WORK SAFE By Zac Noble
Paying It Forward
In mentoring the next generation of mechanics, we honor the privilege of maintaining aircraft.
The author watches
as Zach Brown, a new A&P mechanic,
conducts an engine inspection. (HAI/ Greg Brown)
O
NE WEEKEND THIS PAST MAY, I had the privilege of working on my friend Greg’s air- craft, a beautiful Beech Debonair. Greg’s son
Zach, a recent airframe and powerplant (A&P) school graduate with an A&P mechanic certificate, was with us. Another new aviation maintenance technician entering the workforce!
Hangar as Refuge Like Zach, I enjoy working on aircraft and turning wrenches. A nice toolbox and a clean, dry hangar with some tunes playing in the background is the perfect therapeutic escape from whatever’s dragging me down. My fellow mechanics will know what I’m talking about. Even pilots enjoy the sanctuary of their hangars, because they often end up doing more hangar flying than real flying. There’s just one difference: as a sign on my hangar wall says, “If you ain’t bleedin’, you ain’t mechanic’in’. “ Seems like I’m always gouging myself with safety wire or pinching a finger. It’s part of the challenge of
60 ROTOR JUNE 2023
working on aircraft. Engineers put the parts you have to reach the most in the smallest, most inaccessible loca- tion possible because they don’t like mechanics … at least it seems that way. You can bet your next favorite beverage that if the aircraft has a 25-hour inspection cri- terion, there won’t be an access panel and you’ll have to be trained by the Houdini school of contortion to get your hands where they need to be!
So with the hangar door open, the sun shining, a few airport hang-arounds hangin’ around doing what they do best—marvel at what mechanics do—Zach and I jacked up the Debbie and performed a landing gear inspection, including an operational check with a manual gear exten- sion. After that, we flushed and serviced the landing gear struts and then asked Greg to run the aircraft for a few minutes, check some indications in the cockpit, and heat up the engine for us so we could continue our maintenance. We did engine compression checks followed by a borescope inspection of all the cylinders and valves. At that point, I was comfortable speaking the phrase all
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