747-400 D check cancelled due to big announcment
 

Tonight at dinner our DMM come down to the smoko room to tell us that the D check that is due to arrive tommorrow morning has been cancelled,due to the big announcement that is to be made in the nexted few days into the future of Heavy Maint in Sydney.
The reason for it not arriving was that management didn't wish to have an aircraft pulled apart with the news that they where about to announce.
In my 20 yrs in Heavy Maint this has never happened

So what? They reckon they're going to have a large number of pissed off engineers who might not bother to do a good job on the D check (or might not even bother doing any work on it at all)?

Good luck to you guys, hope the news isn't too bad.

and i hope you don't have to fly an aircraft which was maintained in China

Darth Dixon is just about to announce that he and his queen maggie are going to open a heavy maintenance facility in Maralinga.It will be staffed by 10,000 Afghani's they are bringing in for the job on 11 month contracts.

They will be paid basically nothing with the people actually paying Darth for the priviledge of working for him and they are bringing their own tents so it is a cost neutral exercise..

qantas shares rose 5 cents after the announcement..

Don't laugh too much at this because I bet Darth has thought of something just like this...

If Sydney does lose the maitenance contract ,this will just be the start and in 50 years time the only Australians with jobs will be those on the boards of companies

I find it offensive that they coud even consider that Qantas H/M engineers would be so unethical and unproffesional to not work to the best of their ability under all circumstances.
Do they think we would hold their aircraft to ransom or something?

It is offensive, but they are probably just thinking what they would do if THEY were in that position. There is not a lot of loyalty in management.

Speaking to a friend at the rat yesterday- heard that one of the 744 sims is earmarked to go to Singapore. So it looks like more than SO's might get a basing up there....

What planet are you living on ?

Apophis, are you suggesting that we would deliberately snag the bejesus out of the aircraft, dissassemble it to the Nth degree, put in RESs to tech services for every little item, look for nil stock items to snag, reprint new copies of all the maintenance manuals every day (whilst reporting every computer defect to the 6666 help line), comply with all the ohs requiremnts 100% no exceptions, and blow out a 48 day check to 90 days, all because QF have chosen to replace Australian workers with cheap overseas labour.
You cynic, you!
:E
We wouldn't even consider doing any of that stuff.
We leave that sort of thing to the AMEs, they're much better at it than us spineless LAMEs.

I respectfully suggest that the reason the aircraft is not being hangared is because once you've heard the announcement, the aircraft would never leave the hangar again.

You have been AGAIN used as a bargaining chip by QF. Now that the Australian government has caved in and kept Singapore Airlines out, your jobs will be going to China.

Don't any of you understand? If all QF staff, including pilots were paid just one dollar an hour, your Board regards that as ninety-nine cents an hour too much!

To put it yet another way, you are totally expendable and a nuisance to boot. They don't want you. You are an embarassment. You are superfluous. Try and get that through your head. In their twisted little minds, the Board and Management makes things happen.......and things magically happen.

I will be the first to cheer if I am wrong. Good luck!

And they have the hide to put full page adds in the papers saying that Qantas is proudly Australian.

This is the worst sign! they know there will be Industrial action, and are getting the press on their side before it turns to ****.

The Rat isnt know for advertising in popular media when there isnt a Major worldwide drawcard event.



still plenty of work north of Syd!

How far north of Sydney is that?:cool:
10,000Kms?

qf1 "and i hope you don't have to fly an aircraft which was maintained in China"

I flew with CX for 33 years, all our aircraft were maintained locally by engineers who in the majority were Chinese. Shortly before my retirement, Cathay set up a maintanance base in Xiamen China where Chinese maintenace engineers continue to do a sterling job during heavy maintenance and letter checks for a lot of foreign jurisdiction airlines from many parts of the world. Do you really think Australian LAMEs are the only ones in the world who know what they are doing?:confused:

Turbo i would never suggest this may happen i know it would.

have heard the aircraft to do a couple of sectors
then go to our overflow facility for "D" check
the "C" check to be done to keep heavy busy for two weeks they hate to have people standing around

I don't agree with Sunfish often but have to give him ten out of ten for his post. It will be interesting to see what happens when no more cost cutting can be made but I guess the current management will be long gone by then.

Hot Dog, CX is a very reputable airline with a great reputation for maintenance(obviously by local engineers).

However they are maintaining their own planes and they have an extensive experience and tradition of maintaining aircraft.

However getting a newly opened asian MRO to carry out D checks on Qantas aircraft is an entirely different story. Even if the quality was there,(and who would know because you would have to pull the aircraft to pieces before you would find that huge piece of corrossion that was missed), the chances are that they would increase the price once you lost you ability to carry out the maintenance yourself anyway.

I know a few people who have done 3 month contracts in these sort of operations and the stories they come back with are scary.

It's nice to be trusting Hot Dog, but do you take your car to the cheapest garage and just believe they they are doing what they are charging you for. Or do you send you car to someone that you know will look after it properly?

