Funny Thing Happened Last Week

Last week at work was pretty routine. We had the normal gate calls from the flight crews, a few tire changes, a couple of grounded planes. Rumors were passed around and some were simply invented to see how others would react. We had a plane grounded with a strut repack, a plane that needed a window changed and I even went down to SAN to help out with a broken plane.

The strangest, and in my opinion, most amusing thing that happened was that the 737-800 actually made a stop here in OAK. It was crazy, you would have thought that the president had arrived! When the plane pulled into the gate there were at least 40 people out there to see it. There were employees that I had never seen before circling around the plane and taking pictures. They were amazed, clapping, cheering. Every one was happy-except the mechanics!

When the plane was pulling in the Foreman came in and told us it was here and there was a collective moan in the room. We went outside, but only just outside the door. No cheers. No clapping. We knew what this meant. That plane is just another system to learn, another set of tricks to try to figure out, more gate calls, more tires, more brakes, more oil.

Don't get us wrong, we are proud to have the -800 in the fleet, but to maintenance it's just another airplane to learn. It takes us time to learn all the tricks to fixing these things and I, personally, have only just started to feel like I know the -700 tricks!

By the way what do you think happened to that plane while it was in OAK? That's right-it broke! The two guys working on it had to call MX Control and they had to get the ONE controller who sorta knew what was going on to help them figure out what to do. I would say it was about a 30 minute delay once it was all done.

All other departments see that plane as an attraction. Something new to ride in. "It looks so shiny", "The seats are so nice", "The new interior is cool", "It's so long". Sometimes I wonder if they ever think about what it takes to keep that plane in the air. Sure the plane is nice looking and rides nice but the mechanics have to deal with those nice planes when the Devil comes out of them. In the middle of the night when it's leaking fuel, or in the pouring rain when the window heat decides to stop working. That nice, cool, pretty plane is going to be hit with fists, kicked, struck with hammers, wrenches, and screw drivers out of frustration. The true plane will come out late at night when it's 30 degrees outside and the slat actuator stops working.

AC 301 a plane that earned it's respect from the mechanics. Gone to the graveyard now.

That's also when the plane will earn it's respect from the mechanics. Maintenance guys are not interested in the picture opportunities of these first few months, but if the captain seat comes out nice and easy or if the air conditioning packs are easy to understand and fix, those are the things that will get cheers from us.