EP5 - Airplane Facts with Max Comer!

31:01And it's like the reality is, and I know this because most of my friends, you know, hold an A &P, right? Whether they're technical managers or, you know, even pilots with an A &P or maintenance technicians. I mean, we're around these guys all the time. So a lot of the guy on-site reps, like most of my friends outside of work are on-site reps or somehow involved in like the on the technical side of things. And I listen to just hours and hours of complaining about pilots, you know, and I don't know too many pilots that complain about maintenance guys, but I absolutely understand why mechanics complain about pilots.

31:42and look, we're not going to name names here. You know, we're going to keep it friendly. But I would say that I guarantee you there are pilots listening that have no idea how frustrated mechanics may be with them individually. Let's let them be introspective after hearing this a little bit. There are like, and here's the thing. First of all, I think that for the most part, you know, being a pilot means having an ego a lot of times. It is what it is. It's the type of job that attracts control freaks, you know, self-important ethomaniacs. Guys who want to be right all the time. Guys who, yes, insist they're right all the time, who want to be visibly in charge.

32:25There's a lot of that in the airline pilot world. It's a pet peeve of ours. Trust me, there's nobody on earth that bitches about pilots as much as Bob. You take the most bitchy mechanic. So we're managing them all the time. Yeah. If anyone flies more than two flights for Nomadic, you know they're cool because they're generally fired after one. I mean, that's just the rule, not the exception. I would say that if you know a pilot by name as a mechanic, that's not a good thing, right? It's either not a good thing or it's a really good thing. It could go either way. Right. You know, he's really cool.

33:02He's really cool. You know, he's in a band. He's a good drummer. or, you know, I pick him up for shows. Yeah. One of my best friends is a pilot. He's awesome. Okay. But generally speaking. I feel like there's a, it's like an ancient blood feud. You know what I mean? It's two houses that just will never, we're just, you know, even if I, even if I love them, I'm like, but you're still, you're still my enemy. I'm hearing a Lord of the Rings quote coming here. yeah you know it's like oh it's like the dwarves and the elves you know what i mean the dwarves are all like the dwarves and the elves their their hatred goes back all the way to the silmarillion uh when the when the dwarves uh took the the now glomir from uh from the uh king thingal right you know i was thinking the same thing and it goes back to that it's like it's like the right brothers and charles taylor you know yeah same thing i'm just kidding i think they were Absolutely.

34:03And here's the thing, though. I mean, the reality, I have so much respect for A &Ps. I think it's a much more difficult job in a lot of ways. Well, I mean, in every way, really, with the exception of the cost and time it takes to get to this cost specifically to get to the point where you're a professional in that. Other than that, you have to know a lot more as a mechanic and you have to know a lot more specific stuff. Having talked to a lot of these guys and gals, their level of systems knowledge is deep. And even stuff, you have to realize they teach us, you know, we get a systems education in ground school, right?

34:45For each type. But it's like very, very surface level. Very, very surface level. Yeah, that's fair. I would say, though, that I think, I just think because of the differences between what we do between pilots and mechanics, it's just a different type of knowledge. You know, I think we as mechanics know the aircraft in a really different way than pilots do. And I felt like I've had people ask me all the time whenever I post a picture from inside the cockpit or something like, could you land a plane if you need it? I was like, probably not, dude. I don't know. I don't know how they do it. Maybe, maybe.

35:22Get me in a simulator. I'll find out. If you were an avionics guy, you could figure it out because you could auto land. Yeah, but I'm not, you know. There you go. I'm just a greasy guy. Well, that's the reality of modern airplanes is that, you know, everything runs through the MCDU, man. Like, everything runs through the box. So if you know how to operate the box, you know, if you know how to play flight simulator, you could probably land an airplane. And I would go as far as saying, and I can tell you firsthand, like my son, who's a pilot now, he's just about to get his commercial, has always played a lot of flight simulator.

35:59We got a nice setup down in the basement. And I brought him on an A320 ferry. He already knew how to operate the MCDU completely. That's awesome. Wow. Yeah. That's awesome. yeah the other thing i would say about pilots and and flight crew and general flight attendants and all that is just i can't imagine having a job where i was on the road like you guys are all the time i i i that's a hard part just mentally that i think that would be kind of difficult for me you know i like coming home every day and so i can't imagine being out on the road like that so especially the way we do it yeah right yeah right so so that that that leads me into a question It's like, you know, was it was a lifestyle that brought you from being a line maintenance guy to the heavy maintenance world?

36:49Well, actually, when I left when I left Horizon, I mostly left because of just cost of living and how much they were not paying me. The wages have gone up quite a bit since then. And so I actually went and worked on trains for a little bit. I had a little bit of a, yeah. The light rail in Denver. I worked on that, those for a little bit. And then I didn't love it. I missed being around the aircraft. I'm much more passionate about aviation than I am trains, even though I do love trains, for the record. Yeah, me too. I've always loved trains. Yeah, and so I came out here to Oklahoma just because the cost of living was lower and they were paying similar to what I was making working on the trains, but I knew the top end was going to be a lot higher.

37:38And so that's what brought me into heavy maintenance. And then I kind of really enjoy doing the heavy maintenance side of things more than the line maintenance side, both because of lifestyle and just what we do. I do miss the line for a lot of reasons, but I don't miss working overnight. at least I get to work during the day now which is nice yeah um and I like seeing the planes get completely taken apart I like getting really into there and changing the outland changing landing gear is what I do that a lot and it's one of my favorite jobs of the my career I love changing landing gear I don't know I just think it's fun well that's what you know I'm I've always been curious you know because we're in these you know heavy maintenance shops probably 90 percent of the time that we're picking up an airplane, we're into a heavy maintenance MRO.

38:30And I see people working in different areas of the airplane. I'm always wondering, do mechanics specialize in certain areas of that heavy check? Yeah, kind of. The way we do it where I'm at, and I can't speak for how other MROs might do it, is people, I think, tend to kind of figure out when you first get into the heavy maintenance side, you kind of figure out what you might like and what you kind of are interested in. You know, there's people that really like doing structural repairs. There's people that really love working on the engines. They know everything about the engines. There's people that like working wings, you know, because there's so many systems that all need all this work done on them, especially in a heavy check.

