Plane drawing

We have been trying to come out with a simple way of teaching kids in the rural communities to draw planes as a form of motivation to them take interest in the new health education program.

The girls today, were working on simple design.

Safe flying

The girls are still working on their articles and I am hoping to put them up soon.

They were in there today, in that tower, keeping eyes on the traffic, making safe calls that protect the lives of those pilots that rely on their Radio Telephony.

Flying

It was another day of flying. The visibility is improving which means we will be making more holes in the air.

Article

Many often, we read certain articles, novels, newspaper and many others ; But we sometimes forget to analyze how many new words we have come across just reading. The use of vocabulary in day to day life is such that, we can longer afford to not learn the meaning of new words. The girls today, have started reading the fresh air matters and realized how many words that new to them.

They started writing their own articles which will be going on the blog site soon.

Engineering

As usual, today was a busy one for the Girls. The X-air falcon that we are working on is making everybody focus in the workshop; they were writing the list of to dos in order for the plane to be ready for the test flight.

During this stage of engineering, everybody is in there; checking and double checking to make sure the plane is to fly. We fueled up the plane to check for leaks and the fuel system passed first time.

Finished version

The ladies today, finished their work on the bucket of the K2700.

All the drilled holes got riveted and all looking very professional.

This is their first project that involves using lot of new tools they have not used without any supervision and on a working MoM vehicle. I have to say, I believe that the AvTech Girls are making positive changes in their day-to-day development.

More design

The girls today made a re-enforcement for the bucket of the K2700 since the existing one is falling apart. First of all, the Girls went through the following steps...

1. Measured the bucket and an appropriate length of steel

2. Cut the marked steel

3. Filed the cut piece with a flat file to remove all sparps

4. Found the mid-point and marked 10mm from each end

5. Marked at pitch 60

6. Drilled with 3mm drill-bit and deburr

7. Sand,de-greased and sprayed with black paint and leave to dry.

Rest day.

Is the Girls off day today as they prepare for a busy week.

Fuelling up

At the end of the flying today, the girls fuelled the planes ready for the week. We hope for clear skies and the opportunity to work on the bag drop methods for MoM.

Flying day

The best visibility ever since December 15th, it was a busy one and the girls were in charge of radio telephony for the day. We hope the weather stays good so that, the girls could get some slot to fly.

Loving caring for your machine.

I have been to many places and Workshops where their tools are all over the place, looking very dirty and no care for the tools; but when you come to the airfield at Kpong, everything is clean and in good order. The harmattan is so bad this year, making it impossible to keep anything clean for long, but the girls so love their planes and will not let.the planes get dirty .Today the visibility was around 4km, we all rushed into the hangers to wash and get the machines ready for action, when we finished with the washing, the girls said to each other about how nice their machines looked.they were all happy to be caring for what they love. Hope other people could learn from these lovely young ladies.

Practice makes perfect.

Many people world wide refuse to do certain things in case they get it wrong but these days in Ghana, the girls in the Academy are changing that perception, due to more practice on how to draw and interpret 3D drawing. Today, the Girls spent more time on their design work for the cabin for the Tractor.

Designing a cabin for tractor.

The girls project today is to design a cabin for our current Ford 3000 tractor so all girls are out with pencils, rulers, paper etc doing their drawing. They are thoroughly enjoying this project because according to them, they have never been given the opportunity to do real time learning.

Girls doing 3D drawing.

Yesterday was the girls off day.

Today they are busily working on their 3D drawing, they were all given a full working plane to draw showing the front elevation, side elevation and the plan view

The Girls loving the use of Computers.

The use of computers in the world that we live in now is very rampant,the girls are just beginning to understand why we are asking them all the time to present all their work reports on computers.

Last term, a company by name,Medion gave three laptop computers and three digital cameras to the AvTech Academy which really helped the girls with their computer skills,for every report they present,they take photographs to support the written reports and most often, because they are enjoying using the cameras, it helps boost their interests in using the computers because that allows them to upload images since they like the idea of pictures.Many thanks to Francis Norman and Medion LTD for their generosity, the girls are very grateful. We have six new students starting in September this year, we hope to be able to equip them with more computers that will enable them to do more computer work especially since all the flying theory is CBT(Computer Based Training) it means they have to be good with computer before the time comes.

Ground school

Blessed are the people who have good visibility to fly, you need to be proud about the fact that you can fly. Since there was no flying at Kpong Airfield today, we decided to do ground school revision with everybody who shows up at the Airfield to fly. unfortunately,there were no outsiders so, the Girls got to do that which was very good for them because it gave them the chance to ask as many questions as possible which they will not otherwise ask in the presence of other people.

The chief flying instructor Jonathan Porter made the lesson very easy to learn and remember,on behave of the the Girls, a big thanks to WAASPS for the lessons today.

Cleanliness is key

The girls told me today that, they would like to spend sometime in the workshop to identify some new tools that they are not yet familiar with. Examples are bigger torque wrench, long nosed pliers, oil filter removers and two air tool oilers , many thanks to Paul H for the oilers and the oil filter removers.

Drawing properly

The girls learnt to make nets and exploring drawing three dimension from two dimension forms through the use of paper and CAD.

Arranging the Aircraft Stores

Today, the girls and I started putting the Aircraft stores in order, which is arranging and sorting out the parts to make it easy finding parts during build. We all enjoyed the dirty work of the day and I was proud of the girls for the efforts they put into making that workshop a nice and comfortable working place.

Start of term Exams

Another term has begun for the students in the Academy.
The girls started the day with FOD ( foreign object debris ) walk which is the most important thing at an Airfield like ours where flying lessons for the girls takes place, the girls after their walk on the runway had breakfast and sat in the class ready for the start of term Exams, all students as happy as the HAPPY birds that spend a lot of their time flying in formation with the aircraft at Kpong Airfield.

First flight of 2012

My first flight this year was with a young lady of fourteen who in the air was not sure about how to express her feeling of excitement and every now and then will look into my face with her face filled with a beaming smile,she was on the controls for 80% of the flight , although the visibility was not the best ,we enjoyed every minute of it .We got back and the young lady turned to me and said " you have changed something in me " so l told her then, you need to help me change that of others one flight at a time.

New term

In preparation towards the return of the AvTech students into the accommodation, have purchased two additional 90Ap batteries. These batteries will provide a further two hours of light per day with negligible additional diesel burn at the Genset. With 15-25% increases across the board, creative economical thinking is essential.