We had a great week assembling the helicopter and it is now completely ready for it’s test flights. We assembled it and then performed an annual inspection which included running it on the ground and balancing the rotors. It’s running beautifully and is all ready to fly for the final balancing and testing. Our USA based team did an absolutely incredible job of packing it all up and making it easy for us to assemble. It arrived without a single scratch or dent. Amazing! Although it is mechanically ready to fly, we can’t fly it legally in the Philippines until we get several pieces of paper issued to us. Please pray with us over the next weeks specifically for these items:
- Customs Clearance paperwork copies. The papers have been on the collector’s desk for several days and he hasn’t signed them yet. We don’t know what the delay is.
- Registration with CAAP. Our papers have to go across roughly 15 different desks to get this approved. Please pray it doesn’t get lost or stalled on someone’s desk.
- NTC radio license. We need to have the helicopter registered before we can get a radio license. This should be a simple process, but it will take some time if the right people aren’t at the office when we need them to sign our licenses. We need this in order to get our airworthiness certificate.
- Airworthiness Certificate: this requires an inspector to fly commercially to look at the helicopter and then return to Manila and turn our application in where it needs to be approved and signed. There are lots of ways this can go sideways, so please pray that we get a proactive inspector who will take an interest in what we’re doing and help us.