ancona
Praying Mantis
Consequences......they are a bitch. Recently, I bid a project removing the lead based paint from the structural steel comprising the superstructure of a C-130 Hercules nose hangar during a massive rebuild that would convert the building to accommodate the entire plane. Asked to perform all the new coating work as well, I went ahead and got some sub-bids to do the work. The specifications were quite clear about he proximity to the flight line [80 feet] and the prohibition of using airless sprayers, HVLP or any other method of atomization for application. This was strictly a brush and roll job, and it has turned out to be an olympic sized goat rope. We will make money on it, but not a hell of a lot.
Anyway, the restriction against any other than brush and roll extends five hundred feet all around the flight line. At a building around a thousand feet from our site, another contractor has similar work that we bid, but lost the work to a small out-of-town group that had never worked at an aerospace facility before, yet wanted the work, so they went in at about half my price. These geniuses got permission to work extended hours last Friday and Saturday, and work they did! Those jackelopes used an airless sprayer....actually they used three of them.....to paint a shitload of structural iron.
As you probably can already tell, there were consequences.
The reason they were so cheap is they never intended to brush and roll a fucking thing. They intended to brush and roll the edge striping, welds and swabbing of the bolts, but fully intended to come in out-of-hours and spray the steel with conventional sprayers. What a severe rectal scorching these idiots just got!
Monday, we were approached by four men in an SUV with rifles and uniforms along with an angry lieutenant. We were herded in to a common area, instructed to sit on the ground and hold our ID cards out for collection and scanning. Afterward, my superintendent was directed to show them our equipment storage area and provide a sample of each and every type of paint on-site. Then, each man was questioned about the previous four or five days, to include where you were on Saturday and Friday night.
They gave us back our ID cards after they scan matched them to entry records. Later on, I found out that these idiots had sprayed all evening Friday, and had in fact been asked to leave when someone saw them still working after 7:30 in the evening. They returned early Saturday and worked until 6:00, spraying like mad banshees the whole time.
Well, Florida is pretty damn windy this time of the year, and being located [the air base] within sight of the ocean, we have daily sea breeze set up in the afternoon every single day.
Today I found out from a "little bird" that three C-130 Hercules aircraft, one C-5 Galaxy, two F-18 fighters, several T-38's and some helicopters had substantial over-spray on them, necessitating a complete re-paint. Let me repeat that, a complete re-paint. Now, keeping in mind that most of the above-mentioned aircraft have radar reflective/radar absorptive proprietary coatings on them, along with an alodine primer that is a world class motherfucker to get off, and a paint job on just one C-130 comes in at around 275,000.00 per coat, these guys are completely and irretrievably fucked.
As I have complained about in the past, there are far too many low-life motherfuckers out there who are willing to compromise worker safety, product reliability and cheat on every single regulation in the book, and they will do it just to make a fucking dollar. Well let me tell you folks, I am not usually one to take shaudenfreude when something like this happens, but at this point, I am fully ready and willing to throw these fucknoodles under the bus. As a matter of fact, I am willing to push them face down on the third rail.
One of the men was arrested because he signed the orientation paper warning about being on base when not authorized to be there and the other three or four guys were stripped of their badges and put on the OPM black list. That means they will never set foot on federal property again unless it is through the back door of a federal courthouse in handcuffs.
The damage done as a direct consequence of a mans greed will measure in the multi millions just for the coatings application alone. These aircraft will have to be transported to Charleston I believe, and be treated and coated in a special hangar before they can be put back in service. I would not want to even speculate about how much that will cost.
Consequences man, they are a bitch!
Anyway, the restriction against any other than brush and roll extends five hundred feet all around the flight line. At a building around a thousand feet from our site, another contractor has similar work that we bid, but lost the work to a small out-of-town group that had never worked at an aerospace facility before, yet wanted the work, so they went in at about half my price. These geniuses got permission to work extended hours last Friday and Saturday, and work they did! Those jackelopes used an airless sprayer....actually they used three of them.....to paint a shitload of structural iron.
As you probably can already tell, there were consequences.
The reason they were so cheap is they never intended to brush and roll a fucking thing. They intended to brush and roll the edge striping, welds and swabbing of the bolts, but fully intended to come in out-of-hours and spray the steel with conventional sprayers. What a severe rectal scorching these idiots just got!
Monday, we were approached by four men in an SUV with rifles and uniforms along with an angry lieutenant. We were herded in to a common area, instructed to sit on the ground and hold our ID cards out for collection and scanning. Afterward, my superintendent was directed to show them our equipment storage area and provide a sample of each and every type of paint on-site. Then, each man was questioned about the previous four or five days, to include where you were on Saturday and Friday night.
They gave us back our ID cards after they scan matched them to entry records. Later on, I found out that these idiots had sprayed all evening Friday, and had in fact been asked to leave when someone saw them still working after 7:30 in the evening. They returned early Saturday and worked until 6:00, spraying like mad banshees the whole time.
Well, Florida is pretty damn windy this time of the year, and being located [the air base] within sight of the ocean, we have daily sea breeze set up in the afternoon every single day.
Today I found out from a "little bird" that three C-130 Hercules aircraft, one C-5 Galaxy, two F-18 fighters, several T-38's and some helicopters had substantial over-spray on them, necessitating a complete re-paint. Let me repeat that, a complete re-paint. Now, keeping in mind that most of the above-mentioned aircraft have radar reflective/radar absorptive proprietary coatings on them, along with an alodine primer that is a world class motherfucker to get off, and a paint job on just one C-130 comes in at around 275,000.00 per coat, these guys are completely and irretrievably fucked.
As I have complained about in the past, there are far too many low-life motherfuckers out there who are willing to compromise worker safety, product reliability and cheat on every single regulation in the book, and they will do it just to make a fucking dollar. Well let me tell you folks, I am not usually one to take shaudenfreude when something like this happens, but at this point, I am fully ready and willing to throw these fucknoodles under the bus. As a matter of fact, I am willing to push them face down on the third rail.
One of the men was arrested because he signed the orientation paper warning about being on base when not authorized to be there and the other three or four guys were stripped of their badges and put on the OPM black list. That means they will never set foot on federal property again unless it is through the back door of a federal courthouse in handcuffs.
The damage done as a direct consequence of a mans greed will measure in the multi millions just for the coatings application alone. These aircraft will have to be transported to Charleston I believe, and be treated and coated in a special hangar before they can be put back in service. I would not want to even speculate about how much that will cost.
Consequences man, they are a bitch!
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espite the right people being fucked - so will the taxpayers. You ever seen the gov even break even on one of these?
Too funny!