39:12And so there's people that we are considered generals. So we can, they can put us anywhere they need us and we can figure it out. But typically, you know, there's guys that you're like, oh, I need I got a question about how to rig these spoilers. And it's like, oh, he knows, you know, Mike knows how to do that. There's there's some there's some jobs, I would say, that are probably more of an art form than than necessarily technical expertise. And then there are certain things that are more technical than an art form, I guess. Yeah, you got to know things about things. I mean, I'd almost compare it to and I'm not in the medical field, but I do watch the pit.

39:50and you know I would say like you know you're a line tech or whatever you're like an ER doc right you're at you're dealing you're triaging aircraft you're going through like a wide base of general knowledge and then where you are you're a surgeon and you specialize in in different areas would that be would that be accurate yeah I could see I could see that yeah yeah definitely and and like you know there I would say that suturing somebody is probably like kind of an art form it's something that you got to have a steady hand and an eye. Like sheet metal seems to me like it would be that way. Sheet metal is.

40:23Yeah, the sheet metal guys that are really good at it, they are, I think they're artists. You know, I watch them work and I'm just like, this is awesome. And I've done some doublers. I've done triblers. I've spliced seat tracks. I've done, you know, I've done mods. I know you've done triblers because I know the airline that you work for. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. You're good. but uh you know i've done them and i can i can do them it just takes me it takes me a little bit longer i make just making sure everything's perfect and all that but you know when you watch somebody fabricate some of these repairs you're just like this is awesome they're so good at it they make it seem so easy i'm definitely not the artist when it comes to that kind of stuff i like music i like you know maybe with producing videos but like when i have to work on my car if there's anything cosmetic i'm not touching it like i'm not i get so frustrated i like i can't i i just don't have the hand eye coordination to make something look pretty like i'm a i'm a i'm a you know studs and drywall carpenter i'm not uh you know paint finish guys no yeah yeah i'm kind of like you i i i thrive on give me a big part and i would love to replace it that's what i love doing That's why I like doing landing gear, because I'm like, I'm going to take that big gear out, and I'll put a new one in.

41:48It's going to be great. Yeah, it's funny, because we do a lot of movement of aircraft that have been cargo converted. And those cargo converted airplanes, they have to be, all the flight controls, everything have to be re-rigged. Oh, yeah. And there's always one guy at that shop who is like the master of all rigging. Yes, 100%. I, it's not me, but I know the guy. Yeah. I can get you in contact with him. It's funny. Like there's, there's definitely a learning curve on it too. So when the 737, uh, classic conversion was, was getting, uh, you know, was getting done for years and years, like the first, like maybe two or three years of it, we would get in and they had two different type of, uh, manual reversion, like elevator rods that they had.

42:40One's titanium. I think one was like aluminum alloy or something. And there were different tolerances for each one. And it's kind of a mystery. Like some airplanes had the titanium, some airplanes had the aluminum and there were different numbers for them. And they could never get it right for years and years. Like we would go out there and we do the manual reversion test. You turn off the hydraulics and instantly, you know, you're at like a 20 degree pitch up or like a 15 degree pitch down. And like the M &Ms are, you know, on the ceiling. You know? And then over time, it got better and better and better.

43:14And then it's been years since I've had a misrigged manual reverse. Yeah, the NGs are just like absolutely perfect every time. I mean, you don't even notice it. Yeah. I love the NG. It's a good airplane. It's a great airplane. It's a real workhorse. I love that thing. What do you think of the MAX, Max? I haven't worked on it enough to have a very strong opinion because like where I'm working is we do heavy checks and our maxes haven't been in service long enough to need them uh so they just started they're just now kind of getting to that point where we're going to start seeing them start coming through yeah um i did do the return to service back in 2020 when they when they got recertified um and they were fun they were fun they were fun to work on i think they look cool i like the engine yeah it's a great flying airplane is it yeah yeah and i like the the cockpit's nice too yeah i feel like it's i feel like it's a little bit more clean than the than the ng yeah from a maintenance perspective um between the 737 max and and the ng i mean i from a pilot's perspective there is very very little different and that's by design how is how is that particular aircraft um from from classic to ng to max from a systems perspective i mean are there Are there different courses that you have to take for initials and recurrency, or does it cover everything?

44:38We took a max differences class. So you just kind of learn about the things that are a little bit different than the max. And a lot of it was avionics related. And then the engines, obviously, totally different engines. You got the composite fan blades and all that stuff. So with that said, have you worked on any of the 787s? I did. Yeah. Yeah. I did. I did a few light checks on the 787. It's a really clean airplane to work on. It's all electric. It's just not. Yes. You're not dealing with as much like hardly any hydraulic fluid, anything like that. Right. It's really clean. You take off the panels.

45:19You're like, has this thing even even flown? The packs are really interesting on it. They're real, real beefy packs on that thing. the the cac's the uh yeah cabin air compressors so bob and i are rated on the 787 we both have very limited experience on it i mean i've flown a couple handfuls of times but i think bob's flown it a little more i don't know i have a couple hundred hours on it i think bob is the same and we did our type ratings in denver um at the united facility okay and we did them as differences courses off of the triple seven and off of our triple seven rain uh interesting so in the in the u.s anyway um the 787 and the triple seven are simply ccqs they're different they're like differences courses so we have to do a type ride on them but it's not as extensive so we did our 787 in three sims and a check ride four total times in the simulator versus an initial which is like eight to 10, right?

