I Told Ya So

Friday, October 16, 2009

I Told Ya So
So yesterday I had a feeling it was going to be a bad day. Well I had some personal news early on that seemed to frame the rest of the day and it went downhill from there. Its funny how it happens that way but let me layout the maint. side of my day for you:Day shift and I'm working with a good group of guys but the calls that were coming in were all whinny type of complaining calls. Nothing really broken but the plane "feels weird" or "three legs ago this light came on" you know what I mean. So I'm bump up Lead and I get news that my permanent Lead Mechanic bid just came in and I didn't get the position. No big deal really thats called seniority but added to my already foul mood and it sucked at the time.The day is almost over when we get a call about a plane on the ground with a "landing gear question". Usually those are about a leak or inspection light etc. Well not this time! This guy says he put the gear up and when it was up and he put the handle in the off position the right main gear "fell out". In other words the gear on the rightside was not staying retracted. Grounded! I thought it was crazy that the pilot did not call ahead to let us know about this choosing instead to call us when he was at the gate.So I know tat we are going to have to jack this plane and check things out. I'm in the office printing out the Maint. Manual when my boss comes in and tells me that a plane is diverting to us with, guess what? Thats right the landing gear would not retract! Two gear swings what are the odds?Well now its 1:30 and day shift ends at 2:30 so some choices have to be made. The boss calls people for OT (overtime) but no one wants to come in. I am due back for Midnight shift at 9pm but he wants me to stay with some of the other day shift guys to jack these two planes, swing the gear, etc. Make a long story short I stayed Jacked the air diversion plane first and fixed it (or so I thought). To back up a little: when you jack a plane its not quite as easy as jacking a car. We have to think of things like, fuel weight, keeping the plane level, and since we have no hangar, wind speed, etc. We use four jacks, two wing jacks, a nose jack, and a tail jack. By the way these are BIG jacks operated by air pressure. As the wing jacks lift the plane the Nose and tail jacks basically just follow the plane up and act as stabilizers. The two guys on the wing jacks-jack and the rest of use follow along all controlled by a guy standing on a ladder in the main wheel well watching a Plumb-Bob to keep the plane from going to out of level. It's a highly coordinated job and takes a while to do.As I was saying we let the first plane down and moved all the equipment to the other plane, jacked it, sure enough the right gear would not stay in the hole. We figured out that the uplock actuator has not working. Of course we do stock one of those so we order it and they say we won't get it until 10pm!I stayed and finished swing shift without too much trouble but one thing did happen that I have to mention. I went to a call and could tell that I was dealing with a mental giant just by watching him try to taxi into the gate. He stops twice to have the rampers move carts that he thinks are in his "safety zone" but which were not. I can tell this is a "my way or the highway" type of guy. So I go up and he tells me his issue but he is "sure that it is an indication issue". Whatever, no matter what they tell me I have to use my own sense and troubleshooting not what the pilots tell me. My number is going on the sign off so I can not allow anyone else to influence my decisions. So I tell this guy (captain a) that I'm going to go and check out the component to which he says again "I'm sure its just indication".When I come back upstairs Captain A is talking to Captain B. Captain B is taking over the plane from Captain A. Captain B turns out to be a not so unattractive female captain. So I overhear Captain A saying to Captain B in his most manly voice "I think it's indication but this guy knows more than me". Why can't these guys just accept that they do not know everything and why must we show off to the ladies? Jackass. Anyway I discussed the issue with Captain B and we both decided that Captain A was an idiot.