Finally made it to Roadmaster

DAY 8

Strange day. Most of the instructors here have many years experience and are very good teachers, but as with most places, there is always a bad apple. We have one of these apples here, he is an older guy, but only has about 4 years driving experience(j.b. hunt). With him in the yard with us, it seemed like our training was going backwards. during pre-trip, it took about an hour to do just the truck, he wanted all 4 in our group to do a full brake test, this took about an hour. I undersand this is stuff we need to know but most of us know pre-trip and brake test by heart and need all the hours in the yard to practice our backing and parallel parking. after our breake the lead instructor told him to just let us work and we did. there was only a couple hours left but we managed to each get about 5 shots each parallel parking so it all worked out.

Afternoon was road time. worked on up shift, down shift, up hill, down hill, stop lights, and highway. I have a really good instructor on the road, she is very calm and does not get upset with us and lets us know what we have to work on, could not ask for a better instructor on the road.

until tomorow

 

DAY 9

We got to do alot of city driving this morning. We went through an industrial park, manuevered around corners, stop and go traffic, and other obsticles related to city driving. You would not think that you could learn so much in such little time, but these instructors are fantastic. At this point we have sized each other up and pretty much know who will succeed and who is not cut out for this. We have a pretty big class(about 15 students), there are 2 who will probably not make it. These 2 are just not cut out for this type of work. You have to have a little common sense and the want to and drive to suceed.

This after noon was yard time. This is where we work on our backing skills. Today sucked because we had 12 people on the yard and only 2 trucks, but tomorow we will have 3 trucks because the class ahead of us will be taking there driving tests and graduating.

Well, that is all for today, check back tomorow for more.

 

DAY 10

Today was a long freaking day. Started out with the school having to call the police out. Last night someone shot out the right side window in one of the road trucks. The trucks are parked inside the gate, but I guess it was a disgruntalled student or some stupid thug that was able to get a shot off and shatter the glass. So needless to say we got a late start. This morning, was alot of work in the yard, not as many people today so we were able to get more practice in doing our backing manuevers.

This afternoon was long, because in our group of 4, some are just not getting the hang of shifting and downshifting. When you have to ride in the backseat all afternoon with someone grinding gears and missing turns it will wear you out. I am happy to say everything is working out good on my end, I am catching on pretty well.

until tomorow

 

10-4 on that. naw, I am really enjoying myself, not trying to rush anything, but I really have had no problems. Not going to try to get my cdl early, just going with the flow.

 

DAY 11

Today was all road, no yard. We each drove about an hour this morning. This afternoon we got to go on the DPS route and practice parallel parking in the spots that we will have to do it for the driving test. that is about it for today.

 

shifting took a couple days to learn for me because I have drove vehicles with standard trannys before. you see, with a big truck it is different because when you double clutch, you dont go all the way to the floor with your clutch, and with a car you do. and down shifting, you have to rev your engine before going into a lower gear. If you have no exp. driving stick shift, you will have no bad habits to get rid of and learn the right way to start with. When I first got on the road i wanted to push that clutch all the way in and float the gears, but I learned quickly not to shift like that. so your inexperience with a manual tranny may actually help you. good luck