Originally Posted by
OUAQUKGF Ops
Th.................s when a sprog one soon learnt never to be so foolish as to ask an engineer how long he was going to take to fix the bally thing! ............ too.
On the apron at a Gulf Airport, midday, air temp about 45 in the shade, VC10 in transit with a snag, 100 plus passengers in the lounge getting fractious, no news from station engineer, so eventually I walk over to the aircraft, find that engineer is right up in the nose cone, listen to muffled cursing and instructions to flight deck, and then tentatively and meekly call up to the almost invisible engineer, "any idea how long it'll be?".
Engineer slowly wriggles his way out of the nose, gets down to terra firma, looks at me, and walks to the edge of the apron, beckoning me to join him. When I get there he looks at me for a long moment, and says "I am not a magician. Maybe I can fix it, maybe I can't. I have no f*****g idea whatsoever how f*****g long it might take. But one thing I do know; it'll take a f*****g time longer if I have to stop what I'm doing and answer f*****g stupid questions while I'm trying to solve the problem." And with that he turned and walked back to the aircraft.