Our Dumb Blog

Eli is on The Incredible Human Machine on Sunday night on the National Geographic Channel. Among other things, the program will “study top-notch individuals who have harnessed the power of their body through rigorous training, including U.S. Olympic pentathlete Eli Bremer, who trains at more than 6,000 feet above sea level…” It looks really cool. I don’t have the National Geographic Channel (or a TV for that matter), but maybe I’ll get to watch it on video sometime.

I aced the test. I got a bit freaked out when I got my paper back, and had stuff scribbled all over it. After a second I realized it was a smiley face, and I didn’t miss any of the 40 questions.

We start systems ground school for the Bombardier Canadair Regional Jet CL-65 (CRJ 100/200) on Monday morning. It’ll take three weeks. We got a study guide full of 23 pages of rote memorization, and he suggested we complete as much as possible before Monday morning. Woohoo!

Tomorrow we’ve got a test on all of the boring stuff so far. If I pass it, I get to start systems class on Monday. If I flunk it, I get to pack my bags and go home.

I’m not terribly worried, though certainly anxious. This’ll be brief because it’s 10pm, and class is early tomorrow at 10am, and I don’t plan on staying up too late. I’ve been keeping up with the studying so far, assuming I’m reading the signals right about what’s going to be tested.

From talking to folks who have been around awhile, there’s a huge backlog of students waiting for the simulators. So, assuming I pass the test tomorrow, and another one in three weeks, and pass an oral exam after that, I could have a couple months off. Paid, with flight benefits. One guy just started the sims this week and had finished ground school in July. He said, “Yup, just been flying around the world. I get up in the morning, hop on an empty plane.” Not a bad gig if you can get it.

The serious down side to all this time, is that the simulator portion of the training is where most people wash out, and it’s substantially harder after a long break from ground school. Without using it, all that information goes away, even if you try to study.

So, if I pass my tests and you live in an interesting place somewhere near an airport with any sort of airplane I can ride on (and I’ll be able to ride on anything, including FedEx and UPS), you might be hearing from me:)

We finally got started today. At 3pm, which is just weird. The rumor is that we’re likely to switch back to 6am once we start aircraft systems, but who knows. The sort of stuff we covered is immensely boring, and some of the folks in class are amazingly dense. Nothing we’re learning involves concepts that are hard to grasp, it’s just endless memorization. We’re learning about things we’re required to carry, currency requirements, hazardous material we can’t carry (all of it), 5487 exemptions (should you lose your certificates), duty limits, required rest periods. Blech. Boring stuff. I’m pretty anxious to get into the airplane, though we’re going to have 3 weeks for that, I should probably relax and wait for it.

He let us go to dinner at 6:30pm. I went with a different guy this time who wanted to go to a Chinese restaurant, but I managed to talk him into Mexican instead so Sarah wouldn’t get excited. Got some pretty good huevos ala mexicana for cheap. Another few hours, included a video from that looked to be from the 1970’s on hazardous cargo during which we were told, “I have to show you this. I suggest studying something else while it’s playing.”

He let us go at about 10:30, which was good, because I was trying to figure out how I was going to make it another hour or so. And now I’m pooped. Hopefully I’ll have enough time to study in the morning.