2016! Time for some Maintenance Goals (or Goaling as the new hip way of saying it is!)

Every year people go through this whole resolution or goaling thing when the New Year is upon us. I've decided to try and put together some Maintenance Goals that should be attainable for all of us aircraft mechanics.

I typically do not make any resolutions but I think this could be a fun exercise for the heck of it.

Goal #1

Stop worrying about delays while working on planes.

This is a tough one. The company will always push you to work quickly and to work in a way so as you take minimum delays. Delays are bad, they cost the industry millions of dollars every year. Delays are most likely to be caused by weather, crew scheduling or air traffic control, however maintenance delays are an issue too.

My contention is that a delay caused by a mechanic fixing a broken plane should not be lumped into all those other types of delays. We are talking about  safety of flight in most of the things that end up being maintenance delays so a departure time should be the furthest from your mind while you are trying to troubleshoot an issue.

My goal would be (and has been) that I will not rush, rush, rush to fix a plane. I will take my time and double check my work if necessary to ensure I have made no mistakes. I do not give estimates of "when I will be done" unless I'm pretty sure of what I'm doing. In essence NO PROMISES.

As an added "word to the wise", the company will rush you and try to get you to work quickly (understandable, they are in business to make money) BUT if by chance you mess up and the FAA has to get involved you will see just how fast the company will dump you and disavow any knowledge of how or why you did what you did. It is up to you as an A&P to check your own work and to be absolutely sure that when you sign off something it is done right.
 
Goal #2

Meet an "old school" mechanic and learn something from them.

I've had the honor to work with some of the "Old Timers" in our industry. I was employed at my job at the right time. The time when these guys were still eager to teach a new guy and when they could still say something like "hey jackass you are doing it wrong!" and not get into trouble.

I'd love to hear some stories from these guys1

These guys are a wealth of knowledge and should be idolized by the young A&P mechanic. I worked in the microfiche/get a bigger hammer era and the stories and wisdom will help you grow and amaze you.

Goal #3

Teach a new hire something.

The new guys are the future of the industry. Instead of complaining about how these new guys don't know anything or are too lazy to learn the right way lets show them the light!

They will always remember you for it and it makes your job easier if they do it right the first time.

Goal #4

Get your money straight (retirement)

Ok, it's great to fight for the next pay raise and to stick it to the company with a nice new fat contract. What has concerned me for a while now is how little our A&P brothers and sisters think about their retirement.

Let me tell you a story; Not too long ago I was one of those people. I figured that I would likely work into my 60's and or 70's and retire. It's a common thing for A&P mechanics to work that long, retire and within 2 or 3 years they die.

It is very important to think about how you want to live when you do retire, when you want to retire, and what you wish to do when you do retire. I am of the opinion that the earlier you can retire the better. We work in a highly toxic field. The shorter the exposure you can have to these chemicals, etc the better.

My wife came to me about three years ago with concerns about  our lifestyle after we do retire. We have since been investing in commercial real estate and enjoying making money while sitting at home watching TV!

What I'm saying is that 401ks are great but remember that about half of your 401k money is going to be taken by the government as taxes when the time comes. The trick to retirement in my opinion is to diversify. Keep your 401k, add some alternative investments, add some commercial real estate to "recession proof" your investments and start planning for your golden years.

Keep in mind that the S&P 500 ended the year down -0.75% (as a total yearlong average). Since I got myself diversified I made an average of 6-7% on my investments!

If any of you out there wish to learn more about commercial real estate investing check out www.waypointpropertygroup.com and learn more about it.

Goal #5

Be safe.

We have chosen a pretty dangerous career. Running engines, flying rivets, sharp metal, poison gasses, oil, fuel, grease, you get the idea.

You want to be able to go back to your family at the end of the day so watch your back!

It's up to us to be vigilant with our own safety.

Happy New Year and let me know what your maintenance goals for the year might be.

When the tools are missing!

If you do any sort of maintenance work, not just working on airplanes, but any thing really you will come upon a time that you realize some of your tools are missing. I'm not sure how things work in other industries but at the airlines we buy and own our own tools. The larger or calibrated tools are supplied by the company but everything else we must buy on our own. Because of this when a tool is lost it is a big deal to us. I'm sure some of you are thinking "great there are planes flying around with "lost" tools stuck in them." While I cannot say that no tool has ever been left in a plane I can say that there are steps that are taken to ensure that this does not happen too often.

