Page 23 - 2016 MARCH issue

The next day upon arriving ar work, I was Dennis said, “Yes, but you stacked blue
taken aside by a fellow worker named Mark. bags with red ones, and you also intermixed
He handed me a bright orange bucket and said a plaid bag here and there. It all just clashes
that he needed me to go to the United Airlines terribly! Now redo it!”
maintenance office and see if we could borrow
some prop wash. He handed me a bucket and He gave me a big grin, winked an eye, and
off I went. walked away. Leaving me scratching my head.

I knocked on the door and a United I’m sure many of you have some great
mechanic greeted me. I told him that we stories to tell about your first days on the job.
needed to borrow a bucket of prop wash.
Well, he said sorry that they were fresh out, From those early experiences I learned
however Air California should have plenty. the value of being a team player, and having
Thus I headed to their office. This time I was a good sense of humor no matter what.
told that they had just used their last bucket
full, and wouldn’t have more until Friday. Little did I know that these early days
They suggested that I try Western Airlines. would lead to a 30+ year career in commercial
And so I went. . . aviation—where I went from the ramp to the
executive offices.
After 45 minutes and visiting every
airline’s maintenance office at the airport, Rodger Cook joined Toastmasters in 2007. He
I came back empty handed. As I returned is a member of Wallmasters where he is currently
defeated. I entered the back room, my serving as Sergeant at Arms. He has been serving
co-workers were there to greet me, frantically
laughing. District 7 as the New Club Specialist since 2011,
and is the 2015-16 Conference Chair.
This when I discovered that the term “Prop
Wash” was the definition for the wind vortex
created behind a propeller aircraft. I felt like
a fool. . .

On my third day at work I was tasked to see
how good of a luggage stacker I was.

The Fairchild F-27 aircraft we operated had
the cargo compartment located between the
cockpit and the passenger cabin. The access
door was about 3’ x 5’ tall, and
was about 3’ off the ground. The
area was small, and there was an
art to stacking luggage in the
small confines to insure that
everything got on.

After several failed attempts
to stack all the bags. I was so
proud that I was able to get every-
thing stacked and secured.

Just after climbing out of the
aircraft and back onto the tarmac,
Dennis, one of my co-workers,
looked inside the cargo compart-
ment and said, “Get back up there!”

“What’s wrong?”, I said,
Dennis said that I had stacked the
luggage and cargo entirely wrong.

“Now how could that be, everything
is on-board and secured.” I responded.

Volume 2 Issue 8 - MARCH 2016 23