Certain Planes.....Certain Planes!!

There are times in this industry when it seems that certain airplanes are out to get ya. They come back for the same issue, time and time again. Recently I worked a plane with an EGT issue. The older 737-300s have EGT systems that are very reliable but when a small part of that system goes bad it will throw the whole thing into a spiraling mess.

Nice SAFE pic of one of our planes.

A plane came in with a gauge going blank. A quick check of the history showed that the gauge had already been replaced (twice) as well as the other common culprit (a cannon plug in the engine core). Long story short I left that night and the plane was still broken. Fast forward to the next morning and I'm assigned that plane again. The guys at night meggered the wires ( a time consuming job) and found no faults. The boss was on the line with Boeing and they were busy trying to find a particular grounding post to verify it's security. Before they could get back with us the guy I was working with, let's call him Mr. Baseball, had found the post and together we verified the security of the set up. We ran the plane and all was well so we did our paperwork and let her free.

That plane didn't leave until later in the day and when it was brought to the gate the other EGT gauge was blanking out! We got that one sorted out and away she went, after another gate call about a circuit breaker.

Don't ya miss the old simple days

A week late I got a call for a seat belt or something small and finished it up, headed back to the shop. As soon as I sit down the crew calls back for something else. I fix that and head out again. I almost make it to the shop when they call me back for a third time about a leak or something like that. This time it hits me it's that same plane I spent two days with a week ago!

To cap it all off about four days later I was working some graveyard overtime. I was doing the usual talking and gossiping for the first half hour when I decided I had better check what I was working on for the night. I'm sure by now you have figured out that I was assigned that same plane! Wow. All I can say is that particular plane is soon to be retired so the stalking will soon end.

The Floor is Making Noises!!

There are times when we are at work and we have to make decisions to ground a plane or not ground a plane. We never take these decisions lightly and of course we know that the impact to passengers and schedulers are going to be huge. There are times, however, that require us to ground a plane when we suspect there is no real problem. This is exactly what happened to us last week.

One of the guys got a call for a chat, lets call him-Baby Boy. So Baby Boy goes out and gets into this "discussion" with the on coming Captain and an off going Flight Attendant. The FA says that when she walks down the center aisle by the overwing exit the floor panel makes a popping sound. The captain that is supposed to take this flight out is well known to us mechanics and is a nervous wreck, since he is famous for grounding planes because of the floor placard that shows the pilot seat position I'll call him Capt. Placard.

By the time Baby Boy gets up to the plane the FA has Capt. Placard convinced that there is some structural damage to the floor of this plane. I should mention that the plane is a 737-700. After trying to calm down the captain Baby Boy comes back into the office looking for advice. Since I have worked overhaul I knew that the popping sound the floor panels make are because of foam tape which is put on the panels where they rest on the floor beams. After some time the tape wears through in spots leaving the sticky part of the tape on the panel. When a person steps on it the sticky part makes contact with the floor beam, when that person lifts his/her foot the adhesive lets go of the floor beam and the panel makes a popping sound.

Baby Boy went back to the plane to explain this to Capt. Placard but by now he was sure the floor was about to give way. He stepped on either side of the aisle by where the passengers at seats 12C and 12D would have their feet and sure enough the floor flexed and there was no way to talk him off the ledge at that point.
 

All of us agreed that baby Boy should just ground it and get Capt. Placard a different aircraft. Not being a shy person Baby Boy let Capt. Placard and the FA know that this was not cool and basically a waste of time.

I went out to Tango (where we park our planes away from the terminal) to help Baby Boy pull up the floor panel in question. Since this was an "evolve" aircraft we pulled up the carpet squares and went to work on the floor panel fasteners. Some of them were stripped (of course) so we drilled out about four of the about 50 screws and pulled the panel back. Normally to get that panel up you would have to take off about six or seven rows of seats. We tried something new and were able to pull the panel up slightly and then down the aisle by sliding it along the aisle and under the seats. Guess what we found-NOTHING.

Floor panel up

The foam under the panel was worn which Baby Boy replaced. The flexing of that particular panel happens because of its position. The panel is located right over the wing box area and as such there are few lateral supports to attach it to the aircraft structure. Most panels have the long floor beams running the length of the plane and several intercostals (non structural beams running across the cabin from floor beam to floor beam. The wing box area is built in such a way that those intercostals are not installed there, as such the floor panel itself has to span a wider area and it flexes more than others do. Also this is a 700 aircraft, when they built the thing they tried to save as much weight as possible and left out as many of those non-structural intercostals as possible.

Waiting out on the wing for parts.