46:21Based off of the triple. But while we were going through it, I said to myself, I don't understand how this is. There is nothing similar. It's two different airplanes. I find that totally, that's wild to me because for us, it was totally different trainings. That was my ask because it's such a different airplane. Yeah, I had my triple seven GenFam and I had my 787 GenFam. They were completely separate. They're not really ratings on the AMP side, but qualifications. um and that yeah that's that's bizarre to me because i i agree they're totally different everything from this the skin being composite versus aluminum which is huge obviously yeah you know i mean i don't even know how you do structural work on a carbon airplane but you know layups uh yeah it's a different different engines too totally different totally different different engines you have you know so there's almost no bleed air system whatsoever and then i mean there's there's only bleed air for the engine the engine anti-ice the engine is so everything else is electric the brakes are electric the engines start like a turboprop starter generators yep it's why it's a cool airplane but that i it's that's interesting to me and what's interesting about the 787 which isn't that exciting for most people but the the um the panels are all held on with torx fasteners torx bits you know like little star bits yeah every every other airplane ever worked on is phillips head so that's that's nice they don't strip as easy oh yeah it's convenient from a mechanic standpoint but i wonder it'll be interesting to see if they if boeing continues in that direction like so the max is still phillips head it is everything's phillips but most of the time or they use what's called a quad wing uh which is basically like an offset phillips and they i hate those things also you guys have all your own tools is that is that still a standard yeah yeah we we supply our own like basic hand tools anything that's calibrated or specialties provided by the companies so we we aren't i don't even think we're allowed to have our own torque wrench because they have to get calibrated and you know be tracked stuff like right but but like basic hand tools is all supplied by ourselves yeah i guess that's that would be uh like if you apply um you know an engine mount to a spec different than what boeing wants yeah there's a lot of liability there and if it's your own torque wrench like when's the last time you had to calibrate it's like an ember you know like the torque wrench i have in my house like i've never calibrated it i don't know i just trust it but i'm also not working on airplanes with it so So I see mechanics at the heavy MRO places going to a window and checking out tools.

49:06Yeah. What are they doing there? Well, that's where you get like the specialty stuff, you know. So like if you needed to check the pitostatic system, that's where you're going to get the kit for that. Yeah, the test box and all that stuff. Or, you know, torque wrenches or consumables. you're going to get your grease or whatever you need your hydraulic fluid typically you check that out and they check it out to your employee number where i work so that you know they make sure you get it back which half the time i'm like why would anybody want to steal this like this is the most worthless tool unless you're like changing a main landing gear on a 737 then it's really handy but i can't imagine using this for anything else probably because of how much it costs.

49:51I know I was on a trip. I was on a 737 trip to a couple of weeks ago, two weeks ago, and they were doing a pedo static check, which I've witnessed a bunch of times. And you know, the box, it comes in like this, you know, it's like a little plastic box. It's not, it's not really that big. It looks like a Pelican. Yeah. Yeah. There's a bunch of hose and you know, you plug like a static and you plug the pedo tube and whatever. Anyway, I found out that those things range from about like$250 ,000 on the low end to like$800 ,000 on the high end. Yeah. Holy cow. I don't think that the airlines are paying these guys enough to own their own pedostatic test kit.

50:32Definitely not. Definitely not. Unless you want to live in it. Yeah. I mortgaged a pedostatic test kit. Feed your kids with the pedostatic test kit. Sorry, boys. We can't go on vacation this year. Dad bought a pedostatic system.

50:51Yeah. So, so in that same light, kind of there's, there's a process there, obviously. And, you know, is there also a process of like, like who do you report to? Like when you're doing these heavy maintenance checks, who are you reporting to and who's giving you the tasks and things to do? Well, hold on. I want to back it up one second before you get to that, because this is part of a larger thing that I wanted to cover because I know a lot of people, they hear C check. They hear D check. You know, they hear even me. I mean, even like I deal with this stuff all the time. And I know that there are different maintenance programs.

51:25There's MSG three maintenance program. There's different phase checks. I mean, there's a two and a three and B one. Can you talk about heavy checks a little bit, like dumb it down as much as you can, like not for the audience, like for us. Yeah. So there's different phases of, of different types of checks, right? So there's, there's several different types of A checks. And so one A check might have you checking, um, you know, uh, aileron flight control systems. And then another one might have you checking something else on the aircraft in the C check side of thing. And they're typically time controlled, right?

52:03So every, when, when an aircraft hits say 70 ,000 flight hours, you have to perform this level of sea check this is what you're gonna do you can't go past it you can't so we'll get the aircraft in on a a certain type of sea check um and it'll be scheduled to have like a landing gear change it'll be scheduled to have you know these uh in certain inspections done like there's a certain inspection on the 737 where it gets a certain to a certain amount of flight hours and you have to basically uh hvec check the entire crown skin down the entire fuselage and that has to be done at whatever 70 000 flight hours or whatever the number is i can't remember off the top of my head um and so lap joint inspection is it i don't think so i'm not sure if they have that anymore with oh with the ng's i don't know though yeah we where i work we We just did our first one like a month ago and it wasn't even on my dock.

53:09But so it just kind of it's a time based thing. So when an airframe hits this many hours or this many cycles, there's this big package basically that's like you have to do all of these things, inspect all of these things. You're checking for corrosion, you're checking for abnormal wear. And then while it's also there, you're getting rid of all of those M.E.L.S. or those any EF items that aren't necessarily time controlled, right? So like, you'll be like, okay, we're going to put a new aft flap on because this one's got, you know, some small dents on it. We're just going to, we're just going to send that to the shop.

53:41And by the time it leaves, hopefully it's as good as new. Those are considered non-routines. Is that? So yeah, there's non-routines and then there's, you know, scheduled tasks, right? So a scheduled task would be something like, um, uh, we're, we're going to replace the swivel fittings on the leading edge slats. Those are going to, those are routine we're going to do it on every aircraft um or like a scheduled thing is going to be doing a carbon brake mod where we replace the steel brakes with carbon brakes and you replace some hydraulic lines and add some flow limiters to them that would be like a fleet-wide upgrade or something that comes off of an ad or something like that and so what happens is at the beginning of one of these checks we open up all of these external panels we open up the aircraft for a couple days it takes a few days to get this whole thing opened up and then there's a whole team of inspectors that come out and they walk around with their flashlights and they have certain areas that they're inspecting and they'll write every little thing up you know corrosion at this nut plate corrosion on this hydraulic clamp and then we'll go to work to our we report to a crew chief this is all going to loop in together we report to a crew chief they sign out job assignments to each one of us they'll be like hey I need you to do this routine uh where you're changing the hydraulic fittings or hey I need you to go look at this hydraulic clamp that the inspector wrote up and then you'll go out there you verify the discrepancy you'll take off the hydraulic clamp probably need to order a new one and then you know you'll replace it and that way you're addressing all of these things that the inspection finds some things when you're done with the job you You need an inspector to come buy it back.

