J. Alexander's an Experience to Forget

I arrived early for a five thirty dinner with a party of nine. The hosting staff of J. Alexander's in Overland Park was courteous and helpful though functionally inept. They attempted to seat our party at two tables for four. They refused to push two tables together. The next suggestion was an attempt to seat nine average sized midwestern Americans at a round, half booth table designed for six. We actually tried to make it work. I was reminded of riding a city bus in Hong Kong, shoulder to shoulder, elbow to elbow. A third request for a suitable table arrangement finally netted us a table for eight with an extra chair off one corner. Ultimately pushing together two tables after badgering the floor manager for a third time. Drinks were delivered to us belonging to another table, ours lost in the mix. There was not an ice cube to be seen anywhere in the house. Frustrations were high by the time we ordered. Twenty seven dollars for twelve ounces of prime rib and a one cup serving of mashed potatoes. Soup or salad was a separate entree. The house salad I had was filled with fresh surprises and the highlight of the meal.  Servers quickly brought us dinners that we did not order. When the proper dinners did arrive we had been there a hour, silverware for two of our guests had to be requested. One highlight of the evening was when larger than life steak knives were delivered in addition to the steak knives we already had and one of our guests inquired " Are the steaks that tough we need these huge knives?" 

The prime rib was mediocre at best. It was compaired with that of Longhorn Steakhouse and deemed inferior in taste and quality. The atmosphere reminded me of a dimely lit version of a famous pancake house chain. No reservations, uncomfortable bench seating for awaiting guests, high end pricing and inept staff make it a place of no return for my money.

TGIF

Sweet nectar of the grains sooth my pallet as the long weekend slowly enters my reality. Toils of the daily grind slowly melt away while the sun sets on another Kansas day. A golden haired beauty prepairs gourmet cuisine over fire. The mind needs to wander, escape the earthly bounds of restricting faith. Visual aids stimulate relaxation. I am Groot.

Death of an Airplane

A plane died today. It was given its last rights and deemed unfit for further life as it was designed. This story has a moral, a lesson, and a challenge. Meet Xray, a 1962 Cessna model 172 small aircraft.

Aircraft have been mass produced since the early 20th century. The 1950's brought an explosion of economical, safe, dependable personal aircraft for the masses. These aircraft were designed and built with a 10 to 15 year life span in mind. Today there are tens of thousands of these fifty, sixty and seventy year old airplanes still flying. The reason so many of them are flying is due to the federally mandated annual inspections and stringent repair processes they go through. Every once in a while, one slips through the cracks. This is one of those sad stories with a happy ending.

I know very little of the history of this aircraft, only that over the last two years, according to the maintenance records, the only repair that was done during the annual inspections was to install a new set of spark plug wires (high tension leads).

This aircraft was purchased sight unseen, through an Internet auction house for $18,000. The engine has had a recent top half overhaul (pistons and cylinders). The aircraft has flown weekly for a few months and came into our shop for some repairs to the instrument panel. What transpired over the next three days has resulted in the death of this airplane.

The mechanic working on the panel issue noticed the windshield was cracked and working its way out of its lower cradle. The windshield had moved up far enough that daylight could be seen underneath the bottom. A new window was ordered. Work continued to the next day when a couple more serious discrepancies were found that required repair. At that point the owner decided to have us perform a full annual inspection on the aircraft.

The inspection commenced. The next two days brought scratched heads, bugged out eyes, disappointment, and utter disgust for the disregard for human life, regulations and federal laws that apply to aircraft safety.

The certified mechanics that had been taking care of this aircraft before it got to us had performed a lack of maintenance, in my mind, bordering on criminal. The following is a short summation of a list of over 40 items that require maintenance before this aircraft should be returned to service:

