Patience & Eradicating corruption

Not even a single party in India sincere for the bill which Anna and the rest common Indian are willing for. 64 years after the freedom, all the social problems are still here to stay while many other neighboring countries are much ahead of ours.

By now we have accustomed to live our life in this situation, tired of and left complaining. This has become a part of our life and we know now how to live with it.

Corruption and corrupt people have mingled in such a way that now it is difficult to segregate them. We ourselves forcing our people to get corrupt and he is no one other than our own brother/cousin so and so.

Lower cadre of employee who were supposed to be under LOKPAL BILL and to be followed the guidelines for the compliance of any job as per citizen charter and that needs patience. The patience is the nucleolus in eradicating corruption which Indians do not have. It is the impatience of ours which aggravate corruption.

We just can’t stand in a queue and keep leaning forward/backward or sideways. Immediately we will lose our patience and start searching short cut path to get our job done. The moment we are in queue we behave as if we are one of the busiest people in this world. Restless, BP shoots up within 15 minutes and touches upper band. We want our job to be done within no time and start getting ourselves involved in unfair means, searching people who can get their job done by hook or crook.

Is not it this impatience which has inspired these officials to indulge in doing job by unfair means? We are also corrupt as enforcing them to get one’s job done out of turn.

Group C & D employees are the very first step/chain of corruption which no one in the government really wants to break as the huge amount of money flows from lower to the top through these officials.

Government does not have the will power otherwise it was not difficult to achieve food, shelter and clothing after 64 years freedom. Most of the billionaire in the world reside in India and are Indian but still half of the Indians are struggling for the 2^nd meal in a day.

Why does it take 64 years to place a food security bill, Pension bill, LOKPAL Bill, Citizen Charter and whistle blower bill? Hopefully it is once again half hearted and may be Government again going to deceive commoner Indian as being reiterated by Sh Anna Hazare.

Apart from all these bills which may be placed in LS & RS; if not today may be tomorrow and passed also but it is we who have to learn to be patience, disciplined and courageous enough to not to inspire such act in future. It is important in eradicating corruption from our society.

PEOPLE,POWER & ITS PRUDENT USE

People who blessed with power over the period forget that never things last in this universe forever and so the power too. God was kind enough to a soul who was entrusted with power to help those who are deprived of many things in life by means of the beholders of power. One can say it is God who connects to the deprived one in the society through him.

Power always associated with proud and this finally causes to commit mistake one after another to pull a powerful person back to ground. The cycle goes on. No one escapes from this cycle. Neither KANSA nor RAVANA was escaped in past.

Power/energy flows from high potential to low. Potential energy at higher level never survived for a long and it tries to vanish at the lower level as early as possible.

This is true to every person and one forget what he does is not going to last forever.

Powerful person must realise that it is a phase which has a certain time factor associated with it. In another term; one can say power is a function of time and it last for a longer period if power is used prudently for upliftment of people who are dependent upon him.

Manyways to punish aviation engineer

Many of us put in several years as AME, anyone can easily understand that how easy is to punish an Engineer? We can have any shortcoming any where in the system i.e doing series of inspections to a final departure in line maintenance , blame it as a fault of engineer, punish them and get a reward of being a good manager, get set of going one more step further in career progression. Punish engineer for none of his but any one else faults. Never implement any methodology to curb it again in future. Close the case by punishing a poor engineer.  

Lack of synchronisation and a phase difference of various departments at a time of departure may cause a lapse for which anyone from interfacing departments, eg a cleaner to commercial; toilet flusher from GSD to a helper in engineering, late arrival of crew to a missing baggage etc, be responsible but engineer must have an magical eye and a wand to curb such things in time else he will be taken for a task. Such incidents do give managerial cadres to sharpen their skill and an opportunity for adding another feather in their cap & profile.

Our stbd. engine is exposed to get damage any time by our loader as most of the trolley does not have lock neither it is placed properly and loading is done without supervision. Engineers keep praying that nothing wrong should happen unless he will be in trouble. No one bother for such lapses except him.

Allotment of multiple departures to engineers with a gap of 20 to 25 mts is an art of a good managerial technique but failing to attend and manage the departures is a fault of engineer as he is not responsive and liable to penalised for the delay.

GSD personnel who are responsible for flushing toilet & potable water often do not reach in time to the A/C but delay caused due this engineer will be questioned and he will be asked why he did not give call to Sic and/or foreman. Many a times he has to show the dialled call as a proof.

