A week at MMS Aviation

During my spring break I was able to spend the week at MMS Aviation in Coshocton Ohio with a group of LeTourneau students and faculty. MMS is dedicated to maintaining and repairing aircraft that serve in the mission field both overseas and in the US. The service they provide saves hundreds of thousands of dollars for mission organizations across the globe.

I worked almost exclusively on a Cessna 206 which will be returning to service in Honduras when it is complete. When this aircraft first came to MMS they discovered severe corrosion of the airframe which had to be repaired for the aircraft to be safe. The aircraft was gutted and has been almost rebuilt from the ground up. I worked on installing a Robertson STOL Kit and repairing a portion of the right wing. STOL kits (short takeoff and landing) are installed as after market modifications and allow the aircraft to fly much slower and land on extremely short runways.

Here Scott is instructing me on the finer points of installing the Robertson STOL kit.

The leading edge of the right wing had been previously repaired but we decided to go ahead and replace a large portion of it. This required us to make a cut in the sheet metal, drill out all of the rivets that held the metal on, form a new leading edge, and then reinstall it. Unfortunately our week was ending just as Scott and I were preparing to form the complicated shape out of a sheet of flat aluminum.

Scott finally turned me loose to remove the middle portion of the leading edge and prepare it for new skin.

For more information about MMS Aviation click the link at the bottom of the page. Ashley and I are looking forward to seeing some of their crew at Oshkosh this summer!