All in all it was a wasted effort but I wanted to show Baby Boy and the other guys that the popping sound it nothing to worry about and can be explained away. It was a beautiful day out there and we had all the doors and overwing exits open to enjoy it. We had the plane back in service in a couple of hours and learned something while doing it.

The Legend of ...........

I'm going to start a new series about "The Legend of......." This will be about mechanics that I have met and worked with who have made a lasting impression on me and others. Also since it is the holidays I have been away from the blog for a bit but I will try to keep it going and will resume with regular additions after the new year so thanks for your patience.

My buddy SkyWalker suggested this subject and even the person to start with!! Thanks brother!

The legend of Don Tripp.

Don Tripp used to work with us in Oakland. When I first got the job Tripp was already working there. He was a former Marine and you could tell he was a larger than life type of guy. One of my first memories of Tripp was one midnight shift when I was working at gate 17 doing an Service Check. Tripp was working all the way at gate 25 which is pretty far away in Oakland. I was outside doing something when I hear "FUUU@@@%%%", followed by sparks moving rapidly away from the tail of the plane on gate 25. Tripp was working on an APU, up on a stand and things were not going well. As per his character he was screaming and the sparks were his open end wrench which he threw in his frustration.

Tripp was the quintessential Marine. He told you what he thought and did not give a damn about what you thought. To be honest when I first started here I was intimidated by him. I knew he was tough and I was still new to this whole Line MX game.

For a while we Oakland Mechs were going to San Jose for one Service Check and any MELs and then onto San Francisco for any MEL issues. We did this with a bread truck stocked with parts and able to carry any additional things we would need for the trip. We all took turns going down to San Jose but after a while the same few guys would go. Tripp was one of those guys. He liked to travel and do the non-scheduled work involved in that type of job. Tripp had worked in San Jose at his previous job and had famously stood at the open R-1 door of an MD-80 as it was being tugged from the remote parking to the gate wearing nothing but his combat boots! (Since it was his last day there it seemed like the thing to do.)

Tripp would do things like pounce on crickets and catch moths and then shove them into his mouth and eat them, apparently they taste like peanut butter. Tripp wore old school marine corps shorts that were wayyy short and always a Hawaiian shirt for I.D. pictures.

Tripp was a pretty good mechanic but I'm not sure how he would survive in this day of computer-jet. He was definitely an old school, old-iron, hit and beat it until it worked type of guy. He went through Mag-Lites regularly simply because he beat them to death.

The man had no type of table manners and in fact often had a box of Entemanns chocolate donuts for lunch followed by a carton of milk. He chewed and talked with his mouth open and cussed like the marine he was. While he worked in Oakland he dated a woman who ran an escort service and lived in a condo with little furniture but for some reason it had a barbers chair in it. He collected frogs, and adult movies.

By the time the end came for Tripp he had become a close friend. I respected him and appreciated his I am what I am ways. The end was not very graceful for Tripp and it was full of controversy. He was put in a bad spot by a person he thought was a friend and that made him go over the edge. The early days at Oakland maintenance could not be considered complete without Tripp and I will not soon forget his honesty with everyone and his interesting troubleshooting methods (remember the Mag-Lites?).

I think that knowing Tripp during my early years of Line Maintenance helped to sculpt me and in many ways helped me to find my voice and realize that I could also speak up and say what I thought also. We miss having Tripp here and I wish him well wherever he may end up.

The 737-800 Finally Routed Through OAK!

We have been preparing for months now and it seems like OAK is the last station to get a regularly scheduled line for the 800 but it has finally arrived. Once a day from OAK to DEN. The first one came in on a Sunday and it was met by all the enthusiastic employees taking pictures etc. This kind of surprised me since we had the plane come through once before as a diversion from SFO. I thought maybe the fanfare would die down but it did not.

The mechanics were (of course) not all that happy but we did go out and meet the plane. In addition to the new plane we at SWA are switching to TRAX for our maintenance software program. The TRAX system has been, how should I put this..........problematic. The system itself is supposed to be better than the old one we are used to (WIZARD) and how could it not. WIZARD is a DOS based program but we have been using it for so long that we all know how to move around in it and it makes sense to us. This TRAX thing is a WINDOW based program and it operates as such. You would think that it would be easy to use but it's not.

One TRAX write up can take as long as one hour to input into the damn thing! The mechanics have been slowly using TRAX as our older -700s are switched over to the system. Each night we get one or two TRAX planes to work, but the paperwork as far as entering into the computer seems like a nightmare. Make a long story short-we dread having ANY write ups on TRAX planes.