• ·      Windshield cracked
• ·      Windshield improperly installed
• ·      Aft rudder and elevator bulkhead mount broken (cast piece)
• ·      Left wing is 5 inches higher than the right when aircraft is level
• ·      Fuel Selector Valve leaks in the Off position
• ·      Elevator up and down stop bolts set to maximum deflection, travel is way out  of limits per maintenance manual
• ·      All control surface cables rusted
• ·      All elevator and rudder hinge bolts rusted
• ·      All elevator and rudder hinge bushings frozen
• ·      Elevator trim eyebolt frozen
• ·      Rudder and Elevator mount bolts severely corroded
• ·      Elevator trim cable installed with two twists between pulleys
• ·      Elevator cable pulley nut held on my one thread
• ·      Flap cable pulleys under floor miss aligned and rubbing outside on rib
• ·      Engine Mount bolts installed backwards
• ·      Oil filter adapter hand tight, safety wire holding it in place
• ·      Number six intake leaking at gasket
• ·      Number six intake has hole chaffed in it from exhaust clamp
• ·      Baffling not installed correctly between #3 and #5 cylinders
• ·      Intake pipe seal clamps on #3 cylinder loose, slid down
• ·      Engine cowl has severe exfoliating corrosion, quarter inch hole in side 
• ·      Eight Axle/Brake Caliper mounting bolts severely corroded
• ·      All eight flap roller bearings worn and grooved
• ·      Both brake master cylinders leaking profusely
• ·      Clock electrical wire chaffing on the battery box
• ·      Unfilled holes in the firewall
• ·      Vacuum filters with no clamps and unsecured
• ·      Oil hose permeating oil through the sides of itself
• ·      Yoke bushings allow six inches of play in the yoke at full aft position
• ·      Second oil temperature instrument inoperative, not labeled as such
• ·      Wing and tail navigation lights, only one good bulb.
• ·      Landing and taxi lights inoperative
• ·      Old birds next inside the elevator and bottom of tail pod
• ·      Battery tested out at 38% capacity
• ·      One main tire has six inch crack in sidewall

  

A few items on this list do not require repair to deem this aircraft airworthy. Due diligence with periodic maintenance would have caught many of these items before they became unserviceable. 

The moral, lesson, and challenge is this; do not buy an aircraft sight unseen. The lesson is, do your own due diligence and if it doesn’t look right, do something about it. The challenge is, and its is a hard one, being an aircraft mechanic in the field we are often asked to look the other way by pilots, owners and those looking out for them. Your certificate is worth more than any job on the planet; do not sell your signature for a few extra dollars so someone can shortcut maintenance.

This is a sever case of short cutting maintenance. Pilots, it is ok to question the maintenance practices. The happy ending?  No human lost their life this time.

Textbook Returns

A long haired, unshaven white guy in a pink shirt, seemingly overwhelmed and trying to go home, paused to hear my plea. I had arrived a full thirty minutes after the last transaction of the day to return my rental books. A student rushed in to find out what time they opened, he was leaving town and desperately wanted to sell his books. "The tills are closed, cash is gone" came from behind the half open window, "we open at nine." "Rental returns I can do" Mr. Pink Shirt said as he motioned me forward, the rental stickers ever blaring from my textbooks. I felt lucky as I watched two more students head for the closed window as I pulled out of the parking lot.

A New Chapter

It was productive for a Friday. My position as an aircraft mechanic is almost a year old and I am quite comfortable at task. A final exam tomorrow will bring the scholastic part of this recent adventure to an end. Five years have been tentatively scheduled to pass before the next great adventure of my life. Events shall meld to a point in time where leaving full time employment behind will be a viable reality. They say a lot can be said in six sentences, we shall see.

And Three Years Later.....

We took a little trip of about 180 miles so I could take a little walk and pick up a piece of paper. Saturday the 9th I walked across the stage at commencement and picked up my Associate of Applied Science in Aviation Maintenance degree from Kansas State University - Salina.

I headed out first thing Friday morning to make a 1pm commencement practice. My mom went with us as it was Mothers Day weekend and her birthday. I am the first of her kids to earn a degree. It was great to be able to bring her along. Reservations were made at the KOA in Salina, Kansas. I booked a deluxe cabin for my mom and a 30amp site for our truck camper. Debbie joined me late Friday night after work.

The campground has been continuously managed for over 50 years. I lived there for two years in our fifth wheel camper while I attended school. The owners are wonderful, easy to get along with and will do anything to make your stay enjoyable. It is at exit 252 on I-70. I would highly recommend it if you are passing through.

 

 Across the road from the KOA is the Central Kansas Flywheels Museum. It is worth a visit. This is a video I made during an open house event they had while I was staying there. If you like antiques and old tractors and such it has some neat rare WORKING steam equipment.

