| March 1st, 2003 | Kidia Booster got new solar wings ! |
 Just the right weather on the foot of the Kilimanjaro
Starting at the studio
Protos
Puttig new rivits
Macha and Protos
Fundi Macha
|
The
place where the transmitter is located, gets more rain
than the rest of the mountain, since all the clouds,
usually coming from the East, drop their water there. In addittion to the heavy rains, the hot tropic sun makes all metal to rust very quickly. We could repaint the antenna mast already twice, but no one could reach out so far to repaint the solar wings yet! Previous service inspections showed, that we have to replace the ropes holding the solar wings from above, because they were withered by the sun, and were not able to carry the heavy load any more. When the German TV team was there to shoot the pictures for the film: "Humboldts Erben" we noticed how badly rust has demaged the metal structure of the wings, and we thought it is high time to repaint them. But how do you repaint them in the rain forest 20 m above the ground? We had to lower the wings, take the solar panels off, clean the iron structure, repaint them 3-4 times, mount the solar panels again, and bring them up the Antenna mast again. To speed the procedure we prepared 2 extra wings, which we brought up with us. So we could do all the painting work in Moshi, where you do not expect frequent rains, and have more time for another coat of paint. We are so gratful that we could replace one of the solar wings in one day, using this procedure, just before the rainy season started. We are also greatful all the team members really worked very well together, already well trained during the initial set up. Members of the team were: Fundi Macha, Fundi Protos, Temba, Anderson, Fundi Lyatu and manz more. |