When I worked at Delta Airlines in the overhaul hangar some of the older guys would say that they did not lose a tool but rather that someone else thought they could take better care of it.Or that someone else did not like the way I was treating the tool so they took it.

When I first heard this I assumed they were just being funny about a not-so-funny situation. Now, after all these years I have come to realize what those guys meant.

Let me explain:
In our business we have our own tools, as I already explained. Most of the jobs we do only require one mechanic and so there is no trouble. The issue comes when one, two or even three mechanics are working on a job together. Since we purchase our own tools we pretty much all use the same brands of tools: Snap-On, MAC tools, or Craftsman stuff.
Anyone who has done one of the bigger jobs where at least two mechanics are working can tell you that at some point you are passing tools back and forth without first saying "hey make sure you give that back" or something like that. There are times when the tools are all over the place! Here where I work we do our maintenance outside not in a nice clean hangar and often in the rain. Once a tool, especially a smaller tool like a socket hits the wet asphalt it can literally disappear!
Add the weather, the multiple mechanics and the time pressure and you can see why tools disappear.

HMU change

After the work is done comes the quick cleanup and then most times an engine run or taxi check or even a taxi over to the high power run up area. The fix is checked and then OPS wants the plane taxied over to the terminal, paperwork (which now takes almost as long as the actual work) is done and the crew is briefed. The whole time you are thinking about getting the plane back on line so that the passengers can get to where they are going.

Days later you reach into your tool bag, looking for that 5/16 wobble socket and of course it's gone. You think back to the last time you remember using it and sure you remember using it but for what? who was working with you? what was the actual day? Then you simply plan to head to the store and get another.

Sure there are times when you ask around and the tool shows up but more often than not it's gone. There are other times when you reach into your tool bag and pull out a 3/8 open end wrench that looks similar to your but it's not quite the same...

This is where the tools go. It's almost always the smaller tools, they are the easiest to overlook, especially in the heat of the battle.

"Someone else thought they could take better care of it than I did".-makes sense now.

Not my stuff but you get the idea.

Recently I realized that my 1/4,5/16, and 3/8 wobbles are gone. I have had them for a long time and as most of you know they are not cheap! I'm sure someone has them but who? The 3" extension is also gone so it must be with them, at least they won't be lonely!

At one time I would get upset about all this but looking back I know that it's all part of the industry, at least when you work the Line.

I know some of you will say that all of a persons tools should be marked, etched with a name or employee number. If you still believe that then you are new to the industry or being a little naive.

There are some guys who never seem to lose any tools, they are also the ones who never seem to get dirty, makes you wonder how they do it!?!

The Man Is Trying To Shut Me Down

I have said it before and I will say it here again, "I love my job" and I love working at SWA. This is a company that has done amazing things and could very well have a bright future (depending on how we handle some of the critical things we are dealing with now).

As any one who has read my blog can plainly see from my writing I only have good things to say about working at SWA. All of my blogs are carefully written to show SWA in a very good light. I may complain about some of the people that I work with or such but never about the company.

So it was a very big surprise to find out that Corporate Security has decided to ask me to stop with the  blog. Actually I think they had a problem with my picture that I include on the blog more than anything. While I love writing this blog, my job is more important!

I always thought that I was being an ambassador for our Line Maintenance department and tried to shed light on what I think is a very misunderstood and mysterious (to many of the flying public) industry.

So, what does this mean?

Well I think I will continue my blog but I will not be able to relate many of the stories and personal accounts that happen to us. I'm sure that I can't include any pictures of SWA planes. I think that writing about the industry is ok and I'm sure that Corporate Security will not care about me reviewing tools and trends in this wacky world of aircraft maintenance. I have waited a good month to write this as I pondered how to approach this event and the above is how I plan to go about it.

NOT a SWA plane!

For those who read my blog thanks and I will continue to try and write about an industry that I fell in love with when I was 14 years old and began my journey at Aviation High School in NY.

Old Timey Maintenance

For a while now I have been collecting pictures of aircraft maintenance from back in the day. It facinates me. The pictures demonstrate how far we have come but in many ways also show how little has changed. I figured I would put some of these up for you guys to check out.

