That went down well, too cultured for you?
I haven’t got a great deal of stories on Wurz at work. Did he actually do any? I think that possibly Wurzel fancied himself more as a consultant executive Ground Engineer, (a bit like a Flt Engineer) or as we workmates say ‘He talks a good job’. And he talks it so well there are many who think he a real star (Oh no we don’t!) Got a couple of work stories though.
DIRCM in Bits - Tipsy & Wurz in Afghanistan
There was the time when Wurzel was summoned to the Avionic Trade Managers Office, to see T****e after an official complaint was made about the condition of a DIRCM head received unserviceable by the manufacturers.
Well, what happened was, out in Kabul, the head had completely seized, rock solid, and as the mounting flange is like a sprocket, we couldn't get access to the bolts. We had to ease it off, one flat at a time. So far, so good.
But we couldn’t get the bolts off the old DIRCM head to fit the new one. Nil stock, of course. Now, as Senior GE, Tipsy helpfully found some bolts in the floor panels that were nearly the right thread, and almost long enough, and we’d only lose a bit of cabin pressure, but Wurzel wasn’t happy.
This was business for an Avionics specialist. So we decided to dismantle the old head to try and get the motor off. Our quarter of a million pound DIRCM head was down to its component parts by the time we got to the pissy little motor that had seized, and we decided that the manufacturers would have to change this motor anyway, and would probably be delighted to receive it in this condition.
We were wrong. And Wurzel wasn't going to wriggle out of this one. Nothing to do but offer apologies.
PS. Bit of advice to any beginners out there, if you've spent a hard days work with your oppo, and he leaves you to do the paperwork and goes to the bar to tell the crew what a good job he's done...
Put his name on the 731 U/S label and forge his signature.