Congratulations SWA Huge Quarterly Profits! Now What To Do With The $$?

WOW!!! We at SWA made over 400 million bucks last quarter! I say we because it is truly a team effort to make such an amount of money. For those of us who work or who have worked at an airline know that it takes everyone doing the right thing for the company to succeed. I know that I worked hard and I know that the company appreciates those of us who work hard so that SWA and all of us can enjoy the good years.

The thing I was wondering is how SWA is going to spend that money in a way that can help us poor Mechs at OAK MX. I know that SWA is a frugal airline and I know that half of that 400 mil is going straight to the bank. I have a few suggestions for items we could use in OAK that would make our jobs easier and that in some cases have been a long time coming.

1.     A lift truck. We have been needing a lift truck since I got here in 1996. We are an airline that operates in 20 minute intervals. The 20 minute turn gets real hard to do when we mechanics have to fish around for a JLG lift or some kind of stand just to change a Logo Light or Nav Light.

This style is good. A nice lift bed with an air hose on a flat drivable platform. The one that I am more familiar with is a pick up truck with a scissor lift in place of the bed. Very handy items and could cost about $30k tops.

2.     Daniels Kit. A Daniels Kit is a collection of pin pushers, crimpers, wire strippers and extractors used to repair wiring and cannon plugs. These things are expensive I know, but the planes are getting more and more electronic. As a result of the reliance on electronics more and more wiring problems arise. We have been making do with plastic pushers and throw away extractors. A real Daniels Kit would be a nice addition to our tool room.



There are only two down sides to having a Daniels Kit:

     a.   They cost a lot of money some thing like $10k.

     b.   The numbnuts at the shop would most likely destroy it within a year. There are a lot of little parts and if not taken care of the kit will be missing pieces and end up useless.

3.     Some real window wash. The window wash we have is horrible. It dries up before you can wipe it off and leaves streaks on the windshield. I'm not sure why they changed to this current stuff but it simply sucks.

4.     Some free stock. We need more free stock in OAK. Free stock is the stuff you take like screws, bolts, washers, etc. to replace missing hardware on the plane. Our selection in OAK is not very deep. Several times we have had to ground planes because we don't have the correct length 1/4 inch bolt and end up having to but one from United or Alaska Airlines.

5.     Some Jack Covers. Months and months go by between our using the aircraft jacks. I am talking about the wing jacks, nose, and tail jacks. There are times when we need to jack up a plane to swing the gear or re-pack a strut. We have a wet climate here. When it is not raining it is cold and foggy in the morning and at night. The jacks need covers to keep the cylinders dry. If the cylinders get too wet they pit as they corrode and that messes up the seals inside of them. A set of real cover for our jacks would likely run about $1000.00. Right now we have some busted up Home Depot buckets on top of them which are always getting blown off.

These are just some of the things that I can think of off the top of my head. It seems like every week when I am at work I find myself wondering why we don't have this or that. I don't think that a couple or maybe $100k is too much of an investment for old OAK MX.

Why I Love Working On Airplanes

I think  it's time to focus on the positives of our job. Too often we get caught up in the industry and the politics of the airlines that we work for. I know a lot of guys at work who no longer enjoy what they do and that is really too bad.

When I know I have to go to work I do not get the sense of dread that it appears some people do. I truly enjoy working on planes and I enjoy (for the most part) the people I work with. My vision is still blurred by the "next new plane" that some company is building, and for the most part I still enjoy learning about new and different ways to fix my beautiful old 737s.

I think that one of the things I find fascinating about our line of work is the multitude of different ways in which different mechanics will attack similar problems. One guy will do what he has learned will work and another guy/gal will go another route ultimately arriving at the same destination. I know that the FAA does not believe in this and thinks that there is only "one way" to fix any problem on our airplanes but from my now 20 years of airline work I have to say that it is just not true. The good mechanics, and I mean the really good ones, have honed their skill over the years and know exactly how they want to approach issues that come up on the plane. In fact even when a call comes in over the radio and I know that it is not going to be my turn to go to the gate call I still go through what I would do in my mind. It is something that we just do, we do not think about it, we just do it.

