The Way Of The Whine

I know that I have already blogged about this before. I hate that our industry has come to this. I feel like an old man when I bring it up. Maybe it has always been like this and I was too green to have noticed it back in the day. I'm talking about whining. In the last five or so years it seems to me that the whining in our maintenance shop has gotten out of control. Some of the guys who work there do not seem to do any thing but whine. I can recall one night when everything seemed to be going well, one of the chief whiners walked by me, on the heels of his co-whiner, no mention of how good the night was, no mention of how clean their aircraft was, no mention of how well they were getting paid. This guy was actually complaining about how the paperwork package was different from the last time he did whatever job it was he did. I have heard the same set of guys complain about everything from shift start time to actually having to work or terminate the plane they are supposed to work on to how the work is assigned to how the roller chairs in the break room suck. I have even heard complaining during down time.

I'm not saying that some of the complaints are not legit. I'm not saying that there are not things that need to be fixed (even at SWA). What happens as far as I am concerned is that because I hear all complaining all the time from some of these guys, when they have a legit complaint, I lump it in with all the rest of the whining and chalk it up as a problem with the mechanic.

Having been around for a while I also understand that there is a far bit of whining that is coming from management on down to the work force. My main beef is the whining about delays. Sure I realize the importance of understanding what happened to cause a delay. To hammer a mechanic for taking a delay is kind of crazy in my book. I am paid to fix planes, to provide an airworthy plane for the flight crew as well as for the flying public. If I take a delay fixing a plane then I am okay with that. When you get back in the office and a delay report comes in they come running up to you with "why did we take a hit on ac XXX", or "how did you get a (whatever) minute delay for fixing a coffee maker?" It goes on and on... When the flight crew calls, and they call often not when they get on the ground but when they remember a problem or even when they are fully boarded, we go. Doing this often creates a delay. Additionally if the plane is already 20 minutes late and I go out to fix a reading light at push time that for whatever reason takes me 5 minutes to change, do the book, etc. I get a 25 minute delay. Crazy!

There are flight crews that whine, Operations Agents that whine, Ramp Crew that whine. All this whining reminds me of the Little Boy Who Cries Wolf. I hear so much of it that I no longer hear any of it.

It seems more and more that the whiners get their way while the workers are ignored. That said I will continue to work as I always have and as I was taught. Happy to have a job in these hard times and happy to start work when I'm told and get paid.

Aircraft Damage

My guest blogger suggested that a post on aircraft damage may be good. Being a line mechanic we see our fair share of damaged aircraft, additionally, being a line mechanic we also cause our fair share of damage to airplanes.

The picture on the left was caused by a provisioning truck (they bring sodas and snacks up to the airplanes) running into the wingtip of one of our planes. It may look like my golf cart hit the wing to some of you but that was just poor photography by me.

As a line mechanic we are usually on the front line and act as first responders for incidents involving damage to aircraft. The picture I put up is more the exception than the rule. Most damage incidents involve dents or small punctures that can be patched up quickly and sent on the way. Antennas seem to be magnets for belt loaders. I have seen 4 or 5 antennas broken off aircraft by careless rampers driving belt loaders. Engine inlet cowls have this same fate especially the number 2 engine cowl being on the side of the plane that the rampers are working on.

Damage inflicted by mechanics seems to run the gambit from breaking an end bay off a row of seats to destroying a thrust reverser half by jacking a plane and lowering it back down with a main tire resting against the TR half. My own personal experience involved a TR half also. I was rushing, not paying attention, when the TR half's were open and I lowered the flaps which put a hole in the TR half. We were able to simply speed tape it and Mx Note it for a repair a few cycles down the road.

Sometimes aircraft design puts certain components in danger. For example on the MD-80 the number 2 engine cowl rests right against the APU exhaust when it is open. I watched an Alaska airline mechanic leave the cowl open on his MD-80 and turn on the APU which burned a hole in the cowl.

Since the winglets have been installed several have been hit by provo trucks or by being pushed back into other planes.

The point is that damage happens. Unfortunately most companies treat aircraft damage like you have committed man slaughter. A few years ago Southwest adapted a zero tolerance for aircraft damage and threatened to fire those responsible. Planes are expensive and the economy being as it is you might understand why they do this. This and policies like this are problems for mechanics because it makes you think that the company does not have your back if a situation occurs involving you. it also is a problem because there is a reluctance by other employees to tell mechanics about how a plane was damaged. For example, if a pilot spills a coke and ruins a radio head it is considered aircraft damage. Prior to the new policy we would get a call for a radio head and the pilot would say "hey look I messed up and spilled my coffee on the thing". No big deal in my book, I R&R the radio head and go about my day. Now we go up to the flight deck and the crew says "I don't know, the radio head just stopped working". At times like this I have to trouble shoot the whole system which wastes my time when I could be done already.

