At the headquarters of former aerial firefighting firm Hawkins & Powers Aviation, two dozen people are completing what is likely to be the company's last job.
Four days a week, the crew works 10 hours a day refurbishing a C-130 cargo plane owned by the U.S. Air Force, a job that takes about 40,000 hours of labor. Fewer than 3,000 hours of work remain.
"We're working ourselves out of a job," said Mike Sims, a maintenance supervisor who has worked for H&P for eight years. "It's really something."
After the H&P board of directors decided last summer to phase out operations, there was talk around Greybull about a successor company coming in to pick up the profitable refurbishing business.*
But that hasn't happened, and time is running out for the employees who are expected to finish their last scheduled job around the middle of February.
Refurbishing is meticulous, exacting and often monotonous work that involves chores such as replacing thousands of metal rivets, or removing, testing and reinstalling hydraulic and electrical lines.
It's a far cry from the romantic and dangerous aerial firefighting work for which H&P became famous.
The company's planes played starring roles in Steven Spielberg's "Always," a 1989 movie about a daredevil aerial firefighting pilot, and the recent Dennis Quaid film, "The Flight of the Phoenix."
Star Tribune
Four days a week, the crew works 10 hours a day refurbishing a C-130 cargo plane owned by the U.S. Air Force, a job that takes about 40,000 hours of labor. Fewer than 3,000 hours of work remain.
"We're working ourselves out of a job," said Mike Sims, a maintenance supervisor who has worked for H&P for eight years. "It's really something."
After the H&P board of directors decided last summer to phase out operations, there was talk around Greybull about a successor company coming in to pick up the profitable refurbishing business.*
But that hasn't happened, and time is running out for the employees who are expected to finish their last scheduled job around the middle of February.
Refurbishing is meticulous, exacting and often monotonous work that involves chores such as replacing thousands of metal rivets, or removing, testing and reinstalling hydraulic and electrical lines.
It's a far cry from the romantic and dangerous aerial firefighting work for which H&P became famous.
The company's planes played starring roles in Steven Spielberg's "Always," a 1989 movie about a daredevil aerial firefighting pilot, and the recent Dennis Quaid film, "The Flight of the Phoenix."
Star Tribune
