Lift is in, car in air...

[Camano510]

Hey from Sydney-

Went through the pile of paperwork stuff I brought with me, and ended up tossing a lot of it- old receipts for things I’ll need to re-buy, due to storage issues, re-read a few Dime Quarterly issues for a bit of a re-fresher.

Sydney is rad. Clean, well sorted, minimal homeless, and those who are are very polite, humble, and nice. I’m a 10 minute (at most)n walk from the Sydney Opera House the the Harbor Bridge. Tons of great food, bars, clubs and services. Lots of cool cars roaming the streets as well. I’m sure it doesn’t hurt that there are ‘only’ 20 million people on the entire continent, so crowds are not really a thing.

As for the job, JetStar 87, lightning strike. If you search Maximus Aviation on YouTube, he mentions the plane I’m fixing today. Strangely, getting materials that are needed has proven to be a huge hurdle. Mechanically (my portion of the task) is about 1 shift from completion, but the composite work is on hold until our materials arrive, and every day we are delayed is costing the customer about $95K. Add to the the labor rules in place here, and I am on my 3rd 3 day weekend since arriving. Yup- instead of 7/12’s until the job is complete, we do 4/12’s to reach the allowed 48 hours of work in a 7 day period, and then are ‘forced’ to take 3 days off. It’s unheard of in my world, but to be required to take this time off (paid, because we are ‘traveling’) is more than fine with me and my team. If we were in some S hole, I think we’d feel differently, but as stated, this place is a dream, and a very rare site for us to be sent to. Was told I will be staying until completion, putting the airplane back into service, after assisting the composite experts- which I’ve done many times, so an early departure is not in the cards. Also, filling out VISA paperwork for a trip to Narita right after I get home, and then another repair in Cali, right after that. Waking up the airline industry after 3 years of bad decisions is turning out to be very profitable for me, but also vey time consuming. Pick what you complain about, I guess. I am not complaining.

My oldest son is using the shop, as his modded VW Alltrac turbo had a wastegate issue, so he’s using my daily while I’m gone, and the car is on the lift. Lucky him. Lucky me, too. He’s cost me nothing other than the regular stuff, his whole life, and may eventually end up in this group. He’s certainly smarter than me, and his skill set will be in high demand in the next 5 years.

Still looking for a rebuildable A87, to re-do my drop episode damage.

Cheers, Mates.