TBA
United Airlines
Scored a slot at one of United Airline's behind the scenes tours for MileagePlus members, their Calibrate Apprenticeship Program Tour at Houston Intercontinental Airport. The discussed quite a bit about the Calibrate apprenticeship program itself, particularly the looming shortage of certified aircraft mechanics, and steps being taken to train and retain them. One audience member was actually looking at a possible career change so this tour was of particular value to him.
Then it was off to the actual hangars to see the work being done. United has an extensive 737 fleet, and with the 737 Next Generation (737NG)'s getting up there in years, they had a 737-900ER getting a heavy check (not sure it was a C-check or a D-check, I suspect the latter) that we were able to get a tour of. Almost wished the tour was a few days earlier, as they had apparently just putting all of the insulation back in the interior, although almost all of the other guts were still exposed-- from HVAC ducting to in-cabin in-seat power controllers to wifi access points. Even the cockpit had been stripped largely bare. Darren Smith, tech ops supervisor, did a great job explaining everything, although I really wish we could have gotten a chance to speak to some of the actual subject matter experts on specific systems and what they were doing.
Said 737-900ER (N37470, 14 years old) had its cargo bay and nose cone both open, so we were able to peek into the aft cargo bay (hello sewage tanks) as well as under the nose cone (weather radar), plus the landing gear bay. Tons of stuff exposed in the landing gear bay, sadly no detailed explaination of all the lines and tanks was done in the MLG (main landing gear) bay.
Next stop was N78001, United's first 777-200ER, parked on the tarmac. While the 777-200ER is not nearly as modern or interesting as the newer 777-300ER (let alone 777X), the difference in scale vs. a 737 is still massive, especially standing next to the main landing gear and taking in the size difference. (nevermind standing next to the engines!) The stop here was a bit short, but a few more tidbits about exterior conditions, landing gear, all the various access ports, and whatnot were dropped by Darren and his team.
Then it was in to the engine shop. Got the impression that the actual engine core overhauls are done at other airports (SFO in particular) but then the engines themselves are fully reassembled here in Houston. They had what looked like a GE90-115B from a 777-300ER on prominent display, missing the front fan, but that just meant you could see the size of the blade attachments and get a good look at the normally somewhat obscured low pressure compressor inlet. Super cool. Again would have loved to speak to an engine expert here-- there is a tour of the SFO maintenance facility next month that does exactly that that I am tempted by... Some smaller engines, including what looked like a few CFM56-series engines for 737NG's, were in evidence. Others were less identifiable (one looked like a CFM LEAP-1B for a 737 MAX); next time I will have to remember to take more pictures of the signs/labels (oops!).
Strolling out of the engine shop and across the massive maintenance hanger it was attached to (said hangar could take up to three 777's at once, looked like it could fit at least six or seven 737's). Once across the hangar (and the piddling three 737NG's it was currently holding), it was in to the Calibrate program offices, where they explained more of the training program itself. Some areas were restricted so no photos were allowed, but the process is quite through, and from the number of employees with 30+ years, it seems like employees really do love working for United and tend to stay forever. I forget the name of one of Darren's supervisors who we talked to, but he was extremely passionate about aviation maintenance, not only in terms of responsibility and doing the job right, but in terms of his love for the job.
Final stop was the refinish and paint shop. Interior panel refinishing happens on-site as well, but from what we saw it looked like mostly exterior panels and a few fan blades (!) here. Did not talk to any individual employees (again, more subject matter experts as part of the tour would have been nice), but looking closely at so much of the refinishing work was cool. Honeycomb materials (mostly aluminum honeycomb) everywhere for straight and light weight (as carbon fiber has not yet scaled up to narrowbody production rates, even in the newer 737 MAX-series/A320neo-series) and some extensive refinishing work on what looked like fuselage skins or nacelle skins... very cool. As someone who has some decent familiarity on the mechanical side of things, a bit less on the body/panel side of things, seeing the difference areas of focus in aeronautics vs. automotive applications was something I could (imperfectly!) appreciate.
Scott Ferris, director of the Calibrate program at United, wrapped up the day. Had a great talk with him and also Jeff Garrett, from United's MileagePlus team, plus a few more of their colleagues over a late lunch. In the end it was a fascinating tour that I would love to go on again, even more in-depth if possible. And of course, a flight home after, which was made all the more pleasant by a perfectly partially cloudy sky of fluffy clouds marking the afternoon departure from IAH.