Blanche wrote:

However, I do bring krispy kreme or brownies every once in a while.
Makes everyone in the shop happier. And they're more likely to
talk to me immediately when I come in with a problem. The actual
work may not be scheduled for a while but it's never "I'm busy
let's talk about this in 10 days..."

That's the idea. I bring doughnuts in the morning or beer on Friday
afternoon. My shop has about 11 guys working on planes and I like to
be on their good side. It pays off in little ways, like getting
someone to come over and give a strut a shot of nitrogen when you're in
a hurry.

Just yesterday one of the guys talked the owner into letting him
paint my (chromate green) rudder, since he had to paint some new skins
for another customer. He was supposed to just shoot the whole thing
white, and though it wasn't going to match the color of the stab(blue
over white), it would be better than puke green. Yesterday I show up
at the shop and my rudder is almost good as new. The mech dug around
the old paint stores and found a matching navy blue , then masked it
all off on the plane and did a fantastic job matching up the stripes.
I told him it was supposed to be a quick and dirty all white freebie
and he told me it wasn't a problem. He did it during his spare time on
his lunch hour. You can't beat that kind of service.

John Galban=====N4BQ (PA28-180)