Chapter 8

The following morning saw Joe pulling into the parking lot, he came into the office with a grin on his face. "OK, let's see how you are going to save me a lot of money Tony."

We went out into the workshop and I took him over to where we had our work station set up. "You know Tom I take it?"

"Yeah, we're old mates, how's it going Tom?"

"Good Joe, now that Tony's taken up the reins, I was just about ready to pull the pin when he arrived. You're here to look at our proposal I suppose?"

"Yeah, this display looks pretty impressive Tony."

"Tom's the man responsible, he'll give the presentation, young Tim here has a good idea I think we should consider as well. Anyway, over to Tom."

"Right, the first thing we looked at Joe, was why did the rollers fail, the answer was easy to find, 'cheapo' bearings. The manufacturer must have sourced the cheapest he could find, Russian, Chinese and Indian, all low quality steel, the weak point in the whole string. We suggest three courses of action, first we scavenge all the undamaged rollers and replace the bearings with good quality ones, then we can make up new strings. Cost? labour plus new bearings and seals. Second course of action, the rollers with damaged bearing pockets, we'll machine the damaged pocket off and replace it with a new one. I've contacted a company in Sydney that has the dies to hot forge new ones at a very competitive cost if we order one hundred at a time. Now for the good bit, Tim has this idea, where the outer casing is damaged we cut the roller in half and make a sleeve to slip inside the cut off, then join it up with a second half from another damaged roller, mig weld it together and we have a good as new roller. A similar procedure with the shaft, where the bearing has damaged the shaft, we cut it in half and using a piece of heavy wall pipe, join the two and weld them together. Using Tim's idea we are only losing half of the discarded roller; what do you think?"

"Good, I like your proposals, what about cost?"

"We've done our sums Joe, Donna has a written quote in the office, if we go back in we can have a look at it. Thanks for your presentation Tom."

"Yes Tom, and thank you Tim, that's a bloody good idea. OK let's have a look at the quote. A cup of coffee wouldn't go amiss either."

Joe looked at our quote while Donna made the coffee. "This look very good Tony, even young Tim's idea comes in a lot cheaper than what we pay for a new string. I'm pissed off ... excuse me Donna, about the cheap bearings they put into the darn things, our legal folk will need to have a close look at the contract, I'm almost certain there was a spec on what bearings were required, It's not just the cost of replacing the rollers it's also the extra labour to change them. I think our manufacturer is due for a big surprise.

Now back to your quote, I'll run this by our bean counters and then place an order with you; I've no doubt they will give it the go ahead."

"Good Joe, now one other suggestion, as we return the refurbished strings, it would be good practice to start replacing the ones now in use before they start to 'talk' to you, that way we only need to replace the bearings."

"Good thinking Tony, preventative maintenance eh?"

Good as his word, Joe gave us the go ahead with the roller refurbishment program.

...

Once the company was running on an even keel, I implemented a policy, that every Friday at three o'clock we would roll out the barbeque and have a cook up, curtesy of the company, snags, extras and drinks supplied. No alcohol permitted. We were standing around chewing the fat when I found myself beside Donna, without thinking I asked her what she had planned for the weekend.

"The usual Tony, house cleaning, laundry and the general tidy up around the place. What are you doing, not work I hope, we don't want you to burn yourself out too soon."

"No, actually I was thinking of going flying, would you and Tracie like to join me?"

"Flying, do you have a pilot's licence?"

"Yep, an unrestricted one as well, although I've still got a few hours to make up before I can go for the unrestricted chopper one, all in good time though."

"I'd love to Tony, Tracie will be really excited when I tell her. What time should we be ready?"

"I would like to get an early start if we can, the mornings are usually the calmest time, plus it gives us a bit more time to enjoy it. I was thinking to fly over to Pendleton, we can have a counter lunch there and take a look at the old gold museum."

We got an early start, the hire plane was a trainer so it had the two sets of controls, there was a small jump seat in the back. With Donna up front and Tracie in the jump seat we took off into the calm morning sky. Once we at the right altitude I explained what the controls and gauges were.

"How would you like to take the controls Donna, it's not hard and I'll be here to guide you."

"Wow, you sure I won't cause us to crash?"

"No way, just handle them lightly, you'll soon get the hang of it."

A few minor adjustments and Donna had us flying straight and level, I showed her which instruments to worry about."

"The altimeter shows us our altitude, we need to keep at this level while we travel in this direction. Anything coming the other way will either be at a lower or higher altitude, it's a bit like travelling on the proper side of the road."

We had a relatively bump free flight, I had warned them about air pockets so when we hit a small one there wasn't much concern. Soon we were landing at the Pendleton air strip. I took over the controls on the final approach, praising Donna for her newly acquired skills. Motoring over to the bowser to refuel I gave Donna the phone number of the taxis service to call a cab to take us into town. The plane refuelled and the arrival of the taxis we were soon in Pendleton town itself.

The first port of call was the museum, in the 1800's there was a big strike and the town grew like Betsy, then it petered out until today there are only a few 'old timer' prospectors. The museum was a good one, depicting the lives of the miner at that time. I explained to Tracie how the Davey lamp worked, she wanted to know why the didn't use batteries, I think she thought I was pulling her leg when I told her they hadn't been invented. She asked about the bird cage and was a bit upset when I told her they used the canary to tell if there was poisonous gas in the mine.

After enjoying our tour, we went to the Miners Arms and had a very good counter lunch, Tracie even cadged a sip of my beer, I only had the one as we were flying. Back at the airport we bid farewell to Pendleton and headed for home. I had suggested that Tracie take the front seat on the way back, tipping Donna a wink. When we were at altitude I asked Tracie if she would like to pilot us home, with an ear deafening squeal and a "Can I really," she took control. Like most kids, she was a quick learner, nice to get them before they form strong ideas of their own.

"Wow, wait til I tell the kids at school I flew a plane, I bet they don't believe me."