"Peak"

[Spokane Flyboy]

Well, last Tuesday marked the official start of what we call "Peak. Shifts have moved from 5:30-8:30am and 3:30-6:30pm to the place they will be for the next six weeks: 3:00/4:00-8:00am and 4:00/5:00-8:00pm. Many of us work both shifts and it leaves little time for sleep, much less any thing else. We're dealing with large aircraft: DC-8s, 757s and the occasional 767 and A300, and a lot of smaller feeder aircraft. With winter setting in, lack of sleep, and increased number of planes and packages, you can imagine what a mess our air cargo ramp will likely get.

[Jeff Gerke]

You guys just be extra careful. The kind of conditions you describe seem like the perfect storm for something terrible to happen.

Jeff

[Christian Soldier]

Be careful, our prayers go with you.

[Spokane Flyboy]

Well, half way through and no injuries so far. The snow has yet to fall though. My knees are taking a beating though with all the lose load packages in the bellies of the jets and in the holds of the cramped feeder aircraft. I did invest in some good knee pads and that is helping some. As for your packages? I don't think we've destroyed too many. Hehe.

[Jeff Gerke]

Well, then you're behind in your quota. Get to smashing, mister.

;-)

[Spokane Flyboy]

Well, we survived despite the snow and the ice - and one feeder with the GPU plug a foot and a half (no joke) behind the right prop - and peak is now to a close. Thank you for your prayers.

[torainfor]

I know what a GPU is (Man, they stink on tankers. Always upset my stomach.) But what's a feeder? And how could a GPU plug wind up behind a prop?

[Jeff Gerke]

Yeah. That was my question too.

[Spokane Flyboy]

Feeders are to cargo what commuters are to airlines. They're the small aircraft that fly to small airports with cargo from our ramp and then return later with packages from the airport to load on the jets. And this was some older Metroliner and all the Metros we had previous had the GPU plugin the underside of the fuselage and just behind the trailing edge. This one was shorter that the others and had it in the side of the nacelle and rather close to the prop. On the Beech 1900C, they were on the prop nacelle, but behind the landing gear. The co-worker that ran the GPU got sprayed with whatever was on the wings and ground, but he was still not close to the prop.

Watching my co-worker tip-toe up to unplug it after the engine started was rather amusing. Mostly for his yelling "Ahhhhh! I quit! I quit!" as he crept up to it. I had the nice cushy job of holding my wands while standing in the front of the plane giving signals. I know I had the "kill engines" signal running in the back of my mind though should he slip. Ironically, the signal is to slash your throat with the wand.

[metalikhan]

Funny, that's like the hand signal I taught one of my dogs, although for her it meant Knock it off! (Interpretation: Yes, I heard your alert and you don't have to keep going on with it.)
Hmmm -- never thought of using a wand.

[Christian Soldier]

We use the same hand signal when guiding vehicles. Actually, we probably share most of our signals, just you get cool glowy wands and we get nada ^^

[Jeff Gerke]

Well, you get big toys that go boom, so that's a benefit.

(Not trying to trivialize weapons of war, by the way.)

[Spokane Flyboy]

Yeah. The hand signals for our GSE (ground support equipment) are mostly the same as the ones for aircraft. We can marshal aircraft with our hands, but it's harder for them to see from the cockpit - especially the jets since you have to stand so far out from them to even be visible. Thus, it's strongly discouraged for reasons of safety. The wands also exaggerate the movements, and when aircraft interpret the speed of the movements with the level of urgency, it helps. That is to say, the faster I wave my arm in signaling to turn, the sharper he'll turn. The faster I move my arms to signal them to move forward (contrary to popular belief, the signal means to go straight ahead, not "come towards me"), the faster they move forward.

And yeah CS, you get toys that go boom that are supposed to go boom. We just get toys that sometimes try to go boom that aren't supposed to go boom. Like that deck loader that caught fire when hydrolic fluid spilled all over its engine.

[Christian Soldier]

It seems that no matter how "fire resistant" they make hydraulic fluid, it still makes a big fire.

[Spokane Flyboy]

I think "fire resistance" is like "water resistance". It still leaks, but it does so so much more slowly. Nothing like making something that burns for hours instead of seconds and calling it "resistant".