B737-800
Maintenance Airframe; Maintenance Powerplant
Communication Breakdown; Fatigue; Time Pressure; Workload
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
General Maintenance Action
Aircraft; Company Policy; Equipment / Tooling; Human Factors; Staffing
August 2015. Began with an XA:00am morning flight from ZZZ4. [With departure] show time [eight hours] later. Aircraft arrived in ZZZ at XI:20. Sat in ZZZ for four hours then ferried B737 Aircraft X to ZZZ1 to replace another B737; Aircraft Y. Arrived in ZZZ1 early [the following morning]. A 20-hour and 40-minute day. We got to the hotel and I was finally able to sleep.   After 6:30 hours of sleep; I received a phone call from Maintenance Control; 'A mechanic is on his flight from ZZZ2; get out and start taking Aircraft Y apart so we can get this plane fixed'. I got up; dressed; packed up and went down and had breakfast. I checked out of the hotel and went out to repair Aircraft Y. The mechanic and I got the plane fixed and ready for a late night departure. 15 hours and 35 minutes after my wake up. Approximately early afternoon it started to rain. It rained off and on for the rest of the day. After the repair was complete and an engine run for a leak check; the cowlings had to be closed. I laid under the engine to close the C-Cowls and Main engine cowling. Now I'm soaking wet from head to toe on my back. Wet ramp. We closed up everything; put the tools away; returned borrowed tools and I boarded the plane for a Ferry to ZZZ3. I changed my clothes in flight. A 6.5 hour flight from ZZZ; early morning arrival. I secured Aircraft Y and went to hotel. A 22 hour and 45 minute day. On arrival at the hotel that morning; I was told that our reservations were for [the day before] and since we did not check in; our reservations were cancelled. The Crew rooms were re-booked; but mine was not. Since mine was not; I had no room. I had to wait for a room to be available and cleaned before I could get a room. Two hours later I got a room. Three hours of sleep and I'm back out on Aircraft Y to do a Power Trim (PT) before we go to ZZZ4. A scheduled late afternoon departure. We were late. We left after midnight; the following day.  On arrival in ZZZ4; I called the hotel and find out that my reservation was for the day before. Cancelled again. I called Crew Scheduling and they re-booked my room at the Hotel ZZZ5. So I limo'd to the hotel. I arrived late night. After two hours of sleep; I woke up for my commercial flight home. I tried to check in on-line. There is a problem; I must call the airline. Once again my flight reservation was for the previous day; not the day later [which is what I was trying to fly]. It was cancelled. I had to pay a $50.00 re-booking fee. My flight was re-booked and I was on my way home.When the schedule changes; for whatever reason; the Crews have someone there 24/7 to change their itinerary. When Scheduler X is off; there is no one to change the Mechanics itinerary. They gladly do it; they just have to be told that there is a Mechanic with the crew.My first two 'Off' Days were spent recuperating from a serious lack of sleep the previous three days. This is a personal inconvenience because it interferes with my days off. 14-days on the road plus two days resting means I'm working 16-days. But that is a personal inconvenience. If this had happened on Day-2 or -3 of a trip it would be a much different story. When would a Mechanic have time to rest from this type of schedule? It doesn't happen often; but it does happen.Our schedules are much tighter than pilots and flight attendants. When there is a schedule change or broken airplane; if our Scheduler is not around to see that our itinerary is changed; it won't get changed unless we call them ourselves. Kind of hard to do when you have a Fuel Pump Package in your hands. It weighs 200 pounds.Please have someone inform Scheduling that if they re-book the crews could they please ask about a mechanic. Just to see if maybe a Mechanic is affected by the schedule change too. It would be greatly appreciated by those that get these planes repaired. Thank you.
An Aircraft Maintenance Technician (AMT) working as an on-call Air Carrier Technical Representative describes his excessively long; irregular work days; ever changing work hours; lack of adequate support for re-scheduling hotels and fatigue from lack of sleep.