55:23Some things are not inspection items. Now, who are the inspectors? Are the inspectors, were they at one time, you know, regular mechanics? Yep. It's an IA rating, right? No, IA is, that's just for general aviation typically. Oh, okay. So you actually don't need your IA in the commercial side of things, but you do go through additional training. um and they're typically where i'm at you know they've been there for a long time they've they're really smart they've they've seen they've seen a lot they've seen everything kind of thing they're experienced guys yeah and so they'll come out you know if you're doing like mounting major hardware um they they have to look at the torque wrench verify that you have it set to the right level check that it's calibrated watch you torque it watch you safety it wow and they say yep he did it right and then you you uh go to go on to the next thing i knew there was oversight but i didn't realize there was that intensive oversight yeah and it depends on what you're doing if it's a you know flight control basically if you if it's anything to do with the flight control it's probably going to be an inspection item um if i'm just replacing a hydraulic clamp you don't need an inspector for that kind of thing i'm signing it off with my license right yeah yeah so when when When an airplane comes in, and let's say it's coming in for a C-1 or whatever, are you assigned to that particular airplane until it's released?

56:54Typically, yeah. So you're not hopping around to different aircraft doing different items? No, you can, and you can't. That's kind of individual. Depends on what needs to be done, right? If you're the guy that knows how to rig the spoilers, then you're going to be called to rig spoilers. on something else. So where I work, the hangar is separated by docks. And the docks are part of a shop. And so my shop has two docks for two 737s. And typically you're going to be assigned to a crew and that crew is assigned to one dock that's responsible for one aircraft. And then, you know, but like you said, if you, if they, if you need help, you know, you can go to the guy over on the dock next to you on a dock and be like, Hey man, can you come give me a hand with this or you know help help me understand what I'm what I'm reading or looking at here right um but yeah typically you were you're assigned to one doc you work one airplane that's your that's your plane that's your baby until it until it leaves and it it takes anywhere between 30 and 40 days for us to get through one one check wow yeah I don't think people realize how how maintenance intensive these airplanes that they're you know riding around on yeah what what they actually go through.

58:09I mean, how often? I hope it makes them feel better. Yeah, absolutely. It should. If you've ever seen an airplane that's in the middle of a check, you'll think to yourself, and even I think this, as someone who is around these all the time, that thing's never going to fly again. It does look like that, doesn't it? How are they ever going to get it put back together? They're just torn up. But it goes back together. We know where everything goes. We know where everything's supposed to be. And by the end of it, it looks a lot better than when it came in, you know? Yeah. Because when they come in, I'm like, look at this.

58:42Look at this dirty. Look at this dirty airplane, dude. This thing is a piece of junk. And then when it leaves, it looks pretty nice. And walking through the hangers, I've always seen like when a part comes off, they're pretty organized as to where it sits when it's off the airplane. So like a certain shelf labeled, you know, all the gear components are together, all the wing components are together and labeled with a tail number, an MSN, every piece of masking tape on it with, you know, something written or probably printed. Where it was removed from. Yeah, that kind of thing. And, you know, what's nice about working on it in aviation as opposed to people that might work in cars or commercial aviation is that you have access to really good manuals.

59:27well some some of my mechanic friends are big these manuals aren't good i'm like okay that's fair but the information's in there whether you can find it or not somebody can but it's in there and you'll find the exact part number the exact this and you're gonna get it and if you don't have the right part you can't just you're not just like oh we'll just throw this one on there you're like no right we're gonna wait until we get the right part you know right yeah we've we've had some experience dealing with uh mbf my boeing fleet they call it it's like uh it's like a software like a central repository of all things boeing for that particular aircraft part numbers locations test procedures button press sequences everything yeah it goes they they're very in-depth um and so that's one of the things that i like about it personally is i like when i work on my car or like work on my house i'm like uh there's no where's the manual they're like right chat gpt baby you too i even ask it maintenance questions all the time chat it knows quite a bit i mean at least it thinks it knows quite a bit it thinks it knows it might not it might not how often do you have to go to the manufacturer because you guys have found something that's completely stumped you uh systems wise not that often but we and and we do have our own team of engineers that can do certain things typically what i see is on a like on a boeing is when we're doing like a structural repair or something like that like let's say it got hit by a bag loader and then it gets ferried to us because we we're like the heavy the heavy maintenance the heavy hitters of heavy maintenance for them.

1:01:10So if it gets hit by a belt loader, depending on the severity of the...

1:01:17If you have any questions about the repair or the damage, it might have to go to Boeing. Our engineering team will send it to Boeing to say, this is the repair we're going to do. And then Boeing's engineering will review it. And then they'll kind of bless it and send it back to us. Typically, we'll see it with that. And then I've seen the Boeing, the Boeing team has had to come out a few times to do it themselves. Oh, wow. Yeah, which is, I don't know if you've ever seen the Boeing GO team before, but they're pretty impressive. Yeah. Yeah, we've been involved in a couple AOG situations where they've came out or the Airbus team has come out.

1:01:51Yeah. We moved an airplane that had an RPG hole through the fuselage. What kind of airplane? 737. Really? Yeah. Where was it? Where was the hole? It was between two frame bays, mid-fuselage, and the warhead didn't detonate, so it went through one side and out the other, and it made two clean holes, and Boeing determined that the aircraft was safe to fly unpressurized, and we flew it from the UAE to the U.S. From Karachi, Pakistan. Oh, that's right. It was from Pakistan. It didn't hit a frame. It just went through the— It missed everything. That was really thoughtful of whoever fired it. Yeah. It's like one of those things where you get shot in the chest and it misses everything.

1:02:42It just goes clean out. Yeah, that's wild. That's crazy. See, 737 is a good airplane. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah, when in doubt, what I found with Boeing is they're pretty, as long as a frame bay is not involved, to say, go ahead and fly it as long as you don't pressurize it. And the thing is, because the pressurization is what changes everything, Even if there's damage that you can't see, once you put the thing under pressure, that's when problems are going to happen, right? Right. So it's very predictable when it's— So you have to stay under flight level, whatever it might be. 10 ,000. Yeah. Yeah.

