and off ered positions. Naturally, we all had diff erent levels of experience and training and I’m sure that we were off ered salaries and benefi ts accordingly. I have never really been concerned about what other mechanics salaries were except in the years that I had them working for me. What the other guys made didn’t aff ect me. My salary and benefi ts were very important to me though. I have almost 50 years of experience in aviation and almost 40 years of just helicopter maintenance. I have been a repair station fl oor mechanic, a lead mechanic and for 15 years, I was chief inspector. I have over 18 years of HEMS experience as a solo fi eld base mechanic or paired with other mechanics. I’m not trying to toot my own horn here, but my toolbox and tools are older than most of the mechanics I work with these days. I am very aware of the shortage of mechanics in the industry and I am also a pretty good negotiator. When I signed my name on the contract accepting the position, I was pretty satisfi ed with the new deal. The week prior to contract end, we had been
boxing up parts and equipment that belonged to our employer. These were things that we didn’t need, and we hauled them to a nearby storage locker. We were still in full operation and there was a lot of maintenance and inspections that the operator wanted us to perform on the aircraft before they left to go to other programs. We were still employees and getting paid. The new operator had representatives in the area and had asked if they could do some training with us after our primary duties were performed. They off ered us part-time pay for the training hours, so we agreed. We were given company laptops that were pre-programed with all of the new operations and procedures manuals. Us mechanics that were originally here were not going to have the opportunity to go to the new headquarters for training. Because the program fl eet of helicopters was going to be expanded from two aircraft to four — three new mechanics were hired and they were sent for training. The new company could not
RG-407
interfere with the operations of the existing operator, so they were staging the replacement aircraft and ground support equipment at a local airport hangar. Parts stock and storage cabinets were being setup and inventoried by parts people. They were doing their thing and we were doing ours. The new contract was going to go into eff ect on
June 1st but both parties agreed on the transition day of Friday, May 31st at 7:00 AM. May 30th was business as usual and the night shift crew change was no diff erent. Night shift came on at 7:00 PM and continued operations through the night. I forgot to mention that we also operated a remote base 50 miles away that housed one of the two aircraft. They were also in service. We were instructed to start our duty day at 4:30 AM so that we could ready the aircraft to depart at 7:00 AM. It was also agreed upon that they would stay in service and be available to take a mission if requested. We were still their employees and would comply with their orders. Luckily for us, the aircraft didn’t get any early morning requests and we were able to do daily’s and get the fl y-away kits loaded on board. The exiting operator also brought in a couple of their
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