Opportunities

As I sit here on Mother’s Day afternoon it is now hitting me that in 9 days I will be departing Los Angeles to Changwon (pronounced Chong-wahn), South Korea for three months. This opportunity started back in March when one of the managers at my work, Susan, contacted all of the manufacturing engineers (about 40 of us) asking if we would be interested in going to Korea to work with Pratt and Whitney in East Hartford, CT. Apparently no one in East Hartford was able to stay in Korea for such a long period of time so they asked us because our work was slow at the time. Rarely do we work directly with Pratt and Whitney on projects and even more rarely do we work out of the country. Before even going home and sleeping on it, I replied to the e-mail that I was interested.

Of the 40 engineers asked to go, only four of us had actually sought out more information. A conference call was held with the team in CT and the project was laid out. We would be working on a variant of the Geared Turbo Fan (the Prius of aircraft engines due to its smaller size, quieter operating volume, and increased fuel efficiency). Our main task would be working with Samsung Techwin to help them make the first few high pressure, mid-turbine frame assemblies on a tough deadline. Yes, this is the same company that makes the best TV’s on the market. Samsung is a huge company in Korea and the easiest way to describe them is that they are like United Technologies for Korea, a large tech company specializing in a lot of different products. A variety of quality and manufacturing methods are needed for this task, specifically working with vane castings, brazing them together, and then finish machining them to size. My experience covers most of the requirements except for brazing, an area I have limited experience.  

East Hartford at the time had wanted only one engineer to go to Korea in just three weeks, putting us at early April. I was up against three engineers who were as close to retirement as I was to just graduating college. All of them were well qualified to do the job so when we had submitted our resumes I had lost hope that I’d get chosen. During the last week of March I was at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL (where space camp is) for work when I had received the phone call from Susan. The call came just as my food had arrived at lunch and I was really hungry. All I clearly remember from the call was Susan asking, “Do you have a valid passport?” It was a weird conversation because I was in Alabama with our customer, NASA, and I was getting news I would have to stop supporting them. Many jokes and jabs were thrown by our NASA counterparts after hearing the news. The final few days of the trip in AL were spent in shock as I couldn’t believe I had been chosen to do the job. After getting more information, I found out that East Hartford actually had chosen two of us, myself and Ed. Ed and I have worked together from when I hired in on 1/12/09 on J-2X turbomachinery. As of now we are the only Mfg Engineers on both the Fuel and LOX turbopump team, a team that originally started out with four M.E.’s and a Co-op. Together we have learned each other’s strengths and weaknesses and were extremely excited to continue working together overseas.

Upon returning to Los Angeles, Ed and I instantly agreed that this was a great opportunity for the both of us, for Rocketdyne, and for Pratt and Whitney. Our main focus is to exceed East Hartford’s expectations and deliver defect-free hardware ahead of schedule. Doing well on this trip could open many doors for us as international business experience is a major component of any technology company, especially UTC. Over the next few weeks we started to communicate more with East Hartford and had all of our questions answered, most importantly, when can we leave? East Hartford wanted us there just as fast as we wanted to be there but with so many forms and signatures, our departure date was set for May 17^th.

On May 17^th I will be boarding a Korean Air flight to Seoul for just under 13 hours and then will be flying another hour to Busan where a taxi will take me to the hotel in Changwon about 45 minutes away. The time difference in Korea is +17 hours so if it’s 5pm in LA / 8pm in CT, it is 10am the next day in Korea. Arriving in Changwon at around 11pm on Wednesday, May 18^th, it will be a few short days at work upon arrival but it will feel like forever as I will be jet-lagged more than I’ve ever been. Luckily three East Hartford team members will be making this journey with us to ensure a smooth transition at the plant.