We at SWA have over 500 aircraft. What the bean counters at headquarters do not seem to understand is that with 500 aircraft you are bound to have some damage incidents. It is statistically impossible to have that many airplanes flying hundreds of flights a day and not have any damage incidents. I think it would be better to have a set standard of what to do when a plane is damaged then to say there is a zero tolerance for damage, but, I'm just a wrench turner.

I do know this: the zero tolerance rule does not effect how I work in any way. You can not do this job if you are worrying about damaging an airplane. I'm not a big time Union guy but I figure that's what they are for. If I am doing my job and something goes wrong, an airplane gets damaged, I know that I am secure in the knowledge that I do not intentionally damage planes. If the company wants to go after me for doing my job, so be it.

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.

Old School Airline

FAILURE!

"Can you hear it?"

"Yeah it's still clicking!"

"OK what should we try now?"

Last night I worked graveyard shift. My airplane was making a clicking noise in the aft cargo bin. I met the plane and talked to the Captain. The Captain tells me that the noise is coming from the area of the Flight Data Recorder in the Aft Bin.

At this point I bite my tongue and inform him that the box in the aft bin is the Voice Recorder and not the Flight Data Recorder. Of course he doesn't believe me and starts to ask me all kind of nomenclature questions which I expertly redirect back to the matter at hand. Something back there is clicking, that's the bottom line.

Once I get the plane out to Tango (remote parking area) I quickly finish up the MV-1 check, fix the few things I found broken, and get into the aft cargo bin. Sure enough you can hear a clicking noise, as a matter of fact you can hear it by just standing with your head in the door opening. "Click, click, click, click.....".

My first thought is the CVR is messed up so I open the access door and give it a tap, no help. I tap the APU temp. box next to the CVR, no help. On the side of the CVR enclosure is the J-11 Junction box and I can see a few relays in there through the holes cut in the side of the box. Pop that sucker open and sure enough it looks like the R353(?) relay is clicking. I call on the radio for someone to look up the relay part number and they tell me that Maintenance Control has already ordered it and it is on the way-be here at 10pm.

Now I'm thinking: If MX Control called and wanted to know which relay was making the noise (they were the ones who called about the plane originally), how could they have already ordered the relay that was busted? Even better why not let me know so I would not go beating up two other boxes, and possibly saving me some time. Whatever.

By the way all this time the worse storm of the year is roaring outside. Rain, wind, flooding at the airport, it's crazy outside. So I get my part and go back to the plane, put the new relay in, go up stairs to turn on power, go back down to the aft pit and CLICK, CLICK, CLICK...

Strike one.

I had doubts as to if that relay was the one clicking so with the power on I decided to disconnect the cannon plugs that go to the relay rack. The plugs are labeled 1 and 2, and the only other relay that could have been making that noise was labeled 2 while the relay I just changed was labeled 1. Sure as heck the noise stops when I pull of plug 2!

"Hey someone check to see if we have an R625 relay" I call on the radio.
A few moments later they tell me "We do not stock that relay". Before I can say for sure that the relay is the trouble I wanted to rob one from another plane and "slave" it in.

Now the wind is blowing at about 25mph, but the rain has stopped.

I get my "volunteer" relay and put it in, reconnect the cannon plug and CLICK, CLICK, CLICK...
The problem is not the relay.

Strike 2.

I drive my golf cart back to the shop which takes a while since it is old and the wind is blowing right at me. My normally slow cart is having to push through the wind and it going about 5 mph. At the shop I discuss the problem with the foreman and check out the wiring diagram. The relay gets a signal from two switches both of which are in the flap drum. For those of you who know the 737 the flap drum switches are one of the most loathed jobs in all of Line Maintenance. All the work is over head on the wheel well ceiling and the wires to the switches cannot be spliced they must be unclamped from the switch all the way up to the cannon plug, a run of about five feet or so with about 7-8 clamps to deal with.

I decide to see if I can adjust or clean the switches. While I am doing this I notice that one of the switches is loose in the drum and that the wires leading to the switch are spliced. I lower the flaps and check, no clicking. I raise the flaps up one setting, no clicking. I raise it one more setting, no clicking. I do this again and again, running up the stairs and down to see if the clicking is back. I figure if I can get these flaps all the way up and there is no clicking I'm going to sign this bad boy off. Sure enough at the last setting I go down stairs and CLICK, CLICK, CLICK...

Strike 3.