Delay due last minute bay change (No code is allotted), no feed back to engineers in this regard by sic is in vogue now a days. Any delay on this account, again engineer has to reply why he was not there in time, Sic is not responsible for this. It is you who has to find out from anywhere; where the A/C was parked finally.

Final fuel figure conveyed to engineer only after departure, providing fuel slip is out of fashion but delay caused due more, less fuel or late arrival of bowsers, engineer is answerable.

Incidents at the time of push back of the aircraft caused mainly due rest less pilots who pressurises down to tech/engineer to do it fast, use of low HP tow tractor, high speed taxying, improper communication between cockpit and crew, it will be engineer who will be de rostered first.

Working with improper equipments and tools with no light in night, any mishap due fatigue or untrained technicians, it is engineer whose licence will be suspended; no one is questioned for the lapses. 

Aero bridge operators of GMR are naïve and untrained, damage caused to A/C doors due their mistakes, it will be engineer whose licence will be suspended.

Incidents caused due GMR operator failing to install GPU or GCU results in a circular advising engineer and technician to monitor & install above equipments and will be responsible for their lapses.

Ironically the same management never bother if we point out the faults of others for which aircraft was delayed above 5 mts to an hrs and say forget it, it was not ours. However engineers have to give explanation for a delay of even few single minutes and it will be wired so that entire airport will come to know about this delay.

May be many more such occasions in day to day job of an aviation engineer exist where he become victim of somebody else faults but this is a high time where management, regulatory body and HR must evolve with a system to reduce human fatigue and develop a technique to recognise system failure and take the corrective measures rather punishing who caused the failure.

FACING A HARDSHIP

After the advent of transistors in early1950s and there after software electronic gadgets like calculator, computer, laptop, tablets to smart phone; we witnessed a remarkable changed in day to day maintenance activities. There was a time when we had a huge set of aircraft manuals which were referred to do the maintenance of the aircraft. These manuals were placed in a big room; was called technical library.

Hard copies of manuals were replaced by film and then softer version in the form of PDF and more recently to an advance program by Airbus as Air@Nav.

A big library converges to a working table with a PC. It was a huge saving in terms of space, ecology and undoubtedly user friendly.

After introducing NRC & CRS it was emphasized to mention the AMM/TSM Task referred during the maintenance of aircraft and its system, we fail to do so.

Four set of computers in our line maintenance have been kept on well designed working table but Air@Nav has expired and needs to be uploaded since months. It was brought into the notice of everyone but uploading is still awaited. In absence of printer, referring the task during maintenance is really a very difficult task.

In absence of Manuals (Current and updated), does our LM approved for maintenance activities as per CAR?

Inspections (PF to 400 hrs) are a continuous process of Line related job but one can not find copy of LO, WI and 400 Hrs Inspection schedule. There is not a single set of special inspection schedule in line maintenance.

Who will do such small job which is a day to day affair in line maintenance? How long engineer alone will face hardship just because their fellow workers who have been entrusted with such jobs are non performer?

Few staffs (Non technical) posted at LM for passing information to SIC regarding the availability of aircraft, arrival/departure i.e ETA of aircrafts, and taking fuel figure of the flight are totally unreliable. They are non serious and unaccountable. Every day one or another engineer come into trap of their mistake but till date no one is being taken for a task except engineer.

Do we really need such staffs in LM?

LM also needs to be installed two big screens dedicated for arrival and departure related information. SIC must get an email for fuel figure so that one who is passing this figure will be directly accountable for ones mistakes. The copy of fuel figure to be kept along with the allotment sheet from where engineer can get the fuel for flight. Any change in fuel figure must be followed by mail and telephonic conversation with SIC.

Few such things may be taken into account to improve further. We have the potential and we can do this.

THE THEORY OF ELASTICITY

Recent thrust to increase OTP has undoubtedly shown an upward trend in increasing OTP for the 1^st half of October too by 90.14% after Sept., 2011. This was possible because employees who were supposed to work towards increasing the performance were not behaving in a responsible way. A slight tightness at this end showed the remarkable result whereby OTP jumps from 70 to 90%.

The same theory does not hold true for Engineering. We are already stretched to the elastic limit and further force will break or transform us into plastic range. The irony is with our own bosses who fail to understand this simple theory which we have read numerous times (Theory of elasticity) till we perform our job as engineer.

