On Saturday monring I met up with a few guys who operate a vintage aircraft over in the West of Ireland. A very pleasant morning I spent with them too. Their aeroplanes were in various states of dismantlement. One had and engine off its mounts for an overhaul while the other ship’s control services were receiving some TLC. I’d met with them a few times before so there was a good friendly welcome, a mug of tea and a discussion about Minister Eamon O’Cuiv’s announcement last week for funding for an airport in Clifden. Conversation didn’t drag on though and it was quickly back to work. Asked if I was any good with a spanner all I could say was “what do you need done?”
So there I was, quarter-inch drive in one hand, the other wedged through a small access panel behind the firewall with a 7mm spanner trying to hold a nut. It was a small task- removing some oil lines, but it was my first bit of aircaft maintenance and it was fun. Vintage aeroplanes in a shed, a group of like minded enthusiasts, getting stuck in and learning, under experineced eys, how to work on aeroplanes – what more could I ask for on a Saturday morning? There were even breakfast rolls! It was enough to leave me grinning for the rest of the weekend.
I like to think that it was a two way thing too. Sure, getting the oil lines off wasn’t at all a difficult task, but it was fiddly and a little time consuming. So while I got some experience, the owner got an extra fifteen minutes to get started on making up the new lines. It wasn’t all old-fashioned engineering – compared to the others in the hangar, I appeared to be technology geek, so when it came time to figure out the borrowed GPS, I was able sort it out quickly. It seems to me that engineering hands are not all that fond of multitudinous buttons.
Maybe I’m just lucky, but it seems to me that the aviation community is just full of people more than happy to share there knowledge and experience. I find that so reassuring. I’m never going to be a commercial pilot but I know there is a world of aviation away flying big metal and I want to learn as much of it as I can. That there are people like the guys on the vintage scene, so generous with their experience, means that there is some hope that I will learn enough to call myself an aviator.
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