A team of 10 apprentices at Jet Aviation’s MRO and completions center in Basel, Switzerland, recently helped assemble and install a decommissioned Cessna 185 hydroplane at the Transport Museum in Lucerne, Switzerland, for the Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF).
The aircraft is now on display as part of the museum’s Swiss Flight II exhibition. As an international humanitarian relief and development organization, the MAF employs its aircraft and crews to provide help including medical care and disaster relief to people living in some of the most remote places around the world.
The apprentices first worked with MAF personnel to help assemble and restore the aircraft in Basel. The apprentices then transported the disassembled aircraft to the museum, where they re-assembled and installed it on a floating platform.
“It was really cool to work with the other apprentices on this project and put what we’ve learned into practice on such an old aircraft,” said Jannick Glaser, a third-year polymechanic apprentice in Basel. “I couldn’t help but think of all that this Cessna has seen and done over the years and I’m quite proud to be a part of that history.”
The MAF’s Cessna 185 flew for 48 years, logging more than 23,000 hours for humanitarian missions. It was disassembled and shipped to Europe in a container, arriving in Basel in early March 2019.
“It’s not common for apprentices to have the opportunity to work on small propeller aircraft,” said Lukas Dill, director of quality and aviation security at Basel and a former MAF pilot. “Coupled with the hydroplane’s humanitarian mission history, the experience really provides our young talent great insight to another fascinating field of the aviation industry.”
“We are pleased to contribute to the success of this cooperation between the MAF of Switzerland and the Swiss Transport Museum,” said Dirk Sapatka, general manager in Basel. “It offered an exciting learning opportunity for our apprentices, while demonstrating one of the many ways aviation benefits society.”
