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Noticing the quiet at the neighborhood airstrip these days feels odd | Aircraft Mechanics - Vivisector

Noticing the quiet at the neighborhood airstrip these days feels odd

Back in the 90s, you'd always hear the sound of engines being tested on Saturday mornings. Now, with most maintenance done inside sealed hangars with new gear, it's much quieter. I miss the days when we'd all gather around a open cowling, passing tools and sharing fixes. That noise was part of the job, and it meant something was getting done. It's progress, but I hope the new folks still find that same sense of team spirit.

4 comments

4 Comments

casey8186mo ago

Guess Nate's hangar is so quiet now he could hear a mouse thinking about stealing his missing wrench. Maybe the new team building exercise is just texting each other from across the room because you can't shout through the fancy doors. Sounds like progress traded engine noise for a whole lot of walking to find someone. I bet they still get the work done, but @blairm93's story makes it sound like a weird, silent library where the books are airplanes.

blairm936mo ago

Totally. My buddy Nate said his new hangar is so quiet now he actually forgot a wrench set inside last week. Made me think of what @torres.julia said, you really can't just yell for a hand anymore. He had to walk all the way to the office to ask.

torres.julia6mo ago

Remember thinking that noise was just part of the background, but it really was the sound of people working together. Now the quiet makes you realize how much gets solved alone on a computer screen instead of by a group of hands. I worry the new way loses that instant help you got when someone just looked over your shoulder and pointed. You can't really shout a question through a sealed hangar door.

daniel_williams476mo ago

But is it really that big of a deal? Sure, the old way felt more like a team, but that was just how things got done back then. Now they have better tools that make less noise, so what's wrong with that? The work still gets finished, maybe even faster and with fewer mistakes. Are we just getting sentimental over noise and dust when the job itself hasn't changed? People can still help each other, they just do it differently now.