Really Busy

 I have been really busy at work, they have been offering me "Overtime" and to work my off days.....so Guess what I am doing.....LOL

 I have a couple of post in the works.  I like blogging, but I like sleeping more,  Hope y'all don't mind.   I will post one on Sunday and of Course "Monday Music".

Messing around at work..

I was at work getting some..

I was looking at my toolbox drawer and I saw this...

I didn't like what I saw....so I got some scrap metal,measured, cut and folded and made this..

I then saw if my measurements were good...

I then organized my tool drawer a bit.

It looks better.....The screwdriver drawers are next, LOL

Couple of things...

I am in a big city at the behest of my employer, I am participating in a "Safety Conference", my employer runs a very safe and ontime operation and we feel good about that until we compare ourselves to the oil and gas industry and we realize that we still have a way to go.

    I am still there and a Mechanic from Beijing gave all us participants a souvenir from his homeland.  It is a small thing but I though it was very neat and very nice thing that he did.  

It is a bookmark of a leaf and it has artwork drawn into it.   I though it is very neat and I really appreciate the gift.

    On another hand, I saw where Hillary released a message from her twitter account...

  I know it is humor but the number of dead people surrounding the Clinton's seem to increase...

   

Traveling.....

I went on a trip at the company's behest and they sent me to the "Ice Palace" A.K.A Minneapolis MN,
     I got put up at the Raddison Blu which is next to the Mall of America.  I walked around the Mall of America and took several pictures of the facility.  All I can say is that it is Huuuge

The Mall of America has a gross area of 4,870,000 sq ft (452,000 m²) or 96.4 acres (390,000 m²), enough to fit seven Yankee Stadiums inside, with 2,500,000 sq ft (230,000 m²) available as retail space^. The mall is nearly symmetric, with a roughly rectangular floor plan. More than 530 stores are arranged along three levels of pedestrian walkways on the sides of the rectangle, with a fourth level on the east side. Four anchor department stores are located at the corners. The mall is organized into four different zones, each of those zones had its own decorative style until a series of renovations from 2010 to 2015 led to a unified and more luxurious style, as well as to coincide with the mall's first major expansion.

Despite Minnesota's cold winters, only the mall's entrances and some below ground areas are heated. Heat is allowed in through skylights above Nickelodeon Universe. The Mall of America originally had Camp Snoopy, but due to an expired contract the park was taken over by a new organization. The majority of the heat is produced by lighting fixtures, other electric devices, and people in the mall. In fact, even during the winter, air conditioning systems may still be in use during peak hours to ensure a comfortable shopping environment. Although the common areas are unheated, the individual stores do have heating systems.

Two nearly identical seven-story parking ramps on the east and west sides of the mall provide 12,287 parking spaces. Overflow parking north of the building provides an additional 1,200–1,500 spaces, and 1,407 spaces are provided by IKEA (1,407 spaces) that is part of the Phase II expansion of the mall which is under construction.

Nickelodeon Universe is an indoor theme park in the center of the mall. The park features roller coasters, among numerous other rides and attractions, and is the largest indoor theme park in the United States. Unlike many indoor amusement parks, Nickelodeon Universe has a great deal of natural foliage in and about the park, and its floor has a wide variance in height – the highest ground level in the park is 15 feet (4.6 m) above the lowest. The rides include the roller coasters SpongeBob SquarePants Rock Bottom Plunge and Avatar Airbender, and a thrill ride called BrainSurge. The latter roller coaster bills itself as a "rather peculiar" ride. It also has a miniature golfing section called Moose Mountain. This miniature golf course features eighteen holes and a relatively fast astroturf surface. 

At the Sea Life Minnesota Aquarium, guests travel through a 300-foot-long (91 m) curved tunnel through 14 feet (4.3 m) of water to view over 4,500 sea creatures including sharks, turtles, stingrays, and many more. Sea Life Minnesota Aquarium offers special events such as sleepovers, scuba diving, snorkeling, and birthday parties.

The Mall recently added Crayola Experience and FlyOver America to the list of family attractions.

   I did enjoy my "business trip" to the Ice Palace but I am glad to be coming home.  

Busy at work and some pithy thoughts...

I havn't been able to post much due to ...You guessed it....

