When the work was assigned I had two MV-1 checks. The checks are Maintenance Visits (MV) that we do nightly at OAK, they range from MV-1s to MV-3s. Other stations do heavier checks but in OAK we have limited space and part resources so we are relegated to the lower range of Maintenance Visits. To hear some guys you would think that doing an MV-3 is like the end of the world but truth be told none of the checks we do in OAK are all that bad.
We do get a lot of MEL and Non-Routine work through the shop and this night was no different. In an ideal world the guys with very few extra items on their planes would finish up and help the guys with a lot of items to work. This, however, is not the case as a fair number of guys only help their friends, will not help people who have ticked them off, won't help slow people (I may be in this group), or will not help anyone. What ever it all seems to work out and at the evening the planes are all done. Back to my typical night:
As usual the Leads try to assign one "clean" plane and one that has some work on it in an attempt to even out the work load among the mechanics. One of my MV-1s had two MELs on it: A broken lav fill port, and a slat in transit light. The MEL plane came in at 9pm and was terminated by swing shift. My clean plane was nearly in range so I decided to wait until it arrived, knock it out quickly, then hit my MEL plane for the rest of the night.
One of the draw backs to assigning work like we do is that often airplanes arrive with problems that can at times be pretty time consuming. (I think you can guess where this is going). When my secoond plane got to the gate I did my walk around and went to talk to the crew. They told me that the plane was good "EXCEPT" (these are the words we mechanics hate to hear from the flight crews) the two MELs that were on it. So here we go, the #2 N1 target will not drive when set and the left turn off light is inop.
Time is ticking away and I still have that slat indication issue on my second plane-Damn! So I check power at the circuit breaker-checks good, check power at the switch-checks good, check power at the light-no good! Now I am thinking that there is a bad wire from the switch to the light but just to be sure I want to get the part number for the switch. When I am shining my light in behind the panel I notice a little piece of metal laying on the bottom of the panel. I fished it out and it turned out to be a small strip of spring-steel that moves when you throw the switch in order to push down on the button that is incorporated into the back of the stupid switch. Back to the shop for a new switch.
Time is still ticking!!!
Got the switch all squared away now it all works great. Called for clearing numbers and go to sign off the book-the logbook needs to be changed! This plane is eating away all my time. Back to the shop for a logbook! Finally I can go to my MEL plane and get going on the slat issue.
This all tells you that the old saying "The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry" is alive and well. My quick "clean" MV-1 was not so quick and clean after all and took a lot of work. As you mechanics who have worked 737 slat issues know even to trouble shoot the thing a panel or two must come down. The rest of my night was full of screws, speed handle, and drill, but it all got done.
That's the moral of the story: We get it all done, just not in the order we plan on getting it done.
It’s funny how you can have one clean plane and one so-so plane on your Friday, and one “oh by the way’s” from a pilot can make your easy night a headache. That’s why we make the kind of money we do. I have worked “C” Check, Hangar RON, Line RON, Day and Swing line on overtime. It seems like Line RON always gets the planes that nobody else wanted to fix or didn’t have time to fix on Days or Swings and just threw a MEL or CDL sticker on. I remember years ago I worked overtime on days in the Hangar and I had my first road trip to SLC for a fuel pump change in the winter time. Nobody ever told me about having a download bag packed for winter. When we landed in SLC it was still daylight and snow everywhere, I remember thinking “oh this won’t be that bad” we hadn’t had our lunch break yet so we went upstairs in the concourse to get some food. We were at our table eating and there was a customer service agent walking back and forth in the concourse. We finished our meal and went to pull paperwork up for the fuel pump change. The customer service agent came up to the other mechanic that came with us and asked if the plane was fixed and ready to fly. We told her that we had to pull up the paperwork in case the F.A.A showed up. “She said it should only take an hour right?” The other mechanic with me told her the plane was not going anywhere until sometime in the morning on the next day. The customer service agent said “it’s only a fuel pump”? And the other Mechanic told her that we are not working on a Chevy and she had better call and cancel the flight for that aircraft. We go to the line shack to pull up our paperwork, and the inspector who went with us stayed in the cozy line shack with the heat on and slept all-night. I and the other mechanic separated the fuel pump from the M.E.C and used a seatbelt extension to pull and keep the M.E.C out of the way. We went to install the new fuel pump and found out that it didn’t match up and we were missing an “O-Ring”. I called Maintenance control and informed them they went berserk asking me for the picture in the MM or IPC. I told them that there was not a picture showing what we were looking at. They told us to go to Delta for an “O-ring” and we did to no avail, we also went to United and still no “O-ring”. Maintenance control told us that they would have another fuel pump and the correct O-ring sent from LAS on the first plane in the morning. With our hands tied and me not even having a jacket “back to the road trip bag” lol. We went in the plane and ran the A.P.U to heat the cabin up until our parts got there. We found the fuel pump and O-ring sitting on a jet-way where some ramper left it laying without informing us. We got the fuel pump installed and leak checked it we still had to go to the blast fence to do our checks with the inspector. I was the only one who had a taxi and run up license so I got the thrill of driving an airplane around SLC’s taxi ways not knowing where to go. The tower finally got me in the right direction and we did our run up checks and everything was in limits. I taxied the plane back to the departing gate and the rampers load it and it left. It was then time for us to head back to PHX. The other mechanic and inspector got on stand-by seats and I got to ride in the flight deck while I was reeking of jet fuel on the jump seat. We got back to PHX and I went home with paid rest on top of all the overtime. After that I had always had a winter bag packed and waiting in my locker. We had another fun trip to TUS for a strut repack and we had to hand jack the plane but that’s another story lol. Our jobs can be fun and hectic at sometimes. I have been at SWA since 1994 and it is still the best airline that I have ever worked for. AZ_Woman
ReplyDeleteThat is exactly the thing I love and hate about road trips! You have to improvise, that seat belt extension trick is classic road trip maintenance. MX Control does get pushy at times but once you learn how to ignore the bad advice and occasional tyrade they are harmless. I know a guy who went on a road trip and when MX Control started yelling at him over the phone he simply got back on the next plane and came back to base!! That was classic, but he is right there is no need to try and micro-manage most of us out there. Thanks for the great comment.
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