1:03:15That's low. And it's thirsty at 10 ,000, man. It's a long flight. You flew at 10 ,000 feet all the way from the UAE or Pakistan to the U.S.? I think it was 16 stops. It was crazy. Yeah. That's wild. I think that went to Goodyear, Goodyear, Arizona, or was that Roswell? I can't remember. I don't know. One of the two. I don't remember either. What about weird or like, whoa, I've never seen that before. What's the weirdest thing you've ever seen as a mechanic?

1:03:46We had a, when I was working the line, we had an aircraft return to gate, and they call us. They're like, hey, I can't remember the nose number or the tail number, but they're like, it's returning to gate. And we were like, oh, okay, why? And they're like, oh, there's a bat. There's a bat flying around. And so what happened was it was the middle of summer and we left the doors open, the forward door and the aft door open so we could get some airflow going through the cabin because it's just so hot while we're working. We finished the night and we closed the doors and I'm guessing a bat decided, hey, that looks like a cool place.

1:04:19Cool little cave. And it flew in there and then it must have like hid under somebody's seat or something. I don't know. And they went to taxi out and the bat did not like the turboprops. And it starts flying up and down the cabin. There was a video of it. And it returns the gate. And the pilot was like, this is a bat. And we're like, what do you want? What do you want me to do about it? I call him exterminator. I'm just as qualified on bat removal as you, dude. This doesn't seem like a mechanic issue. And they did actually. They deboarded the flight, moved everybody to a different one. And then they had us shut the doors and put tape over them so nobody would open the doors.

1:05:00until an exterminator could come get rid of the bat oh they killed the bat i don't know if they killed it no because they couldn't verify that it was gone i don't know they wanted to verify the bat was out of the aircraft before they put passengers on it that one was pretty funny i had a bird i had a bird down in uh sao carlos brazil uh with uh we were taking a 320 out on one of those latam deals and we were taxiing out and in sao carlos they you know it's a heavy maintenance facility for LATAM. It's a very small airport. There's nobody around and they'll just leave the airplane sitting on the ramp for hours with all the doors open because it's, it's so hot there.

1:05:38They get hot. Yeah. So, I mean, all, every single one of the doors was open and somehow a bird got in and we're taxiing out and it was. So we just stopped with both engines running and we opened up, uh, I opened up the main door and I, I was just like running through with papers going like that and I chase the thing. Actually, I have video of it. I've got to find it on my phone. That's awesome. All I get is insects. I get cockroaches and centipedes. Yeah, we don't like those. You were with me on one of those, Steve. MD80 out of Africa, out of Congo. It had been sitting for a long time. There were roaches.

1:06:18Once we got up to altitude, the roaches started dropping out of the overhead panel and scurrying around on the center part. pedestal. I still remember. Yeah. Five November, Bravo, India, India. Yeah. That, yeah, that was out of Nigeria. That's right. And it ate our catering. They ate our catering. I know. I'm so pissed off. That's the worst part of the whole story. Exactly. I don't know that I would have eaten that catering anyway. I did. I worked, I worked on an aircraft once that went off the runway, got ferried back from somewhere in the Caribbean and we were working on it and I was in the I was working in the Kruger flaps and there was like dirt dirt up in the Kruger flaps which I just out of all the things I ever found in a Kruger flap it's the only time I've ever seen dirt up there you know what I mean it's the leading edge of the wing for people that don't know on a Kruger yes yes like it's not like coming up from the tires no no I don't know how they got on the wing yeah there's like grass stuck to the accumulator it was funny and i was like never never seen that i'm genuinely curious about this we've heard about pilot shortages clearly everyone that i talked to in the mro business it's hard there is not a lot of new blood coming in is that your experience yep yeah like how bad is it well luckily where i'm at they pay us really well so we're not having that much of an issue finding finding people but i know in general just in general there's not there's not a lot of there's going to be a mechanic shortage a big one you know and a lot of these dudes are getting uh to the age of of retirement you know they're getting ready to they're getting ready to retire and not only are we're not going to have the the manpower but then you're losing all that knowledge as well you know because because these guys have been doing it a long time and they know more about we all say they've they've forgotten more about fixing airplanes than I've ever known.

1:08:14Right. Yeah. Um, but yeah, there's definitely a shortage of it. And I've actually talked to people that just because of my social media have been inspired to become aircraft mechanics because like me, they were like, I'd never even thought of that as a, I didn't know that existed as a job. Yeah. Yeah. And it's not the kind of job that's going to be replaced. It's not the kind of job that AI is going to take. You, you need to be a human they don't even have robots building airplanes yet you know right let alone like i saw like cars where the it's like an automated assembly line these are handmade machines really you know for the most part and and there's a lot there's a there's so many variables i mean obviously there's going to be ai pathways for troubleshooting you know i mean i i know that there's already certain like augmented reality things.

1:09:09Yeah. Like where, where mechanics can, you know, put on like a headset and, and look something, things will be identified. And, you know, I mean, obviously there are tools that will, will utilize this, this automation, but at the end of the day you need a person making decisions. There's a decision-making process. There are judgment calls. I mean, some things are black and white, but there's definitely tons of judgment calls I would think. Right. Yeah. No, 100%. Yeah. No, I think it's a very safe career to get into in terms of like not losing it to automation or anything like that because planes, as long as planes are flying, they're going to need somebody to fix them.

1:09:48They break a lot. You know what I mean? Yeah. In small ways, but. And a lot of inspections. I mean, it's. It's mostly inspections. Constant, constant inspections. It's kind of like when people are talking about, not to loop back to seat checks, but when people are like, I'll see people on the internet and be like, why is this aircraft from 1995 still flying? And you're like, well, because it can and it's fine. And very little of it is still from 1995. Right. Like imagine if every six years you took your car to the shop and they put on new paneling, a new engine, new transmission, new drivetrain, overhauled the entire thing.