But the trade off is that I can't post as much as I like....I like blogging but face it....It don't keep the wolf at bay and from scratching at your door.  We are almost complete with our first Airbus mod and it does look really good.

  I hope the passengers like it as much as we do.   We did what we call regular mechanic stuff last night, not the "arts and crafts" we took the airplane to the run up hole for leak checks and see how the engines performed....it was a nice change of pace.    I did see some workplace humor that some nameless Mechanic generated. 

A bit of background, we have to use an external airconditioner to cool the plane enough for people to work on them.  Even with the external airconditioners, the temperature inside an airplane will push about 110 degrees or more.....this is due to the insulation that the airplanes have to operate at 35000 feet.  Factor in the avionics running and the airplanes get hot.  Well our "good" airconditioner" got appropiated for another bay...so we are using one that don't work well.  Also the powers that be have decided that we will wear "bump hats"   Pretty good in the summer, having that plastic bowl on our head in the middle of the summer.

This one is mine....I modified it a little.  I have the "infidel" patch on the front, the "snafu" patch on the back and my blood type on the opposite side as the American flag.  It felt kinda like a helmet, so I dressed it up like one.

On to some pithy comments...Trump has discovered that the media is fully in the tank for Hillary and they have been carrying her water for the last 40 years...

Donald has to realize that anything he said will be twisted all out of proportion of what he said.  Trump needs to focus on Hillary's weakness....which is the corruption that is endemic of Hillary.  He will need to redirect on Hillary and keep pounding away on that issue.  The issue is her lack of trust and keep running on it and watch what he says and stay on point.

What I am doing at work...

For those who follow my little corner of the internet know that I am working a LOT of overtime and I figure I would post some pictures of what we are working on....It is actually pretty cool.

  This is the plane we are working one.....It is a Boeing 757
The twin-engine, medium-range 757 was up to 80 percent more fuel efficient than the older 727 jetliners it was designed to replace but retained the 727’s short-field capability. The 757-200 carried up to 228 passengers and had a range of approximately 3,900 nautical miles (7222 kilometers).
The 757 and the 767 were developed concurrently, so both shared the same technological advances in propulsion, aerodynamics, avionics and materials. The pioneering two-crew computerized flight decks, or “glass cockpits,” of the 757 and 767 are nearly identical, so pilots could easily qualify to fly both.
The first 757 rolled out of the Renton, Wash., factory in 1982. On March 29, 1991, a 757, powered by only one of its engines, took off, circled and landed at the 11,621-foot-high (3542-meter-high) Gonggar Airport in Tibet. The airplane performed perfectly although the airfield was in a box canyon surrounded by peaks more than 16,400 feet (4998 meters) high.
In 1996, the company launched the 757-300. It seated up to 280 passengers and had about 10 percent lower seat-mile operating costs than the -200. The first 757-300 was delivered in 1999. By then Boeing had delivered more than 1,000 757s. Four 757s were modified as replacements for the older 707-based VC-137 executive transports for government officials and designated C-32As.
In late 2003, Boeing decided to end 757 production because the increased capabilities of the newest 737s and the new 787 fulfilled the 757 market’s needs. On Nov. 28, 2005, Boeing concluded the remarkable 23-year run of the 757 passenger airplane by delivering the final one to Shanghai Airlines. The airplane was the 1,050th Boeing 757.

    We are doing interior upgrades to the airplanes in our fleet.  My employer charges a premium for the customer experience, the upgraded seats, WiFi and many creature comforts.  The airplanes we are modernizing were to be tacky....stripped...they had seats in them...and that was it..The plane is a very good plane but the other company had different ideas on passenger aminities..the WiFi was added later after the merger.  The version of the airplanes we are working on were originally "red tails".    The Boeing's that are originally on our fleet are called "blue Tails".  Those airplanes have more amenities for the airplane travelers.  They have monitors in the headrest interactive games and movie selections and recharging ports for electronic devices and many other stuff that the legacy "red tails" don't.   This is that the seats look like right after they are removed from the airplane

old seats...

We then start removing the seats, then we start removing the old over head bins..they are easier to remove once the seats are out of the airplane.

