What I Do

[Seahawk]

One of the best jobs in the world, Jeff, figuring out extraordinarily interesting engineering problems with a beginning, middle and end.

Outstanding.

[john70t]

Originally Posted by Jeff Higgins

As a result, most of the tools used in manufacturing, even if we could bring them with us, are pretty useless for what we do. We use far more task-specific tools, designed for a specific repair or modification.
\

Got it. Designed for specific use.
I totally like it.
Custom made tooling is awesome.
An adventure into the unknown world...

[GWN7]

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing.

[masraum]

Is it at Ellington Field or can you say? I'm guessing, assuming the ultimate destination is in Houston, that it's going to Johnson Space Center.

[Skytrooper]

Are you hiring Jeff ?

[nostatic]

wait, I thought you were the guy that arranges the blue barrels into letters. Now *that* is cool...

[Jeff Higgins]

Originally Posted by gordner

Aircraft tear downs are a lot more fun and a lot easier when you don't need to reassemble it later...I have knocked a few on the head and it is nice to be able to just cut off the parts you don't need to get to the ones you want!

But we do need to reassemble it once it's at the museum. It just doesn't have to fly again, so that makes it a bit easier. Oh, and yes, it's going to the NASA museum at the old space center. It's only about eight miles away right now. We get three days to drag it those eight miles.

Originally Posted by nostatic

wait, I thought you were the guy that arranges the blue barrels into letters. Now *that* is cool...

Oh, but of course I am. The tooling engineer, if we have done everything right while we are at home, before we get there, should be one of the least busy guys on the crew. So we get to do all the fun stuff on site. It's actually a bit of an AOG tradition to spell out "AOG" with something in front of the airplane at some time during the repair and take a picture of it. I usually lay the letters out in masking tape and have the crew stand on them for the photo.

Don't worry, though - it's not all fun and games. By the nature of what we do, we do it quite often in some real third world "garden spots" under some pretty austere conditions, sometimes for a couple, three months at a whack. I've spent time in some really scary hospitals after having been bitten by or otherwise infected by some infernal local parasites, or because of something I've eaten, or for no discernible reason whatsoever.

I do get to some interesting places, though, so that makes up for a lot of that. And the problems are always different, with local conditions adding to the challenge. And yes, I do have one of the best jobs in the world for an engineer/tinkerer/mechanic/geek.

Here's my next stop. I leave next Friday, and I'll be spending a couple of weeks there. The on-site customer services rep sent me this, supposedly looking out the back door of the hangar we will be working in. The two white buildings right of center are the hotels, I think. Bonus points for anyone who can guess where this is:

[LakeCleElum]

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing Jeff.....

[masraum]

Jeff, that is so cool. I practically drive past every day on the way to work. You're about 5 miles from my home. It's very cool that you're bringing one of the planes "home". Unfortunately, they won't be putting a real shuttle on top, but will be using one of the mock-ups. We got this guy Johnson Space Center preparing which is what I assume will be mounted on your plane.

Sept of 2012, I got to watch the shuttle on a 747 take off from where you are on it's way to Cali and took these pics as it flew over my head.

[masraum]

And one final shot from the take off.



And back in May of 2010, I got to see this in FL







I'd buy you a beer, but I work tomorrow. If you're around Sun or Mon, I might be able to meet up someplace nearby. If nothing else, there's a BJ's Brewery on Bay Area Blvd between 45 and 3, so just a couple of miles from the airport. There's also a Buffalo Wild Wings in the same place and a Lupe Tortilla if you like Fajitas or Tex-Mex.

[azasadny]

Originally Posted by LakeCleElum

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing Jeff.....

Yes, indeed!

[71scgc]

I got to tour one of those 747 transporters when I was a kid. It was carrying the first shuttle to Fla. from Calif. My friend's father was an aviation editor at one of the newspapers in Tulsa. Since the cargo bay doors had been made in Tulsa, they stopped in on their way east. The 747 was FULL of test equipment.

Carter

[fred cook]

that you bought Wayne's book "101 Projects for your 747". If not, I expect we will be getting posts for "Where does this wire go".

[Neilk]

Thanks for sharing.

Can you share some of your craziest field stories without giving away any sensitive client info?

Neil

[A930Rocket]

Very interesting. Thanks!

[masraum]

Did you ever have any other pics to post of the disassembly? I've heard that the plane should be moving soon.

[2porscheguy]

Jeff, that is totally cool! Thanks for sharing "what you do" with us!

It just goes to show time and time again, .....we have some pretty cool pelicans here!

Cheers!

Alex

[red-beard]

Jeff, if you are in town, we can arrange a meet up.

[masraum]

I think he was out the last week of Mar and is long gone now.

[Jeff Higgins]

Long, long gone - like gone to Mongolia gone. Coming home next week, hopefully for a good long time.