WWI Student Project

The wood work and fabrication of ribs is moving forward. Pictured here is Oulay Vong busy at making these pieces. It takes a lot of time to finish one. It’s a process of drawing it out, cutting the form, cutting the lighting holes out and sanding the piece down to perfection. Since there are many more to make we will be making these for a while.

Last week we mentioned that we updated our instrument panel and here you can see the new one which is made out of metal. Our first one at the time we made it seemed appropriate but as we moved forward building this aircraft we have made adjustments to make the aircraft more user friendly, more durable and the new panel does just that.

Please click on all pictures to enlarge, thank you.

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The student standing next to the Nieuport 24 (N24) and sanding one of the lower wings is a new team member for the N24 student project. John Sanders Jr. is seen here sanding down the wood to apply more varnish which helps protect the wood. John comes from up state New York from a town called Clifton Springs. He saw an ad in the Finger Times about the Aviation Institute of Maintenance (AIM) and called for more information and decided to come to our school here in Chesapeake, Virginia. He had a choice of nine different locations/campuses around the United Stated to enroll in, but we are glad he is here. John already brings in some good experience in aviation. Along with his father they built a two seat 200mph fully aerobatic sport plane called a Sonex. They purchased the kit and engine went to the workshops and now his father and himself enjoy going flying in it. John said his passion started with aviation because of his father’s background, he owns Richland Airport in New York. John is focused on getting his degree and also taking our Avionics classes. After all is done he said he will get employment in the Syracuse, New York area and have a life long career in aviation.

Also in this weeks blog Anna Brown is mixing up adhesive to apply to those small wooden “U” shaped pieces that are in front of her. In the next picture you can see one installed above the turn buckle. We needed to change our instrument panel which is covered by the red cloth. Check back next week to see the new panel. Please click on all pictures to enlarge.

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Cameron Lowe in the blue shirt and David Gunn with the yellow shirt are busy fitting wing ribs. They are doing some final touches on them so they fit just right. As you can see by their expressions they did a great job. Part of building this Nieuport 24 (N24) aircraft is the taking on a task that you have never done before and with the guidance of an instructor they accomplish this task and gain a sense of pride of a job well done.

Working the small pieces for the wing is Vong Oulay who is pictured here using a scribe to get a small hole started to make it easier to put a nail in these pieces when installed to the wing. Mr. Joe Eggers sitting with the pencil in his hand is still figuring out a problem with the N24 while he and some students take a lunch break. Joe is one of our A&P instructors at our school.  The students are Cameron Lowe, left corner then Chris Roll standing up, David Gunn, Matt Rethmeyer and Vong Oulay enjoying some well deserved pizza for their efforts.

Future aircraft mechanics (A&P’s) begin their career at AIM

Pictured here is Matthew Rethemeyer checking a top former and also starting on a rib for one of the lower wings for our Nieuport 24 aircraft.

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