1:10:25You'd never need a new car, right? You're just constantly overhauling it basically. Case in point, Cape Air, you know, a place that I worked, you know, 26, 7, 6 years ago or so. A long time ago. A long time ago in my career. They're still operating some of the same Cessna 402s that have 60, 70, 80 ,000 cycles on them. But how much of that airplane is still the original? I'd argue almost none. And in fact, Cessna goes to Cape Air when they have a question about supporting something that's on the Cessna 402 fleet. They fabricate like they'll do like these production runs where they'll fabricate their own intake manifolds, exhaust manifolds, exhaust pipes.

1:11:11They'll go to a factory and they'll produce 50 of them because it's cheaper to do 50 at once than to do one whenever you need it. And then they have them in stores. Now, these parts are, you know, they're you can't like sell them elsewhere. They're only approved for use in Cape Air aircraft by their maintenance program and everything else. But they do skins, wing skins, fuselage skins. Every piece of that airplane is replaced. Yeah, we have a manufacturing shop where I'm at. And so we can, you know, we can take a component off and be like, it goes to manufacturing. And they can CNC and mill it and get us a new one that we then install on the aircraft.

1:11:50Oh, wow. So it doesn't have to be a part that's like ordered from Boeing and like shipped to you. Some are and some aren't, you know, and I think it just depends on it's all approved within our maintenance program and how they, however they figured that out. That's something above my pay grade. I just, I just install the stuff and take it off. But back to like the impending mechanic shortage. and this is something that Bob and I are quite passionate about is getting new blood in. And just like you, we have people obviously always reaching out, Hey, I want to become a pilot. What's the path? I'm 40.

1:12:30Is it too late? Um, you know, the answer is pretty much no all the time, unless you're 60 and, and, and the reality is, is it's, there's not a lot of people know about it. I don't, you know, we live in the time and I think that there's going to be a paradigm shift in this coming up. There has to be with this AI revolution. For the last 25, 30 years, parents, at least in the United States, have kind of worked with your head, not with your hands. I remember my grandfather specifically told me that. Like my grandfather worked with his hands. And when we were younger, he said, work with your head, not with your hands, because your hands will give out and your brain will not.

1:13:15But the reality is a lot of the brain jobs are being modernized into non-human roles. Working with your hands is not only a job that's here to stay, but it's also a job that is increasingly paying more. And especially as there is a lack of interested people in the pipeline that are going in there, I would argue pretty much anyone can be a pilot. Pretty much anybody can be an engineer or a mechanic. The key is you have to find a place to get the training, and I think that there's just not that many of them, and I think that there's not enough, right? It's certainly not marketed. It's certainly not marketed well.

1:14:00It's definitely not, and on the A &P side of things, there's, if you're not, if you're just, if you're like me, I never served in the military, so there is a fast-track way to get an A &P if you have the relevant experience. But there's A &P schools, and there's some A &P programs that are just offered by community colleges. And you can get your license for maybe, I don't know about any more, but less than$10 ,000, you get your A &P license. Wow. Definitely less than$20 ,000 from a community college. Yeah. And then the private colleges, I think they're running about$50 ,000, which when you tell an old head, you know,$50 ,000 for an A &P license, they're like, what?

1:14:45I got mine for$400 ,000. And I'm like, well. Yeah. Times have changed. What is entry-level salary in the field? Where I'm at, I'd have to look at the contract. But I think where I'm at, I think they're starting at like$38,$39 an hour. Not bad. You know? No. it's pretty good i was making 18 an hour when i started but it's i think it's basically doubled from that you know it's definitely i wouldn't do what i do for less than 25 an hour no no shot no shot um but i think entry level i'd have to look around i don't know what it is anymore but where i'm at it's close to 40 if not over 40 an hour which is you know pretty pretty good Yeah, especially when you tie in the benefits and the long term.

1:15:37Yeah, and you can be, well, yeah, and once you hit five, six years in the industry, your pay is going to go up quite a bit. I wanted to sum up that whole discussion about the new blood and say, you know, stay tuned to this space through us. I mean, I think that there are vast resources that need to be tapped when you start getting into, like, inner city schools from the maintenance and the operations side and the dispatch side and the planning side. I mean, I want to see my son goes to school in the city of Philadelphia and the school that he's in, a private school, but they outreached, you know, to some of the other inner city schools.

1:16:14And these kids are just not seeing opportunities. Aviation is one of these places where there's so much demand for skilled labor going forward, whether that be flying in the airplanes or fixing the airplanes or planning the flights that, you know, I want to make it kind of my personal legacy to this business to really kind of open that pipeline. And so I don't really know exactly where we're going with it yet, but I know it's something that Bob and I are passionate about. It sounds like you're passionate about it. Well, we're going to put together kind of a team at some point to really kind of explore what we can do to kind of inspire the next generation.

1:16:53Well, and, you know, like it's it's you're going to get a good as a mechanic. It's a good paying job. and I can't really see myself doing anything else for a living unless I was playing music or getting paid to play video games professionally, which I'm not that good at. But other than that, I've thought about it over the years. I'm like, no, I'm pretty happy I did this. I can't picture myself doing anything else. I really can't. And I wanted to get this. This is a nice segue, actually, into what I wanted to get to next you know is i mean you're a single dad and i've learned quite a bit about your story over the last few weeks and i mean kind of anticipating this interview um you tragically lost your wife a couple of years ago yeah and i mean you know i want to get into that a little bit sure you know kind of in a roundabout way but i mean this is a career that you are able to do as a single dad at raising two young kids.

1:17:54I mean, that is the most impressive thing. I already said to Bob when we were briefing this, I said, God forbid, if something like this happened to us, our kids would be eating out of dumpsters. Yeah. Like, without a doubt. I mean, it hasn't been easy. The schedule for A &P mechanics can be rough. But at your home every day, I'm able to, you know, provide for my kids, keep a roof over their head. uh, you know, I, I'm able to see them every day and, and take care of them. Um, and it's been, it's been a, it's been rough, but luckily, uh, my job does provide enough flexibility if you need it, that you can make these kinds of things happen.

