Profile For Mike B.

It takes a few to get the feel for the clutch pedal. After about a week you'll get the hang of it. On some maneuvers, just think about what you've done wrong and you should be able to correct. It's always good to sit and watch other people do the maneuvers then you can get a feel of how the trailer reacts to wheel movements. =)

Day 5 7/21

First day on the range!

Today was VERY humbling. We got out there pretty early and started off doing pretrips and then we got to do the straight line backs. The first couple of times I had a very tough time with the clutch and rocked the cab pretty bad. I got so fustrated that I almost walked away right then and there but I stopped and cooled down and figured it out. After doing that for a half an hour we stopped and the instructor demostrated the 90 degrees (or alley dock) back and we all got to try. I was able to get into the "box" however it wasn't pretty between my sloppy clutch work and the amount of pullups I needed. Our instructor also demostrated the other backs, the parallel (driver side and blindside) and the offset. I spent the majority of my range time on the driver's side parallel, which I was doing reasonable well, getting into the box 4 times with minimal help and then everything kinda went to hell. I couldn't get lined up to save my life, I started getting aggravated so I decided to try the offset which I was ok doing to one side but not the other.

The instructor said our performance was typical of students on our first day on the range however we all left the range feeling pretty discouraged. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.....one can only hope.

See ya tomorrow