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AIRPLANES!!! engines and stuffs and things

 

 

Since Christmas break wrapped up things have been moving along non-stop!

 

                

 

I spent a wonderful time at home for Christmas (had my wisdom teeth removed too, yay!) That was EXTREEME sarcasm by the way... I visited my best pal Joshua, I smoked some meat in my new smoker, and he made some cheese with an under-topping of pasta (truly the best). We also added some greens to make our moms happy. (Love you mom! 😁)

 

 

I also thoroughly related with this comic........ (ask my mom about it sometime lol) I tend to pick things up rather quickly, the art of using a hammer well, well it was one of those things...

 

 

And I learned a fantastic word! This describes how I feel whenever I am talking or writing something! (including right now :)

 

             

I had an intensive class on Romans with the              Then I flew off!

legendary Dr. John McMath (see an old post

to learn about him, he's the best)

 

The next school course was Turbine Engine Training at JAARS in North Carolina (it is out there because they have the best tools and training course.) We had a fabulous time!

 

    

 

    

 

We went on many walks around the large countryside campus of the JAARS HQ in Waxaw, NC. Birds singing in the morning on the way to class, stars and crickets on the walk back after supper with our meal group :b we ate like kings... The teaching style was hands on with us giving impromptu presentations on airflow through the engine and how different systems worked (fuel or constant speed or torque measuring or whatever), as well as several engine runs to see things.

 

    

 

Over the weekend we drove up to Raleigh-Durham to visit my friend Stephen's family. We clumb up a grand beech tree, jammed much, and troubleshot the turbo-diesel in their sprinter van.

 

    

 

The second week was focused on heavy maintenance procedures. We were a little tired by this point (Left: me orbiting the star Capella... Center: removing the compressor turbine during a Hot Section Inspection (HSI) Right: never too many pictures when you are taking things apart, this is the accessory gear box removal, hence all the gears.)

 

    Random: the Accessory Gear Box (AGB) goes at the back of the engine and is used to drive fun things like fuel pumps, starter/generators, and oil pumps.

 

    

 

Our times in the woods were filled with nostalgia and fun, (the videos won't upload) we treeversed several streams parcoring our way through, and on our way back from an expedition decided we needed a pace somewhere between boring walking and tiring running. SO we (there were 6 of us) skipped in-line down the road back. I'm sure we were a sight to behold from the 12 cars that drove past us.

 

A family at JAARS invited us all out for Brazilian BBQ at their place (it was amazing, smoked meat skewered on swords... 🤌🤌 and the best pico-de-gaio-ish stuff ever)

 

Also we drank a lot of water during class, I reckon it is due to brain-cooling requirements. We had several instances where we finished sorting out an 'engineering question' and there was a visible haze of water vapor in the room.

 

    

 

We finished our assembly after the HSI and AGB pull, rigged all the controls up. No parts leftover in the muffin tin! Engine all in one piece. And an ice-cream sandwich for celebration. An opportunity I couldn't pass up philosophizing over:

    "The beautiful thing about an ice cream sandwich is that it forces you to live in the moment and enjoy it, you can't save it for later."

 

 

With that our course was at an end, it was such a wonderfully nostalgic and stimulating adventure!!! Thanks to all the folks at JAARS for the gift of this training and experience!

 

                         

 

Left: And I flew back! And the first thing I did when I returned was to create some memes.

 

Center: (Collin and I obediently "engaged" with the material and often asked some very unique questions... Our instructor Jon patiently put up with us and explained as much of our curiosity as we had time for while trying to un-confuse the rest of the class (our curiosities were not of the most perspicuous nature). He also coined a new phrase "that's an engineering question")

 

Right: Our other instructor Chip provided us with many laughs and good stories and his text ring is roadrunner.

 

    

 

When we arrived home we leapt head-first into Reciprocating Engine Seminar keeping with the theme of engines. It turned out to be a fun adventure of a seminar, first due to the consolidating of the two week course into one week, second from all of the engines having the worst problems already in them!! We were supposed to cause issues, observe and then remove the issues. Turns out we just spent the week tuning them up and fixing or replacing things! It turned out to be a good bit of fun

Left: Me running the Turbocharaged. TSIO-520 Middle: Daniel and I running the O-320. Right: My bro Thoren from Nebraska ironically is throwing twin turbos on his big-block Chevy, and he told us about it the same week we were working on turbos...

 

    

 

After Recip Ceminar we maintenance folks jumped into Recip overhaul! (Engines be cool)

Left: Lycoming IO-360-L2A (This is the engine that goes on the Cessna 172 trainer plane that students fly here. I is for Injected referring to fuel injection, O is for opposed referring to the cylinders (removed in that photo) being on opposite sides of each other, 360 is cubic inches of displacement, and L2A is the model designation.)

Middle: Measuring the slop or play in the gears (called gearlash), in the accesory case. These were within new tolerances! (this engine be VERY nice inside)

Right: some guts, theres a piston at the top, some induction tubes top left, then plain bearings for the crankshaft, camshaft, to the left roller tappets (this engine is one of the very few aircraft engines that uses those), and the right connecting rods.

 

   

 

And most recently we ran the engine and parts through the parts washer (basically a hugigantic dish-washer for engines that uses rust remover, degreaser and crud-remover instead of soap) Then we carefully packaged them up and pushed them through the snow to the main hangar for shipping. Ericka felt fine letting Stephen and I do the pushing apparently.

 

 

Weeeeelllll, that's all for the momment! Sorry it took so long, I am planning on dropping a tool of the month shortly as well. (if I don't holler and remind me lol) Rest well in the providence of our gracioius Saviour friends! Love and prayers for you all,

 

In His Hands,

Jonathan

 

 

 

 

Easter Egg: The body did at one point ascend partially and made its respective descent. The lad indeed did live, and his mother watched and had given permission to the entire proceedings of the ascent and descent. He may have been a little dramatic about his nap under the tree while we were taking a picture however. (Although it was rather iconically comedic from a certain point of view)