1:18:44You know what I mean? So if I needed, if I need Saturday off, I can give it, I can give it away to one of my, a guy I work with, he'll work for, he'll work on Saturday. You know what I mean? And if I need to pick up a Tuesday, I can, I can pick up a Tuesday and stuff like that. And so it, it has provided me enough to be able to still provide for my kids, you know, you're not, you're not on the PTA, but your, your kids are making their soccer games. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely not on the PTA, but you know and you know i get to fly them i get to fly them around if they want to go somewhere

1:19:23Max Comer:we can we can just we can go that's right you got the flight benefits you got the flight benefits um and you know it's i don't know it's treated me well i think the the career has yeah it's it's it's unimaginable to me what you've gone through and and you know the fact that i mean you're inspiring so many people, I think most of us would, would crawl into a hole and, and maybe you did originally. I don't even know how, you know, life is, look, if, if you haven't, if you haven't experienced tragedy in your life, you know, knock on wood, thank God, but you're going to, I mean, everybody's going to at some point.

1:20:03Um, what has been the key to your success in, in rebounding from just something that's just unimaginably tragic? Well, for me, it was my kids, right? Without them, I would have, I don't know, I probably would have stopped going into work. I don't know. I don't know. They kept me. You have to, right? You have to, yeah. I just kept going for them. And, you know, where I work, when I first started going back to work, I was like, I'm not going to do much today. And the guys on my crew were like, you're good. We'll take care of it. You know what I mean? Yeah. Help out when you need to. And that was nice.

1:20:48I was really supported by the guys I work with and a lot of my friends out there. And then when I first started making the videos was when I was at arguably one of the worst points for me, the lowest. um and that became a distraction right it became a way to which a bad word in aviation but good distraction for me at that point yeah yeah yeah no absolutely um and you know i was rereading this i was rereading lord of the rings at the time and and just being able to talk about two things that i love you know and then seeing people that enjoyed that i was doing that and providing laughter at first i just thought it was making people laugh and then i realized i was actually teaching people yeah about two two things you know i'm teaching people about airplanes i'm teaching about lord of the rings and it kind of just kept me that kept me going plus my kids and just being like i you know and then it it kind of gave me an idea of the what a future could be that a future still exists, you know, that there is, it, it will get better in some way.

1:22:05Yeah. Well, yeah, whatever, whatever that vibe was when you first started putting the videos out, I mean, my wife was drawn to it like immediately. I mean, she's been watching your stuff from the very beginning and she's like, you gotta, you gotta watch this guy. You gotta see what he's putting out there. You know, is it that vulnerability, but that just, you know, you're a very, you know, you seem like a very honest human being, like a real, like the real deal. And I think that comes across in your social media posts very, very strong. Agreed. I try to be, I try to be. You know, I don't know, I think that, I don't know, life's hard, so if you can provide some levity to people, So I think that's, I don't know, that's what I like the most about it.

1:22:58And it helped me too, you know, maybe the best way to help others or the best way to help yourself sometimes can be to help others or to just try to kind of provide some good. Absolutely. What about the music? So first of all, if you don't know that Max is a musician, I mean, you can tell by the way he looks. I mean, I hate to be that guy, but I mean. He's the rock star. It's fine. I mean, I'm trying, man. I just don't have the volume you got. I mean, I'm getting there. Yeah. Your music is, and I'm not just saying this, I truly dig your music. Thanks. And I didn't even know you were a musician, but I started listening to your stuff.

1:23:47And, man, it's really, really good. I'm not blowing smoke. We're going to, if you agree to it, we're going to close out the episode with one of your tracks. Go for it. You good with that? Yeah. All right. Yeah, it's good stuff. I noticed that, you know, your songs are all very personal with regard mostly to your journey of losing your wife and dealing with grief and so forth. And I think it's very powerful. And the tunes are good, too. Thank you. It's, it's folky rock acoustic guitar. Yeah. You got a good voice. And, um, I, I love it, man. I just want to say, I love your music. And I think you got a future in that to be honest.

1:24:33And I like that Martin. It's a nice, it's a nice Martin. Martin's a good, Martin makes a good guitar. Um, but yeah, I, with my music that that's just, uh, kind of just a, a hobby of love for me, you know? Um, artistic release. yeah and it's just something that i like doing and i i really just kind of wrote the songs for myself and then my friends were the ones that were like these are pretty good man you should you should record and put them out there and i was like okay but then i i don't like doing self promo so i i i'm just like i'll put it out there if somebody wants to listen to it they can't i'll post about it sometimes but a lot of people like i didn't know you played i'm like yeah a little bit well i want to put it out there because i think it needs to be heard i think I legit think it's very, very good.

1:25:22And to the point where it's part of my rotation and it comes on when I'm driving. So I dig it, man. Yeah, that's my first passion in life, I would say, was always music. But it's fun to do. I've never really played a show yet. Maybe I will. Yet. Maybe. I think you should. We'll see. Wandering Hard is my favorite, by the way. That's a record. I was really happy with how that one turned out but yeah I just like writing music you know it's a hobby of mine I should do it more often I got so many songs that I've written that I've just never recorded I think I've only got five on Spotify but man I got a repertoire of like 20 and 30 I could probably do you're a young guy not like Bob plenty of times why's Bob catching strays dude Seriously.

1:26:17He didn't say anything. He's just sitting there. You're the one with your gray hair over here.

1:26:24I always have to give Bob some, you know, some of it about his age. Fair enough. I seem to keep catching him, so. Catching up fast, buddy. Catching up fast. I'm catching up as fast as I can, but time only moves as fast as it does. For sure. Sure. Well, I'm genuinely curious to know how you got into the Lord of the Rings, the whole J.R.R. Tolkien thing. Again, one of my first loves in life. Now, my dad took me to the movies when they first came out, and I freaked out. I was like, these are so good. I read the books all the time. I reread it constantly. I just fell in love with it. and when i first started making my videos i wasn't making them based on lord of the rings they were just little one-liners about airplanes really really kind of dry humor and then one day i was like i i was rewatch i was rereading the books and i thought well i wonder if i could make one of my videos about lord of the rings and i did uh it was about a fan blade being different than uh anduril which is the sword aragorn carries it's from the shards of narsil that's reforged uh narsa was forged by tel car in the first stage right and so i was like okay well i could do that i could just tell the story of andreel compared to an airplane fan blade and so i made that video and it went kind of viral little viral and then people were like this is this is what i want to see and i was like okay well i don't know if i could do that again right how would i and then i saw the escape raft on a on a set triple seven i was working in the cab and i saw the escape raft and i was like well they they take rafts from lothlorian when they leave caris galadhon to sail down the anduin and the fellowship breaks at the imin or at the parth galen where boromir slain and frodo sails across lake ninhithwa uh lake ninhithwa and then he goes through the imin mule where they tame smegel before leading him across the dead waste and i was like okay well I could just say that.

