What. A. Day.
It pissed down all day - apart from the last job, but that had its own "joys".
Despite the rain it started off okay as I was put with a decent team leader and we had a newbie with us. Who is quite old. The 4 "first wave" jobs went alright despite the fact I had to do lots extra as the noob can't do lots of things yet - like aircraft steps, towing the baggage any closer than 5 metres to the plane (H&S
) and so forth. Anyhoo, after those jobs, it was 09:15 and he was going home.
We called up and were asked if the remaining 2 of us wanted another job, or a canteen break; we opted for the job - Amsterdam in, Sharm-el-Sheikh out. "We'll send someone else out to help when they become available. Suffice to say, no-one turned up and thus I loaded all 167 heoooge bags on my todd. Bastard Red Sea divers
Then we had a canteen break, so I scooted off, had a couple of ciggies (outside, as they've closed the internal one in the South Terminal) and came back in through security...right behind 2 Virgin Atlantic crews who were off to Orlando and Las Vegas. This lot take an eon to get through security as they chat non-stop and invariably get beeped by the scanner. So by the time I was through I had about 5 minutes left of my break. Managed to get to Costa for a large Americano and a sandwich and back to the crew room. As soon as I got in, I was sent on another job - Palma Mallorca in, me to tip the bags at baggage reclaim. All 122 of them. Including 17 bikes
From there onto stand 111 to do the tip for the Malaga. Halfway through offloading these bags I was informed that I was staying with the job to do the load-up and headset as the other chap had to bugger off to a Union meeting. The outbound was Amman and the bags for this flight are always monstrous. Our 3rd man on the job was on "light duties" due to a knackered shoulder. And so it was that I loaded 177 bags onto that one on my todd as well. Despite getting it all loaded in time, when I got on the headset to the Captain he informed me they'd missed their "slot" and asked if it was okay to push the plane to a "holding stand (43)", which is about 3/4 mile away. I told him it was no problem and we began the push. And the heavens opened. Monsoonio
By the time we got there, I was like a drowned rat.
Then back to the crew room. Quick cup of tea and then straight out for a "nice easy Edinburgh". We got to the stand and it was already being unloaded - result. The load up was delayed as the new flight crew were delayed - result. We had it all loaded and ready to go when the team leader received a phone call and asked if I wouldn't mind doing the headset on it - no problem.
I asked the Captain to release the parking brake and when it was released I gave the tug driver the signal to begin the push. After about ten seconds of extreme profanity it was obvious the pushback tug had no drive. He kept trying - no luck. I told the captain the problem and asked him to contact Air Traffic Control to cancel the pushback. We then phoned the office and asked them to send a replacement tug and the engineers. 10 minutes later the engineers arrived, sucked through their teeth and said "you know what that is, don't you?" I replied that not being a grease monkey I was not aware. He climbed up the back of the tug, popped open the bonnet type thing and then went in head first. Much mumbling and then "try it now". Success, forward gear was found! "It won't stay like this unless I stay here".
A few frantic phone calls later and thus it was we pushed the Edinburgh flight out, with an engineer head first in the bowels of a 15 tonne pushback tug.
Back to the crew room, time for home. Got drenched walking to the staff bus and then, just as I was about to drive off in the luxurious comfort of the Lexus, another newbie came running up - "have you got any jump leads, I left my lights on".
I could have lied and said "no".
But I didn't. Back out into the rain to get his car started. Job jobbed. Home now. With trench foot.
But I have beer
