You ought to see some of the stuff I’ve seen come out of heavy check in such places as Seattle and Nashville.

I was deployed for 5 yrs. as a maintenance inspector for FAA in Europe and the M.E. In my experience, the maintenance organization has more to do with quality of work than location. I have seen excellent work done in Hungary and absolute scheisse work done in the United States.

I'd forward this to a guy I know who worked at Pan-am till the bitter end but he'd probably shot me.

The maint. shop at JFK made $300m a year pushing out engines and landing gear. This was in 1970/80 dollars.

Oh sure, the little guys who own less than 10 aircraft rely on the airline shops and big MRO's to overhaul their components.

Pan Am, Eastern, Western, Braniff...good ole days.

GAD!

Having spent a former career in aircraft maintenance, I completely concur with 3584ELK's comments--nothing to do with where, all to do with how well. Just because its overseas does not mean it isn't done correctly. And I find the article to have a racist tone, suggesting that if the mechanic doesn't speak English then they aren't capable of proper repairs: Bullshit! These facilities have sprung up around the world because the demand can not be met economically nor logistically here in the US.

quote:

Originally posted by Toomany Tools:
Having spent a former career in aircraft maintenance, I completely concur with 3584ELK's comments--nothing to do with where, all to do with how well. Just because its overseas does not mean it isn't done correctly. And I find the article to have a racist tone, suggesting that if the mechanic doesn't speak English then they aren't capable of proper repairs: Bullshit! These facilities have sprung up around the world because the demand can not be met economically nor logistically here in the US.

Eloquently stated, sir!

quote:

Originally posted by Toomany Tools:
Having spent a former career in aircraft maintenance, I completely concur with 3584ELK's comments--nothing to do with where, all to do with how well. Just because its overseas does not mean it isn't done correctly. And I find the article to have a racist tone, suggesting that if the mechanic doesn't speak English then they aren't capable of proper repairs: Bullshit! These facilities have sprung up around the world because the demand can not be met economically nor logistically here in the US.

Plus, the lazy millennials, or whatever we're supposed to call them, don't want real jobs that include labor. They want to sit in an air-conditioned cubicle and play video games rather than do real work. There are tons of jobs begging for employees that have no takers in the States.

Agree with your take on the article. Still, I'd rather not have maintenance done in El Salvador. Lots of heavy C-checks are done in Singapore and I'd trust them more than the places mentioned in the article.

quote:

Originally posted by A7Dave:

quote:

Originally posted by Toomany Tools:
Having spent a former career in aircraft maintenance, I completely concur with 3584ELK's comments--nothing to do with where, all to do with how well. Just because its overseas does not mean it isn't done correctly. And I find the article to have a racist tone, suggesting that if the mechanic doesn't speak English then they aren't capable of proper repairs: Bullshit! These facilities have sprung up around the world because the demand can not be met economically nor logistically here in the US.

Plus, the lazy millennials, or whatever we're supposed to call them, don't want real jobs that include labor. They want to sit in an air-conditioned cubicle and play video games rather than do real work. There are tons of jobs begging for employees that have no takers in the States.

Agree with your take on the article. Still, I'd rather not have maintenance done in El Salvador. Lots of heavy C-checks are done in Singapore and I'd trust them more than the places mentioned in the article.

Question. If the maintenance manuals are written in English, the language of aviation, how can you do reliable maintenance without under standing the
process ? Obviously didn't help here.


Grizz

Sorry, clicked on the wrong image.



Grizz

quote:

Question. If the maintenance manuals are written in English, the language of aviation, how can you do reliable maintenance without under standing the
process ? Obviously didn't help here.

There's a lot of hope and prayer when it comes to aviation. I would much rather have my neighbor do the work (he's a airline mechanic) than any guy or gal anywhere else in the world. Still, I've met great mechanics in Taipei, Beijing, Penang, and Dubai and many other places around the world.

One of the issues with maintenance is that the engines change so much. Air New Zealand did all their own engine maintenance while we were flying the CF6-50s and similar sized engines on the 747s, etc. all the way through the CF6-80s

Then GE introduced the GE NX engine and now the Leap engine we were looking at $$$ for all new engine tooling and all of our engine stands and dollies and even the shop cranes would have to be replaced to handle the bigger engines.

Financially it was a no win situation so now all of our engine and heavy frame maintenance is all farmed out overseas.