hoping we could weld the “crack” I was forced to get an entire new piece.

The third problem is and exhaust valve failure. This plane was flying overhead when his engine stopped making power. He glided to the airport and I found the following. On the left you can see the valve is missing several pieces. One piece destroyed this cylinder and piston, which we replaced. Luckily for him I decided to pull all the intake pipes and look for the missing piece. I found it waiting to get sucked into a different cylinder, which would have caused the same problems all over again.

We also have our own aircraft down for maintenance. I am happy to report that the engine issues with one of the Navajo’s now appears to have been fixed, and the King Air is only a part away from having the landing gear reinstalled. More on that next time!

I am taking this blog entry as an opportunity to inform you all of what I have been doing in my free time. Many of you have heard that I have been training for and participating in triathlons. The first one I did was Tri-the-Kenai. It is a fun, local, low pressure event. Since then I have been training for the HammerMan. It is in 2 weeks, on July 17, and will be much more intense.  All three events are longer and in more difficult terrain then Tri-the-Kenai was.

To practice a few of us have been going every night there is not practice to bike and run on the local trails. On Saturday morning we were in for a surprise. We spooked a moose who was on the trail, and after we turned around she apparently finally decided to leave the trail and head through the woods. We circled around and tried to take a different trail. The moose came out of the woods with her ears back and running full bore for us! Needless to say, I found the “Second gear” that I had not been able to find earlier. Luckily for us one of the ladies finally scared her and she wandered back into the woods. We on the other hand went strait back to the parking lot.

I have also started to play rugby again. I played in college, and tried to join the team last year but was never able to actually make it to a practice. I hope the tri training will have me back in shape enough to be effective. I have learned that while triathlon is good exercise and the group is fun, it is a solo sport. I can be exhausted after tri practice but still have enough energy to show up to rugby practice and run for 2 more hours. There is something that is just extra fun about team sports.

If you want to read about any of these events here are a few links:

www.tritheKenai.com

www.HammerManTraithlon.com