Professionalism

Seriously thought of making a formal complaint today, but realised here it would be pointless when the authorities are in bed with the quality dept and the quality dept is in bed with the engineering management... Reporting to the local papers crossed my mind too but in a country where papers are edited by the state, I'm pretty sure it would never make the press. So best I can do is blog it. What has put me on such a footing? Read on.

We had just done an engine hydraulic pump change and in line with the procedures from Airbus. The instruction was to bleed out any air in the hydraulic lines. My inspector raised this to our shift leader who assured us it was ok and needn't be done. From my recollection the previous 2 times this was done, both resulted in an aborted flight. In 1 of them the pilot could not retract the landing gear after take off. And in the other case air in the lines caused the a thrust reverser fault to occur soon after take off on 2 separate engines. With recent and close to home examples like those, how can he justify saying it need not be done? Its not even a lengthy or difficult thing to do.

But this next one really takes the cake and really pissed me off. "J" had discovered a latch which was part of the escape slide on the door to be corroded to the point the spring in it no longer sprung. It was just rusted to hell, totally unable to do what it was designed for. That part has 2 functions. The first is then you are on the ground and opening the door to get into the aircraft, this part ensures the slide does not go off. Because if it did you would be thrown several meters back and probably be hospitalized and in certain cases people have died. The other purpose that part serves is when you are in the aircraft and want to escape in cases of emergency, such as lets say a burning plane. When the door is opened and the escape slide inflates, that part is what also holds the slide to the aircraft, preventing the slide from inflating and then falling to the ground. Anyway even to the non-aviation minded I'm sure you can grasp the importance of this lil bit of kit. So having snagged this rusty bit of equipment, with "J" feeling he had an inspection well done, he moved on to looking for a new part from stores to install. But true to the uselessness of support out here, no parts were available. Next step and "J" knew was to raise the issue to the shift leader so he could either ground the aircraft till a new part was delivered or dispatch the aircraft with the fault but with a reduced passenger load due to the inoperative door. But he decided to take a 3rd route, telling "J" to squirt a load of oil over it and reinstall it!!! I'm sure anyone could tell you, if you had a part with broken spring, spraying some oil on it will not make it work again. But to him it was fine.

All of the good engineers I've worked with have always used their judgement and we know certain lil things can be let go, like a few missing screws in a non critical skin panel, a few missing patches of paint or a couple of drips of oil out of an engine. But this is on a totally differently level. As with this item if it does not function as it should, in either case people could very possibly die. Be it the surprised ground crew, blown away while trying to get into the aircraft, or the passengers stranded in a burning aircraft because the escape slide had fallen off. It's just beyond me how someone take crucial issues like these with such irresponsibility.

Oh by the way, the shift leader, he is the same guy who proclaimed publicly that "J" and I were the laziest most useless people he had ever worked with, as well as writing up our shitty appraisal.

Child's Play

Just today a couple of incidents involving the locals here have revealed to me a somewhat child like quality in them. Cute, funny and endearing, that's if they were 8 year olds, stupid and irresponsible if an adult. But nevertheless, funny all the same. First one involved us calling the local engineering firm to rent one of those man lifter, basket-on-a-boom vehicles, so we could gain access to the tail fin of the aircraft. When 2 guys from the firm arrived with the man lifter, "R" made sure that it worked by telling them to show him how it worked. And true to form, they couldn't get it to work. So ensued around an hour of them pressing buttons, starting and stopping the engine and calling friends. All to no avail. So "R" and me walked off to the canteen to have a coffee while watching their endeavours. After another 15mins we noticed 1 of them in the basket at the controls and another guy standing on the ground, by the main control box. And the guy in the basket was moving up and down. Great, they seemed to get it working. With that we both moved out and "R" asked the guy on the ground if everything was good and it worked. Guy on the ground said yeah, everything is fine, works good. Suspiciously "R" eyed him and they eyed his friend in the basket, 12 foot in the air. Slowly "R" said to the guy on the ground, "Ok, if it works you move away from the machine" And with that the guy gave a very reluctant smile nd moved away. "Right, now, you, up there, I want you to come down!" A sheepish smile spread over his face as he gingerly moved the controls. As suspected nothing happened, "No, sir, it not work here." he yelled back. Basically the guy on the ground was moving the basket using the main control box on the ground and getting his friend to stand in the basket and pretend to work the controls to try con us that the controls in the basket worked fine. It was just so funny watching both their faces. Was like catching a couple of lil kids lying to their parents, right down to the silly smiles.

