Two of the six tests I need to take for my Airframe license have been passed! I completed the written test for the General and Airframe curriculum's this last week. This upcoming week I will take (and hopefully pass) the oral and practical portions of the Airframe test. It will take all day and will cost about $450 but at the end of the day I should have a license. This test is the culmination of everything we have been working on at SMAT since August. I hope all goes well.

JMG

One of the advantages of being up early in the morning is seeing all the westbound airliners flying the jet routes. I count 12 different contrails.
My "Buzz Box" for testing aircraft ignition magnetos. A time consuming project.

Many small aircraft still use carburetors. Here is one taken apart.

A very old aircraft magneto. These can be pretty confusing.

We are now deep in the Power plant curriculum. Here is an engine that I am taking apart with a team. This is a big project. We are going to overhaul this engine and return it to service. Note the huge pistons and crankshaft.

Landing at 24C Lowell

Landing at Lowell

Landing at y70 Ionia on a nice evening.

B52 over Louisville, KY

F22, P51, F4, and F16 in formation.

Sitting in Sun.

Hello All.

As the weather improves in Michigan more flying has been taking place along with new and interesting projects in the maintenance hanger. Above is a video and photos of landings at Lowell and Ionia Michigan. Also photos from this year's "Thunder of Louisville" which is an airshow and fireworks display (one of the best in the country hands down) that kicks off the festivities leading up to the Kentucky Derby. Enjoy!

JMG

Hello! Once again I have not been as diligent as I should be about updating this blog. Thank you Jon. It has been more than a little busy these last few weeks and I have several things to report on. My mother had knee surgery last weekend and after a couple days in the ICU she is doing much better and is back at home. My Instrument Ground School class has been completed and I am happy to report that all the students passed the final exam. I don't think I am any great teacher but I enjoy the subject matter, and I think all the students ended the class with a positive experience. They have a better idea of how the IFR system works and should be able to go and take the necessary written exam for the rating. As the weather improves I have been flying more which is always great.

A very experienced veteran of the Missionary Aviation world came and visited us here at SMAT a few weeks ago. Doug came from JAARS and spent the week talking to us about his many years of flying in South America. He flew in Ecuador and Peru before the area was even charted well. He is a product of true bush flying long before the days of GPS. I had the opportunity to go on an evaluation flight with Doug. We practiced low level cross country navigation using only a map and stopwatch and landing techniques very close to stall speed to get into short fields.

Today, our class went on a field trip to a visit the corporate hanger of a well know company in Grand Rapids. It was a very interesting trip and a great educational opportunity to look at some of the nicest business jets flying anywhere in the world today.

Exams for the FAA Airframe license start soon. I'll keep you updated.

JMG

Matt (left), Doug (Right) and I plan out our trip with minimal navigation equipment.

Our class on a field trip at a corporate hanger in front of a new Gulfstream V. This aircraft can fly nonstop from the Michigan to Bejing. It represents the pinnacle of luxury at a cost of about $50 million each. This hanger had 3.
Inside the rear access bay of Hawker business jet on our class trip. I don't know what everything is but I am working on it.

Hello! It has been very busy here in Michigan and I have not provided updates as frequently as I would like. My last blog entry is a link to a blog from a pilot flying with Air Serv in Africa. I don't know this person personally but it is an organization that is helping a lot of people in many difficult locations. Winter is starting to loose the battle to Spring here in Michigan. Winter has been very long and it is not over yet. However, around Valentines day we set several record high temperatures around Grand Rapids, and no new winter storms have hit the area. The improvement in the weather means that I am flying more. This is great as I flew very little in the months of December and January. February was not much better for flying but I began teaching an Instrument Ground School class through SMAT in Ionia. I have four dedicated students and we spend about three hours every Tuesday and Thursday evening learning about how to operate and aircraft in the IFR environment safely.

Adding to my overall busyness is the fact that the first of two major exams at School is coming up in only a month. Everyone must pass the FAA General oral, practical and written exam and then pass the Airframe or Power Plant oral, practical and written exam. At some point around the first or second week of April I will take the General and Airframe exams with my fellow students at SMAT. It is THE big exam for the whole year. We will be tested over everything we have covered since August. We take the test one on one with one of our two instructors. The test will take ALL day, 8-12 hours. At the end of the exam I hope to be a certified Airframe mechanic.

After the General and Airframe exams in April the months remaining in the program (May-August) will be devoted to Power Plant operations. At the conclusion of the curriculum all SMAT students will take the FAA Power Plant oral, practical and written exams. This is another all day test. All of us at SMAT then plan to be official A&P mechanics for Graduation.

The son of one of our instructors works for a well known avionics and electronics company. He visited our school last week and brought a Cirrus aircraft with a new experimental all glass panel next generation flight deck. The Cirrus is an impressive high performance all composite aircraft that represents a whole new direction in aircraft design and manufacturing. The computers that operate the flight deck are even more revolutionary. The clean crisp fashion that critical flight information is presented improves the situational awareness of the pilot by leaps and bounds. However, at a cost of about $500,000 this airplane is not practical for many people. Never the less, it was great to spend most of the day learning about this aircraft that represents the future of aviation.

Composite materials allow for a more aerodynamic shape than aluminum and rivets.

A modern glass flight deck. Notice the side stick control.

Many new airplanes are now equipped with a parachute for the whole airplane.

Putting a new aluminum skin on this wing has been an on going project that I have been working on this week.

Journey Outward: Air Serv Land Cruiser

Journey Outward: Air Serv Land Cruiser

Here is a photo of most of the class from the Great Lakes Region Aviation Conference in Detroit last week.

Here is another photo. This one is from October when a VIP visited our school with his helicopter.

JMG

Hello Friends,

After a busy week of class and shop time at SMAT this week, we took Friday to visit the Great Lakes Region Aviation Convention close to Detroit. At SMAT we start class at 7am everyday so we are used to fairly early mornings. Since we wanted to make it to Detroit for the first maintenance lectures at 7:30am, we left Ionia at 5:30, and made a sleepy trip across the state in our 15-passenger van.

The Convention covered some very interesting topics and provided access to many industry members. We learned about landing gear failure, human factors in running a flight deck or maintenance shop, and next generation air traffic control in the form of ADS-B, as well as advanced-glass cockpits with new synthetic vision technology, Lycoming engines and repairing composite aircraft structures. Proving that it's a small world, I ran into a former classmate and CFI from Purdue at the convention. I also spent a lot of time at the Cessna and Cirrus displays learning about new additions to their fleet. Cessna's new Light Sport Aircraft looks very promising. Cirrus' full sized model of the SR22 Turbo seemed as close to perfection as anything I have ever seen in aircraft design. I got in trouble with two FAA members who had a small simulator that replicates what happens when a pilot suffers from vertigo and disorientation. I tried to test the limits of the simulator by stalling and spinning it, but the FAA guy made me stop before I crashed it.

The return trip in the evening was proceeding without any excitement. However, on the south side of Lansing we had a tire blow out on us while on the interstate. While this can be a dangerous scenario in any top-heavy 15 passenger van we were able to pull off the road and into a parking lot, where we proceeded to change the tire. We got a spare tire put on, but I could not feel my hands, face or feet for about half an hour due to the extreme cold. In retrospect, if I had to be in a disabled vehicle at least I was in one with 10 other automotive and airplane mechanics. Look for pictures from our field trip soon.

In other news, it is finally above freezing! For the first time in weeks, the mercury has risen above 32F to almost 40F. The ground is still completely snow-covered, though, and the temperature will fall significantly next week. So begins February.

JMG