In the industry elsewhere in the world, a component is removed to install whereas in our organisation this process does not hold good as we remove twice before installing the component. To elaborate this, we remove (a sub standard as per CAR) component from grounded aircraft to install it on the aircraft intended to rectify by removing its own faulty component.

The recent fleet of A 320 family aircraft are flying with multiple snags under MEL for want of spares. No one knows why we have not maintained the minimum standard level of inventory to maintain the fleet so much so that recent groundings are the result of low or no inventory.

Today we are not only struggling for float engines and its modules but spares like HMU, ECU and many more such component. No engineers are responsible for this but the one who is accountable are always spared.

If we still fail to sense gravity of situation about the optimum investment in engineering for procurement of spares, humiliating engineers by withdrawing all their facilities slowly and slowly; forcing them to compromise with the inspection procedure with respect to time and spares, future is bleak and we may face more grounding and cancellations in future throwing the trend of improvement haywire.

Recent grounding of SCB, EPB & SCE may be the result of unavailability of spares and were avoidable.

To keep the performance trend continuously upward, it is of utmost importance to take care the sentiments of engineers and their plights, availability of spares and its placement, proper tools and equipments.  

Nightmare of Nightshift

The struggle starts immediately after our reporting in night shift.

In spite of many new departments which are now in existence in order to improve productivity, reduce expenditure and bring the working culture at par with the international standard in the industry by an expense of crores and crores of rupees; all such department may show their worth in future but it seems wasteful expenditure at ground level. No one is there to take decision and function as a bridge to share information at top level.

Engineers who are waiting for their aircraft to work with in maintenance in night shift, are taken aback when they realised that the sun is about to rise in the east and he had just wasted whole night waiting for spares, arranging and managing with only one Wheel Jack, no proper steps to work with, only one APU step, Leaking TP gauges and U/S HP gauges. Nitrogen bottles with low pressure and without proper opening tool.

Early in the morning at departure; where he ;some how managed to do the assigned inspection and ready down below the nose, a call from A/H embarrassed him when she asks for replacement of dirty seat covers, hanging galley curtains for want of its hooks, missing soap solution and stinking lavatory with low and no water in the galley.

He remains unanswered thinking he even could not managed to replace even a wheel due no Jack and even no wheels for couple of days, what to answer her about her query. How much serious are we really about the turning around our ailing carrier?

Can our aircraft & Airlines survive the fierce competition without well maintained aircraft with shabby looking interiors? We have a doubt but may be top management looking upward away from our working environment & climatic condition towards western experts. Their technique to revive our airlines was happily accepted in past by spending huge money but was of no use.

It is better that we should focus doing small thing to achieve big-to revive/turning around our airlines.

We must focus and invest money to procure spares for Airframe, engine and APU.

Based upon fleet repetitive snags, spares must be placed and planned where ever that aircraft is doing night halt.

Years long demand of maintenance crew of placing A/C Jacks (other than one), Steps needed for maintenance, sky jack for APU, Nitrogen bottles, TP & HP gauges, Placement of universal kit, A/C seats, galley curtain hooks and other spares to rectify pax seats & its back rest, table etc must be met with.

Radome, oleo and air intake for all the night halt a/c must be cleaned by our engineering helper other than deep cleaning.

Procurement & Placement of spares will minimise the grounding/cancellation of the aircraft and then we can have an edge over other private carriers and lure the passengers.

Unless above stated small things are not planned and met with, maintenance crew nightmare may last longer and whatever our top executive plan to take a big leap in the process of revival will be of no use.

