About Had It!

[Lostdog65]

(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

 

[mcjohn]

Sorry to hear about all that. You need a hug. And folks wonder why pilots like to drink.

 

[JimG]

Maybe I'm just getting cranky? Maybe I've lost "the freightdawg edge"?

Maybe you've become old enough to know you can't keep taking chances.

After-all....a cat only has 9 lives, and I've used up at least that many myself (about half of them in airplanes), which is why I've grown this big yellow streak down the middle of my back.

If this is all the airplanes I got to fly....

I'd become a bus driver.

 

[Lostdog65]

You need a hug.

Mcjohn...Thanks! I needed a laugh about now.

which is why I've grown this big yellow streak down the middle of my back.

JimG...I have said this very same thing for years...no one seems to understand I ain't hard up for piston twin time and am no longer comfortable doing the things I did before.

Thanks for the input...

Eric

 

[NW_Pilot]

Almost like ferrying airplanes! Na sounds better :beer:

 

[penguin22]

Man, you've paid you're share of dues, pal.

Hope things turn up for you soon. Drinks on me.

 

[CA1900]

Not quite the same situation, but this sounds a lot like the maintenance at the old flight school I used to teach at. (Now defunct, big surprise.) I've never seen somebody so cheap about maintenance... He had a shop he liked to use in the middle of Florida that would do an "annual" on any of his airplanes for $300. Yes, including the Navajo he did 135 in.

Well, one weekend on a charter back from the Bahamas, the charter pilot had a full load in the Navajo, and it took him nearly half an hour to get to 8000 feet! The Freeport tower guy, I kid you not, said to him, "Dahhhhm, man, how many people you got in that thing?" (It was funny when he told the story; probably not so funny when it was happening!)

So he gets back home, and says he's not flying it again until it gets fixed. Unsurprisingly, the boss is pissed, and tells him to fly it to the "maintenance base" -- you know, the $300 annual place. Charter pilot refuses, the boss doesn't have time to deal with it, so they use the on-field place. It's an excellent shop -- the boss avoided them because they're "always looking for trouble" on inspections!

It gets better. The shop, "looking for trouble," does a compression check on the engines. Four of the six cylinders on each engine are blowing less than 20/80! I'm stunned that the plane made it back in one piece; so was the shop. By using a shop that "doesn't look for all those problems," he spent $60,000 on engine work to get the thing up flying again, because his cheap ass wouldn't pay for any preventative maintenance that might have caught these problems before they destroyed the engines.

Sometimes karma works in mysterious ways.

 

[Tim47SIP]

Here Ya go!

Somebody get me a drink...

Crap! Sorry, I drank it. OK, I'll get you another one. Oh Crap! I did it again, hang on, I'll be there in a minute. Here you go, Darn! I don't think we are going to get any where here. Sorry!:erm:

 

[Corona]

Lostdog65I am so stinking tired of on-call/on-demand charter. I got out of it 5 years ago for a reason.

It's not that the maintenance is bad...it's just...well...how to put it? Lazy? Nickel and dime stuff?

Good rant.

You nailed it in the first paragraph.

C

 

[leardawg]

Unfortunately, there are A LOT of operators like that out there. Running a successful flight operation profitably IS a difficult endeavour, but if you aren't willing to do it right, go open a charter fishing boat operation as far as I'm concerned.

At one such company I worked for, the VP/Accountant walked in one day with a frustrated demeanor; he reached in his pocket, dropped a nickel and a dollar on the ground, and mimicking the owner he stepped over the dollar saying:"Look! A Nickel!". (He was one of the few management types who realized the benefit of spending money now to avoid spending a ton of money later, but it fell on deaf ears).

 

[Lostdog65]

dropped a nickel and a dollar on the ground, and mimicking the owner he stepped over the dollar saying:"Look! A Nickel!". (He was one of the few management types who realized the benefit of spending money now to avoid spending a ton of money later, but it fell on deaf ears).

Leardawg...

