Valiant Effort

The Mechanics Corner 3

Welcome to the third Mechanics Corner, I have a lot to update everyone on this week. The Valiant Effort Team got together last weekend at the hangar and we accomplished a lot. I am so proud of our team, camaraderie, skill and humor define us. We had many visitors come by and express their excitement to hear and see that we are fixing Annie, I think that she is enjoying the attention.

Our mission for the weekend was to prepare Annie for a thorough inspection. Some of the damage from the incident is readily apparent, however some of it may be hidden. In order for us to ascertain the extent of the damage we need to remove panels and open inspection covers. Vultee did an oustanding job of designing the BT to be easily worked on. Within a few hours we were able to get everything opened up. I am happy to report that aside from some spiders that made her home while she was on the ramp, she seems to have survived last winter no worse for wear.

Plane LeftPlane RightEmpennage InsideJeff and Flap Removed

The weekend of course involved some shenanigans and I'd be remiss if I didn't share a bit of the fun that we had. One of our own, Alex, earned his call sign over the weekend. He has been dubbed Rocketman based on the photo below.

rocketmanPeak a Boo

Some Friends and Family came by as well, thanks to Jeff and Chris for their help. My son got to meet Annie for the first time. He thought she was pretty cool!

Greg and Jeffleo and Dad

Our next step will be to bring the complete crew together plus our specialists for a weekend of intense examination. Our goal that weekend will be to generate a complete squawk list, from which we can develop our project plan and move forward with the repairs. I am very excited at the progress so far and am looking forward to getting the repair work underway. More to follow very soon!