Guest Blog!! Thanks Franco A.

Oh Captain, My Captain......

I am just a guest blogger here and it's only because I've known Goat since he was just a kid. I'm no authority on aviation, but I thought I'd recount an incident that happened to me not long ago in a far off 737.

Here's the preliminary;

Southwest is good with watching over the usage of parts and how to tweak things to make it more cost effective for the company when it comes to repairs.

Somebody, I don't know who exactly, looks at the time it takes to change certain problematic parts and decides whether it would be more time conscience to change some other part while the mechanic is in that area. Let's take for instance the -700 Flight Attendant Handset.

A mechanic gets a call for an inoperative forward handset. They change out only the handset and it works ok. Two legs later its inop again. If the mechanic looks and sees the handset was just changed, he'll go for changing the cord. More than likely this fixes the problem and everybody is happy happy joy joy.

Well, the powers that be decided that a mechanic should now change out the handset and cord as one unit. It doesn't cost that much more to send the cord in along with the handset for repair. It does take a bit longer to change out the cord along with the handset, but it is still easier than a second gate call down the line.

So, Southwest's policy calls for changing both handset and cord at the same time and this is where the title comes in to play: Oh Captain, My Captain...MYOB!

The Story:

A few weeks ago I got a call for a handset being intermittent. Not the PA, but the handset itself. I go up to the gate and the Captain informs me that the forward handset is inop and he has put it into the book as such. Right away my hands are tied. If the entire handset is inop then I have to change it out.

I had brought one out with me along with the cord and proceeded to inform Operations to hold off on boarding as I would be in the way of the passengers. I informed the Captain it would be about 15 to 20 minutes for me to complete the job.

As this was a "through" flight, there were still passengers on board waiting to continue to their final destination. There were 3 sitting in the first row who could not only see me working, but were within earshot. This is when the Captain came up to me and asked, in front of these passengers, why was I taking apart the Flight Attendant seat, I explained that it was necessary to gain access to the end of the cord for change-out.

He asked why change the cord if the handset was bad? Good question...if I had time! I told him it was company policy to do so. Did he stop there? No. He then asked me, in front of the passengers, "Hey, who's gonna know what part you changed?"

My mouth simply said again that it was company policy. He gave me a funny look and said let me help you and started to try and hold the seat belts for me. I let him know I was just fine and needed no help. My brain wanted me to "escort" him to the empty jetway by the scruff of the neck and tell him how stupid he had just been and add a nuggie in for good measure.

How could he have made such a statement? Especially in front of passengers! Who is going to know what parts I change? Well, I would. So would he. And so would those passengers who heard him. Would he want me to make that statement to a fellow mechanic as we did an engine change? "You know Harv. forget taking those engine mounts off and putting on new ones. Who is gonna know?"

Oh Captain, My Captain, please do your job and let me do mine. I appreciate you wanting to have an on-time departure, so would not it be best if you do your pre-flight, sort your charts, or whatever you guys do up there before flying the machine that you entrust to me to make airworthy?

You do your job, I'll do mine. Thank you very much.

Truly,

Franco A.