The old prop-liners were cool and the Connie was the coolest of them all. Check these guys out wearing their white coveralls. It looks to me like they have some kind of radar issue but whats funny is that even today we say "one guy working, two just watching". Some of the ground equipment even looks the same as the stuff you would find at any airport these days.

A patch from a mechanics hat from Wilmington-Catalina Airlines. Even back in the day we wanted to be recognized as mechanics, not rampers. Today there is a struggle-mechanics want to stand out, not be confused with other ground crew. How many times have I gone up to the flight deck to be handed the landing gear pins or the fuel slip by the captain because he thought I was a ramper or fueler. I know it's cost effective for companies to have everyone have the same uniform but every mechanic wants to be recognized as such.

Look at these poor bastards!! Look at those ladders and no safety lines or lanyards. The term "back when men were men" comes to mind. Imagine having to climb up that ladder with tools or heavy parts. Think any of them had a fear of heights? These days the heights may not be as great but they say a fall from even four feet could kill you. Remember that these days we do have to put ourselves in some crazy positions to fix these planes. Walking the crown looking for lightning strikes, RRing rudder PCUs, working out on the wings. The dangers are still prevalent.

 

This is actually an old picture. It was taken during WWII, and yes they had color photography back then. This is an awesome pic that shows that women have been involved in our industry from way back in the day. Even prior to WWII women did the majority of work on the fabric of fabric covered planes. It always amazes me when people are shocked that we have female mechanics at our job. As a matter of fact one of the best students at my A&P school was a woman. She already had a job lined up working in an auto garage and could work circles around us guys.

The last one for today is not an airplane but it does have a lot of similarities. Hatches are open, tools are being used, etc. These guys are hard at work on this old locomotive. I wanted to include this pic because of the dirt and grime. I don't think this was a staged shot. There is grease and dirt all over these guys and this is what maintenance is actually like. We have a dirty job, some nights you make it through and you are not too bad off, but other nights you are filthy. The dirt and grease get everywhere. Also this demonstrates that the chemicals that we use to keep our equipment (trains or planes or cars) running gets onto us and, let's face it, is slowly poisoning us as we work. It is an unfortunate by product of doing the job we love.

Remember Them Days.....

I am proud of where we have come as a group here in OAK Maintenance. We have a great work area, break room, tooling, etc. We do a kick ass job every day of the year. I wonder how many of us can recall the "old days" before the success back when we were all afraid of losing our jobs because that feeling of having lost our previous job was still fresh in our minds.

Pic of OAK when the T2X expansion was being built.

I am guilty of it, I drive a nice car with leather seats and cruise control. I like to eat out and go on nice vacations. The difference is that I remember them days! I remember when the car we owned could only make it on local trips, as a matter of fact we had a truck and that truck only sat three, but we are a family of five (actually four at that time). These types of things are what I would like to remind my fellow mechanics about in this post. Some times it seems to me that we have lost sight in the where we have come department.

I'm talking about years ago before the leather recliners, nice salaries and stuff. Let's see who remember them days.

Remember when your wife had to drop the kids off at the work parking lot so that she could get to work on time.

Remember when your wife had to drop you off at work because you only had one car?

Remember using the belt loaders for EVERY tire change AND brake change?!!

Remember the parts shed at gate 17?

15 minute turns?

Coach seating on our planes?!

Do you remember how the roof of the maintenance van got caved in?

How many of us remember driving down to San Jose in the van when there were no seats in the back?

Why is the vans sliding door welded shut?

How about the George Foreman Grill?

Snickers, smokes, and a coke.

Who can remember when we HAD to work 2 or 3 planes each per night or the work would not get done?

Remember finishing up work in OAK, heading to SJC to knock some work out and then going to SFO for some more work? And we were happy to do it!!

Remember calling MX CTRL for troubleshooting help?

Who can recall trying to fix MELs on turns? And days when we tried to have ZERO MELs fleet wide!!

Some of us can remember going to Frank's after work for a drink.

The point I'm making is not that the old days were all that grand. We worked and we worked hard. I think a little struggle goes a long way toward motivation. We worked and sacrificed because that layoff was still a bitter taste in our mouths. I fear that as time goes on, some of have forgotten what that was like.

The jobs we have are as stable as any job can be in the airline industry, but don't let that fool ya. We have all seen airlines make cuts that don't make sense, my goal is to make our work group too valuable to cut.