This process is also good because often the different perspective of our fellow mechanics is just what it takes to get a problem fixed. I can't tell you how many times I have been stuck on a broke plane, running through BITE tests, chasing wires, hitting things with hammers, cussing, just doing battle, only to have a guy/gal stop by and say "hey have you tried _____?" Sure enough that one thing or different view will fix the plane. I think it is an important dynamic which the FAA does not take into account. When you are the person who offers help and the help actually ends up fixing the problem I kind of feel like a rock star!

I also enjoy knowing that the 137 folks sitting in the plane are going to make it to their destination because I was able to fix the plane. There is an ego thing there, sort of a longing to be the hero which comes to the surface when a plane is down hard and you can figure out the problem.

You put these first things together with a curiosity on the way things work mix in a little bit of knowledge on the way things break and you have a happy aircraft mechanic. I know some of you are saying "the way things break?" I have always contended that this job is equal parts knowing how things work and knowing how things break. Think about this: when I am at home and something in my house breaks I can usually fix it. Not because I necessarily know how a washing machine works but rather I know that if no water is getting to point "A" then something downline of that is messed up. I know how things break. I credit thirteen years of driving a 1966 VW Bug for a lot of that.

After all these years I am still an airplane nerd. I like airshows, air museums, Airliners.net, shows about airplanes, books about airplanes, etc. I do not think any of the airline industry BS will ever make that go way.

What sort of things do you like about being a mechanic? Let me know, now is the time to focus on the things we like about our jobs!

Happy New Year!!!

Well it's 2011!! I think it looks like 2011 is going to be a good year in the airline biz. I also am going to make the personal challenge to better my craft of aircraft maintenance. It is important to always try to learn new things in our profession. With all the information available to us at work or on the Internet I think it will be a very attainable goal for all of us to become better versed in aircraft maintenance or the airline industry. I wish you all good luck and a prosperous New Year.
Goat

I Just Do Not Understand

Blade damage-Big Time!!!- Thanks AzWoman

I claimed I was not going to complain anymore about how people work, but I can not let this go. I really love being an aircraft mechanic and I come from a pretty strong background of folks who work hard. I know that I am not always motivated and have off days-everyone does.

Why would a guy complain about me not doing his work and then complain about having to do his work? I know that's not real clear so let me give an example. This just happened to me:

I'm working swing shift on a Saturday. Saturdays in OAK are not the busiest days. The terminating planes usually come in early on Saturday as well. There were four of us working, me and three midnight shift mechanics. Now this whole thing between midnights and swings has been going on for a couple of years now. The midnight guys want the swings guys to "bust out" or work on planes that come in early, reducing the amount of work they have to deal with at night. Sounds good. The problem is that even when two or three planes are knocked out there are a number of midnight shift mechanics who will still complain about what they are assigned to work. Then there are the guys who say "wow you guys could only finish up three planes?" or "yeah swings did three plane, but they were only MV-1s."

These kinds of comments do not sit well with people who are on swing shift. They get no benefit from working the RON planes and then they get complaints about doing it. So the thing is-why help RON knock out planes when the RON guys just say that it is not enough?

We have all worked midnights and we all know how it is to stay up all night and get broke planes when you thought you had a relatively easy night. ALL the guys on days and swings worked graveyards, and  a lot of us worked graveyards at other airlines that had no "down time" when you finished a job, only more work brought into a hangar etc. We know what it is like. To say things like "you could only knock out one plane?" to us is very condescending.

Back to my story:

I was Lead and I like to run the shift with out having to keep a "list". A list is simply that, we list the mechanics working on a piece of paper and go down the list in turn when a gate call comes up. Most grown up people do not need a list to govern their actions but apparently a lot of mechanics do. Usually when no list is used we simply take turns and believe me you know who went before you and when you need to volunteer to get up and do something. Again this only works with grown ups!! As I was the lead I went to the first terminating plane. While there a gatecall came in for hydraulics at gate 25. I got on the radio and asked if someone could get it and after a pause one of the guys said sure.  About this time the terminaters started to come in hot and heavy and of course the three guys went out to work on them so they could have a few less planes at night, I understand that. What I do not understand is that when SWING shift gatecalls came in and I asked someone-anyone to get the call I got no answer on the radio. It went like this:

Ops: "Maint. Gate 28 wants oil"
Me: "Copy that, can any one get that?"
Others: ".........................." (silence)

So I had to call out names just to get the gatecalls done. Then I come to find out (the next day) that one of these guys was overheard saying that there were four guys on swings, but only three guys working. He thinks that I did nothing all shift!