The -800 came into gate 30 so I along with a few other mechanics walked over to check her out. All the rampers, ops, csa's were busy snapping photos of the plane and we mechanics went right over to the wheel well and did our oohs and ahhs. Pointing out the little differences here and there we noticed the larger hyd return filters and the difference in the main wheels. I also opened the E/E bay and peeked around, not much changed. When I opened the forward E/E door I was amazed by the size of the weather radar RT. The old RT (Receiver/Transmitter) was a big black box about the same size as an IRU unit, lets say 15" x 15" and weighs about 25lbs. The new box is a standard small smart box, about 3" x 15" and it has to weigh less than 5lbs.

Going up stairs the interior is beautiful!! I really like the "Sky" interior although I have heard that the materials that make it up are not standing up to the beating our passengers put it through. Of course while I'm poking about I hear over the radio that the captain on gate 30 has a write up she wants to talk to us about.

Immediately I'm thinking "great, this thing may be down for this stupid write-up". All our TRAX planes that have write-ups have to be signed off, and the paperwork (log page) entered into the computer before the plane can be dispatched. The release for the plane is locked until the computer work is done. As I stated earlier it takes forever to input these things into the system.

When I got to the flight deck the captain tells me she had an overspeed and that she wrote it up. Then she tells me that there is an open write up in the book from the last flight crew about the same thing!

Now I'm almost in a panic! Two write-ups on a TRAX plane which by the way is also an ETOPS plane, one of which is an open write-up! I called MX-CTRL and they told me the overspeeds on the -800s are a nuisance fault and I could sign it off as 'Info noted by MX".

I immediately brought the pages back to the office and handed them to the Foreman. He immediately got on the phone to find out how to enter the log pages into TRAX. Luckily he got back to me and said that the "INFO ONLY" write-ups don't need to be entered-PHEW!

I think we will work out our issues with TRAX and to be honest the -800 does not scare me as much anymore. The -800 is the future of SWA, as well as the 737 MAX, and the sooner I get used to it the better.

And In The End....

The very last day of my work week and I was looking forward to winding down the week on a nice easy note. When we came in on days they told us that a slat was damaged the night before and a new one was on the way. I have to admit I was not looking forward to working it and I decided not to volunteer my services when it came in. We did our normal thing that day and the new slat came in around 11am. The Lead Mechanic, I'll call him 20 Year Grudge, came in and asked who wanted to volunteer. No body moved or said a thing. He left and came back shortly and told one of the guys (lets call him F1) that he was going to help another guy, Banyan, on the slat.

I breathed a sigh of relief! I sat there for about 10 minutes then decided to go and help also. Crazy but true.

Banyan, F1 and 20 Year Grudge were just getting started and I jumped in where I could. Panels had to come off, the actuator had to be disconnected, the anti-ice duct also. Wires checked and moved and the puzzle of what the best way to remove the thing was slowly worked out. The Foreman (lets call him Surf) delivered our new slat and it was prepped.

As I was not assigned the job, when a gate call came over the radio I went to work it along with another guy so that these fellas could keep going. Around shift change 2:30pm the next player arrived-Tuna. Tuna was to be our inspector for the job. When we have large jobs or any time we mess with the flight controls we assign an inspector to look over the work and keep us all honest. Surf came over the radio "Banyan, you wanna stay for swing shift to finish the job?" Banyan was tired, he told me he could not wait to be done today so he could go home. I could tell he did not like the idea of staying but I knew that, like a lot of us, the idea of leaving a job half done was worse to him. He told the swing shift Lead (let's call him SkiBoat) that he would stay if they let Goat stay. he also said that if we stayed we could get the thing done in four hours. SkiBoat got on the radio and said "Hey Surf, Banyan will stay if we let Goat stay, he, Goat and F1 think they can finish in four hours." To my surprise Surf came back and said it was OK!

We got that old slat off and put the new one on. We actually put the new one on three times because we kept forgetting to hook up a wire or bracket or something. We finally got it up and Tuna inspected everything before we did our ops check. Tuna gave the OK to close the panels and we grabbed our screw guns and went to town.

We finished around 4:15 so all in all we spent about 5 hours on the thing. It felt good to work with guys that knew how to get a job done. No whining, no complaints just honest work. These guys don't stop for food or stupid things like that. They work hard and they work hard until the job is done. I am glad and proud to be in this group of workers and I hope that they feel they can rely on me the way I know I can rely on them.

One strange thing that happened: Once we were done and cleaned up F1 comes in and tells us that the plane we were working on is due to be retired in a month and a half! All that work and the plane is most likely going to the desert to be chopped up! We had shed sweat and even some blood to keep this thing flying and in the end...she was an old tired lady.

I have said it before and I will say it again, it's a strange feeling to know the plane you work so hard on is going to be leaving soon. All of us, for years worked hard to keep that plane going, "just get her over the fence" as we say. She no longer makes economical sense to keep around. Most likely she is timed out, too many cycles, not worth keeping with all the new more economical planes coming out. Like the 737-200s that this 737-300 replaced they will slowly fade away until they are stuff of legend, just a story to tell a probbie: "We used to change those heavy slats out here in the sun and rain and in the end...she was parked in the desert and dismantled."

Photo:Bobby Allison via airliners.net

Ahh Yes The Old Relay Quandry!!!!

Those of you who work the Line know what the picture to the right is. For the rest of you, it is a picture of a bunch of relays that live behind the First Officers seat up in the Flight Deck on the 737. Out working the Line you may get calls like "the so and so light is on and it won't shut off" or "I switched power and the Master caution light won't turn on". All of these are real problems to our end users (Pilots) but often not "real" problems in a sense.

I will explain it like this, the 737 must have hundreds if not thousands of relays in it. For any one who does not know what a relay is an electrically operated switch. In other words electricity is supplied to the relay and a switch or contact is made to initiate the flow of electricity to operate a system. Relays are wonderful little and big things that allow the plane to turn on an or off systems very quickly and often times without Pilot or Mechanic actions. Relays must make or break systems thousands of times a flight.

As with any mechanical thing relays some times "hang up" as we say. When a relay hangs up it stays on or off when the power to the coil (the coil opens and or closes the switch) is off. As you can imagine when a relay hangs up it causes erroneous indications or effects on the Flight Deck.

More often than not you can reset a hung relay by simply switching power sources. In other words switch from Ground Power to APU Power and back again. The interruption of power can relax the relay and the system goes back to normal, you look like a hero! There are times, however when that will not work. The next step is not in the Maintenance Manual but it is a time proven technique. Take your flip-flop screwdriver and give the relay a little love tap. This is probably the most used technique out there. If the system or light goes back to normal you have figured it out! There are of course times when nothing but changing the relay will work but, take a look at the picture above and try to figure out which relay is giving you the problem. A look at a wiring diagram will tell you the relay to look for if you are lucky but often there are two, three, four or more relays in a system. Now is the time to take off your High Tech Mechanix Gloves and feel for the HOT relay. Relays that get stuck get hot, quickly!

Changing out the relay is easy enough when you are at the home base with Stores available. But my question is: What to do when you are down line on a road trip and have no relay, no stores, and the next part can not get to you for four or five hours? If the old love tap worked and there are no other problems how do you sign it off? Sure arrangements can be made to have the relay changed downline or at the RON if it is in a maintenance station but, how far should you take it? My personal feeling is if there are no other problems, if you can not get the issue to repeat again, if the plane is going one or at the most two legs and then to maintenance, if the Flight Crew is comfortable with it, than it can be signed off as "Reset system" or "System operates as normal".

What do you think? It's kind of a sticky one, huh?

You Want It When???

While I was at work the other day a call came from Maintenance Control. There was a plane headed our way with a #1 engine bleed air issue. We get calls like this all the time and so it was not all that uncommon to have them request that we check it out. The problem came about when they said we HAD to have it fixed in two hours to make a flight to Midway.

A quick check of the history on the #1 engine bleed air system revealed that it had a 45 day history of problems! In other words this bleed air system has been acting up for over a month now and they wanted it fixed in two hours. I thought it was pretty ballsy of them to say we had to get it done, and I let the lead know how I felt about it. Luckily that day we had a guy on shift who is really good with engines and engine systems. He was able to figure out what was wrong and kick the plane out in about an hour and a half. Anyone who has worked on engine bleed air faults knows that often times multiple high power runs are required to narrow down and fix a problem.

Part of the issue is that the 737-700 is using the same bleed air valves and regulators as the 737-300 series. These valves seem to work well on the -300 engines (CFM-56-3) and are pretty reliable. These same components are not very reliable on the -700 engines (CFM-56-7). Boeing has not figured out why this is so, or at least they are not saying publicly why this is so. Through the grapevine we have heard that the -700 engines put out a different harmonic vibration than the older engines and this small vib is playing havoc with the components. Whatever it is they are still working on a fix!

More troubling is the "you have to get it fixed" statement. There is no way that I have to fix anything in an allotted time period. Make sure that you as a mechanic do not fall into this trap. Pressure is part of the job as I have mentioned before, however, when a component has a bunch of history, going back a lot of days, with a lot of different mechanics and parts thrown at it, proceed with caution. Do not let Maint. Ctrl or any one tell you how quickly you should work. In my example it all worked out fine but it could have easily gone the other way with the plane grounded and not leaving until the next morning. Thank God we had Dark Cloud there to work it (yes that is what we call him).