[GreenKeys] Fwd: RE: FAA dates

Wed, 5 Nov 2003 15:22:09 -0600

>Reply-To: <[email protected]>
>From: "Ed Hickey" <[email protected]>
>To: <[email protected]>,
>	<[email protected]>,
>	"Jack" <[email protected]>,
>	"Don Robert House" <[email protected]>
>Cc: "Don" <[email protected]>,
>	"Frank Frisch" <[email protected]>,
>	<[email protected]>,
>	"Gil Smith" <[email protected]>,
>	"Warren Brader" <[email protected]>,
>	"Rush Glick" <[email protected]>,
>	"David Weil" <[email protected]>,
>	"George Hutchison" <[email protected]>,
>	"Steve Kissinger" <[email protected]>,
>	"Bill Henry" <[email protected]>,
>	"Tom Kleinschmidt" <[email protected]>,
>	"Ken Clinkman" <[email protected]>,
>	"Bob Cnota" <[email protected]>,
>	"Bob Liddy" <[email protected]>,
>	<[email protected]>,
>	"Jim Haynes" <[email protected]>,
>	"Phil Schelinski" <[email protected]>
>Subject: RE: FAA dates
>Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2003 11:13:46 -0600
>X-Priority: 3 (Normal)
>Importance: Normal
>X-Spam-Rating: mail.mc.net 1.6.2.pk.2 0/1000/N
>
>That reminds me of a classic story.  The customer was US Customs.  I was
>reporting to Dick Rybka (aka Rip, The Ripprer, etc.).  It was a Friday
>evening about 4:45pm.  I did not want to work overtime.  I had just pulled
>into the garage at 31st and Shields and Rybka wanted me to go to US Customs.
>The problem was the machine was answering back with "letters" instead of a
>"V".  I reminded him that I knew nothing about switching systems.  I could
>fix the printer but I had no clue where the "V" came from.  Rip told me it
>was a bad repeater at Chicago one.  He explained that those people had no
>idea how to fix anything.  He said go the the customer, call Chicago one and
>tell them to replace the repeater.  So I got suckered into it.
>
>I went to the customer and called Long Lines.  After a big argument, I
>convinced them to replace the repeater.  It fixed the problem.  I got out of
>there and was "off the books" by 5:30pm.  I really didn't learn how to
>"milk" things until about the time I reported to Schelinski.
>
>A couple of weeks earlier, Illinois Bell introduced us to the FMP books,
>sort of a poor man's TOP.  The FMP books contained a flow chart on how to
>fix things.  The FMP's were going to improve production and of course,
>minimize downtime.  The first block in the flow chart was "the problem is
>obvious".  The last block was "call for help".  We were instructed to follow
>these books to the letter.
>
>Ripper had a standing rule about checking mainshaft screws on all repair
>visits.  For some reason we were having problems with screws falling out.
>
>Monday morning I walked into the garage and Rip was standing there waiting
>for me.  Instead of telling how good I was to fix the case Friday night, he
>proceeded to rant and rave for about 10 minutes on how dumb I was and how I
>nearly singlehandedly put Illinois Bell, AT&T, and the US government out of
>business.
>
>When he calmed down, he told me that although I fixed the trouble I failed
>to check the mainshaft screws and the screw fell out of the codebar clutch
>and the codebars broke all of the tines off all of the function bars.  This
>happened about 15 minutes after I left.  Night Plant spent the night out
>there and then pulled off and left it for the Saturday guy, who spent all
>day Saturday working on it.
>
>Rip asked me what I had to say about it, so I quoted block 1 of the FMP flow
>chart that said "the problem is obvious", the next block that said "fix it"
>and the next block that said "get out of there".  At no place did it say
>anything about tightening screws.
>
>Rip went to my truck and took my FMP book away and threw it in the dumpster.
>That night he collected everyone's FMP and threw them out too.
>
>Ed
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Don Robert House [mailto:[email protected]]
>Sent: Wednesday, November 05, 2003 9:50 AM
>To: Jack; [email protected]; [email protected]
>Cc: Phil Schelinski; Jim Haynes; [email protected]; Ed Hickey; Bob Liddy;
>Bob Cnota; Ken Clinkman; Tom Kleinschmidt; Bill Henry; Steve Kissinger;
>George Hutchison; David Weil; Rush Glick; Warren Brader; Gil Smith;
>[email protected]; Frank Frisch
>Subject: Re: FAA dates
>
>
>At 9:04 AM -0500 11/05/2003, Jack wrote:
>>When I responded to what we called an "MX" circuit (AT&T Long Lines
>>controlled it), I would call the test board as soon as I arrived and
>>clear the trouble. As long as it wasn't an open line, they had no
>>idea the machine was broken and often didn't confirm if an
>>answerback was being sent(!). That was more the customer's issue,
>>and they were always very accommodating when we were they
>>trying to get them back on line.
>>
>>Jack WA2HWJ
>>
>>NNNN
>
>"Chicago One" was never so accomodating.  At least I don't see how we
>could have gotten away with your trick.
>
>Don