7/18/07 - Just Another Day..fishing? maintenance?

This past weekend, my husband and I were enjoying a sunny, fairly hot, morning of fishing. So far, though, the only thing I was catching were weeds. We had only been in the boat for about a half hour when we heard engines overhead. Looking up, we could see a rather large, yellow plane with the initials DNR on the side. The plane flew directly over the lake (and us) and began circling back around. All of a sudden it descended on to the lake and began skimming the surface of the water. The pilot immediately throttled the plane down. It sounded as if the plane was going to die right there! Within seconds water began spraying out of the plane just above the belly. Apparently, and I'm making an assumption here, this is some type of overflow to indicate the plane's belly was full. As quickly as the water began spewing out, the plane shot forward with a loud burst of power and lifted off the surface of the water. Another plane, smaller than the first, followed the same course and repeated this performance. Although we didn't see any smoke, we had to assume there was a fire nearby as these planes continued to swoop down upon the lake four more times over the next hour.

As I sat watching (and waiting for the fish to bite!), I couldn't help but compare the work of these pilots to a maintenance worker. Maintenance workers fight fires, too! In some organizations, break-in (fire fighting) is a way of life. I had to wonder if what these pilots were doing right now would be considered "break-in" work or because of the nature of their job would it be considered "scheduled" work? What kind of plans or procedures are used for fighting fires? What PM's are in place fires? What CMMS do they use? Wait a minute...I'm supposed to be at work daydreaming about fishing...not the other way around!!

Tug..tug..tug..A bite!

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