Next one that happened was when we were running the Auxiliary Power Unit, APU. Which is simply a small jet engine used to supply power to the aircraft when the main engines cannot be run. After smooth flawless operation for about 30mins it started to sound a little rough and black-ish smoke was jetting out the exhaust. Best shut it down and see what's up with up. Getting a man lifter we moved up to the APU and opened up the cowl doors. Immediately we spotted the fault. A slightly charred blue shirt was sucked up against the air inlet screen. Pulling the shirt out we headed down to the hanger floor. The inspector present "L" started to address the bunch of cleaners around the aircraft, asking whose shirt it was. All of them looked up as he yelled out his question and expectedly they all vigorously shook their heads in unison chanting out "No sir, no sir, no sir, no sir". Even the lil guy at the back cowering behind his mates... the only guy with no shirt on...

Lighter side

With all the doom and gloom around in my working life tis important to look toward to lighter side of things. Heres a couple from tonight's work shift.

Walked up to the security gate to get into the hanger. Normally the guard never even bothers to get out of his hut or even glance up. If they are a lil more on the ball they might smile and wave. As for checking our security passes, that is way too much effort for em, never mind checking our bags. Bear in mind this is an international airport, and one with a US airbase on site! Security might as well be non existent. But today the guard was standing by the gate and as I walked through. The guard stopped me. And briskly demanded I present my bag for inspection.

"what's this?" he asked pulling out a clear plastic bottle with liquid in.
"soup" I reply.
"Hmmmph" he grunts back rummaging around my bag some more before pulling out my bento box.
"what's this?" he asks again.
"My lunch" I reply.
"What you have for lunch?" he asked.
"Nothing I'm willing to swap with you mate!" I say, as I spy a sly smirk spreading across his face.

LOL, guess he's gotta break the boredom somehow.

The other incident occurred outside the terminal building on the aircraft. We were called out to a A320 on which work had to be carried out on engine #1 and in the cockpit. So there we are working away. "J" is up on the wing, over the engine ripping out bits due to be replaced and I'm running parts and tools back and forth to him while another bunch of guys are ripping up the cockpit. Suddenly this almighty "BEEEEEEEEEPPPPPPP!" rings out, causing "J" to nearly fall off the wing in fright. It was a convoy of busses filled with passengers. The driver pokes his head out the window yelling at us to move our pick-up, so he could pull up to the aircraft and drop off the passengers.

"J" yelled back incredulously asking him, "can't you see we are working on the aircraft. Don't think this plane will be ready for passengers any time soon."
"Not my problem. I need to drop these passengers off to this plane" the driver yelled back.
"Ummm, you sure? Cos this engine is in bits and the cockpit is in pieces. Its really not going to fly any time soon "J" reassured him.
"Not my problem, passengers need to get on, move the pick-up" he replied gruffly.

So in I hop into the pick-up and shift it out of the busse's way. By now the passengers are already feeling a lil odd with the hold up, not to mention pulling up next to an aircraft with its engines wide open. And the worry only got worse watching engineers wandering about, engine parts in hand, puzzled looks on faces. Their worries kicked up a notch as they walked up the stairs into the plane. Greeted to the sight of the pilot seats lying on the galley floor and various other bits of cockpit lying in the doorway. with some of the passengers you could even see horror mirrored in their eyes. But before they could proceed any further up the stairs a ground service agent came screaming and yelling his way toward us, waving his arms about indicating for the passengers to stop boarding. The service agent ran up to the bus driver's window and some angry but suppressed dialogue was exchanged. The driver slowly craned his neck out of the window and noticed the another plane parked along side us, with a full complement of aircrew waiting to greet passengers.D'oh! Wrong plane.