I can't believe this but I should not be surprised. I did not work on any terminating aircraft. My job, my responsibility is for through flight planes. We were working SWING shift, not coming in early as sometimes happens to knock out RON planes. Plus the three of them were ALLOWED by ME to work on those planes. I could have stopped them but I didn't. Why would this guy say this about me? Why let me do you a favor and then turn around and spit in my face? Why complain about the work you are assigned? Why get so mad as to kick tool boxes, throw tools, yell at the work board? The simple reality is that some of us are not mature enough to have reasonable responses when things do not go our perceived way.

It's amazing how the same 8-10 guys are the ones who have problems with their work assignments and these same guys are the ones who concentrate more on what other shifts are doing than how they themselves are behaving on their own shift. It's called projection folks! You know you suck so you try to PROJECT that same attribute onto others.

I learned my lesson, I will ALWAYS take the Lead when it is available to me and I will ALWAYS keep a list when those guys are on shift. And I will ALWAYS make it clear that the gatecalls will take top priority. I guess the days of working with grownups are over. Oh and I will be having a "come to Jesus" talk with this one loud mouth.

It Started Out Like Such A Normal Night....

I had the pleasure of working mid-night shift one night this week. I actually enjoy working mid-nights every now and then. Because of the Thanksgiving holidays I have been off for two weeks and this was my first mid-night shift worked since my return. I got to work early. Usually I like to show up early to eat my dinner since I do not think it is cool to clock in at 9pm and then spend the next half hour eating as a few people do.

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.

All in all not very hard items to work so I am thinking my original plane is still intact. Once I remote the plane I change the landing light and do my outside stuff. When I go upstairs to test the light it still does not work! My whole plan was to not have to drive back and forth from remote area Tango and the shop. My golf cart has VERY old batteries and they do not hold up for the long drives. I decide to wait and check out the N1 gauge issue. Once I got that squared away, which was a lot quicker than I thought it would be, I figured I had to go and get a Multi-meter to check the power to the light, cb, and switch on the landing light.

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.

New Email!!!

Just wanted to let everyone know that I have changed the Blogs email due to some privacy concerns brought to my attention by Az-Woman. Thanks Az-Woman!!!

Goat

Imagine A Movie About Line Maintenance

This past Thanksgiving holiday I went and saw the movie "Unstoppable". This is a movie about a runaway train and how they get it stopped, but it also goes a long way in demonstrating how difficult and dangerous the job of Railroading is. The movie even touches on layoffs and worker strife.

I got to thinking what a movie about aircraft maintenance would be like. I can not for the life of me think of one movie that showed aircraft mechanics in a positive light. The early Airport movies showed Joe Patroni as a loud, obnoxious, foul mouthed, dude who really knew his stuff and took very little guff from the flight crews or airport brass. This is a good description of mechanics. Let's face it: the language in most maintenance shops is a little "colorful". Mechanics are often loud (we have to speak up over machinery etc.). We often have to face pushy flight crews who think they are all knowing and those confrontations are often heated.

But what would an aircraft maintenance movie be like? We have a dangerous job. The dangers run from falling off the crown of the plane to catching some crazy disease while fishing a cell phone out of a toilet.

There are labor/company relations in the industry that are strained. Most of us have been laid off at least once in our careers.

There are times when there is great excitement: The first engine run after a fuel pump change, correctly solving an on going electrical issue, etc.

The problem is that there are times of great boredom and repetitive work: I know when I worked overhaul I received a turn over of "We drilled these 284 holes, now you countersink these 284 holes" or the like more than once. On the Line there are very quite days when we get very few calls.

So what would this movie be like? Any ideas? Would it have to involve some kind of emergency? What do you think?