"WOW It's Cold Up Here!"

I have had the unique opportunity to spend a bit of time up in Anchorage Alaska while my wife is stationed up there. As you can imagine it's pretty cold up there and I got to thinking about all the different weather scenarios that I have had to deal with as an aircraft mechanic and indeed all the mechanics around the states or even the world have to deal with. I will start with myself:

It is true that I grew up in NYC and it does snow there, but I have never had to do any maintenance work in the snow. The bulk of my professional aircraft maintenance career has been with SWA in Oakland California. While some of you are saying that it must be nice to work in the Bay Area as far as weather goes, and it is-most of the time! For those of us who work there know that it is very often wet and cold in the Bay Area. We spend a lot of time in our rain suits. We battle the fog and rain on a weekly basis pretty much all year round. When I first got to SWA all we had were the old school banana yellow rain coats and pants. They were good as long as you stood still but any movement would allow water to find the numerous gaps in the coat. The pants would last about a week before ripping and we all had tape on our pants. As you know it's hard to get anything done by standing still so by the end of the shift you were going to be wet.

I clearly remember Dawg going out nice and dry to change a wing tip nav light and coming back inside about 40 minutes later soaked! Some one asked why he didn't ask for help if he was getting soaked and he simply said "once you become one with the rain you hardly notice it". That was very true back in those days, if it was raining out you knew you were going to get wet. The old yellow suits were just not that good. A few years later one of our foreman, I'll call him Tahoe, ordered us new rain suits that were light weight, breathable and very high quality. The wrists and ankle openings could be cinched closed, they zipped up tight and the hoods had bands that could also be cinched closed. All of a sudden it was almost pleasurable to work out in the rain again. I still have my original Tahoe rain suit and it still works fine.

Now a days guys (smart guys) go out and buy some real high quality rain gear at places like REI. The rain gear to us Oakland mechs is what I would say is an essential piece of equipment. We do a lot of road trips and before we go often check the weather to see if it is raining at the station we are headed to. I think that today's rain gear is so compact and light weight you should always take it with you on any road trip. Put an extra set in your fly away bag since its hard to tell when you may need them. One time Tuna and I went to San Diego to work an engine issue and since it was summer and we were headed to SD we took no rain gear. You know where I am going with this and of course while we were working a thunderstorm opened up on us. While we were relatively dry under the cowling our tools were soaked. If I had a set of rain gear I could have wrapped my stuff up and saved me a long weekend of cleaning and drying my tools and tool bag.

Of course we also to road trips to SD and other southern California cities where it gets very hot. I have been to Burbank when it is over a hundred degrees out and it is pretty much miserable. The temp on the ramp is usually a few degrees hotter that the air temp so anything over 100 sucks. All I can say for that is to drink plenty of water. I personally  do not like to wear the uniform shorts at work but I know that a lot of guys do. I have dropped too many hot parts and had too much hot liquid on me to expose my chicken legs to the type of dangers out there. Those poor guys working the line in Phoenix must have to endure some amazing temps at work.

I have had hail, rain, thundersorms, lightning storm, and even tornado warnings at work. If you think about it mechanics have to be ready for all weather scenarios. Unlike our pilot counterparts we actually have to go out and work on the planes in the snow, or rain. I'm sure that when a pilot reports to the Phoenix Line that there is a problem with a tire (or god forbid a brake) he does not think twice about it being 120 degrees outside. These Alaska mechanics have to not only work in the snow but what I have noticed is that the ground is not clear, the ground is covered in ice. When they open the cowling they are laying on ice, plane being jacked, the jack is on ice. It really is astounding to think about the mechanics working around the globe in all weather, on varied surface.

One more thing: SWA has made available to us a new type of rain suit. We can order it form our uniform supplier. The thing is very nice and seems to work great but has a very major design flaw. If you compare the Tahoe rain suit with the new SWA suit they look very similar. One of the few differences is that the SWA suit has a nice big flap in the back to allow your body to breath better and not get too hot while you are wearing it. A few weeks ago while it was raining one of the mechanics and I were closing an engine cowl and of course we had to lay down on the wet ground in the puddles that always seem to be directly under the engines. We both laid down and about three seconds later he jumped up cussing. That nice big flap had turned into a nice big scoop and his whole back was wet! Don't forget that we have to lay down in these suits too!