Pages

Thursday 28 February 2013

It all adds up to a meal...

The girls now have to pass a maths time table before every meal which is at breakfast, lunch and supper.

We realised this helps them with their tables for day to day activities and they are doing very well each day.

The ladies are thrilled because they are now able to help with all the calculations during aircraft build.

Wednesday 27 February 2013

Finally we fly.....

It is very nice to have clear day with visibility at around 8km which is better than most days.

We started flying from about 06:30 this morning with winds of 18km wind and then, at around noon, the wind speed was all over place making it impossible to keep fly.


The girls decided to do self directed studies (SDS) to enable them prepare for their coming exams which they will have to pass before first solos.

Monday 25 February 2013

Showing the bellypod.... demonstating ability

The students were very proud today showing officials the bellypod which is under development.
They demonstrated to the officials how the pod will work when is fully constructed and in production.

As part of the visit, a demo-drop was organized for them to demonstrate the attitude at which these drops will done at when the pod is finished and operational for the live drops.

The students also went on to explain the reasons why we want to use the bellypod on our metal planes and not tube and cloth. That is to improve upon aerodynamics during flight,load capacity and durability.

Saturday 23 February 2013

Changing attitudes and behavior... One trip at a time.

A couple of years ago, the AvTech Academy was involved in the safety training for crew operating the ferry crossing between Adorso and Donkorkrom. This is the crossing point into the Afram Plains.

Thanks to the Volta Lake Transport Company, we were able to use that same crossing on our recent mission to the Plains.

The students were very pleased to witness that, their safety training to the crew is being taken seriously to ensure safe traveling on this Volta lake crossing point.

The students made a valid point in their observation regarding the flotation devices onboard; being able to accommodate all personnel present at any given time and appropriate loading of the vessels is now standard for the safety and comfort of its occupants.

It has taken a long time of teaching and mind changing to be able to get the ladies points of view accepted by those older and in high position. Whenever they are doing anything which compromises safety especially in this culture, the young normally can't be seen to be correcting someone older than them.

Perhaps it is high time we all helped change the mindset of people who are still ignorant about safety in our everyday life, regardless of age or position.

Wednesday 20 February 2013

"Team" work

We started training these young ladies three years ago, and they are just at the point where we are able to split them into teams for the different jobs.

Today, the ladies did very well on separate jobs in different locations. One group worked on the door for the drop hatch system and the second group worked on getting AE back onto her wheels after three months of waiting for her parts to arrive from India.

Sunday 17 February 2013

The Afram Plains....some day the Afram "Planes"

Here we are sitting in a VLTC (Volta lake transport company) bus traveling from Kpong to the Afram Plains, a place that will normally take you about half hour to an hour in a plane. On the road, is about ten to eleven hours. After three hours on very rough road, with everybody hurting and exhausted from the drive, we took the decision to spend the night since everbody was hungry and Lydia is still recovering from malaria.

After the long difficult drive on the corrugated road, we made it to the Afram Plains safely and did our presentation for the selection of children to the fly me day on the 8th-10th March. The schoolgirls were very enthusiastic about all the topics. Some of the topics includes four forces of flight, cycles of a four stroke engine, SODIS and schistosomiasis and above all, the gIrls were reminded to work hard and not to become school dropouts or get pregnant.

Friday 15 February 2013

Educating a nation... has to start somewhere.

Lydia and Emmanuella went for their visa interviews after a long drive the day before to the city in order to be on time in the morning for their interviews which perhaps may create the opportunity for these two young ladies to be able to travel to largest airshow in Europe.

On our way, the road which is clearly one way, had cars driving in all directions.

About half a mile down the road was a bus with its back wheels caught in a collapsed ditch.

The girls said, they will Like to help Ghana grow by educating people on safety and doing the right thing

Thursday 14 February 2013

Hands on learning

Here, the girls are doing a lot work on live aircraft and this includes cutting sheet metal, filling, drilling, de-burring and installing the parts onto the planes.


They designed the fuel line trays for AF, the plane that is mostly used for aerial supply drops to help change lives, one flight at a time.

Express yourself.

This week is very busy for the girls to do with making a documentary about what they do in the AvTechacademy, supported by medicine on the move and waasps.

It is very important for the girls to realise that their futures is dependent on what they are studying in the school today.

The ladies were able to express themselves with the camera crew filming a documentary for red bull.

Saturday 9 February 2013

Our new header tank...

After a lot of careful brain storming, calculations, hard work of cutting sheet metal, drilling, de-burring and other prep work before installation. The outcome of this sort of hardwork makes everyone happy at the end of the day.

Of course if this works, we Will be able to stay air born for twelve hours in economy mode.

Wednesday 6 February 2013

Learning to wire

The seagulls (second year students) of the AvTech academy are really demonstrating their ability to take on more roles of our day to day activities on ensuring safety at the airfield.

Today, the seagulls helped with the electrical installation in the new training centre. They very much enjoyed learning about the basics of electrics, they learnt about wire identification for example:-

Red or Brown=live
black or Blue=neutral
Green or green&yellow=earth/ground

(Black could be live in certain cases.) These basics are very important and thanks to Marcel Stieber for sharing his knowledge with the Girls.

Monday 4 February 2013

Getting the shop ready...

Our a new machine for the workshop arrives in about a month and in preparation, we started laying all the electric points and prepping the bay ready to receive the machine and to start teaching the students how to do precision work using a more advanced technology to achieve solutions for integrating more STEM enhancement to the curriculum content  we enjoy changing lives positively and with innovation.