Lostdog65
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jan 9, 2006
- Posts
- 356
(This is a rant...read if you want...just need to vent the ol' spleen!)
I am so stinking tired of on-call/on-demand charter. I got out of it 5 years ago for a reason. No life. Well...that was one reason. The other reason was this. When I answer the phone for a charter, the first thought in my head shouldn't be, "Is the plane fixed yet?"
It's not that the maintenance is bad...it's just...well...how to put it? Lazy? Nickel and dime stuff?
Case in point. The 340 I am flying now I flew in 99/00. The right alternator doesn't play well with the left. It's pretty lazy...drops off-line, doesn't share the load, doesn't like to reset, won't pull it's weight when the left one is shut off. This is 06...same damn problem. No fun at 11:00 at night, IFR, in the soup, trying to decide what I can shed so as to reduce the load. Let's see...pitot heat? Nope, need that. Radios? Nope, need those. Lights? Probably...not much a draw there. Hmmm....
Or the 402's I flew in the mid 90's. Seat belts. How hard is it to re-install a seat belt upside right? I mean, come on! Look at the d@mn thing! How freakin' hard is it to take two seconds and put the seatbelt back in correctly? Is this some kind of sick joke amongst the mechanics? If so...over 10 years of it gets a little old!
Or being told to fly a plane you just brought back from the run-up area because you can't get the right mag on the left engine to clear up. Run-up, lean out, re-check...still getting 200 rpm drop. Sounds like a bad mag, acts like a bad mag, is it? No. It's cheap a$$ spark plugs. Then I'm told to "just shut off the bad mag and fly it anyways."
Huh?
I'm at the freakin' maintenance base and they won't take 30 minutes to pull the mag out and check it?? But it's okay for me to fly it. Night. IFR. In the soup. If I was at an outstation on a UPS run and heading back to home base, yeah...I might do it. Depending on how bad it was. But at home? Fuggedaboutit!
It's not one big thing all the time, it's the stinkin' nickel and dime cr@p that's killing me. Refurbing old and worn out HSI's from a company that is inexpensive. A company that most respectable avionics shops won't touch because the work is shoddy. And having the company say they'll get rid of the HSI's when the new Garmin 530's come. What? Two steps forward to take one step back?
Or the promises that the new equipment will be here in December. It's now going to April...maybe.
Or the promises that after the July 1st...things will get better. Unless management has a complete philosophical change of heart...I doubt it.
Maybe I got spoiled at my last job flying planes that worked all the time. And when they broke, they got fixed and I didn't have to fly them until they were. And a maintenance inspector that refused to let a pilot in a plane until both he and the pilot were satisfied the plane was good to go.
Maybe I'm just getting cranky? Maybe I've lost "the freightdawg edge"? Maybe I don't like wondering if I have to take a 421 up in nasty weather and wonder if the gear is going to stay up or if the lines will freeze and I'll have to blow the gear down once it is up or if the right throttle is going to freeze because the OAT is -10C? Or if the airplane stinks of mold because no one will fix the leak because they might not keep the plane because they might get a KA200 but they have to keep flying charter in the piston until then?
Somebody get me a drink...
Eric
I am so stinking tired of on-call/on-demand charter. I got out of it 5 years ago for a reason. No life. Well...that was one reason. The other reason was this. When I answer the phone for a charter, the first thought in my head shouldn't be, "Is the plane fixed yet?"
It's not that the maintenance is bad...it's just...well...how to put it? Lazy? Nickel and dime stuff?
Case in point. The 340 I am flying now I flew in 99/00. The right alternator doesn't play well with the left. It's pretty lazy...drops off-line, doesn't share the load, doesn't like to reset, won't pull it's weight when the left one is shut off. This is 06...same damn problem. No fun at 11:00 at night, IFR, in the soup, trying to decide what I can shed so as to reduce the load. Let's see...pitot heat? Nope, need that. Radios? Nope, need those. Lights? Probably...not much a draw there. Hmmm....
Or the 402's I flew in the mid 90's. Seat belts. How hard is it to re-install a seat belt upside right? I mean, come on! Look at the d@mn thing! How freakin' hard is it to take two seconds and put the seatbelt back in correctly? Is this some kind of sick joke amongst the mechanics? If so...over 10 years of it gets a little old!
Or being told to fly a plane you just brought back from the run-up area because you can't get the right mag on the left engine to clear up. Run-up, lean out, re-check...still getting 200 rpm drop. Sounds like a bad mag, acts like a bad mag, is it? No. It's cheap a$$ spark plugs. Then I'm told to "just shut off the bad mag and fly it anyways."
Huh?
I'm at the freakin' maintenance base and they won't take 30 minutes to pull the mag out and check it?? But it's okay for me to fly it. Night. IFR. In the soup. If I was at an outstation on a UPS run and heading back to home base, yeah...I might do it. Depending on how bad it was. But at home? Fuggedaboutit!
It's not one big thing all the time, it's the stinkin' nickel and dime cr@p that's killing me. Refurbing old and worn out HSI's from a company that is inexpensive. A company that most respectable avionics shops won't touch because the work is shoddy. And having the company say they'll get rid of the HSI's when the new Garmin 530's come. What? Two steps forward to take one step back?
Or the promises that the new equipment will be here in December. It's now going to April...maybe.
Or the promises that after the July 1st...things will get better. Unless management has a complete philosophical change of heart...I doubt it.
Maybe I got spoiled at my last job flying planes that worked all the time. And when they broke, they got fixed and I didn't have to fly them until they were. And a maintenance inspector that refused to let a pilot in a plane until both he and the pilot were satisfied the plane was good to go.
Maybe I'm just getting cranky? Maybe I've lost "the freightdawg edge"? Maybe I don't like wondering if I have to take a 421 up in nasty weather and wonder if the gear is going to stay up or if the lines will freeze and I'll have to blow the gear down once it is up or if the right throttle is going to freeze because the OAT is -10C? Or if the airplane stinks of mold because no one will fix the leak because they might not keep the plane because they might get a KA200 but they have to keep flying charter in the piston until then?
Somebody get me a drink...
Eric