The City Of RAIPUR

The city of Raipur is situated at the coordinate of 21deg 08’ N 81deg23’E and is known since 9th century. It is one of oldest town in India. This is the capital city of Chhattisgarh.
Climate is tropical wet and dry with moderate temperature throughout the year except May and June which is really very hot. Winter starts with the beginning of October and last since February end with the temperature below up to 5 deg Celsius. The river MAHANADI flows through east of the city whereas southern part is covered with thick forest.
In 4th century AD it was conquered by Samudragupta of Maurya vansh and it was remain under Maurya dynasty till the end of 6th century. However the city was named after the king Brahmdeo Rai son of king Ramchandra whose capital was KHALLARI. The decline of this dynasty was by the death of King Amrish Deo later on it was under the rule of Bhosla’s king of Nagpur. The territory was finally under British rule from Bhosla’s king in 1854 and Raipur became headquarter of Chhattishgarh. After independence Raipur district was included in central province.
Raipur is connected by Air to Delhi, Bombay, Bhubneshwar, Kolkatta, Hyderabad and Bangaluru. All the major airlines operate in and out of Raipur eg Air India, Jet Airways and Kingfisher. Recently low cost carrier Indigo connects Raipur from Hyderabad and Bangaluru.
Raipur is connected to S.E Railway on Nagpur,Mumbai and Kolkatta route.
National Highway 6 passes through the city and NH 43 connect it to Vijaya Nagaram.
Famous town around Raipur are Bhilai(25Km),Durg(41Km),Jagdalpur(297Km),Rajnandgaon(70Km),Bilaspur(115Km), Jabalpur(369km) and Bhopal(712Km).These places can be reached easily from Raipur by Train or Road.
One can visit the places like Champajhar, Sirpur, Radha krishan Temple, Chandi Temple, Ram Temple, Swastik Vihar Monastry, Anand prem kutir and Museum.
Raipur also offers an attractive alternat route by bus to Kanaha national park. Visitors can also visit Hirakud dam which is situated on Sambalpur road.
City is fast emerging as an important hub of education in the area. There are 7 universities. These universities manage as many as16 engineering and 8 Medical colleges. Many of them are acclaimed at national level. The city has more than 302 higher secondary and high schools.
NAYA RAIPUR closer to Raipur Airport has already been developed. Inaugural function of Naya Raipur is expected to be scheduled by the very 1st week of November 2011. City Mall 36, Magneto, RK Mall and Chattisgarh Shopping centres are places of big attraction and shopping now a days.
One can find many good hotels, pubs clubs within the vicinity of 10 Km from Airport on VIP road eg Golden Tulip, Babylon and Florence. They are safe to stay with.

The Missing Mail

After many months rather a gap of few years my door bell rang up and to my surprise a postman was at my door step. It was a surprise to my younger son too when he shouted that papa see this man; looks like a postman but not in uniform as it is shown in my book.
Decades ago when I was away to my home town while pursuing my higher study; the only way to connect my parent was a postcard and a postman. My mother kept weeping for many days until she received my first letter.
Those were the days when I used to write postcard for my parent and a postman hand it over to my family. Slowly I started writing letter every day with an idea that my family must feel my presence through letter. This was true as every one in my family did talk about me and my letter.
The postcard/letters which used to be hand written carries all sorts of emotions unlike e-mail, mother used to keep it with her until she received my next letter other day.
Everyday he used to deliver my postcard at my home. He used to care and listening villager’s story of their near and dear that was far away from village, writing letters for them. My mother too was venting her loneliness by sharing with him about me, my study and my college. He carries my feeling to my family and in those days in our villages, the postmen were highly respected as they carry all types of news for relatives of one’s family. Everyone there in my village keeps waiting for the postman.
Postman was the matter of discussion for every one in the village when he was absent/or had no visit to our village. People feel restless and keep enquiring each other about the postman whether he came today?
Modernisation in India too was at higher pace by the end of 20th century, an arrival of mobile phone and accessibility of STD and ISD through land line became the reality for common people. We preferred making call to our distant relatives than writing letters to them. An invisible bond which was there between our family and relatives through letters and a postman started becoming weak.
Writing letter was an art, we used to put all our emotions in few lines in the letter, many a times the person at the other end cry out of emotion while reading the letters and this was the very reason whereby we were so closely attached with each other.
The workload of postman has reduced to minimum; our kids have hardly seen a postman. They are acquainted with courier people. Mobile phone and e-mail are the fastest mode of communication. Like many other species getting extinction on the earth, a postman is on the verge of extinction.
A postman clad in uniform with a Gandhian cap on his head with bicycle and bag full of letters are a rare appearance even in village.
My 92 years old mother in village now sits around a landline to pick up my call. Often people around and relatives avoid having conversation with old person like my mother. She alone in a corner of her living room, waiting for telephone bell to rang up, sometimes shouting on kids; who play around my home to keep silence so that she should not miss the sound of telephone bell; I decided to call her every night.
Earlier my letter was her lifeline now it is my call on the landline.
No postman or his call to my doorstep is there to break silence and no one is there to have a conversation with her. With the each passing days in life, each one of us are so alone within in the huge crowd around.

