Phase 6 Details
MRP Selkirk 15 OCT - 20 OCT 12
This past year, a large amount of maintenance was supposed to be done on Expeditor 339. However, a bit of intelligence suddenly appeared earlier this year with regards to parts. One – of the many problems – with working on older airplanes isn’t just finding the older manuals, or the specialty tools that are required for those really hard to get at spots, it’s getting (and, more importantly, keeping) the airplane in the air.
That means a good supply of parts. (And, not just enough parts to fix the problem – but also enough parts to have in reserve as spares.) This year, we were originally supposed to be doing maintenance, but – as you’ll see – a really good chance to get more parts came up. (...and, seeing that it’s getting harder to find parts...)
Purchasing of Parts
This can best be described as being at the right place at the right time. Many years ago, I used to fly throughout this area, and I had remembered seeing older airplanes on the ramp at the Selkirk Airport. When the B18’s were purchased, I remembered seeing those older airplanes - and I figured that if the older airplanes were there, then the owners of the airport would know who I could contact about the possibility of purchasing parts.
As it turned out, the company that runs the airport is called River Air by Bob and Gary, and they’ve been doing B18 overhauls for many, many years. When I contacted them, they told me that they were interested in getting out of the B18 overhaul business.
And, this wasn’t just the larger items – it also included the hard to find tiny parts. (The kind that really make a difference when you’re doing an overhaul.)
Very quickly an offer was made – and accepted! - on the remaining stock.
Moving of Parts
So, on the morning of 16 OCT 12, the UHaul truck showed up – all ready to move the parts in question.
The first big issue was sorting through one of the storage buildings to find the B18 parts
The second big issue was to figure out exactly what was coming out of the hangar, and in what shape
The third thing on the list was loading all of these parts – safely and efficiently – into the truck.
Next up was simply moving the parts to where they’re going to be stored, and finally unloading the parts.
Unloading of Parts
The key take away in all of this was the fact that all of the loading at Selkirk was done by myself, (Let me tell you, there just wasn’t a whole lot of energy left at the end of that day!) and all of the driving from Selkirk to their current location was done by myself. The reason why the rest of the crew wasn’t involved in this MRP was the fact that this was that I was already out in this general direction anyway. And, seeing that this was a time sensitive MRP, (Gary wanted the building cleared out of parts sooner than later.) with my being out here, the moving and storage of parts could be actioned sooner.
The parts arrived at their destination – it took less time to travel the distance as planned and at less cost – and have been unloaded.
At present, the parts are being sorted and a comprehensive inventory is being made up, with the expectation of producing “Certified Serviceable” subassemblies in the near future.