I spent two years in taking classes, then finished my requirements online over the last two semesters. We had fun seeing old friends and catching up with my professors. The fifth wheel got sold when I moved back to Olathe. We just had no where to store it and no plans for any immediate traveling. We just picked up this truck camper last month. We really missed have our get away home. We have lots more adventures planned. Friend us and check back in to see what we are up to. Here's a hint... we leave for Florida in about 6 weeks for a two week trip.

Aviation Student Resources

Classes start in less than 2 weeks for me at K-State Salina. The summer has flown by but the excitement of this new venture has been on my mind since spring. I enrolled I have been reading, studying, watching YouTube videos and collecting tools for use at school. I want to share with you some resources I have collected over the summer that any aviation student may find useful.

My student advisor started me off by directing me to faa.gov to pick up three manuals in PDF form that are used to develop the oral, written and practical exams for the aircraft and powerplant certification exams:

FAA Aircraft Handbooks and Manuals – is library of interest to both mechanic and pilot students. The mechanic students should download FAA-H-8038-30, –31, and –32.

I acquired the free Adobe Reader ready or my iPad for the app store, opened these manuals in that specific reader and the reader saved them to my iPad. You can do the same with a laptop or desktop machine.

An industry resource I found was in the iPad Newsstand, a magazine called Aviation Maintenance. This is a free bi-monthly magazine that reports on the heartbeat of aviation maintenance around the world. They report on what's hot, new ideas and how to improve business and productivity. The issues can be downloaded for free to your iPad/laptop. The editors put together an annual collection called Repair Center Directory which to me, is an extensive list of potential employers. The list includes US and international repair stations and aviation service providers. Its not all inclusive, but it it extensive.

Another free, iPad available magazine, is Avionics Magazine who’s website is Aviation Today.com reports specifically on the avionics industry with emphasis on military, UAV and avionics development programs. Today the jobs board included over 1200 postings in the aerospace industry for non-pilot positions.

Taleo jobs database includes many aviation maintenance related military and government positions that are available. The link is into a secure server so click the “All Jobs” tab, then the “Basic Search” tab to view listings.

YouTube is a wealth of interesting, time killing nonsense. There are also some magnificent independent video producers creating informative and useful training videos. I want to share some of my favorites that I follow. These will be of interest to both maintainers and pilots:

kstatesalina – Who wouldn’t like a peak at what’s going on at the best aviation school in the country! The AVM aircraft assembly video superb.

mjlorton – specializes in teaching basic electricity, electronics, multimeter use, circuit design, ohm’s law with mathematic tutoring

mzeroaflighttraining – A certified flight instructor creates short videos of flight training with fantastic multi camera photography and his website includes an online ground school.

riveteer – University of the Fraser Valley aviation maintenance school  individual has created a few videos relating to sheet metal work and their school.

textsa – This user has one video that is of interest, it is an hour and a half long video of the oral private pilots exam. It highlights many areas to concentrate preparation.

undaerocast – The University of North Dakota’s aviation department has created a collection of videos primarily directed to student pilots. These are safety, instructional and recruiting videos.

There are many tool resources, you mechanics are going to need them. I picked up a nice chest toolbox from Harbor Freight for a few hundred dollars. I spent some time in an actual shop and realized the tall cabinets sometimes hold more but have two distinct disadvantages, 1) you can’t see in the top drawers unless your 6 1/2 feet tall; 2) when I roll my chest style tool box up to an aircraft in a large hangar bay it provides me with a work bench with which to place parts, screws, tool etc that I am using on the project to I don’t have to leave them laying on, in or under an airplane between operations. Do yourself a favor and get a large chest style box to start with, you’ll thank me later.

For hand tools, if you are starting out I found Lowe’s has most of what I need, they are guaranteed forever, cost a fraction of what Snap-on and Matco tools and will do the same job. If your Snap-on tool breaks, you have to wait a week for the local supplier to come around and replace it, if you got it at Lowe’s you can replace it the same day. The expensive tools are good tools, and yes will want them eventually, I have bought a few specialty tools (because I was working in the real world on real airplanes) and they make life easier.  Getting started I recommend saving your money until you are working in the real world and can justify the expense.

If you have any other favorite websites, YouTube producers or info to share feel free to comment.

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