The Spirit of Maintenance Activity

Never changing attitudes of ours are detrimental to the day to day maintenance activities of aircraft. The essence of line maintenance lies in continuous maintenance process and faith in each others completed job rather criticising to undermine one’s capabilities to perform job and malign him subsequently.
Most of the incidents/accidents do occur during the shift change; is known to all of us. This is the most sensitive period where job of relieving of outgoing Engineers/technicians are of critical in nature and to be handled with care. Here it requires an experience and knowledge of our bosses to whom he is asking to relieve. He should also issue a clear instruction to the engineer who is taking charge of an aircraft while going to relieve a person that what he should do and what not.
Lack of clear instructions creates conflict when the relieved engineer failed to deliver his job in shift transition. He must be instructed either to complete the job and then move away or he must brief that what are the items left for the inspection and the same must be accepted by the engineer taking charge of the aircraft without any argument as he has resume the duty.
Working at T-3 brought many changes by default and reporting in time to our shift is one of them unlike Palam. The problem of getting relievers at remote bay at Palam are the story of past, getting the reliever in time is not an issue now but we still reluctant to change our mindset and hesitate to own the responsibility.
For a good maintenance practice in our industry we need to grow up, take a good care of job done by younger or elder, discuss the mistakes that committed will not be repeated in future rather the act of criticising even if the intention is not bad and yes; that is the spirit of maintenance.

After TITANIC

.......AI TANIC

On its 1st journey to the fateful day of April 13, 1912, 2235 passengers never thought by then while a band was playing their famous tune to welcome onboard on the deck of 1st class, no one imagined that they are never going to reach New York instead they were heading for a greatest maritime tragedy in ice -strewn North Atlantic sea .A sexy, starry moonless night was the last night in their life and soon met with their fate at 2240hrs of 13th day of April. Titanic collide with an iceberg in its starboard side which results in breaking all the six water tight compartments of the ship. Once thought of that it will never sink even after breaking of 4 of its water tight compartments but accident broke all the six ,titanic sank in deep sea after 2 hrs and 40 minutes of its collision at the rate of 10 miles per hour .Thereafter what had happened to all on board is known to the world.

713 persons on board (females and children were rescued by safety boat) survived but rest were not that lucky.

On August 1953 when Air India (erstwhile IA) was afloat in air on its 1st flight, employees then never had anticipated that it will likely to meet the fate of Titanic.

99 Years after that fateful day of Titanic another Titanic by the name of AItanic is in waiting. Air India (Erstwhile Indian airlines) collides exactly 4 years back with an iceberg (Merger) like Titanic and all its six compartments (Personal &HR, Finance, Operation Commercial, Marketing and Engineering) collapsed.

Commander of the Titanic (Captain E.J. Smith) on its maiden voyage in welcome address on board said as a pre-voyage boast that “Not even god himself could sink her”. His statement was proved wrong like the saying of “man proposes god disposes.”

Commander of ours is trying his level best by taking many measures and introducing one after another turn around projects to steer away from the iceberg on its way so that we must not meet the fate in the like of Titanic.
We also need to support him morally in steering away from this iceberg by being enthusiastic, supportive and doing our own job with little bit extra effort and care honestly .Our jobs at individual level when performed will avert the much talked tsunami.
We are not here to meet our fate Titanic way. We are determined and do whatever required averting this tragedy, much talked Tsunami. We are honest and committed to work as a family which sacrificed for couple of months to save and support the commander in steering it in safer zone. Though, everyone from Aam aadmi to Khas aadmi is against us, Media not supportive of our survival but we know our goal and know how to convert all these odds into even and emerged as a winner.

We believe in KARMA and God, a philosophy of The Geeta, We are not going to boast like captain smith of Titanic but work hard to save our AITANIC.