I have SWA's back because I don't want to go back  to the sharing a car with the wife days.  I'll take my leather seats in my own car and yes please install the seat heaters as well, I'm not getting any younger.

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.

Respect Your Elders

When I first got hired at SWA we were flying 737-200s and -300s. The 200s were old and they had a lot of issues. I for one was simply excited to work on ANY airliner at the time. Within 3 years time we had started to phase out the 200s so I did not really get a chance to get tired of working on them.

These days at SWA we fly 737-300s, -700s, and -800s. The 300s are getting old. Maybe old is the wrong term, more like worn out. We have the highest aircraft utilization, in terms of hours/day, of any airline out there. The planes are mostly 80s and 90s vintage 737s and they are simply used up.

When a typical mechanic shows up at work we look at the job board and sometimes when we find out we are working one of these older planes we cringe. "Not another old beast." I admit that I myself have had those days when I get assigned a 300 and I think "this thing is going to be falling apart."

My buddy SkyWalker is the exact opposite-he gets a 700 and he thinks, "what a bunch of relays and circuits." SkyWalker likes the older mechanical jets. Planes like 727s and the older 737s are just his cup of tea.

I have been looking at the older planes, recently, as older friends or older family members. These old warriors deserve our respect. There have been times when we have had battles and cursed them and even hit them with hammers in frustration. These planes have made us lay down in puddles in the rain, burned our arms while trying to pry out their PRSOVs, cut us, and even knocked some of us out cold. The leaks that only show up during high power runs, the L1 and L2 windows that would not see themselfs removed, the Rudder PCUs that needed to be RR'd in ALL types of weather and any times of the day.

The one thing that I try to remember is that the 300s have done all those things to me and those working with me BUT they also kept me and my family feed and clothed, they put money in my pocket and for many of us have provided the ONLY stable job we have had in the airline business.

These planes deserve a little respect from us. They are worn out that much is true,but day in and day out they go out and do their thing. They may be old and worn but I still feel bad when they are cut up and scrapped.

Check out these links regarding some of my old friends who will not be taking to the skies any more.

Aircraft 504

Not AC 504 but a pic of AC 501

Aircraft 351

Pic: ITSParts

Aircraft 692

Pic: ITSParts

And the list goes on.....

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.

Another Week Another Learning Experience

A plane was grounded when I got to work a couple of weeks ago. Not that unusual. What was unusual was the issue with the plane. this plane needed a stab trim cable replaced. We, in Oakland, have no experience with this type of job and in fact it is really considered a hangar job.

Another mechanic, Dr. was also starting his work week and we decided to work the plane since he, like me, enjoys doing jobs that we have never done before. There was a crew coming in from Phoenix to change out the cable but they were not going to arrive until around 11pm.

After checking the paperwork Dr. and I decided that there was plenty we could do while waiting for the Phoenix guys. Since I have a vast experience doing Cabin work (thanks Delta) I went inside and started to take apart the interior. What we had to do was to expose the Idler Pulleys in the system so that the new cable could be routed.

I took out the seats in the over wing area and pulled up the carpet and removed the floor panel and what do ya know...there were the pulleys.

Dr. in the mean time pulled the ceiling out of the bag bins to access more idler pulleys.

The Phoenix guys arrived and brought all those cool special tools that those hangar guys have. The best thing was that "the" cable guy came out with them. This guy, I'll call him The Cable Whisperer, pretty much only does cable and rigging jobs back in Phoenix.

Long story short we learned that changing those cables is not as scary as it first sounds. We learned a lot of tricks. We learned that a guy who has been working at this company for over 30 years can work circles around us!

One of the best parts of the job was when almost the entire roster of Day shift came out the next morning to help us out. Dr. and I had to leave but those guys closed up the plane and she is on her way making us money as we speak.

Tool Spotlight-Cordless Drills

The cordless drill is one of those things that a Line Mechanic needs to do his daily job. It is as essential as the screwdriver these days. You may think that since we typically do not remove panels and drill rivets out that you can get away without a cordless drill but you would be mistaken. I will say that the drill is not so much used as a drill but as a screw gun. The typical usage for a Line Mechanic would be removing landing light lenses or cover to get at position lights, etc. I have a Hitachi 12V cordless drill which I carry on my golf cart to all gate calls.

