Up and Running

I have successfully completed my first week working at JAARS.  Getting settled here was relatively painless.  Since I worked here last summer it was easy to jump right back into working here at the hangar.  It is so good to be back; I really do love working here.  I have settled into a basement apartment and I have my old desk and computer back at work.  This week I busied myself with paper work for the cargo pod.  I am continuing work on designing and building  under the wing cargo pods for the PC-6 (top center picture).  With the creation of these pods we have to work through certification.  This includes FAI's, STC's, DER's, FAA and all those other engineering acronyms. It also means...lots of paper work.  We are currently building 2 cargo pods to use in flutter testing.  We have a PC-6 coming to JAARS within the next couple of weeks to use in the test.
Some background on the pod project:
 The PC-6 is currently flying in Indonesia.  The Pilatus PC-6 was designed with hard points in the wings where external fuel tanks could be attached.  There was idea to take these same hard points and instead of attaching fuel tanks to connect cargo pods.  This is an ideal place to carry cargo since it would sit right under the wing and greatly help the CG (center of gravity).  They also wanted to be able to carry cargo that you wouldn't want right next to passengers.  Such as concrete, grain, animals for market (dead or alive), and building materials.  These cargo pods are designed to be the same shape and size of the fuel tanks and are made out of composite material making them very light (I can pick one up and carry it around and install it with no problem.)  They are about the size of a small canoe.

A really exciting thing happened this afternoon.  JAARS's second Quest Kodiak  arrived.  Last year JAARS sent their first Kodiak to Papua New Guinea.  PNG is excited to get their second one.  While it is here in North Carolina we are all scrambling to try and get it ready to make the flight to PNG.  I have been working on designing and building and combination tow bar and tail stand.  Before it's ready to go I have to help get a fire detection system installed as well.  I'm sure more projects are going to pop up for me as well.  I will be busy.