1:28:26You know what I mean? I can't wait to edit this episode. I can't wait to see how this stuff is. Sorry, Bob. I'm jumping on you here. We're both so excited. I know. Well, I can't wait to see how it spells the things that you just said. Yeah, don't worry about the spelling. They'll figure it out.

1:28:47Max Comer:Well, I don't think that I'm uploading a transcript anyway, so it doesn't matter. But it's just a general curiosity. One time I uploaded the captions and it autocorrected Frodo to Fardo. And I changed it. I changed it, but I was like, man, I should have just kept that. That's funny. Yeah, definitely. Bob doesn't change the captions either when he does one of his TikToks. I never do. There was one recently that was hilarious and sexually oriented. I got it. He's a busy man. It isn't time to edit TikTok captions. Yeah, I don't edit TikTok stuff. I just put it out there. Yeah, that's what I like to do too.

1:29:22Max, this has been awesome, man. I mean, this is by far the best content we've done so far. And let's do it again sometime. Yeah, dude, I'm always down. Anything you want to promote? No. Nothing. How about promoting the youth getting involved in anything? Oh, well, like in general, yeah, they should go. Come be an aircraft mechanic with me. It's fun. It's really cool. You can get the training done, which is, you know what I think for me, I didn't want to go to like, I also needed, I needed, I needed a career, right? I needed something I could do and to, you know, support my, my family. and I was like I don't want to go to school for four years I don't have time I don't have time to get a bachelor's I got a one-year-old right now you know what I mean right and I didn't like the idea of like working in an office or working behind a desk or anything like that I wanted to be out and walking around and doing stuff you know what I mean and and you can get your A &P it took me a year and a half you know it was a year and a half 18 months uh and I had my and I had my license i think some schools do it within an um within a year now or something like that it there's there's faster programs even now than when i when i did it and it's kind of a license to learn i mean you get out there on the line and you learn on the job and there's there's people always need a and p mechanics there's no there's no there's a shortage of mechanics not a shortage of jobs you know what i mean if you yeah i will say one caveat is sometimes in this industry you you might need to relocate you know i've moved across the country three times and but i didn't mind it i was like i'm gonna do it but there's also that a lot of people don't think of with amp mechanics is there's just like pilots that a lot of people don't think of when you think about a pilot people think oh they're gonna go work for the airlines but that's not necessarily the case right it's a right it's a massive industry with a lot of different things i have a friend that's an amp mechanic that works on firebombing helicopters in oregon you know he's out in the middle of Oregon working on rotary and he just likes hiking and stuff like that and then he fixes helicopters yeah pretty cool um you can work on you can be a flight mechanic I don't know if

1:31:41Max Comer:you guys ever work with them but I have some friends that are flight mechanics you know they're flying all around the world and that's their plane and they just have their toolbox with them and they take care of what needs to take care of while they're wherever they might be yeah and the on-site reps is a big one. And that's, you know, in, in 15, 20 years when your kids are, you know, out living their lives as adults and, and, you know, you feel like you, you may want to do some traveling. Yeah. Call us up. Well, I mean, Bob will be dead, but, um, famous last words of Steve. Damn. Live to regret that.

1:32:17No, um, you know, the onsite reps, most of them are like 55 to like, 70 and they they go and stay with an airplane in in hong kong for a month and then they go to dubai for a month and then they go wherever i mean it's there's there's a lot of different stuff you can do it's a crazy it's a crazy industry and there's so many niches in it and so many things and you could see the world even if you just want to work for the airlines you can still see the world because you're going to be able to fly for free it just depends like once you get your license you have the license to learn in the world's your oyster and it never expires either it's it's a lifetime rating um for us we there's no renewal or anything like that messy my siri doesn't understand that but i'm telling you it's true oh man well let's let's listen he's too humble to say it but airplane facts with max is the account on uh instagram and and and uh you got tiktok too tiktok i stream on twitch there we can promote that i stream okay if anybody likes video game streams.

1:33:21I stream video games on Twitch sometimes, mostly World of Warcraft. And check out my music, I guess. And check out his music. Links will be in the show notes, and you will hear some of that starting now. Thanks, Max. Appreciate it, Max. It was a blast. I really enjoyed it. Yeah, I'm happy to yap any time, man. About whatever. Here's the plan to do it again. Definitely want to do it again. Yeah.

1:33:54Max Comer:I wish I could hold you Like I used to Wish I could hold you Like all those years ago Cause being alive don't feel like living When you're living through hell So I'll just wait like the dogs had met your door And tonight I'll drink till I can't drive Through my past to just survive Cause these seasons are changing Lord, I ain't doing alright You said that we both need a reason Honey, my reason was you And now I don't know what the fuck I'm gonna do without you I wish I was the one that you once had The one you wanted all those years ago But I'm not anymore I said that I let you ignore So I'll just drink smoke spirits out on the porch So tonight I'll drink till I can't drive Do my best to just survive Cause these seasons are changing Lord, I ain't doing alright You said that we both need a reason Honey, my reason was you And now I don't know what the fuck I'm gonna do without you

1:36:16Max Comer:So tonight I'll drink till I can't drive Do my best to just survive Cause these seasons are changing Lord, I ain't doing alright You said that we both need a reason Honey, my reason was you And now I don't know what the fuck I'm gonna do without you Tonight I'll drink till I can't drive Do my best to just survive Cause these seasons are changing, Lord, I ain't doing alright