 

We have already removed the overhead ceilings, we will start removing the PSU's "Passenger Service Units" this has the flight attendant call button, the reading light and the emergency O2 masks.  The ductwork that you see in the ceiling will be removed, cleaned, and reconfigured for the new mod.

   We have removed the seats, the overhead bins, the ductworks and we have started the metal fabrications and antenna movement and installation for the WiFi and all the wiring for the electronics and passenger interactive games and videos and other stuff.

The sidewall panels are installed, the overhead bins are installed, we are starting to install the ductworks, the antenna for the WiFi is installed, the seats will be going in, the galleys and Lavatories are already installed.

   This was the view from the back of the airplane, we have installed the ductworks and fixing to install the overhead ceilings.  You can see the Lavatories.  They use a LCD lighting or mood lighting.

, the carpets are installed.

  You can see the huge difference in the interior modifications, this takes us about 45 days give or take to do the mods, this includes moving the mid lav from the left side to the right side.  This is where my overtime comes from$$ The airplane gets a huge facelift and the customer gets the experience that they pay for.    We call this stuff "arts and crafts"  We make jokes about it but it is neat to see and it is considered a capital improvement and a benefit to our customers and us, it gives us long term job security as long as my employer remains ahead of the rest of the airlines, we will be the preferred carrier for the discerning customer who won't mind paying the extra coins for the extra amenities.

"What causes Workplace violence......"

I saw this on facebook and laughed my butt off...was some funny but twisted stuff lemme tell you.

" Cause of Workplace Violence..."

 I had commented that in my workplace...that stuff has magical properties..we use them to barter favors, thank a crew for doing good...or if you are coming in late...you stop and bring in donuts.  The leads don't dock you...but you pay anyway.....it all balances out....when somebody else is late...you benefit from their oversleeping.    

     Then the next day...this appears.......compliments of the "Coffee Fund"

  I was showing the previous picture around as we were eating the still warm, melt into your mouth fresh donuts...the only way you get them is when the light is on.....  Everybody in my crew commented "whomever did the donut to veggie switch is an evil, wicked S.O.B that there would be a special place in hell for somebody that would do such a dastardly deed.......Like I said...this stuff has magical properties at work.

Stuff at work and working a post...

I was hoping to get my next installment up of cartoon characters but had too much going on, and there is a LOT of material for this character....

    This is one of my favorite characters...soo much that I do have a poster my best friend gave me:

  This is a quick shot of the pic( ain't smart phones great?)  I will take a better pic tomorrow so I can use it in the post I am working on.
     Well speaking of work, I am almost done with a project I started at work.
    As those know me know that I work in the aviation field, well I have a tool box that followed me from Ford Motor company and I took it to work where I am at now.  I will show a pic of what it looks like when I first had it at work.

Looks kinda rough...Since I cobbled it together from junk that was lying around at Ford, I can't complain....especially since I didn't pay for it.   Any who knows mechanics, know how important toolboxes are, especially since we buy the tools we use and a good toolbox is important...and is a mark of your personality.

     Here is what it started to look like last year when I decided to change the tool box from the eyesore it was to something different.

Last year I was working a lot of overtime working the RON's(Remain overnights)  and we would have a bit of "downtime" waiting for the airplane to come in.  Rather than sit and swill coffee( nothing wrong with that) I decided to to a toolbox makeover.   I straightened out some of the damage, sanded it down to bare metal and painted it.

This is what it looked like after I was done last year.   Went from being the worst looking toolbox in the hanger, to looking not so bad.
     Well This year I decided to build a "Side box" rather than buy one.  Using scrap metal I started fabricating this...

   It was more complicated that I thought it would be and when you are using yourself and "Clico's" to hold metal together while you figured out and re-figured out how you would build a box.

   This took me over a month, I would sneak in a few minutes here and there and cut short a lunch to work on it and it went through several screwups revisions to the original design.  This is what it looked like while I was working on it....

    I finally got it mostly done, with a few little things to finish out the project...I may try today..depends on the workload to finish it up

It is heavy, I used quite a bit of "Alclad" Aluminum T-7075-T6 .063 thick or greater.  Rivits and Highloks.  I am overall pleased with it.  I figured out a few things I could have done differently...but this project was bigger than I figured it would be. 
     I still gotta build a "push" handle on it, but I have to see what shows up in the scrap bin for me to use......