Now it's about 1am. I have a 50/50 chance on which switch to change but I have a pretty good idea that it is the loose and spliced switch that needs to go. Start digging! Off comes the switch, off come the clamps, I de-pin the cannon plug. I take the old switch to the shop and lay it out on the work table so I can put new pins on where they belong and new ground lugs and terminate the unused wires. It is now 2:45am. Since its not raining anymore I figure I'll take off my rain boots (they are killing my feet) and put my regular work boots back on.

Back at the plane I re-pin the plug. String the wire. Re-do the clamps. Put the switch in. It is now 4am. the moment of truth! By now the foreman and one other mechanic has come out to give me some moral support. We turn on power go to the cargo door and....

CLICK, CLICK, CLICK....

Damn! Strike 4!

We go through the adjustment on the switch to see if that is the problem but it is no help. Now it is raining again, the wind is blowing so hard that the plane is dancing around while I'm trying to adjust the switch and tie up all the loose wires. The final part of that adjustment calls for me to listen for the switch to click and then back it off and tighten it there. The wind is so loud that I cannot hear the tiny clicking of the switch. Time for the alternate method (I love this job). Any way it is starting to look like my 50/50 guess was incorrect and that the other switch is going to have to come out! Now it is 5:50am. I have been standing on my ladder the whole night. My back is killing me. My shoulders are burning from the overhead work. Remember when I took off my rain boots? Bad move, for the last 2 hours my feet have been soaking wet. My hands are black from the grease and muck in the wheel well and I cannot feel my fingers they are so cold.

I have the awkward experience of recounting my tale of woe to the day shift lead mechanic and informing him that one of his guys will have to change that second switch. I leave soaked, pissed off, dejected, and filthy. Part of being a Line Mechanic is that feeling of failing to fix the problem. Some people handle it better than others and some people just don't care. Not fixing a problem is a fact of life in our industry almost as much as fixing a problem is. The really talented mechanics will always learn something from each of their failures like - leave the rain boots on!

Another Day In The Trenches

Well it's Saturday so that means back to work for me. Once again the ability to work on the weekend is paramount in that my boss called and asked me to be the bump-up supervisor for the morning shift. The pay is good the work is sometimes tedious but not very hard. All in all I like being the sup. and if the permanent position paid well enough and some other things were set in my personal life I would put in for the permanent position.

It's crazy that a position like Foreman at a major airline pays so poorly. People with FedEx delivery routes make more than our foremen do. It is just like many of the jobs at airlines these days-the pay is very low and in some geographical locations-laffable. Legal Secretaries make more money than most airline pilots, mechanics have to live often many states away and commute into work because they can not afford to live at their work base location.

All this is a result, not of airlines like Southwest as a lot of employees of the traditional "legacy" carriers claim. The reason the airlines are cash strapped is that they refuse to raise the ticket prices despite the fact that fuel has gone through the roof. When one airline raises rates all the others tend to do the same, however, at some time one of those airlines get greedy and lower their rates. This in turn makes everyone else lower fares and so goes the cycle, over and over again.

I'm not talking about raising fares from $50.00 to $200.00. I'm talking about raising fares from $50.00 to $60.00. A couple of years ago we raised fares an average of $2.00 and that allowed the company to realize a profit that year! It's amazing how a short term gain in filled seats can sabotage a companies thinking into believing that lowering fares is any type of advantage to their bottom line. This industry is in major trouble if the CEO's and CFO's do not start to realize that with the fares they are charging you can not make any money. If they can not make any money they cannot compensate the employees appropriately.

I'm sure that raising fares is not going to go over well with the public but I also do not believe that an extra $10.00 or so is going to be a deal breaker. I have seen a lot in this industry and I love working on airliners. The most troubling trend in this industry is the quality of the persons that are being attracted by low pay and hard hours. This used to be a proud industry where people were paid well and the people coming on board were willing to go the extra mile because they knew the reward was with in reach. I know from experience that pilots at regional and commuter organizations make about $800-$2000 a month! When my wife was working at a commuter I had to keep her fed and housed (away from home) and I also had to keep one or two of her colleagues fed as well. If you think that quality top of the line people are going to get into that line of work for $400.00 a pay check you better think again. Enrollment is down in maintenance training schools across the country, the caliber of folks that are enrolling can not be the top of the top as it was in years past. This is a problem for the future of our industry that is more immediate than any other.

The next time you fly on an airliner think about the fact that the multi-million dollar plane you are in is being piloted by a person who, on average, makes less than a manager at McDonalds, was "fixed" by a guy who could get a pay raise by going to sort mail at the Post Office, and these nice folks will likely get pay cuts in the coming years. It is really too bad when you find a job that you like, such as the Foreman position for me, and you can not "afford" to take the job but instead have to stay in the position you are in. maybe one day things will change...I need TEN more years baby, just TEN more years.

Another Typical Night thanks 666 for the pic