Big T's Swift Adventure

Update time: I was cleared by my doc today. I have jumped through the hoops: eyes are good, feet are good, no insulin needed, etc etc.

I will head back to Fontana on Monday.

Wow, great news! Congratulations.

Big-T:

Good deal! It's tough when it hinges on a doctor. I go to see doc on 5/17/17 and it will rise or fall on the Doc. I think it will be ok though.

Do you start 5/8?

-Traffic Jam

Thanks Traffic Jam.

Yes, I started today. I passed all the medical stuff and dealt with a screwed up drug test that I had to do twice. The nurse thought I was only a recheck for sugar so she got rid of the sample.

I'm four weeks behind where I wanted to be, but at least my health is better. Tomorrow starts the pretrip lessons.

Today we started working on the pretrip inspection. We only focused on the outside inspection and it went great. I remembered everything I needed to inspect and about 95 percent of the lingo. I need to work on the steering components and the def tanks.

I spent most of the time helping my classmates, which was great. It brought back my trainer memories. It also helps make stick more in my head.

Tomorrow we are supposed to begin in cab and air brakes.

Hope everyone is staying safe tonight.

Congratulations, Big T.

Don't forget the steering yoke on the linkage under the hood connected to the tie bar. Just kidding, made that one up.

Hope the weather last night was not too bad on you down there. We are up at Plainview near Lubbock/Amarillo.

Would you describe the PTI Swift way? I learned it a particular way for Averitt and wonder how different it is.

-Traffic Jam

I would YouTube Swift Pretrip. You will see a couple videos that show it better than I can explain it here. Remember though it may be different depending on the school and state. For Fontana they contract through TDA and they are third party testers.

I did well today. It has all come back to me. I am spending my time helping other students running through the PTI, in-cab, and air brakes test.

I will be running some classmates to wal-mart later then I'm going to hit the hot tub.

Congratulations, Big T.

Don't forget the steering yoke on the linkage under the hood connected to the tie bar. Just kidding, made that one up.

Hope the weather last night was not too bad on you down there. We are up at Plainview near Lubbock/Amarillo.

Would you describe the PTI Swift way? I learned it a particular way for Averitt and wonder how different it is.

-Traffic Jam

Thanks Big T. I'll look that up on You Tube. So you are not in TX?

-Traffic Jam

No I'm in Fontana Ca.

Thanks Big T. I'll look that up on You Tube. So you are not in TX?

-Traffic Jam

Some observations: People are the biggest hinderance to their own success. You need to get out of your own way.

The stuff we are learning in school are nothing more than a set of routines and paths. Granted, they have major safety implications but they are still just routines and paths.

Pick a point on the truck and start there every time. It will quickly become muscle memory. It becomes much easier to learn the names because you know what you need to check now what is it called?

Stay focused! The process is a set of building blocks. You need to master the Pre Trip before you can move on to the skills and road. I watch classmates critiquing the students on the skill pad, even though they are struggling with the inspections. Focus on the task at hand.

You control your learning.