waterbomber

So whats happening or not in Ocana?
Well a month has passed since we had the meeting with CAA and agreed that I present a maintenance plan  via SAESA. Nothing is  happening as SAESA is stalling the progress so I had to cancel the trip we planned for  in the beginning of April. 

The engines have to have a corrosion check before we can install them. This inspection was made last summer by Daza, the engine specialist at SAESA, who dismantlied, inspected and reassembled them, so there should be no problems there.... Just need the signed statement.. This was more than a month ago however and the papers are still at SAESA and CAA has not recieved any documents for approval yet... The plan is now that I and about 8 friends go to Ocana on the 10th of May and install the engines, newly overhauled props and do the initial ground tests before we can commence flying... tha critical part is now to get the papers through SAESA for approval. CAA seems very cooperative and are very plesant to work with. The goal is to be finished with most of the work so the flight testing can commence before the end of May/ beginning of June.... It is still possible to achieve but the planning can not withstand much more delays.

One intersting thing that I have come across is the issue of where to register EC-FMC.... one issue is fees. For example a certificate of airworthiness for an Annex 2 aircraft up to 15000Kg MTOM is in Spain: 145 euros, in NL you ger either 75 or 100% deduction on the airworthiness fees on Historic aircraft. In Sweden you end up paying approx 3000Euros.... No desicion has been taken yet but I hope that I can convince the Swedish authorities to adopt a resonable attitude towards operators of historic aircraft and harmonise the fees with other EU countries.. (well put huh?) Lets see if we have any luck!

All components are othervise ready to be installed, I have recieved two brand new tires with tubes, (8000USD...) and things are looking really good as long as we can ger the paperwork done with.