The photo to the left shows a 1958 Cessna 172 that flew continuously for almost 67 days setting a world endurance record that has never been surpassed. Fuel, food, other essentials and even a replacement generator was passed to the airplane from a delivery vehicle while coordinating ground and air speeds. Two pilots traded places to set the record but decided to call it quits when they realized that the airplane was well past overhaul requirements and was losing power. After it was all over, John Cook was quoted as saying, "Next time I feel in the mood to set endurance records, I'm going to lock myself in our garbage can with a vacuum machine running. That is until my psychiatrist opens up in the morning!" You can see the actual record setting airplane hanging on the museum ceiling in Las Vegas.
It was still snowing when I took this photo from the maintenance hangar, past the flight school and toward the tower. Needless to say the airport at New Bern was closed down later that day and the next, February 11-12, 2014. Kind of unusual for our part of the country...but then the weather has not been kind to many of our states this year. Weather like this kind of defies the "global warming" theory, doesn't it? Even though this has been a wetter than usual summer, there's still been a lot of flying. Our maintenance hangar has been busy with annuals, routine maintenance and transit folks who stopped by for minor repairs before continuing to their final destinations. September means that some airplane owners will need to schedule maintenance and/or an annual inspections. Be sure to call Ricky if you're due. In the meantime, play safe and we'll see you soon.
Yesterday I was talking to a customer about why he comes to New Bern (TAM) from another airport for his aircraft maintenance needs. "The main reason", he said, "is because Ricky doesn't overcharge on labor and parts like other places I've been." Our customer went on to say that he has come to trust the mechanics here to do quality work, and "they are thorough in everything they do." Well, that sounds like a commercial doesn't it?
One observation from this writer: I realize that our work and/or subsequent invoicing may not satisfy every single customer and most every one will make a mistake or two in their lifetime; with that in mind our standing policy is to listen to customers complaints and then reach a mutual satisfaction. There's nothing worse than a customer who is not satisfied with the completed work, fails to bring it to our attention and then storms off never to be seen again. Ricky's been on vacation this week, but will return tomorrow. He's been with his family visiting New York City and Long Island. Ask him about it when he returns.
So, I was taking some snaps of our flight school fleet for Thomas and when I showed them to him he said, "That's a bad picture". I said "how come?" He replied, "because you caught them all idle, we can't make money with them just sitting there." I might add, too, that our customers can't have fun either. Today is a nice day for flying. We rent airplanes or we can fly you around. We can even teach you to fly. How 'bout it...ready to see the wild blue yonder up close? |
AuthorCall me the "Admin Guy" at Tradewind maintenance. Got comments? Give this blog a chance to air (no pun intended) your thoughts. Archives
April 2014
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