A Night Off

Finally, we have some time off. Finished up class today and our afternoon conference with the Chief was canceled, leaving us with the afternoon AND Sunday off. Thirty-six hours of freedom. What am I doing with it? Taking it easy. A lot of the guys went down to Octoberfest again tonight, but I'm too tired for it. As a result, I'm catching up on a few things and updating this blog. I'll probably be more productive tomorrow, but we'll see.

A recap of the last few days:

Today was a big day. After taking the ARFF class for six days a week since we arrived, we finally had our last day. I received my certificate of successful completion after taking my final exam today, though I will have to wait several weeks to hear if I passed my IFSAC test and to complete the required aircraft familiarization on the Ice before I'll get the certification that counts.

Yesterday (Friday) was a ton of fun. We had our final burns, and had a blast. They essentially set the entire prop on fire and let us use the trucks to suppress the exterior fire and left us with an interior team to make entry, extinguish, and rescue a dummy.

Our first run had some issues. I took Red 1, and definitely put it in the wrong spot. Me being on the wrong channel on the radio did not make this any easier. The rest of our first evolution had some other issues, mostly with coordination and figuring out what we were actually doing (We were the first group to go, so we were the guinea pigs.) but was so-so for a first run.

After all the groups went through once, we were given a lecture by our instructors, and we went at it again.

The second time around, things went much smoother, with one fluke exception. We controlled the exterior fire with no issues, the rescue team made entry with no issue, and the line (myself on the pipe) made it up and coiled up line with no issues. As I opened up the pipe and started hitting the fire in the cabin, a never before seen fluke occurred. At each entrance there is a emergency shut off button the stops the flow of propane to the simulator. It is protected by a steel cover. Normally this would be sufficient, but the ladder we used to make entry with happened to get snagged by the line and leaned to the side. As it leaned to the side, it happened to be set at the perfect angle to slide in under the cover and hit the shut off. This left me a little surprised (and disappointed) when I started hitting the fire and it really started to just vanish. Aside from that (any my lack of getting some decent heat), the evolution went smoothly. And who said truck work (an errant ladder) doesn't put out fire?

By the time we got to the third and final run through, we were really starting to get the hang of this. Exterior ops went well, and then we went in. I was on the rescue team this time, and gladly got ahead of the line. Since the emergency shut off had not been hit, it was at least moderately warm. I think they were out for revenge for our previous fluke of fire control, and had left us a nice present in the middle of the cabin.

The rows of seats in the simulator are all made of metal and are movable. As far as I could tell, all of the other groups had most of these movable seats on the sides and with little obstruction in the aisle. For us, however, they had stacked every single movable seat in the middle of the cabin to happily obstruct our way.

After doing some chucking around of these benches (and thinking to myself that this would be a great place to hide a dummy), we finally made our way past the mess. After searching all the way to the rear of the cabin, I still hadn't found the dummy. So I made my way back and started chucking around some more of these benches. Lo and behold, right where I'd been before was the dummy, with just his head poking out from under a bench. Some more chucking and a good drag by my rescue associate, and we were done. We were pretty happy about that and pumped about getting it done right.

That sums up our final burn day. By the end, everyone was coming together pretty well and things were getting to where they should be. Even the old man was pleased with our performance.

Going back another day, briefly, we did a lot of practical evolutions again. Mostly working with handlines, practicing rescue in a Metroliner (that thing is miserable), and some turret work. Below is a quick video I shot riding shotgun in Red 2 (the four axle monster). You may not be able to tell, but driving and operating the turret at the same time is far more difficult than you would think. Enjoy.

In other news, while the group has really come together well in the last week and a half, I'm starting to notice some cracks forming. People definitely have some different opinions about what is supposed to be happening, and I think some nerves are getting slightly frayed. This doesn't surprise me since we have really been spending a lot of time together. I definitely need some time to myself again, and will probably just wander off (as I'm apparently known to do) tomorrow and explore the city.

Lastly, we received our shift assignments. I'm joining "A" shift on the Ice. I'm fortunate to keep both the Captain and LT from our class as my shift officers, as they have a lot they can teach me.

Now, to study my technical publications for the aircraft we'll be seeing and to finally sack out.

Catch you all later.