Another Day Translating God's Word

My lathe painting assignment is winding down - as I try to put all the pieces back in the right places. (A final picture later.) My new job is another corrosion control project. (That's aircraft maintenance talk for cleaning and painting.)

One of the cool things here at JAARS is that they design, engineer and manufacture hardware to solve unique missions related needs. One of these solutions is an external cargo pod that can be carried on the Pilatus PC-6 Porter.  The pod is awaiting FAA approval, but JAARS wants to show it off at the JAARS Day open house this Saturday.  So we (translate that, "I") had better get cracking and get it painted JAARS white, not that tacky black color it was tested in.

These are not torpedoes for Jesus - they are the external cargo pods, as I began to disassemble them for paint prep.

Using the ceiling crane to move the pods from the second floor workshop to the hanger floor was a little overkill - they only weigh 37 pounds with all the hardware attached.  But why pass up a chance to use the crane? (Don't tell OSHA I was driving the crane when I took this photo.)

Here's Lloyd stripping a couple of Cessna 206 horizontal stabilizers. My pod project is waiting for me to clean off the beeswax (that held the accelerometers for testing) and sand the surface to receive the paint. The bare aluminum pieces need a three step chemical process before they're painted. It should keep me off the streets for a couple of days.

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Dottyanne is still doing her large animal unit. 

Today she and her kids are going on a bear hunt - they're not afraid.  But I'm afraid that this was the first bear hunt they had ever been on.  Maybe a couple of year's experience will improve their hunting skills.

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As promised, here's a before and after picture of the lathe project.  Tedious, but it gives one a sense of satisfaction. It did help to remind myself occasionally that this machine was used to make parts that repaired airplanes that trained pilots who flew supplies to mission outposts that support translators bringing God's word to people in their heart language.  I am a missionary!

iXs,

       the Rev