Project Skywalker

After having assembled the interior of the aircraft we then went on to our instrument panel. We had to make a new one because the instruments we were gonna use were electronic and new. Pieter and Alastair were leading us on this because we had to cut some Aluminium Alloy for our panel✨💯

After having put the aircraft back together we then went on to putting the interior.
We repainted the interior during the painting phase
We got a fire proof carpet from an old DC-9 and we placed a fire extinguisher at the back for safety purposes
We got the chair refurbished by a company in Rand Airport called Skytrim Aircraft Refurbishing, we are truly grateful for the work they did on the chair✨💯.
-The details for Skytrim Aircraft Refurbishing
Address: Hangar 10, Rand Airport Rd, Airport Park, Germiston
Contact:0118276638

After having moved the aircraft inside the classroom we had to put it back together like a puzzle. We secured the belly of the aircraft on the mobile dolly then went to putting the roof back together. It was a fun job💯
We used 1090 rivets all together to put it back together and after doing that we had to hand paint all those rivets to match our beautiful paint job💯

Painting was one of the most frustrating jobs if we can say. With no experience, we had to measure the lines from a Phoebus Apollo aircraft and have the same lines on the training aid. Please bare in mind that professionals have laser equipment to do certain things like this and we had to do it strictly by hand. After painting the first set, we were instructed to redo them as they were the incorrect placing and measurements. It took us a good 3 weeks of having to paint and resand and paint again for the training aid to be painted correctly. Our entire team had a go at painting the aircraft.

We placed back the main landing gear to get a proper measurement from the floor to the belly of the aircraft so that it can feel like a real 172 Cessna. We went on to cutting our 30x30 mm material that we thought would be strong enough then Pieter and Alastair went on to welding them together.We then did an initial test fit to see if it fit then after that we finished the welding then we tested it as a team to see if it could carry our weight✨💯✈️

Just snippets of the in between work💯

Removing the tail: This is the team cutting the tail of the aircraft off so that it can be moved into the classroom as the tail takes up too much space. The support stringers were also removed from the inside of the aircraft.

Removing the Roof: One of the trickiest tasks that we've had 😅. The whole team was hands on deck for this task as we had to discuss the best solution moving forward. Once we all spoke about each other's ideas, we had finally agreed on the best one. Moving forward we decided to remove the top of the roof with the side door support panels. This way the aircraft would be in 2, the body and the roof. This made it easier for us to move it into the classroom where the training aid would be staying.