My employer sent me out of town for a trip to activate an airplane in the desert. We were to put this...
Onto this...
Yes this is a Pylon of a "Wide Body" that is parked in the desert. It takes a bit of time to "hang a motor" as we call it. This was part of the process..
Yes it is a cradle and the whole thing is raised by hand using hand cranks.
Well it was just a start. We would up being there for 2 weeks installing Thrust Reversers, Nose Cowls on Both Sides, and fan cowls and all the other little things that we had to do. Airplanes don't like to sit for over a year. Things leak. My employer parked a huge part of our fleet when Covid hit to preserve capital, and the climate is great for long term aircraft storage. Most of our planes are now flying but we still have planes parked but we are bring them back into service.
some pics...
With the restrictions, a lot of "Wide Bodies" are still parked by other carriers. Widebodies are B767's, B777's B787's A330's, A350's and I saw a couple of A380's out there, plus a bunch of Boeing 737's.
A sad sight, all those planes on the ground.
ReplyDeletehey Bad Frog
DeleteYeah it is kinda sad,
Looks like Mariana -
ReplyDeleteHey Noveske's Rock
DeleteNo, it is not, But i really don't want to Identify the place for it might ID my employer ;)
Man...that makes me wish I hadn't changed 'careers' away from aviation. Albeit I worked on much smaller stuff (Queen Airs, King Airs, Mohawks, CH54/OH58's) it was still something I really did enjoy, and missed for many years afterwards.
ReplyDeleteHey Millerized;
DeleteI didn't start in aviation, I kinda fell into it, this is my 5th career since high school. I am hoping that it is my last one.
Fixed wing, rotary wing, communication electronics, electrician, building maintenance, facility management. The longer I 'work', the further I get away from actually working, or doing anything really. I went from being greasy and turning wrenches to telling them how to turn wrenches, to watching people turn wrenches...and I miss turning wrenches. Maybe my next career (starting March) will be turning wrenches again? If there's a world left to turn wrenches in, that is. I'm not sure about anything these days.
DeleteHey Millerized;
DeleteI kinda know the feeling, I wonder what next year will bring. I like to wrench on planes, but the truth is that I am a "Summer Chicken" not a spring chicken, and stuff starts to hurt, and crawling into little places gets harder if you know what I mean.
Well, it IS productive labor, and you do get to see the results of your job! Now fly it home and get back to your 'regular' job... :-)
ReplyDeleteHey Old NFO;
DeleteTrue on the productive labor part, LOL and I do get to see the results of my work. I will post a video of that plane leaving..