Cram Session

My final exam for Phase 1 is tomorrow morning. It's all multiple-choice questions, and it's rumored to be 100 questions long. The questions will be selected from the FAA's bank of Phase One Knowledge Test questions, so if I can pass the final, I should very well be able to pass the FAA's test. Unfortunately, due to regulations, I don't get to take that written test until the end of Phase 3... in March '09. But, like I said, the Phase 1 final exam is tomorrow morning, so feel free to pray for me!

The Last Laugh

On my post about building my hammer, Chris K asked why the instructors didn't bother to take us through the tools before giving us what, at the time and under the circumstances, was a fairly monumental task. I had a pretty good post all typed out in answer to this question. In fact, I'm currently using the "Edit" feature, so it's possible some of you will read that post before I get this one up in its place. The problem with that post was that it was catty and far from what I would consider Christlike. It's kind of been a long time since I've felt particularly Christlike, and I'm very tired of being disappointed in me. So here's my new answer to Chris's question:

The "normal" Phase 1 instructor was fired a semester or two ago. Since my class is the first starting class they've had in a couple semesters, this is the first time the instructors have had to address the fact that they had no one to teach the phase. So the three remaining instructors divided up the phase, and each of the three agreed to teach various subjects. However, only one of the 3 has ever taught any part of Phase 1 before, and that was 15 years ago. So they're all a little slow in getting up to speed with their new teaching responsibilities. I remain optimistic that when we start Phase 2 next Monday, things will run smoother, since Phase 2 is familiar terrain for these guys. I'm hopeful that the worst is behind us.

Going Green

I don't think I mentioned it previously, but my headset broke recently. Yup, this close to being done with my pilot training, and my headset decided to give up the ghost. I had Larry, my electronics-savvy friend in the AMT program, try to repair it for me, but he was unable to find the necessary components (apparently, Flightcom uses much-smaller-than-standard components in their products). Since sending the headset to a repair place would have cost me $55 minimum and I only paid $65 for them in the first place, that didn't seem like a great option either. So I wound up withdrawing some cash money from my flight account and buying myself a brand new David Clark headset. I imagine most of you aren't terribly familiar with the name "David Clark" but it's an enormously popular brand of headset, and they're known for their unique green color. In fact, if you ever watch a TV show or movie where people are in a small plane or helicopter, pay attention to their headsets. Chances are the ear cups are a sea green color. If so, they're David Clarks. I spent the extra $15 to get them delivered UPS 2-day air, so they should be delivered to my door tomorrow at some point. I'm looking forward to trying them out on Monday.

On Getting Hammered

As Jen mentioned on her blog, I finished my hammer yesterday, after an extremely frustrating week of working on it. The FAA has certain activities that we, as AMT students, MUST do. The school decided to find a way for us to do those activities in such a way that when we're done with them, we have something useful to show for it. The solution: make the students build a hammer. The project seems cool, and I was actually pretty excited to get to it. Here's the problem with the hammer project, though. Some of the students in my class (including me) have never really handled tools in any meaningful way. We all, I think, assumed that there would be some instructions or exercises to get us up to speed on using tools before we were given the task of building a hammer. You know, something to ease us into the process, instead of just dropping us cold into a situation where competency with tools was a necessity. That, unfortunately, wasn't the case. So when they handed us a blueprint and some materials and said, "Here, build a hammer," some of us were dreadfully unprepared. What made it more frustrating was that they then told us, "Oh, and we're going to charge you 4 points off your project grade everytime you screw up and have to start over on any part of the hammer." So we were struggling along, using some tools (including a drill press) for the first time, and trying not to botch anything because we didn't want to get docked. Suffice it to say, I screwed up the head of my hammer and had to "buy" a new hunk of steel and start over. But, in the end, the hammer got finished, and I learned how to use some tools in the process. As Jenny also mentioned, my final exam for Phase 1 is next Thursday, which means the following Monday we're on to Phase 2. I'm optimistic that the quality of my AMT education will improve at that point, as the instructors will be back on familiar ground (the guy who used to teach Phase 1 got fired last semester, so the rest of the instructors had to step in and fill the void despite having never taught the material before). One more year...

Flyboy's Long Farewell, or Make Way for Greasemonkey

Let's talk about my flight training. Just where the heck am I with all that, anyway? The short answer is, pretty darn close to the end. As I mentioned previously, I have a new instructor, Mike, who is just about the best thing that's ever happened to me, as far as flight training's concerned. He's got me seeing things differently, which means I'm performing better than I ever have before. When he first started teaching me, he told me I was a little behind the curve on some things, in part because of the quality (or lack thereof) of my prior instruction. When we finished my flight period today, he told me I'm pretty much on top of things now. That's quite a change for one month of sporadic flight periods. So I've got to finish honing a few maneuvers and get some oral exam stuff locked into my brain, and I"ll be ready for my commercial check ride. Realistically, I'll most probably be a commercial pilot before the end of September.

Also, I just had a conversation this afternoon with Belinda (former instructor/assistant chief flight instructor), and she's agreed to do a little bit of instrument review with me when I've finished my commercial and she's finished teaching Private Ground Training (probably mid-October). In order for my instrument rating to remain valid, I have to do at least 6 instrument approaches along with holding procedures and VOR tracking within the previous 6 months. Failing that, I get an additional 6-month grace period to meet those requirements, otherwise my instrument raiting is useless to me until I complete an instrument proficiency check. All that said, I haven't done ANY instrument work since my instrument check ride back in March, so I'm due. In fact, by the time I get to doing my review with Belinda, I'll be somewhere in the first month of that grace period. I'm sure Mike would gladly do the instrument stuff with me, but I'm also sure he's got his own way of doing things. With Belinda, I already know what the expectations are and what she's going to be looking for. Seems easier that way.

Now let's talk about AMT (my mechanic program). AMT is a 15-month program, broken into five three-month phases. Phase 1 is General; it's sort of an overview of everything we're going to cover in detail in the other four phases. Phases 2 and 3 are what get me my Airframe rating, and phases 4 and 5 are for my Powerplant rating. Phase 1 ends with a final exam on September 25. As it currently stands, I'm fairly sure I'm at the top of my class (although my whole class is only 9 people) and I'm really enjoying the program. The Powerplant instructor told me one day after class that Phase 1 is, at least in his opinion, the hardest phase, so if I'm doing okay with this one, I shouldn't have any real trouble finishing the whole show. That's great news! And since this is September 2008, we've (or at least, I've) started to mentally count down the time we're in Douglas, rather than counting up. What I mean is, I used to say, "Man, we've been here 2 years and one month already. How much longer will it be?" Now I'm saying, "We only have twelve more months before it's time to move to wherever God sends us next." It's the greatest feeling in the world, being able to finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.