Engineer's Rest Room

………Autobiography of Engineer’s Rest Room

Commonly called as AME Rest Room
Gender-Female
Age-Visual-as young as any Bollywood diva Actual- 58 Years (01/08/1953)
Over the period of last six decades I have seen Engineers who maintained DC-3 to Avro HS-748 and then starting of jet age in 1970 with B737-200 and finally a new breed of fly by wire aircrafts in 1990 (Airbus). Three different generations of aircrafts were inducted over these years. I have seen three generation of engineers during all these years.
The old saying of “Diversity is the spice of life” was true to me. I was lucky and dated many engineers all these years. I had been into the relationship with few of them but they were energetic, talented and more caring. It is better not to name them as the young one feel it bad. I dislike those engineers who coming into my lap keep clasping and squeezing me for hours and hours unlike engineers of other trade.
I witnessed many AME trainees elevated to a level of executive who at times had taken rest in my lap, slept after doing maintenance work and then attending departures early in the morning.
I also witnessed hardworking helper to be uplifted as engineer & few of them becoming top bosses of this cadre. In spite of long span of mine in existent, never seen any change in working of Engineering. Sincerity level of Engineers was more those days than present generation Engineers; is the fact to be confessed at this juncture.
Unlike today (They are of –ve mindset) I have seen Engineers busy discussing the problems pertaining to their aircrafts undergoing maintenance work in past. I also grew up during this period as their technical PA. And why should I not? After all my boyfriends are engineers.
I was less equipped with the electronic gadgets then, not like today’s Air conditioners, but had only electric fan & Cooler. I was content and happy.
I always welcome those engineers who came tired after departure in sun, rain and cold; I spread my arms in love and lust. I never differentiated them as long as they did there job and came to me. I offered them all sorts of comfort. I am happy having a living relationship with them as they spent at least for 8hrs everyday with me. Their wives may be envy of me but I enjoy their proximity.
During this period, I had to leave my abode thrice from Ch-4 to Ch-3(Behind SI office at Palam)) and now T-3 world's one of largest airport.
When I was brought to T-3, I applied lot of anti-aging cream, facelifting, manicure & pedicure to present myself looking further young but of no use. Young looking engineers look tired. They just come to me, letdown and fall asleep. I hate such attitudes. I am worried about there future. Their energy levels are very low. I am not satisfied by there act. This attitude shows something gone wrong somewhere. This is a matter of concern. They never care for my upkeep & cleanliness. After all I also need some space.
I was happy to know that my boyfriends are being handed over SUDEXO coupons at T-3.I started day dreaming of going into Barista, Mcdonalds etc for snacks and outings to upstairs café into world class terminal building. These guys(Engineers) will never change, coupons are being used and exchanged for purchasing their households and I was not relieved of serving tea and snacks. On the contrary, they brought all my old belongings and forcefully making tea & coffee. Though there is no provision for kitchen, Tea & snacks are still being prepared & served. I am sick of being treated as housewife.
I wanted to look like modern days companion of an executive; like a tomboy but my BFs(Engineers) are still happy being treated as workers. In the last six decades they fail to elevate their career from worker to a level of executive. I am really tired of taking care of these old fashioned friends. At times I feel they don’t deserve to be smart and modern (given all these modern facilities) PA as they still live and happy in dirt and dust. They enjoy staying amid garbage. I was thinking of my modern look but they made me (rest room) even worse than what I used to be at Palam.
I am sorry ,BF is to be read as Boy friend. Please do care me. I also deserve to be clean and modern as my relatives (Rest rooms of other airlines) who have their boyfriends of Jet Airways, Kingfisher, Indigo and Spice. I feel ashamed when they (Engineers from other airlines) visit me. They curse you for not taking a good care of me. I feel hurt.
I do argue with them for your talent, wisdom, honesty and so on but fail to answer when they say I agree but your boy friends (BF) are conservative, they resist change ,a diversity which is the spice of life, A basic mantra for the universe.
I request my friends please change your attitude, do not wait for others to do it. Do what you say. That is what needed to capture a big Pie. Attaining number 1 position is not a big deal then.
Forever yours.

Engineer's(AME) House

...........A Healing centre to a Jail

Impact of transfer establishment order is not less than a bomb explosion in ones life. The very 1st question in my mind comes after my transfer was how & where to stay? The obvious answer was offcourse our AME House. A home away home, and Why should it not be? I had been to that house on many NR stations earlier too on our 15 days postings. 

On arrival at outstation into our AME house one cannot deny being nostalgic of that house. 

Many of these residences are being maintained before we joined our Airlines.

The concept of AME House at outstation introduced years back was the one idea which really deserves an appreciation.

This is the place where one can see a wonderful coordination amongst engineers. May be it is because whenever you are there your rest other colleges are virtually available in our register placed there & used to maintain our balance sheets.

In spite of many differences surfaced amongst us on various issues in past, AME house never appeared to be the matter of discussion or any controversies. 

Kitchen of our AME house exhibits a true regional color of India and reminds our olden college hostel days. Engineers from different part of our country, having theirs different taste make use of this kitchen. Its various types, size & shape of utensils suited as per their regional choice is a common scene in the kitchen. One can find a leftover (after departure of relieving engineer) mustered oil to sunflower, Peanuts to coconut oil and spices ranging from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, many variety of rice and pulses lying in many small jars..

