Ever wonder what it's like to run a maintenance shop for experimental aircraft?

Did you ever wonder what it's like to run a maintenance shop for experimental aircraft?

I'm Robert Harris, Owner of The Jet Guys in Covington, TN

Here is a recap of the month of June, just to give you an idea:

First project was a two seat AgCat. Owner requested that we correct some nagging problems that the owner wanted us to resolve/repair:

#1 no pitch trim to front seat.

#2 throttle quadrant in front seat mounted to far aft

#3 power levers binding

#4 install ground power plug

#5 install wheel pants with strut fairing

We don’t work on jets all of the time, so the above work makes for a nice change of pace. And yes... we have all of the varying equipment, skills, and knowledge to resolve all of that list.

Next we had the good fortune to help a customer purchase a nice Long Eze. He made the deal and left the Eze with us for a condition inspection. With this Eze being unknown to us, we do what we would call a first flight inspection:

#1 check flight controls for balance and rigging

#2 remove prop and check condition of mating surface, lug condition and any sign of fretting. Prop bolts had bottomed out in drive lugs, with very little compression on prop.

#3 prop repair and new prop extension

The rest of the inspection was uneventful.

Then I squeezed in a five day trip to Florida and Alabama to provide some consulting to Canard owners/builders.

Back at the shop and we install a new battery system for the jet, & perform flight test.

Next Up - some maintenance on the Rutan Aircraft Flying Experience speed canard.

And one final thing... somewhere in this busy month I got to Fly my LongEze.

Note to self, start prep for Oshkosh!

My LongEze: