Scared of the Flight Crews

I work with a great group of mechanics. These guys have done and fixed planes in all kind of conditions, weather, anytime of day or night. I have seen them improvise and use all manner of tooling and improvised tooling for that matter to fix our fleet. All this makes me wonder why it is that a good number of them are scared of the flight crews.

When I say "scared of the flight crews" I'm not talking about being afraid of them physically. What I am saying is more and more of them refuse to terminate their planes and actually talk to the crews. When our planes land for the night we usually go and "terminate" them. As it was explained to me when I first got hired: you do a quick walk around, check the tires and brakes, then go upstairs to talk to the flight crews and see if they have any sqwacks about the aircraft. This always made sense to me, for one, these pilots are stationed in OAK and you can begin to get to know them and build a relationship with them. I have seen a lot of these guys come home from their very first day at SWA and now they are Captains whom I respect and who hopefully respect me as well. I like to think that when they tell me about something they trust me to fix it. Another thing is that when a crew actually tells you about an issue they go into further detail than you could ever get from the logbook write up. These guys fly these planes everyday and even get to know certain planes so when they say something is off they mean it.

There are a good number of the mechanics who refuse to talk to the flight crews. They will do a very detailed walk around, I'm talking like 20 to 30 mins until the crews are long gone and then go up to the flight deck. They will wait until Operations calls to let them know the plane is ready to be moved, again the crew is long gone. Some won't even go to the planes until they are ready by which time-once again-the crews are gone.

One of the remarkable things about SWA that I noticed when I was hired all those years ago is that all the work groups get along. The pilots and the mechanics get along and that was something new for me, having come from Delta where that was not the case. Perhaps these guys have come from a similar circumstance, who knows?

The thing is the simple act of meeting the crews and talking to them even when they have no problems is an essential part of the job in my opinion. Last month I saw a captain who I had not seen in some time when I went up to terminate his plane. He says "Goat!! I haven't seen you in awhile. Not since I transferred to (another base). Man I miss you OAK MX guys. The MX at (another base) never come out to the terminators anymore."

I let him know that it was becoming rare here in OAK as well and I had no idea why. We both came to the decision that they must be scared of the flight crews........who knows why?

Lightning Strike on antenna

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.

Southwest 717 inspections

Most every one at SWA is happy to see the 717s go (Delta has decided to lease them). Here is an article about crack inspections that the FAA is requiring us to complete. Click the following link:

Southwest and Boeing seek delays in 717 inspections.

That One Key Piece Of Info

The other day while at work I got to go on a road trip with Maybe-Maybe down to San Jose. The information given to us was that the HDG flag was showing on both the Capt and FO HSI. We gassed up the truck, J-Bird (one of our stores guys) loaded up the parts, we got our tools and were off. For this problem we brought with us an IRU (inertial reference unit), a DAA (digital analog adapter), and both of the overhead panels that talk to the IRU.

This is an IRU from Northrop Grumman. We use a Honeywell system but  no pics avail.

The plane had been taxiing out for departure when the instruments flagged. The flight crew returned to the gate, then contract MX came out, performed a re-align of the IRUs. The flags went away and they signed it off. On push back, this time, the instruments flagged again so they returned to the gate again and called us to go check it out.

Road trips are a perk of being a Line Mechanic. There is a certain amount of pride in knowing that the company trusts us enough to go out and fix planes away from station. There is also satisfaction in the figuring out of what is wrong and using knowledge, and available tools to get a plane that is stuck at an away station back into service. Most guys enjoy road trips and I have written about them before.

Maybe-Maybe and I are of the same mind in that we like to go, fix the plane and come back as quickly as possible. We figured that this would be a quick fix and back to OAK.

Once we got to SJC and read the logbook we found out that the problem only existed on the FOs side instruments. All the instruments: ADI, HSI, RMI, and even the PWS INOP light came on. We began by aligning the plane and checking for any faults in the system. Of course we found no faults and everything worked as it was supposed to. We decide to put the new IRU and DAA in as we were sure the #2 IRU was acting up. When we put the new IRU in we found out that it was "Bad From Stock". There was a fault code that would not reset or go away. So much for a quick trip! We called MX CTRL and they got one headed our way through LAX MX. We could expect it in a little over an hour.

While we waited we kept busy by cleaning the plane (the flight crew left in a hurry and had no time to do it). We also changed some seat belts on another plane that had an issue.

When our IRU arrived we threw it in and got everything working correctly. I called MX CTRL to tell them I was signing off the plane and let them know that it had in fact been working when we arrived hours ago. We did the deed and soon enough a new crew arrived. Maybe-Maybe and I decided that since the plane had returned to the gate twice before, we would wait until it took off to make sure everything was ok. (I think you all know where this is going) The plane boards, pushes back and sits there for like 6-7 minutes. Maybe-Maybe and I are saying "That's it he's broke.....he'll be coming back". We went to OPS and asked the OPS guy to call them. Sure enough he said he was working on the same problem the plane had before.

DAMN! The freaking plane is POSSESSED!!!

They came back to the gate and said that the instruments on the FO side flagged out, but as soon as he put the APU bus back on line the flags went away!! That was it!! that was our piece of info that we were missing!! When the pilots put the plane on the #2 generator the FOs instruments flagged. The #2 generator was not powering the #2 IRU bus!!!

We called MX CTRL and I suggested we MEL the #2 engine driven generator. That was all we had to do all those hours ago when we got there and we could have been done!!

It's amazing how one little piece of info can throw off a whole troubleshooting plan. We had been chasing the wrong problem the whole time! In hind sight we figured the #2 generator must have stopped powering that bus when they first were taxiing out the first time the problem manifested itself. Of course the re-align worked because they were most likely on GRD power or APU power at the time.

We did wait until the plane pushed out to ensure they left. We got to SJC at 12:30pm and finally left at 7pm. A long day of waiting and chasing phantom problems. Oh well, we did figure out what was happening. The plane did finally go make some money.