The drill came with the light, the apex bits, two batteries and the charger. It also came in a case which I keep it in, in my cart. The one pictured is an 18V but I went ahead and bought the 12V model instead. When I went looking for a drill to buy I wanted to keep it under $100 and I wanted something on the small side of the spectrum. For our work I figured it was useless carrying around a huge, long, heavy drill. Plus a drill my size fits into spaces like the airconditioning bays on the plane and other small spaces quite easily. I went with the 12V because it is the smallest of the Hitachi models (at that time) and it was a lot cheaper than the 14V, 18V or bigger models. I know that a lot of guys would not dare buy a 12V because the higher models provide more...something. We at SWA have been using company provided 12V drills since I got hired so I figured that 12V was good enough. The light has even come in handy, especially working in the wheel wells at night.

Recently the Lithion Ion batteried tools have come out and they are much lighter than the Nicad batteries like the one in my drill. A few of the guys at work have purchased the Makita Impact Driver and Impact Drills.

I like these bad boys! They are real light, real small, and real powerful. They are a little expensive but seem worth the cost of about $200.00. I like the case and we all know Makita is a good brand.

While on the subject of cordless drills there are some people who use them TOO MUCH. I can't tell you the number of times I've had to get out my hammer and large flat bladed screw driver to notch the safety screws on the nose tires because some fool used a drill with a clutch set on like 10 to install them. These screws should be hand tight plus like a quarter turn. I have seen guys use drills to remove and install 1/4 turn fasteners! My all time favorite is removing the wingtip on the 737-300s to replace the position lights only to find out that some goon has installed them with their drill clutch set on 10 or even to drill!! Lets start to think about the next guy when we are working.

Our Personal Integrity

In these times of massive oil spills, planes being flown into buildings, wars that start for reasons unknown, the word integrity seems to have fallen clear out of the dictionary. Where did it go and will it be back?

Well, I can't answer that for anybody but me.

I have always maintained my integrity when it comes to my aircraft since my first logbook sign-off. I know there are people out there who have seen me run around acting like a chicken, wearing a HUD cover over my head, or confusing Flight Crews by telling them that I was born without a last name, but I have always kept it serious when it comes to aircraft maintenance.

Maybe its because I have an older brother that is an A&P (no Technician here, thank you), a father who was a WWII fighting Marine, a bit of OCD, I don't know. Maybe all of them put together. I just know when it comes down to it, down to the last screw, I find it necessary to complete the job, whatever it may be, to the best of my ability. If I don't think that's good enough, then I call in someone I trust to look it over and maybe even correct it. I'm not above having my work corrected. In fact, I invite it. My personal integrity is driven by my want of a job well done. When I can do my job safely and it allows the aircraft to leave safely is what I strive for. My integrity knows nothing of making an on-time flight, saving money, or getting back to the break room to catch the end of that great movie. It knows only safety and hard work to make it that way.

I know the A&P's reading this know what I'm talking about and I'm only preaching to the choir here. What I hope is that people either connected with our job or maybe even someone who wonders about us sees this and knows that we care.

We care a lot about personal integrity.

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).

DOWNTIME!! It's Part Of The Game *Guest Post Suggestion!

It happens all the time. I know that at least once a week we mechanics will be sitting in the break room and a ramper or OPS agent will come in for any number of reasons. Inevitably they will say some thing like "you guys have it made" or "you guys don't work too hard". I can't really blame them, they have jobs that require them to constantly be in action. The more they do the more money the company makes in a sense. Since those other work groups are involved with the normal everyday type jobs at an airline they can not wrap their minds around the fact that Airline "Line" Maintenance operates in a totally different way.

We on the Line are paid hourly like everyone else at the airline, that however, is where the similarities end. Every time we leave the office to work a plane we spend money. The more we work, the more money we spend. I'm not talking spending little dollars either, we spend big bucks. At any given gate call we could spend up to and at times over $100,000. Everything we change on the plane is pricey. Of course the other work groups will never be able to understand the concept of staying in the office to save money but that is exactly what a maintenance department should do.

Any time people see us relaxing in the break room they should be excited that we are not out working on a plane and spending thousands of dollars. It's all part of the Airline game, and it's one of the reasons that working the Line is typically more desirable than working in a hangar. Hangar work is more like a regular type of job-the more you work the faster the plane can get back into service and make some money. Sure the same thing applies to a grounded plane out on the Line, but for everyday operations downtime for the Line is money saved for the company.

