Report from training

12 days into Upgrade training, and my mind feels like it's going to explode. I have become intimately familiar with the Airplane Operator's Manual, the company's General Ops Manual, and the airplane's Pilot's Operating Handbook. I can tell you that with as much as I know about the airplane now (which still isn't a lot. It seems like the more I study, the more questions I have), I have NO IDEA how I passed the initial oral exam as a First Officer because back then, I didn't know SQUAT.

During my studies, there are occasions when the light bulb comes on. For example, I have discovered only 2 days ago that the precooler and the primary heat exchanger are not the same thing. Plus, who knew the hydraulic system had a manifold? These things were huge discoveries for me!! Years of memorizing the rote answers to questions in the study guide have finally led to a basic understanding of aircraft systems, yet there are a lot of things I still don't understand. No amount of reading the manuals is going to help, either. I was trying to explain the problem to my friend and only upgrade classmate (yep, that's right. We are a mighty upgrade class of 2) what the problem is. My mind works differently from the dudes who wrote the book. My understanding of words like "solenoid," "manifold," "torque tube," etc. are boxes from crudely drawn schematics. I understand that fluid travels from one box labeled "reservoir," through tubes into a box labeled "manifold," and into somewhere else where it actuates a cylinder-looking thingy labeled "torque tube," which does the thing that we are requesting. I've never actually seen these things, because I'm doing more interesting stuff like drinking wine, cooking, and socializing, while the boys are in the yard drinking beer and trying to take apart and rebuild the lawnmower. It's not my intent to sound sexist, it's just the truth. Yes, I know there are exceptions, and I know several awesome super-hero chicks who are exceptions. Sadly, I am not one of them.

So when the book uses these words to describe the aircraft systems, my mind is only able to generate an abstract understanding of the system they are trying to describe. By the same token, I have no problem understanding the rules and regulations governing pilots. The performance data is a piece of cake, and I'm textbook perfect with the callouts and flying profiles.  I guess everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. Let's hope my weaknesses are strong enough to pass and keep myself and everyone else safe.

So far, my classmate (Randy) and I have been through 2 weeks of ground school. Well, 1 week and 2 days of ground school in Indy. The instructors have been top-notch and I have learned a lot. Everyone I've talked to said to go in to Upgrade training ready to take the oral exam, because you won't learn anything. This isn't true. I think that due to our small class size, Randy and I were able to tailor the class to fit our needs, and we both came out of class much more knowledgeable than we went in. It could not have been a more positive experience and I feel extremely lucky that things turned out the way they did!

However, I do have a complaint. In the company's haste to get by God get a class going NOW, they left the scheduling to someone else who didn't do their job. Surprise, surprise. They had us scheduled to do doors and windows training in Louisville on Wednesday the 11th, but neglected to line up an instructor for that date. So, we were rescheduled to do Doors on Friday the 13th, but they also had us scheduled to take our oral exams on Friday the 13 in St. Louis at the same time. Then they decided that it was impossible for us to be in 2 cities at the same time, so they rescheduled the oral again for Monday the 16th. Turns out, the check airmen are all busy, so we've been rescheduled again for next weekend. Of course, no one thought about communicating these new schedules to us until a day or so before the events. I feel like Columbo trying to track down the right people just to get our freaking schedules solidified. As if studying for the damn thing wasn't stressful enough! I think we've been issued the final draft. Oral exam for me will be on Sunday the 22nd, with the Check ride on Monday the 23rd, followed by 2 days off, and a LOFT on the 26th.

I can't wait for all this to be over, so I can read far more interesting stuff that has nothing to do with airplanes and begin bitching about commuting to sit reserve in Columbus!

Back to the books.