Its been over a year since my last post. And what a year it’s been. ”Busy” just doesn’t seem to convey the brutality of it.
I will pick up the story just days after Shane’s ride in the Stearman.
September 2008 will go down in my book as one of the worst, best times of my life.
I will try to hit the high parts of the story, but first a little background.
I was the Outside Maintenance Service Manager at a large FBO and Flight School in Hillsboro OR. The shop consisted of myself, three A&P mechanics, an Avionics supervisor and three avionics technicians. It was the loss leader for the company, but an important part of the overall operation. For example, because my shop was a Cessna Service Center, it allowed the company to buy parts at a discount when purchasing from Cessna, and that is important when the other part of the company, Inside (or Fleet) Maintenance, was maintaining 50 or so Cessnas for the flight school.
In the middle of September I learned that the Director of Maintenance of over 20 years, had been terminated, the chief inspector was forced to quit, and the owner of the company had decided to ground his entire fleet of over 70 aircraft to get them re-inspected to ensure their airworthniness.
I volunteered my shop to do the bulk of the fixed wing fleet. Some of the Cessnas were at satallite fields when the grounding came, and other maintenanace shops at those airports would handle those. The inside shop would concentrate on the 15 0r so piston helicopters and the Helicopter Charter division would handle the 7 or so turbine helicopters.
As you can imagine, the place was crawling with FAA Safety Inspectors. I generally had three at any one time in my shop watching the guys work…even on Saturdays and Sundays. After my shop had completed 5 or 6 six aircraft, they moved on to other, more target rich, environments. I was told they were happy with the way the shop was run and the quality of the work from my guys. The pressure of constant survelliance was over but we still had dozens of aircraft to complete.
I think we finished in 5 weeks. The owner of the company paid me a visit late in the process that I lovingly call The Great Catostrophy of ‘08, and sat down to talk with me.
He said that in good times, everybody works about the same, and all perform well enough. But when the feces makes contact the rotating air distributer, things look a little different. The “Superstars” show what they are made of under pressure, and others that he had thought were up to the job, were unfortunately not. He told me that I was one of those Superstars and that my shop lead the way when others would only follow. We out performed every other shop in the company, not to mention the other businesses we had contracted to do the work at other airports where our aircraft were grounded.
What I didn’t know at the time was that others had noticed too.
On the Homefront, my pregnant daughter, Stormi, and my USAF son-in-law, Mason, were transfered to the USAF Presidental Security Detail at Andrews AFB.
My son, Shane, decided that he was serious about becoming an Army Pilot, and knew his grades were not up to snuff. He applied for, and was accepted to the Oregon National Guard Youth Challenge. Its a six month, military style (basic training) alternative high school in Bend, OR. Over 400 kids applied for class number 2009-1. 180 kids were accepted and 123 Graduated in June 2009. Shane found that he had brains he never knew he had, and did very well at a tough school, where the minimum passing grade was 80%. He was sorry that students are allowed to attend only one school year and that he had to leave.
He is seriously thinking about joining the Oregon National Guard after his 17th birthday this coming December, with his ultimate goal of becoming a Warrant Officer flying CH-47 Chinooks.
After the Kids moved away and Shane was away at school, my wife , Kim and I remodeled the house. Its amazing how much you can do on a tight budget. It took most of the six months that Shane was away, but the house looks great and I joke that it looks rich people live here. Next on the “to do” list is new furniture for the living room.
I really made no progress on the Long EZ with all this happening.
Here is where the story bends around a curve.
For over 10 years, I had had an application in with the FAA. I had a short and informal talk with the FSDO in 1998 after leaving the Army , and another short talk with Heavy Helicopter Unit Manager at the Portland FSDO several years ago, but nothing came from either .
In mid June, I received a call from an HR person from the FAA Northwest Mountain Region HQ in Renton, WA. I thought to myself OH YES!, I’m going to get to schedule an official interview now. Instead, she offered me a job at the Portland FSDO starting in 10 days! I excitedly told her yes.
When we finished up our conversation and I hung up, it occurred to me that I now had to tell my current bosses that I would be leaving. I really hadn’t been looking for a new job, and liked my job as Service Manager. I felt bad about leaving them short handed, but I had to weigh that against the big raise and security I would be moving to just one and a half miles further down the road from my current job.
I let my bosses know of my decision that day. Later in the afternoon, The owner found me on the flight line and walked right up and hugged me. He said that I would be missed and that he loved me. I choked up. He was such a good boss, I really hated leaving. The next day he took me to lunch and told me that no matter what happend, I would always have a job waiting for me.
It turns out that when the FAA had been in my shop, I had impressed them, and was hired based on the reports from the Inspectors I had worked with during the Great Catastrophy.
So, I’m working on my 4th month as an FAA employee, trying to sip water from the fire hose.
And again, the story takes a corner. David is a retired Oregon National Gaurd CH-47 Chinook pilot and instrument examiner hired by the FAA the same time I was. When he came to my cube to introduce himself to me, he saw my Long EZ pictures and Burt and Dick Rutan autographs. I told him about my project and he said that he’d always wanted a Long EZ.
David came up with a plan for us to share a shop to build two Long EZ’s. I will teach him composites and he would teach me instrument flying. Its a win-win-win for me. I get to have a real shop to work in and work on my instrument ticket. Shane gets a mentor that has actually done the things he dreams about doing. And Kim gets to put put her car back in the garage.
David and I are currently attending the FAA Acadamy in Oklahoma City for our indoctrination training and while here, he bought a 50% complete (with 90% to go) Long EZ project with Drybread retracts. I’m jealous of his landing gear, but I joke with him that if I forget to extend my gear, I will be embarrassed when I have to get out, crank the gear down, and taxi in. If he pulls the same stunt, he’ll need a crane.
We will be moving our projects to the new shop as soon as we get back home in November. Pictures to follow.
Recent Comments