Good News about our chosen career!

Our industry, A&P mechanics, has been hit hard by the economic downturn we are in now. I am very lucky to be employed by SWA. We have not had a lay off, yet, and we have not had a pay cut, yet. I say "yet" because I was at another company that told me they never would lay any one off and three years later I was out on the street.

I heard that the guys at United are making $30/hr after working for 20 years! We all know what happened to the guys at Northwest, and even Alaska Airlines is hurting right now. But wait...the good news...

A large number of people are coming up on retirement age in the airlines and the availability of jobs is gowing to sky rocket when this happens!

So I ask you: How many times have you heard that one before? I have been waiting for this mass exodus of mechanics for almost 20 years now. When I was in school I heard this same rumor from the instructors. When I was at Embry-Riddle that was the hope of many newly minted Airframe and Powerplant mechanics. When I got to Delta, the same from everyone (on midnight shift). To make this falsehood even worse it has been picked up by these companies and web sites that track job data and job outlook information.

From a government web site:

"Most job openings for aircraft mechanics through the year 2016 will stem from a large group expected to retire over the next decade."

From Avjobs.com

"The long term employment outlook for maintenance personnel...is very encouraging. One study indicates...openings for aircraft avionics and maintenance personnel, increasing to 40,000 openings per year. Based on analysis of anticipated aviation industry growth rates, and projected retirements of the World War II and Korea War veterans who presently hold many of the aviation maintenance jobs in airline and general aviation".

Career zone also lists the job outlook of aircraft mechanics as "favorable". This goes on and on. Poor high school aged kids that are trying to figure out what to do with their lives would read this mess and sign up. This type of misleading info sounds like the harps of heaven to a kid who is good with his hands and likely only going to have a high school diploma.

The reality of the situation is that the A&P industry is stagnant. Salaries have not gone up as a whole in years and in some cases the salaries are back down to pre 1989 levels. Our pay has not kept up with the times and a vast majority of airline mechanics make less than $30/hr. $30/hr to keep a 30-120 million dollar aircraft in the sky! And I don't see it getting any better soon.

The only glimmer I see is this new space plane or space based tourism that is in it's infancy right now. That may supply the boost to our industry similar to the boost it got when the airlines went to jets over prop-liners. There is also hope in that it seems that (in 2006) less people started enrolling in tech schools. It seems that people are reluctant to work the hours and wish to avoid working in the weather. If that is true and the trend holds up our salaries may benefit simply due to lack of supply of qualified personnel.

The View From The Other Side

Tonight I am the bump up Supervisor. In other words for one night I am in management. Now i've been a bump up supe before and I have to admit I have done my fair share of complaining about the regular supervisors. So I will try to express my views as a mechanic/supervisor or as I like to call it "The View From The Other Side".

Being a product of the "Old School" I tend not to complain too much to management because I feel it is always better to leave them out of the loop so to speak, if not you are inviting them to get too involved in the whole maintenance thing. My main complaint about mechanics when I'm being bump up supe is the persons who tend to spend an awful lot of time complaining about the work load or fainess of the work assignments etc. I do not understand the need to do these things but I know a lot of people do.

The supe should be involved only as much as necessary. If there is a real problem, a real problem, then the supe should get involved. If there is trouble, real trouble, by all means go get the supe. The problem I see from this side of the desk is that there is way too much merit or even ear time given to the few people that complain about the majority of things. These few people (of course) get the majority of the supes attention and really in an unfair and un-needed way. It's the squeaky wheel syndrome and I guess its inevitable.

When I'm supe I try to run the shop the way it ran when I first got hired on(we had no supe!). I always think I sound like an old man when I start this reminiscing but here we go. back in the old days we had no supe. The Lead Mechanic came in, put the work on the board and the mechanics came in and signed up for whatever work they wanted to do. This accomplished two things: first, there was a certain self motivation factor. People tended to come to work and start working right away. When the work is assigned there is no motivation to start right away, I'll just wait until they assign me and start then. The second thing not assigning work accomplished was a kind of healthy competition among the mechanics. We were always going back and forth about "I did this" or "I fixed that" etc. No body seems to care now and it seems like it is an actual chore when you are assigned work versus volunteering to do it.

New School - Old School.