I worked for an engineer, Peter Crook at his company, Areoterra, Inc. He was the boss and I was the only employee. He taught me to read blueprints, operate inspection equipment, handle delicate instruments, and swage fittings onto tubes of aluminum, steel and titanium. After swaging, the seal had to be tested by holding the sealed unit under water using 100 lbs of pressure from the generator. No b
ubbles allowed. We built fuel line shroud systems for the Douglas DC-9 and DC-10, also the stretched versions. Douglas was our main customer, but we also did work for Grumman, Nordair and Ace Welding of Torrance. We were located practactly at the Los Angeles Airport in Inglewood, CA. After I had been with Peter for about 3 months, he began to leave me on my own for a couple of weeks at a time while he and his wife went on golfing tours. I learned to deal with whatever came up as he was often in Japan, or Scotland or Florida, just about anyplace - not reachable. He had already purchased the raw metal to be shipped to the machine shop, or for tube spinning or whatever process was needed. He had typed up the work orders for the particular batch of parts. It remained for me to process the parts as they went through their various steps. The first thing I always had to do with parts - there were perhaps 150 separate pieces for the DC-9, that Peter owned the copyright to and more than that for the DC-10 - was count them and take notice of any that were dinged on receiving. Next was the close inspection to blue print. After that, check the work order for next step, which often was anodizing; a chemical bath for the part that removed any fingerprints, metal shavings, dust and so forth, plus dry lube was often applied to an interior surface on top of the anodize any time parts would slide into other parts. We want no friction, and especially no sparks! In engineering there is a reason for everything. Crook was very generous, as well as kind. He appreciated that I was a stickler for not allowing parts, or work to go to Douglas that was not 100% correct - safe. For that, I was rewarded. My husband Don and I and our son John, moved to Hawaii in June, 1986, so I was no longer with Aeroterra after that. But I think of those exciting days often, in our little shop under the flight path leading straight into LAX. How close were we to the runway? Landing gear was already down and locked!!
