Comments By FreakTrain

I am from the mountains of VA

Hey PackRat, that's where I grew up. I miss the mountains! What part of Virginia are you from? Botetourt County here.

Apologies for the threadjack, Grumpy.

Day 8

Got to school this morning, and was greeted by a snowy lot and single digit temperatures. At least the wind wasn't blowing today. Spent most of the day working on blind side parallel parking, and did one on the sight side. Just about got the hang of it, the instructor said I made good progress with it. No one did alley docks today, the trucks were sliding around too much. Finished the day with offset backs on both sides, nailed both of them on the first try! Felt good, offsets were giving me the most trouble out of all the yard manuevers. Hopefully the yard will be thawed enough to get some alley docks in tomorrow.

That's all for today... and thanks for reading!

He's a trucker freak..trucker freak...hes trucker freaky..yooww

oh sorry. great job..keep it up!! you got this

Thanks, Rainy... you made my day! Be safe out there.

Day 7

Cold and windy today, at least the sun was out most of the day. First thing today was pretrip inspection (big surprise there), after the trucks were warmed up and in the yard, the students testing for their CDL tomorrow were evaluated on their backing (straight, offset, parallel, and alley dock), my group observed while the new students that started yesterday worked on straight backing. When the evaluation was done, my group started on doing the 90 degree alley dock. We spent all afternoon taking turns, so each of us got at least four attempts. Backing is getting easier now, but I still want to get as much practice and instruction as possible. It's going to be a little more than a week until it's my turn to take the CDL exam, gotta work hard in the meantime. I'm having fun with the whole experience, the only negative has been the frigid weather!

Back at the motel now, and it's time for a good, hot shower! Thanks for reading.

Thank you for the encouragement, Big Scott.

Day 6 (week 2)

Today started with the usual pretrip inspection practice, then my group took turns on straight backing and the offset back on both sides. Today's offsets were much better than Friday's! Finally getting the hang of it.

After lunch, it was time to start learning the parallel parking manuever. The instructor and my group all got in the cab, and he showed us how to set up and hit our marks. Then we took turns doing it on our own, the instructor keeping an eye on us and helping out when needed. I found it easier to do than the offset, and did well on my two tries.

That wraps it up for today... thanks for reading!

Congrats, Solo, be safe out there. Best of luck to you on your new adventure.

Day 5

Started the day with pretrip inspection on the trucks and trailers (seeing a pattern here?). Afterwards, all of the Week 1 students (my group) were tested on straight-line back and both sight-side and blind-side offset back. I did well on the straight back, but got 7 points on my two offsets. Definitely need more practice on that one. At least I figured out (with the instructor's help) what I was doing wrong, so I'm sure my next time will be better.

After lunch. we went over pretrip inspection, concentrating on the in-cab and air brake check. We took turns until the end of the day. We'll be tested on pretrip when we come back on Monday, so I'll be studying it over the weekend.

That's all for now, I'll update on Monday. Thanks for reading.

Congratulations Michelle!

Good luck FreakTrain. Many future CFIers will read this. You're helping a lot of people.

Thanks, Turtle.