Qantas used to have a reputation for excellence in maintenance and servicing of their aircraft. I believe they are largely relying on reputation these days. Length of time between checks have been extended, ground time for these checks have been shortened, more work being done by third party operaters. These are facts and please don't try and tell me that quality will not suffer. I'm sure the spin doctors will be able to tell a good story though.

If the Unions mount a scare campaign as effective as the one against the industrial reforms they'll get this decision reversed easily (assuming the decision is made in the first place) Put the fear factor into passengers and they'll respond.

qfcainer

I agree with most of your post but OEB was the only ex Asiana B744 that QF bought second hand which is why its systems are different from the rest of the fleet. OEC and OED were ex Malaysian airlines and I understand that the lousy paint job that you accurately described was done by MAS paint facility. The resulting cracks in the fuselage skin was severe and could have had major consequences. As far as I know there has not been a similar problem with OEB.

Good luck to all QF HM guys - I hope the announcement is not as bad as we fear.

Hi all,

I agree, Haeco are NOT brilliant, I operated 74 Classics out of HK for a couple of years, to many to mention!

Cheers, FD :ooh:

in reply to qf1 statement
 

in regards to this has never happened before- true it has not happened at any one base but this is the 3rd time it has happened in the last 2 years the other times there has been a super-A happening else where and then flying to Sydney and having a C-check carried out.

I am not saying there is nothing in the wind but i hear that the management staff of the 3rd for and there staff have all signed a confidentiality agreement about all documentation on the floor.

also i hear that apprentice training school has closed down or is about to close down.

according to the plan, the d checkaircraft comes back in to the hangar for a gear change soon...5 days..with no other check in conjunction. thats a whole lot of people standing around doing f all for 5 days.It then comes back in april for its d check. Maybe.
No apprentice has been offered a job in sydney this year.

From what I understand most of the Avionics Apprentices coming out of their time were offered Servicing @ Mascot , but no Airframe Apprentices were offered Sydney at all.

Where were they offered HM mel or line stations? Or was it worse hardly any got jobs at all?

I know of at least one mech. fella who got Sydney (not sure if sit or sdt) some got QDS Canberra, some QDS Richmond, Bankstown..........

I think there is no intake for '06 either.

Really? interesting.

I'd say the reason that the apprentice training facility may shut down is because QF can obtain ready to go apprentices from Aviation Australia up here in Brisbane..... apprentices that have paid their own way! Much cheaper than Qantas paying!!! Just another Dirty cost cutting trick.

that may be the case,but these apprentices are not up to speed fully and it still takes these guys and girls 4 yrs of on the job training before they are of any use

lets get this thing back on track

i have a few questions which i think need to be asked

1. if the aircraft are outsourced who here in Australia is acountable if one goes down?

I think NO one would but maybe the people that are making these choices should be thinking of the long term and not the just the short term gains. thinking of the public safety and the customers welbeing and living up to what they preach " no injuries to anyone anytime" (no only the worker but the travelling public)

I would give it about 5 years before mojours problems occure by this stage dixon would have taken the shares, the pay rises and the profit he would lleave Qantas and then all S**t would break loose No care No responsiblilty . no came back fror the investors, no come back for the Australian public (Australian law does not extend to China).

the question was asked of Keith Clark why was the check moved, quote " it was to keep the intregity on H/M sydney" what ever that means.

2. if there is a closure of heavy maint where will the servicing guys get the skill base for the engineers?

the goverment is complaining there is a lack of skilled workers here in Australia how is this going to help the skill base shortages? does this mean more workers coming in from overseas doing more Australians out of work remember the saying "pay peanuts get monkeys"

if you move (get rid of) the work you don't need the skills base

The government has been bringing in skilled workers for years! Maybe not in the aircraft industry, but certainly others! Next time you are in a taxi, ask the Indian/Middle Eastern/Mediteranean/Asian/Russian driver what job he used to do back home. I have done this now and then. It's supprising that quite a few were engineers or skilled tradespeople back in their home countries.

Howard has flooded the market with them.....I'd hazzard to guess that when we all spit the dummy over the low pay/lack of conditions that are just around the corner, these guys will jump at the chance to get back into their career!

Have heard that the D check was cancelled but has been replaced by a C check on OJL instead

Is May still the date thrown around for the decision on the long term future of Heavy Maintenance Sydney?

Lots of rumours floating around the ol Red Rat factory..

Does this have anything to do with Qantas buying a big chunk of Air New Zealand?

did they...when?

Soon Grasshopper...soon!;)

if we're lucky we can do their maintenance work.

Maint Base
 

Will the maint base be LAX?

See travel industry review.
"L.A. Mayor announcesnew Qantas maintenance facility at LAX"

their is talk of split 767 "A" checks in new zealand

it looks like Dixon will do anything to get the share price back up over $5 before his departure.because if he doesn't his time at Qantas would of been a waste of time as there would be no massive bonus at the end of it all.