Blow Me

Met up with "O" earlier this evening and picked up some shiny new hardware fro Sleepy's MX-5, ordered off www.rhdjapan.com. Shameless plug I know but what can I say, they provide a good service. If only I could justify putting stuff like that on my car. I've definitely got enough cash to buy it just that i can't see the point if I'm only gonna drive my car for a month a year. Best saving up the cash and just investing it in driver training. As I've seen so many times before, a good driver is worth way more than any mod you could stick into a car.

P.S. the bottom 2 pics were actually taken in wifeys home made lighting studio, not taken off the net somewhere! Still amazed how pro she can make pictures look using any old camera, just by getting the right lighting.

Not another class1 fault!!! Think we better call........

In the never ending battle against defects and faulty systems "B" and "J" cast aside their daily personas and become AOG Men. Getting grounded aircraft the world over airbourne again with their superhuman plane fixing skills.

Or it could just be a couple of mincers in sleeping masks and luminous vests poncing about the cabin yet again...

Experience

Been a while since I last posted. Been busy with the move back to the desert. And as expected its as hot and humid as it was last year. 40+ degrees C and 100% humidity is something hard to convey the sensation of in words. It really has to be felt to understand how uncomfortable it is, especially to work in.

Things at work haven't changed much. Still as poo. Couple of days before I arrived back around 5 planes were grounded with various defects. Day I was back another plane grounded as a catering lorry drove into it and made a mess of the front of the plane. And last night on another plane was grounded with corroded seat rails.

Was also my 1st taste of working a an inspector last shift.To be honest i felt OK about it, not too stressed as the training that i was given out in Switzerland I have to say was top notch. So I felt confident in troubleshooting and fault finding.

But working on these planes is something no training can prepair you for. It seemed like a simple fault with the aircraft's air system. The computer had ID-ed a fault so just follow the manual and fix it. Thing is after I fixed it the problem was still there. So I enlisted the help of a more senior inspector. After an hour or 2 of us working, the fault had multiplied and it could mean more was at fault. so the 2 of us got another inspector in for an 2nd opinion. And the problems just seemed to get more complex. In the end there were 4 of us trying to find out what was broken. Turns out it could almost be ANY part connected to the air system.

As we took a break I asked my more senior colleagues if it is always this tough to trouble shoot and fix stuff. Their answer was no, usually the stuff I learnt on training is all you need to solve most problems out there. The reason why things here are so complex and messed up is cos they just defer faults and defects and not fix stuff till the last possible moment. And so in a single system you could have 2 or 3 or 4 items in there which are defective, so trying to find out what works and what doesn't a nightmare. As the manuals and other maintenance paper work only holds true is just a single component is faulty, not multiple faults in a single system.

Either way it taught me a valuable lesson. No matter how hard you study, there is no substitute for experience.