Just hope the passengers weren't too traumatised by the case of mistaken identity.

Deal of the centuary

Been fighting like hell to sort out my Christmas leave and flights with the company. And its a real uphill struggle. Also trying to fight it out to get our back pay sorted, which falls close to the US$4000 mark. But it is like trying to reason with a 5 year old who is asked to do something he doesn't want to.

Anyway was last told a meeting would be held with the top brass to address these issues. And today the results are out. To address the back pay issue. They have decided to cut back our pay scale so we are no longer owed US$4000, but US$2000 instead. Yay... we aren't owed so much money any more... And regarding our leave issues they will give us 8 days less leave next year so there will be less days to argue over. Also they will do away with all public holiday days, so we turn up to work regardless. In addition, they will maintain their arbitrary value of our average monthly working hours of 173 as opposed to the real hours we do of 182 hours every month...

And how they hell are they getting away with all this, you might ask. Simple... they will tear up our contracts and write the above into a new contract which we all shall then sign...yeah...rightttt, I'm sure we will...

Lazy MOFOs

Since that fateful job appraisal I've done my best to work toward their standards. But still, its not enough as "J" was told by 1 of our informants. Our supervisors were found talking about us and how lazy we are... still. WTF man. I bug them if there are jobs to do and if there are none or they can't be bothered to call me to give me a job, then its not my fault is it?

Guess I should have read the signs to their feelings as 1 of the better guys, "M" commented to me it was odd I keep being told to change tyres on the aircrafts and nothing else... Then it dawned on me he was right, for every plane in so far I had changed multiple tyres on each. Hardly the job variety I asked for during the appraisal. More to the point this nights goings on seemed to show how little they value me or "J".

For me I was asked to change a wheel but noticed that 2 of the "OK" wheels looked suspect to me so I commented/told the guy I was working with that they need changing. HE said he wasnt too sure about it despite my explanation why, and demanded I seek the knowledge of The Master. When I asked The Master he was very non committal about it. Not willing to say yes or no, The Master asked me to refer to my supervisor who finally made a decision to change them. So I start to change the wheel on my own. Then a couple of minutes into the job a Filipinos joins me on the task. Great I think, easier working as a pair. Then another guy shows up to help. A lil excessive I thought but still ok. Then another shows up! WTF! And yet another!!!OMFG WTF!!! 5 people to change a wheel, jeez. So everybody is getting in each others way, cluster fucking etc, so I think screw it, I'll just handle the paperwork, leave them to get in each others way. So off I go. But as I leave I tell 1 of them the torque figure for the tightening of the wheel. Gave it to him in N/m as opposed to ft/lbs which is the norm. Guy looks weirdly at me. I explain the ft/lb torque wrench is broken and the only torque wrench we have is in N/m. So here is the torque figure in N/m. He then grills me on the calculation of it. I tell him i dunno the conversion rate. I used a unit conversion program on the computer and this is the answer. Still he has no faith in my ability to punch in numbers and goes on trying to work out the conversion himself. Suit yourself I told him, this is the figure. And the manual print out I've done and put on the job board if you want to refer. And I walk off to do the paper work. 5 or so minutes pass when 1 of the Filipinos comes into the office looking for the figures and manual reference. I tell him I've already told the figures to them and printed out the manual reference. So they bugger off. Once I got the paper work wrapped up I wander out to see how they are getting on and I see The Master huddled with all of em, working out the ft/lb to N/m conversion!!! ARRRRGHHHH WTF man WTF!!!!!!!!!!! I go grumble to "J" bout it all. Who then goes over to see what exactly they are fussing over for such a simple calculation. But as he does, "J" gets roped into working it out! When he gets back over to me "J" said not to worry as they kept questioning his working out too, despite the fact he too was using a unit converter program on his phone... And to wind it all up at the end of the night as I go to sign out I hear 1 of the guys who was on the wheel job talking to the supervisor about the torque figures and conversions. ARRRGGHHHH, not being trusted is 1 thing, this is clearly something else.

