The Caravelle left Pansio

Suomeksi

On Monday, May 29th, the Pansio team was finishing the last tasks on the Caravelle’s fuselage as the loading on the Ahola Special Transport trailer had been scheduled for the afternoon. And naturally there was the final rush: the last layer of lacquer was spread on the blue strip on the window line around noon. A padlock was installed on the service door. The stencil sticker for painting OH-LEA registration on the right-hand side of the fuselage was fitted into place.

Photo by Jouko Tarponen

Photos by Janne Salonen

The assembly team had arrived, and they were helping to install nets into the openings in the rear fuselage and vertical stabilizer so that birds wouldn’t nest inside the aircraft’s structures. In Arlanda there had been a whole colony of bird’s nests in the openings. Two large Aviation Museum Society Finland banners were fastened on the fuselage for the duration of the transport. This was a task easier said than done!

Photos by Jouko Tarponen

The fuselage was lifted from its supports using the bridge cranes in the hall. Then the Ahola trailer was reversed under the fuselage and the fuselage was lowered on its supports. Everything went well – and no wonder, this had already been done in Arlanda in August last year. Many thanks to the Ahola professionals for good work and co-operation!

Photos by Jouko Tarponen

An unpredictable setback occurred when the pallet with the free-turning cable pulley system was loaded on the trailer.  The cable pulley system is needed when the fuselage is lifted from the trailer and on the wing at the airport and it will be necessary to turn the fuselage around its longitudinal axis. The pallet had already been lifted from the floor, using the bridge crane, when the crane suddenly stopped and wouldn’t move. Fortunately a fork-lift from the shipyard happened to drive by at that moment and the driver kindly helped in lifting the pallet with the pulley system on the Ahola trailer. The Caravelle was ready to be pulled out from the hall.

Photos by Jouko Tarponen

Photo by Janne Salonen

Now the Pansio port hall is almost empty. Only the stabilizers, two passenger stairs and the storage container remained there. The fuselage will be transported to the Turku airport during the night and on Tuesday morning, May 30th, it will be lifted on the wing. The remaining parts and the sea container will be transported to the airport on June 1st.