Aircraft Maintenance Technology - 26

COVER STORY

GENERAL AVIATION

THE MAINTENANCE ASPECT

you can't mess around with maintenance
when parents are expecting you to give
their child a safe ride - it better happen," continues Hopkins. "And then we
have two biplanes, the Travel Air and the

"We have to maintain those and make sure
they're flying good and we're not having
any issues because we're giving kid rides.
Again, same way with the Skycatchers,

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Swallow. If you wanted to go for an airplane ride, you can pay $75 and go for
a 15-minute ride around the patch and
experience what it's like to go for an open
cockpit biplane ride."
As if that isn't enough, the EAA also
maintains a handful of aircraft for its personal use: An Aztec used for business travel, a Cessna 210 used as its photo plane,
and a T6, brought out for special occasions
- sometimes to fly alongside the B-17.
Maintaining and supporting the EAA's
many aircraft falls to Hopkins, the four
other EAA staff mechanics, and a healthy
volunteer core.
"We're very lucky that we have people
who understand the passion. They look for
the variety here. It's not going and working on an assembly line doing the same
thing every day and you're not working on
corporate jets every day. There's a variety
and there's always a neat challenge," says
Dennis Dunbar, EAA's director of flight
operations. "When John starts talking
about all the different things that we've
done here in just a short time, it's pretty
amazing what we were able to accomplish
because of that passion and experience."

THE IMPORTANCE OF
VOLUNTEERS
The mix of staff and volunteers is responsible for many of the EAA's accomplishments.
"We have volunteer mechanics for the
B-17 program and the B-25 and I've got
a few volunteer guys that are helping
with the Fords, and we're trying to grow
that group of guys to go out," explains
Hopkins. "Maybe it needs an oil change,
or maybe a push-to-talk switch is broken or whatever the routine little trouble
things that keep them up and running.
Maybe an oil leak on a push rod tube.
Then we'll go out and do the 120- or the
100-hour inspections. Or if anything serious happens, like they need a cylinder
change, one of the staff here will travel
out and help."
EAA counts over 100 year-round, active
volunteers on its roster, helping with projects big and small. When AirVenture hits,
the volunteer numbers skyrocket. Dunbar

AIRCRAFT MAINTENANCE TECHNOLOGY

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Aircraft Maintenance Technology

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Aircraft Maintenance Technology