A very busy and successful day on Saturday as we were in a position to test the engine alternators that have been giving us some issues.

Early on, the aircraft was pulled forward from the pan and prepped ready for an engine run. This coincided nicely with the “first weekend of the month equipment runs” and also gave us the chance to test (and use) the Garrett as an alternative air start unit to the Palouste and we are pleased to say it performed admirably.

Following the first engine run, we were still showing faults with the number 2 and 4 alternators so after shut down and some head scratching the engine bay door to number 2 was opened in preparation for checking and cleaning of the alternator cable terminations. During this process it was noticed that some of the terminations were incorrectly wired so these were swapped. A further run was conducted and showed that the number 2 alternator was now functioning, however the number 4 alternator will require more fault finding.

We were able to cycle the volunteers through positions both outside of the aircraft and internally to make sure that as many as possible were able to experience being onboard with the engines running.

One of our volunteers also took a helicopter ride during the day and was able to catch some unique views of XM655.

Pictures are courtesy of Helen, Isi and James.