Under the 'Phones...

Winston Salem, NC. 21 Feb '13 It's been a while since I've done a domestic 'rotation' but here I am. It's been a great trip so far, no reason to believe the last week will be bad. Great bunch of guys to work with. I came up here because I didn't want to do any more winter in Afghanistan. Or got to Missouri or Topeka or work in piston planes or helicopters. I was led to believe these guys were 'buried' in King Airs and needed King Air mechanics. Well, they were, sorta. I'm pretty sure the recruiter for the un-named contract company looked at my resume and saw a lot of King Air time and a willingness to travel. (NOT letting the recruiter off of the hook, I did get a week or so of King Air work in. Including an Ass Whipping on a L/H throttle cable change. Unless you've been face down in a King Air pedestal, it wouldn't do either of us any good to explain. It Did Suck. Bent stuff. Fight to get it apart then bleed n cuss getting it back together.) When I got here, I found a Dornier 328 in need of some sweat. What's a Dornier 328? Good question. I couldn't have picked it out of a line up three weeks ago. My first thought was, "Hm, not Beech, Not PT6's, Not Me." Turns out. It's pretty nice to work on. And, given the crew I'm working with... Kinda reminds me of the DC-9 at Dee Howard all those years ago. My Lead would would hand me a job card and ask me, "Ever done this task before?" "Nope." "Well, come find me if ya run into problems." "OooKay..." Off I would go. That all worked pretty well. Usually. I did crawl out of a wheel well one day, pretty proud of myself for having changed a valve I'd never even heard of before... Until... I realized I had changed the correct valve one The Wrong Airplane. Well, I figured that qualified as a "Problem" so I went to find Dave. "You did what? F it! Now, ya know how to do it. Go get another valve an change the right one." Dave was cool that way. That was 12 or 15 years ago. I check serial numbers a lot more closely since then! So, I'm headed home next weekend. There should be a lot of gear at Mother's house by the time I get there. I ordered a lot of gear for Mission Valley Studios. ... Sorry, did I mention I've got the headphones on? I put my (117) Recently Played songs on shuffle. Holly Williams, "Highway" just came on. I gotta lay back and listen. MTF (More To Follow)