For "J", it was a third the way thru the night when he was dragged off his duties on engine #1by the supervisor to go help out some guys with an aircraft at the terminal. So dropping it all, he rushes off to their aid. Then part way through the night the same supervisor complains to The Master about the lack of job progress on engine #1. And asked The Master who was in charge of engine #1. "J" is replied The Master. And where is "J" the supervisor asked. Dunno said The master. The supervisor then shook his head and walked off!!! The same supervisor who asked "J" to go to the terminal to help out, is blaming "J" for not being in the hanger working. Jeez.

Shout to ma Pee-pees

Ahhh a break from work. Been really hooked on my PS2 again since the demise of my laptop. Screwed graphics card coupled with constant blue-screen-of-death. Can only get onto my desktop via safe mode. But anyway yeah been hooked on my PS2 playing "Atellier Iris 2". Spent my previous 4 days off playing it and started my 1st day off today playing it too. Getting back into my love for RPGs once again. Clocked up 25hours on it so far. Also been watching "Lucky star" during lunch at work too. Only up to episode 10 so far. Savouring it all. Its one of those rare animes with accurately reflects real life, real people and even has real films, songs, TV shows etc in it. Just refreshing to watch. Thanks to Sleepy for the recommendation on it. And as he said, yeah I can see me in 1 of the characters, even thou its a girl, yeah she is me. LOL.

Been thinking bout my blogging life recently. Find it pretty frustrating. Really envy those bloggers who can write pretty much everything but their darkest secrets into their blog. Whereas with mine just about everything has to be edited or omitted. Out of my entries only like 5% ever remains a straight translation. Frustrating... just wish I could write straight from my thoughts without passing thru my built in editorial. Not to mention I prefer to have readers I don't know. As its less of a worry on possible reprisals. As I keep just about all of my life a secret from my family. Not to mention the sensitive nature of my job. Its sad to say it but its easier that way. Of cause I would prefer people I know as readers but as previously said, my life is better in anonymity. To those who do know me, cheers, I appreciate your readership a great deal. For those readers I don't know. Thanks for reading. Nice to know that there are peeps out there who bear with and read the rantings of a complete stranger.

Who am I?

Think I may have figured out how my appraisal has become so poor in the eyes of my supervisor. Started work as usual. Went to the board where all the outstanding jobs were up on display and looked for my name. I was placed under the landing gear and hydraulic zones. So I looked at my jobs and thought I'd look if "J"s name was on the board. As "J" was off work for today's night shift because he attended fire training earlier during the day I wanted to see if they were so clueless as to expect him at work tonight. And sure enough they did. They placed him under the engine #3 zone. Finding it amusing as I did I thought I better let the zone supervisor know he would not be in. As I informed the supervisor. A rather interesting conversation unfolded, as such...

Me, " J won't be in tonight, so you;re gonna have to find someone else for engine #3"
Sup, " Huh what do u mean?"
Me, " He went for fire training during the day, so won't be in tonight"
Sup," But you're here!"
Me, " Huh? But I'm on landing gear and hydraulics"
Sup," No, thats for...umm... (has a look at the board)... P"
Me," Ummmm I'm P"
Sup," ... Your J aren't you?"
Me, " Errrr, no I'm P. Says so here on my pass, see picture of me... and below it my name"
Sup," You're not J?"
Me," Errr, nope... never have been"
Sup,"Oh...kay..." (nonchalantly removes "J"s name and carries on like nothing happened)

I mean I've only been working with this guy for over a year and held several conversations with him during that time. I mean if he thinks I am "J" then who else thinks that. I'm sure there will be more than one person with that idea in their head. After all the 2 of us hang out alot. Could also be why I am seen as a serious slacker. I mean after all I am slacking for 2, if you get my meaning.

Frustration

New day new stress. Here's how the 1st half of my day ran.

Received task. 3 wheels change . Went to the computer room to print out the maintenance manual. Can't, coz the only 2 computers were all occupied. So went to get 3 wheels from stores. Back to comp room, got the print outs. Went to get tools. Found out I needed 8 split pins. Went to comp room to refer to the parts manual. Can't, coz the computers were occupied again. Went to jack up plane. Can't, no jack. Drove to another part of the airport to borrow a jack. Drove back. Now got into the comp room and got the part numbers off the parts manual. Went order parts from materials man. Can't, coz he was busy. Skipped to jacking up the plane. Went order parts from materials man again. Can't, power cut, computers are dead. Back to removing a wheel. Wheel removed. Tried ordering split pins again from materials. Can't, was told all split pins have been sent back to home base in Europe. Proceed to hunt down people who could have some split pins sitting spare. Finally got pins. Installed wheels. Cant, the torque wrench broke as I torqued up the wheel nut. Went to tool store and got a new working torque wrench. Can't, whole operation here had only 1 Torque wrench! Proceed to hunt for torque wrench. Found an old one. Proceeded to torque up wheel nut. Wheel finally changed. Just 2 more to go...

Bear in mind a wheel normally takes 2 people to change. Also these things are in excess of 100kg, up to 250kg. So try to imagine working on your own with 3 of them. Add to it what I just described. Any surprises it took me 8 hours to do?

On another note, while doing a task I asked for a quick hand from 1 of the guys. HE came over, helped and then got back to his own job. A lil while later he comes back and points out I made a mistake in my task. I check out his findings an find he is right. So I admitted, my bad and go about amending my mistake. Then 15mins later the supervisor appears and asks me if I have rectified my mistake. Now is it just me being awkward or do I have a right to be pissed off with that guy? I mean what the hell man. I make a mistake, I admitted it,took his directions and fixed my faults. Is there any reason to blab to the management? Just strikes me as a guy out to point out others short-comings, so he comes out in a better light.

Then later on in the shift, supervisor is pressuring me to get the plane out of the hanger so the next plane can come in, cos he was eager to start work on it and the new plane has been sitting there waiting for us to leave for the past 3 hours. But several people are still working on the plane. But yet he's bugging me no end and really putting on the pressure to get us out. So when I finally do get the plane out, the new plane zips straight in taking our place. Good I thought, finally he's gonna be off my back. I came back from sending my plane off to the terminal building to see the new plane in the hanger but not a person in sight. I then learnt from "P" that my supervisor "doesn't really want to start work" on the new plane despite 2hours left of our shift. Can you imagine my mood when I heard that. 1st he busts my balls to get the plane out so he can start work on the new one. and when I did as he demanded, he totally changed his mind and no longer wants to work. So what was the point of me making all the efforts to meet his demands?

Not much wonder why I am disinterested, unmotivated and depressed at work when the above is a typical day.

D'oh

Seems to be turning into more of a work related blog than a personal blog. Maybe cos my life is so dull compared to work, or maybe I have no life other than work. Make of it what you will.

Was put in an uncomfortable spot whilst at work today. Was sent to the terminal to receive an aircraft that had just landed and hand a few items to the pilots. After I had done the afore mentioned task, the purser (senior flight attendant) came up to me and asked if I was part of the engineering lot. I said yes and he asked me if "this" was normal. He showed me a 6 inch gap between the galley and the door frame where there was nothing, you could see insulation foam, wires and the aircraft fuselage. Reeling stunned but not being allowed to recover he dragged me off and showed me 1st class and posed the same question. And at one of the seats, the floor in front of it was devoid of any carpet! Just a bare floor board! He then demanded to know why it was sent off on a flight in such a state and why it was allowed and what we were going to do about it. I found it very difficult to answer as I really din't want to reply with the truthful answer of, "No point pounding me for answers, I'm just the bottom of the pile monkey boy. I'm told less than shit". I just told him that I shall call my boss now and he will sort it out. And when I say sort it, I mean he will most probably run to another plane rip out the bits needed and fit them to this plane. Cos then the complaint will be dealt with and this plane will be fine, the other plane the bits were stolen from however will be another issue to be dealt with later.

I can just see how this all came about too. Person "A" reconstructed the cabin. Certifier person "B" asks Person "A" is it done? Person "A" says yes. Person "B" doesn't even bother to double check the task and releases the plane to service. OK maybe person "B" trusts person "A" a great deal and hence doesn't feel he need to check his work. But come on everyone has a bad day, forgets things, makes mistakes. So its only in safety's sake that a double check is done. I always prefer it when my work is double checked. Stops me freaking out if an incident were to ever occur. I've seen if happen to others and I don't want that level of worry running thru my mind.

Oh yeah also just started noticing 1 of the "star" certifiers has started having the Filipinos addressing him as Master. Yes Master, jobs done Master, here you go Master, etc. Bearing in mind this is the same "star" who started up an engine today for a dry run while 1 of the guys was working away inside it. And even after I yelled down the radio to the cockpit about it all. He just carried on as thou nothing happened. Just as well the poor chap on the engine managed to jump/ fall out of the running engine. Thing is HE never even apologised. Never happened as far as HE was concerned.

Joyless

After yesterdays talking to, they've finally put me back on tasks that require concious thoughts. Engine change. It was a lil weird. As once upon a time jobs like that were my bread and butter. Infact once upon a time I used to do minimum 1 a week sometimes 3 a week. Hell I can even remember being placed on just about every BIG (and pain in the ass) job available. From landing gear changes to flight control replacements, cabin modifications and anything else along those lines and in-between. But in my mind it seems so long ago. When I did tonight's engine change it was like recalling something u did many years ago. Still it was refreshing and despite their comments of decreased productivity when "J" n me work together, the placed us on the same engine change. Felt like the good ol' days, working with lil Hitler. Miss all so.

Anyway as expected by nights end we met every target our certifier had laid out for us, even with the leisurely pace, there was an hour or so to spare. Time enough for picture taking. As one of the Filipino chaps was heading home for a month to get married. Wish "W" all the best. One of the few Filipino guys I love working with. Understands English, knows what he is doing, observant, quick learner, sort of guy who is thin on the ground out here.

Well if tonight's job was any indication of things to come guess "J" n me better get ready to work for a living again... All be it without the joy and fun we used to have on the job. Just a case of another day another dollar. Sigh. Know I'm getting old, all this reminiscing of the good ol' days. Wonder if they will ever come round again.

Work 4 a Living

Was told by "J" that we were having a performance review today apparently. And right he was. Half way through the night shift individually we were called into the office for a 1 on 1 interview with the shift leader and 2nd in charge. Both of us had very similar words spoken. The obvious one being why were we both so lazy and unproductive? And the other one was, were we planning to get the sack, there by being released from our bonding contract.

Just about all of it , I could have foreseen being asked. And as such, it never really bothered me. But such is life that a couple of things did bother me. 1st was being accused of sleeping at the terminal building after departing an aircraft. Something I would never do. At least not in plain sight of everyone, which where they accused me of sleeping... The 2nd was being asked if I was not happy with things at work why did I not speak up sooner? That I countered by asking them, well if you 2 were not happy with my performance and things I do, why did you not speak up sooner? Their answer was, well your review was coming up today so we thought we might as well tell you then. So does that mean they were only unhappy with me the day before the review?

Anyway, at the end of it all they agreed to give us less mind numbing jobs in the future. Or at least a variety of jobs and not the same job everyday as it has been for the past month.