Our AMI road crew is busy at work, readying another DC-3 to return to the skies.We’re very excited about this project–she will represent a near full compliment of AMI’s offerings.
To be addressed are general aircraft systems overhaul, control surfaces repair/replacement, full interior renovation, paint strip, polish & paint; the list goes on. This project will take an estimated 18-24 months to complete, and we’ll keep you updated along the way!
Here are some photos from the ferry flight prep:A bum engine rearranged the schedule early on. After sitting dormant for nearly 20 years, we hoped that we would be able to wake her up gently and ferry her to Oregon, as can often be the case with these machines. The original plan was to ferry right away to our facility at KUAO, and begin to paint strip while the engines were away for overhaul. Instead, the extent of discovered internal engine damage meant we would send the engines to Anderson Aeromotive for overhaul from the plane’s current location. She’s going to receive a new livery…with polish and paint. (Yes! We said POLISH! Nothing more show-stopping on a DC-3…)This is just a demo to test a color against the polish on a small piece of cowling…but you get the sense of how good the polish will look. And check out the polished propellers, overhauled by American Propeller–beautiful work. This particular DC-3 is equipped with R-1830-94 engines, which, (fun fact) brings the total number of -94s that we at AMI regularly work with to 10.
Stay tuned, friends and fliers. She’s going to be a great one!