AlaskaAV
GONE WEST
Mission, TX
A comment by T.J. in a different thread brought this situation back.
Does anyone know what the difference is when patching a small hole in a Super Cub's fabric and the skin of a 737?
On the Cub it is called hundred mile per hour tape and on a 737 it is 500 mile per hour tape, same roll.
This happened one time at our Deadhorse operation at Prudhoe Bay.
Due to a posable error by a ground employee trying to load a large piece of freight, the forklift was pulled forward by the employee by brute force and ran a fork through the skin and made a small hole. It happened between two vertical ribs and horizontal structure so there was no support damage. After the Captain looked it over and talked to maintenance and dispatch, it was decided to fly the aircraft back to Anchorage on the schedule flight but unpressurized which meant some beautiful flying for the passengers and flight crew. Not often does a 737 crew get to fly at basically Super Cub level on long legs like that.
Needless to say, my boss was really upset with me and probably wanted to fire me. He required a written report immediately on why it happened. At the same time, he told me to fire the employee.
I sent him a three page report, copy to the CEO, his boss. Boy did I get some action.
I had been reporting the forklift had no parking brakes but could not get any support from ground maintenance in Fairbanks to repair it. I knew they had the parts on hand but would just not send anyone up to do the job. I had reported the same thing to my boss several times too.
So instead of me getting called on the carpet, my boss and the supervisor of ground maintenance in Fairbanks had to stand tall in front of the CEO. By the way, my forklift was repaired the next day (after 6 months of trying to get it repaired) and the employee was not fired.
Oh how I love it when a plan comes together.
Does anyone know what the difference is when patching a small hole in a Super Cub's fabric and the skin of a 737?
On the Cub it is called hundred mile per hour tape and on a 737 it is 500 mile per hour tape, same roll.
This happened one time at our Deadhorse operation at Prudhoe Bay.
Due to a posable error by a ground employee trying to load a large piece of freight, the forklift was pulled forward by the employee by brute force and ran a fork through the skin and made a small hole. It happened between two vertical ribs and horizontal structure so there was no support damage. After the Captain looked it over and talked to maintenance and dispatch, it was decided to fly the aircraft back to Anchorage on the schedule flight but unpressurized which meant some beautiful flying for the passengers and flight crew. Not often does a 737 crew get to fly at basically Super Cub level on long legs like that.
Needless to say, my boss was really upset with me and probably wanted to fire me. He required a written report immediately on why it happened. At the same time, he told me to fire the employee.
I sent him a three page report, copy to the CEO, his boss. Boy did I get some action.
I had been reporting the forklift had no parking brakes but could not get any support from ground maintenance in Fairbanks to repair it. I knew they had the parts on hand but would just not send anyone up to do the job. I had reported the same thing to my boss several times too.
So instead of me getting called on the carpet, my boss and the supervisor of ground maintenance in Fairbanks had to stand tall in front of the CEO. By the way, my forklift was repaired the next day (after 6 months of trying to get it repaired) and the employee was not fired.
Oh how I love it when a plan comes together.
