OH Bound - April 15

Day 2: More introductory stuff, lots of focus on hours of service and a bit of coverage of trip planning. Sure seems like most of the questions that come up are answered mostly by using a little common sense. Tomorrow begins the Millis 500 and features Chicken Day! We'll see if this chicken is as good as everyone says.

I'm really enjoying this so far. Haven't seen anything yet that sways my opinion that I made the right choice at the right time.

 

The Millis 500. Chicken Day. What else can I say?

Was pleased to finally get in a truck today. I grasped double clutching right off the bat, but it took me about four laps around the terminal and watching the feet of another student who already had some experience to get the knack of downshifting. With two trucks running, I picked it up on the second one I was in first. Once that happened I pinned my ears back and forced myself to figure out the trick to the first one. That was easier once I understood the method behind the madness; just different styles for different trucks. Bill let me move the trainer truck that was already hooked to a trailer before lunch and at the end of the day to block off the range to traffic, so I took that as a good sign.

A couple guys seemed to be having trouble well into the afternoon, and I helped a couple of them out (or at least I think I did). Top 2 helpful hints: 1. Take the time to set the seat up so you can comfortably push the clutch all the way to the floor without straining. 2. Get off the clutch before you up the rpms to downshift. I think the other guys who got it earlier helped those who struggled; good to have that sort of comradery among 9 guys that basically don't know each other from Adam.

Cooper09 swung by the terminal this morning and spent a couple minutes BSing with us- he's a riot.

Another guy came in with his trainer this afternoon and successfully road tested with Bill while we were doing laps. He came back grinning from ear to ear. Can't wait to be in his shoes. When we solo as pilots, they cut our shirttails off. Didn't see any ritual like that here. Maybe those two guys are just so happy to be seeing light at the end of the tunnel of being stuck together in an 8x8 box to be participating in such ritualistic shenanigans. The trainer did say that the student got his 15K in just over five weeks' truck time. I thought that was pretty impressive. Hope to have that sort of situation myself when the time comes.

The chicken was good. I'd go back there again to eat.

 

After being behind the wheel for most of Day 3, Day 4 was sort of a drag; being stuck in the classroom and all. But we need to learn all this stuff, so ya gotta do what ya gotta do. Tomorrow: bright and early to start on straight backing, drop & hook, and the Millis 500 with trailers. Let's roll!!!

 

Day 5: Woody joined us today - he's a good ol' boy with some sage wisdom. Bill took us through a pre-trip. I like the way he does it; thorough and to the point. As a pilot, I always used a written checklist so this will be a bit different. Hopefully, whoever my trainer is will let me go through it every day to help burn it into my brain's RAM before the skills test. Also got a intro on scaling out and sliding the tandems.

After that we headed over to the drop lot to check out some of the various loads waiting for pick up and some of the other stuff that goes on over there. Starting to get a better grasp on how things work load-wise.

Then it was back to the range for straight backing, drop & hook & circling the lot with a trailer. Forgot to mention that on Thursday just before we watched a video on hooking up, a driver tried pulling out the lot without eyeballing the fifth wheel to see that the jaws were locked. Whoops. Seeing the front of a trailer drop on the back of a tractor is a pretty good object lesson for paying attention to detail. Despite this, during our own drop & hook exercises, five of us were standing and watching one of the class going through it when he ended up with the same situation after attempting to drop. I swear to God I watched him lower the landing gear, but I guess we were all BSing too much instead. Point taken: Focus. I should know that from flying - I made a habit out of avoiding ####-chat and distraction while doing anything related to equipment ops or checklists. Gotta use the same approach here.

After a week, I'm really pleased with the way things are going and the pace of the learning curve.