News of the day
As planned, the team finished to separate the many conduits, cables, leads etc.. which connecting the fuselage and the central wing.
The two wings an the tail plane are in their frame. The crane arrived this morning for the delicate working of the fuselage and central wing separation. The team had taken out hundreds of bolts. A young voluntary German operator stayed at the base to do the job instead of going skiing with his friends. The difficulty of the working was that the fuselage had to be perfectly in the horizontal. Sylvain et Patrick D. climbed on the fuselage to adjust the chains after each trial. Then the crane lifted very slowly the whole, they heard grindings, sqeaks, squeals and… the two parts separated without any trouble. The fuselage was laid on the parking, where the men had put pallets and mattresses to protect it. They are now dismantling the vertical plane of the tail and taking off the rivets from the central wing. Then the crane driver will come back to return is, put it on its back. The men will take off the rest of the rivets to separate it in two parts for the transport.
Olivier had a look to the planning with Claude. They decided when they will finished what is described before, to stop working and go to have a look to the old part of Sarajevo. After that, they will collect themselves in front of the monument for the French dead soldiers during the Balkanese conflict. Then, they will have a good diner at a known place in Sarajevo with the French embassy, the Defence attaché of the others embassies, the German soldiers who helped them and the forwarding agent. We wish they will have a good moment, they deserve it.
Tomorrow, the preparation of the plane will be finished. They have to put again some floor in the fuselage to tidy the small parts of the plane inside. They will have to make the inventory for the customs.