Archive for November, 2009
A Few of The New Faces on the Nieuport 11 Project Indy
Friday, November 6th, 2009
Lots of New Faces on the Nieuport Project!!
Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009Today was a very good day for the Nieuport 11. Finals are over, new block has started, and we have many new volunteers on the project. We all got together today in the shop, and got back to business. Some new pictures taken today will hopefully be posted tomorrow early evening. We had Ralph busy making some new spars for the lower wing, Jim and Scott were collaborating on the main landing gear strut, Matt Sundstrom was working dilligently on the leading edge spar caps with Carl Hudson. Once again, we have several new faces buzzing around the Nieuport room, and on behalf of the crew I would like to extend our thanks to each new member for their help, and say Welcome to the Crew Guys!!
Side Formers and Stringers
Sunday, November 1st, 2009The first picture shows four of our students who are doing a trial run installing the formers. The two students on the right are David Gunn and Cameron Lowe. The students on the left are John Sanders and Chance Torain. The formers are taped in place so they can get a realistic ideal of how well they fit. The next picture shows how the formers and stringers fit together. Currently, they are temporarily held in place by clamps until they can be permanently attached.
Michael Roesen is in deep thought as he fits the side formers to the fuselage. Michael is a native of Norfolk, which is one of our seven cities. During general conversation I asked Michael to tell me a little about himself. “I 
grew up near Norfolk terminal during the time when they were only serving three airlines; National, United and Piedmont. Planes would fly over, I would look up and wish that one day I could be a pilot or work at an airport. However, prior to following my dream of Aviation I worked in several other fields. After being injured on my job I decided to inquire about an aviation career. I made an appointment with Kevin; we toured the school and looked at the Nieuport replica that was being built. I was told I could be part of the build team as well as have my name on a plaque when it goes to the museum. At that moment I was convinced. I now have 25 hours on the Nieuport and was here the day it first fired up. I helped build the formers with the help of Joe Eggers and Tom Sare. Immediately after starting this task I was bitten by the aviation bug. Everyone at AIM is very helpful, however a special thanks goes to Rodney because his determination helped me to find a job with Fed Ex. I would like to commend everyone for convincing me that I can succeed even when things seemed extremely hard. I now know that if I try I can reach unbelievable heights.”
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