Maintenance of our AME's houses is done individually by one who is on posting. This was of great help for those who transferred for one year. It was a place where we rest with right during our exile. It is the place which gives us shelters during our bad days of our professional life. 

The absences of AME House on few stations was real hardship to those who was posted on such locations. Though no company policy for our accommodation in line with the Air India Engineers whereby they get fully furnished lease accommodation, it is still a very costly affair to stay in our AME House.

Engineers on posting have to maintain his home alongside AME House at reduced HRA(15%) with a monthly net loss of Rs 12000/=pm.

Outstation posting allowances would have been a great help to us morally and financially in near future as it is there for Air India Engineers. Jet Airways, and Kingfisher make a handsome payments of Rs.25000/= to Rs.32000/=pm (as per grade) as outstation posting allowances. 

Earlier it was fun staying for 15 days there (after getting bore on 2/2/2 pattern) but now it is burden.

It was like recharging our battery getting exhausted for months on working in this pattern and then doing departures of one or two flights and then a complete rest.

AME House, once a HEALING CENTRE seems a JAIL now for 90 days.

A Farewell

It was 11^th of June 2010 when I landed last year with a fear and confusion to spend my 1 year posting. It is very difficult for engineers to handle aircraft out of main base all alone. It was true to me too.

FLIGHT DUTY

..........After my Exile

After a considerable gap of 18months and on my arrival after exile, I was asked to do a flight duty to Muscut(Ironically MCT became my pre and post exile flight duty). 

This was a surprise to me that still we have few sectors where we fly out of Delhi.

This reminded me of our olden days of IA where everyday many of us either fly to Singapore, Bangkok, Kualalumpur, Dubai Doha, Behrain and Sarjah or doing 15 days postings. 

Lot of activities were there at the backdrop of this, Many man hours were wasted for maintaining the records of engineers who and when one has done flights and postings, heated arguments were seen in our rest room. The first thing everyone love to do is that one used to give a glance on the board in front of our SI where name of AMEs on flights were listed. It used to be the 1st topics of discussion of the day. Those who were not on flight keep criticising others whose name appeared on the white board. Next day the same person was seen going on international postings. Ames on flight when joined other day for his usual shift kept avoiding his colleagues as he was guilty of doing flight duty. All such activities come to stand still.  

Earlier we were busy talking about carrefour of Dubai, nightlife of Bangkok ,its famous PATAYA beaches and various types of massages offered there at cheaper price and so on. No more marketing in these Malls, no Rambutan or guava (fruits of Bangkok), no hot spices, dry fruits, & 24 carat gold from Dubai and Sarjah famous souk etc. 

Life has changed a lot since then, this reminds of olden days when we purchase chocolates from our local shops. There was a time when our kitchen shelves were full of foreign made chocolates. Now forced to buy Munch, Amul and other Indian made cadbury chocolates from our local market equating its taste to of those once purchased in foreign Malls.  

Everything has changed since last 365 days. Ergonomics of today’s work place are of international standard compare to those where we struggled for years to rectify the leakage of toilet water adjacent to our SI room which keep on spilling to AME rest room giving a stinking smell. Later on we became used to of this smell which is missing at T-3 though we are trying to leave no stones unturned to make T-3 like our Palam hangar. No potable water nearby, waiting in sun to be dropped at distant bay which often causes delay of our flights due our late arrival to the remote bays in the absences of conveyance.

Our rest room to central theme of our discussion’s topics too changed. Topics of share market's loose and gains, registration of new plots, flats etc has taken a back seat where we just keeping nerves on changing dates of payments of our salaries. People silently being seen logged in theirs mailings site for any news, no more discussions, and no heated arguments were seen at rest room but we still need to be changed.

Flight duties were real threat of our integrity. We never think beyond this in past. This is the time to or introspection. Better concentrate and focus on faults what we did in past. This is the time to reset & re rack our computers to clear all the warnings if it has stick to MCDU, Scan all our system pages, review PFR for our failure messages, discuss,& refer our TSM transparently .In the process of rectification if it require to replace Master computer,  replace it until the system test is satisfactory.Own some extra responsibility and do something expeditiously to regain our lost glory before it is too late.

Let us start afresh with zero-zero hours to bounce back for sure.