Airliners International
A surprisingly solid hot breakfast at the United Club at LAX, a quick flight from Los Angeles to Denver, and then the Airliners International show.
But first, food. There was a Sonic Drive-In nearby, so stopped there for a late lunch. Their burgers are better than McDonald's but the fries are worse, and the overall experience is specifically catered to drive-in, although they did have a table or two outside for pedestrians like me. Still kind of fun, given I rarely go to Sonic, and it was about the right amount of food. With a very late tour booked for the day, there was dinner at a regular hour at the Doubletree's sports bar, Characters, with some fellow #AVgeeks. The pastrami sandwich wasn't bad at all, although not going to win any awards, and the whole hotel is a bit on the older side.
Airliners International is both a collectibles show and a ton of tours done in cooperation with the local airport and participating airlines. I scored a Southwest Airlines Tech Ops tour, which was first a very long bus ride from the show to outskirts of Denver International Airport, then a great tour by a grizzled veteran of Southwest Airlines' Tech Ops team. Unlike some previous tech ops tours I'd been on, this particular tour was more focused on overnight maintenance, as opposed to heavier B-check or C-checks, so instead of getting to go inside airplanes as they were being worked on, it was more the process of airplanes coming out of service and into overnight maintenance.
Southwest Airlines' hangar is relatively new, finished in March 2022, and at 128,000 square feet, is big enough to park three 737's inside. Being so new, it's got some pretty cool features, such as ceiling-mounted safety harness anchors designed to make it easy to work on 737 exteriors, utility hookups precisely positioned to reduce the need to drag extra lenghts of cable and hose around, and of course, excellent lighting and tools for the aircraft mechanics.
The parts warehouse isn't huge as it's focused on routine maintenance, but they explained some of the logistics, and it turns out they can do things like replace an engine during an overnight maintenance, even if it's not a normal thing. Sounded like they also got quite deep into engine inspections, since preventative maintenance is a huge part of ensuring everyone can fly safely and reliably. In the end it was an excellent tour, although not as in-depth on the mechanical side as some other tours.