A Change in Schedules

Well, it was bound to happen... just as I started to settle into a comfortable routine, things get shaken up a bit. As anyone in the Army will tell you, that's par for the course. It seems about a 1/3 of our shop is scheduled to go on R&R leave over the next two weeks. Therefore, we cannot maintain our three-shift rotation of schedules... So, new schedule for me starting tomorrow is:

2315Z (plus a few minutes of Snooze Button) - Awaken

0000Z - PT

0100Z - Quick shower, change to uniform, grab a morsel, and hustle the 3/4 mile over to work.

0200Z - Begin shift.

1400Z - End shift.

Repeat. Sleep when possible.

Today was Father's Day. Third one in a row I've spent away from my kidlets. Out of a possible 3, therefore, I'm batting zero. Sigh... that's getting old. First Daddy Day was spent in Army training. Second, waiting for Army paperwork to bring family over. Third, on vacation in Afghanistan.

Anyway, the DFAC (chow hall) prepared a nice Daddy Day dinner - T-bone steak (modified shoe leather), fish, turkey, roast pork, dressing, veggies, pie, etc., etc., etc. Nice of them.

Lots of Daddies over here. As the Chaplain put it in church today... "We hope your children understand the sacrifice you're making... that other children can grow up free." Well, we hope so. I'm lucky, mine are young enough to not know the difference. But, I do. Miss them.

Called home. My oldest got on a plane today to spend mandatory summer custody vacation in the states. Is still over the Atlantic as I write this. So, left me with two. M (2) and T (2.5 months). Needless to say, my conversation hopes weren't necessarily high. Thomas was asleep, probably dreaming blessed milk dreams. M, who has N*E*V*E*R spoken a word, grunted a sound, or given any sign of life on the phone was going to be the lucky winner. And you know what? She talked to me!!!! :) Ok, it wasn't english. It was more of... well, I don't know exactly what it is... but if she's still doing it 18 years from now, her career hopes in Radio/TV broadcast or as a receptionist are doomed. But, she was excited, and by all witness accounts, eager to be on the phone. She begged for the phone (real words... apparently not for use when actually on the phone.) Dancing, big smile, all about talking to Daddy. She doesn't know it yet, but she's got me wrapped. I am SO going to be in trouble when she's older.

Oh, one last thing of note... now, this is going to be full of jargon and so forth... Any words you don't understand can be replaced with "thingamajig", "whatchamacallit", "whatzit", and "doo-dad".

I fixed a helicopter today.

Not a big deal? Well, I've got 3 1/2 weeks cumulative knowledge. The bird in question was having problems with it's transducer (pronounced "thingamajig") failing. Basically, it tells the pilots the temperature of the transmission oil. Important stuff. It kept showing a temperature of -32 degrees Celsius, at engine start, on hot days. Not possible. Obviously, we all came to the learned decision that it was broken.

It had been replaced FOUR times. All four replacements failed. Same cause. So, today, my partner and I moseyed out there to fix that daggum bird... no matter what. At this point, it became more intense problem solving. If the part wasn't bad (could all four be bad? Not likely.), then the fault lay elsewhere. This is the part of the job where we chase wires. This is NOT fun and is generally avoided as the various checkpoints of the huge wiring bundles can be all over the aircraft, usually not in accessible locations. So it was to be here. I ended up, upside down in the birds' catwalk (a narrow place along the top of the tail boom) holding test leads while the partner was outside on the other end of the aircraft. Everything checked out. The wires were working. At least, the wires from the rest of the bird to the plug in point to the transducer. So, it's not the wires, and all the transducers can't be bad... what is it?

We sat there brainstorming. Maybe some pins were bad... possible. Wires in wrong holes.... possible. Then it dawned on me. -32 degrees is impossible. But, 32 degrees Celsius is akin to 90-95 degreesFahrenheit . Exactly what it should be before the engine gets warmed up. So, I spoke up... something is reversed.

Fast forward about five hours (and four people working) to get to the base wires involved. And would you believe? The two tiny wires providing power to the transducer were reversed. (Electricians and mechanics out there will recognize the "reverse polarity".) So, we swapped the wires. Put everything back together. And it worked.

And, to mark my success, I had a cookie. That's our phrase for doing something right... you get a cookie.

Well, I'm off to bed. I get up in about 6 hours for the beginning of a long day. PT is a run day, so I should be well and truly exhausted.

Take care, and thank you ALL for the messages, letters, and packages...

It means a great deal.

And to all the fathers, especially... my father, whom I love dearly... Happy Father's Day.