That brings tears to my eyes! We have a picture of the owner in the hangar staring at the floor. Someone put the caption under that says, "Lookie here...a perfectly good used screw!"

Like I said...it's not that the aircraft are unsafe it's just the nickel and dime crap that is driving me nuts! Case in point. I drove a mechanic to one of our outstations to help put on a new turbo. (I'm not an A&P but I can uncowl a 402 and hold a flash light and pass the 9/16 etc.) He pulls out all the new parts and curses that, again, he has to use the old expansion bolts for the exhaust. I asked what he meant. He replied that when a new turbo system comes in it has all new hardware. All the new hardware is dumped in a bucket in parts and he's told to use the old stuff if it's any good. My question was, "What if this stuff isn't any good? We don't have the new stuff!" He said, fortunately these used parts were still good.

Best part? I had to now fly this plane out of Montague with a 400' overcast/10 mile vis afternoon. Right engine runs so rich it bogs down and pumps out black smoke. FBO operator calls me and mentions the smoke, I do a 200' left pattern (Former leadplane pilot here) no big deal save the fact that I'm now nursing the mixture lean (almost half way back) to get the engine to run. Make pass, FBO operator says no smoke, I yank back and pop through the overcast as I'm picking up my clearance from Seattle (uncontrolled airspace to 10K thank God!). Finally the mechanic visibly relaxes and says, "Good...were on top and can see!"

I got a million of them like this...

I just want a freakin' schedule with aircraft that the passengers aren't asking, "Is it supposed to make that noise?" (Gear kept retracting on the 421 due to leak in hydraulic system causing the gear to not uplock properly and the pump kept having to raise the gear. Maintenance's solution? "Can you have Jet West add some fluid or do you want to stiff-leg it home??" Get real!)

Eric

P.S. I'm not a whiner...just a little put out.

 

[UnableDirect]

but it sounds like each time you are confronted with these mx situations, you in fact take the flights... why dont you on an occasion cancel and show mx that their laziness, in your words, is affecting "service" which of course affects INVOICING!!!

 

[bell47]

Some times you just have to say "NO, I'm not flying it until it's right." If they argue, then you can tell them to get the FAA maintenance inspector on the phone and ask their opinion, tell them if the FAA says it's OK then I'll Fly. Remember if you fly it in that condition it makes you as guilty, or more so, than them. PIC has final authority on the flight. Good luck, I've been in your shoes, bell47.

 

[cynic]

It's not that the maintenance is bad...it's just...well...how to put it? Lazy? Nickel and dime stuff?

You are the one that agrees to get in it. Find another job, refuse to fly until they fix it or quit your bitchin.

 

[Lostdog65]

Unable...Bell...Cynic...

I have turned down flights. It has affected the bottom line. I will refuse to fly an unsafe airplane. Like I said...nickel and dime stuff...all the time.

In my early days I would fly the broke planes. Not anymore. Matter of fact, the Chief pilot just grounded both charter planes due to maintenance. He, too, got tired of it.

Company has a freightdawg mentality on the charter side. Doesn't work.

And I am looking for another job...but I need this one to EAT!

Eric

 

[AC560]

And I am looking for another job...but I need this one to EAT!

Can't eat if your dead.

 

[100LL... Again!]

Can't eat if your dead.

Pretty self-righteous comment.

 

[AC560]

Pretty self-righteous comment.

I fail to see what is self righteous about my statement. There are dozen of threads running all the time about pilots complaining about unsafe airplanes and then proceeding to fly them because they need the job. No job is worth losing your or your passengers lives over, if more people understood that we would have a lot less dead pilots every year.

I hope things work out for LostDog.

 

[FN FAL]

Can't eat if your dead.

Depends...if you come back a zombie, you eat brains. Brains, must eat brains...:nuts:

 

[Say Again Over]

You need the help of your fellow company pilots, get together and take a position, what's the saying " If you think good maintenance is expensive, try having an accident".:beer: