Day 14: Warm Up

Today's Lessons:

• Block Test #5
  
• Comprehensive PV Written Exam
• Tabletop Orientation
  

Today we finished the last tiny bit of the academics. Block Test #5 was as standard as the others - no surprises there. The Comprehensive PV, however, was 100 questions long and covered everything we've learned from Day One. I did well with an 88 on it. The highest score I heard was a 91, and there were a few that were lower, down into the 70's. It's a lot of material, and a lot of the questions dealt with stuff that is not operational in nature (i.e. stuff that just needs to be memorized rather than material that can be "worked out" via common sense).

Then, we moved on to tabletop orientation. It was a rough start, but we worked through some problems and got a feel for how best to flow with it. We did get our scheduling, so we can see how much time we're going to be getting on each position.

Here's basically how the scheduling works: There are two tabletop labs, Room 124 and Room 163. We also have two stations of Tower3D setup in our classroom. Every day there are 7 "runs" - a.k.a. run-throughs of individual problems, which usually last around 40 minutes. For each run, you are assigned one of the following positions:

FD = Flight Data (Both Tabletop and Tower3D)
GC = Ground Control (Both Tabletop and Tower3D)
LC = Local Control (Both Tabletop and Tower3D)
FLC = Floor Local Control (Tabletop only. You hold the little planes up around the table and make airplaney sounds.)
FGC = Floor Ground Control (Tabletop only. You taxi the little planes on the surface of the table and also make airplaney sounds.)

There is a number preceding each position that lets you know what room or station you will be working in. An example of a daily schedule of 7 runs:
124GC | 124FLC | 163FLC | 2FD | 124FGC | 1LC | 163FLC

If the preceding number is 124 or 163, you're in one of the aforementioned tabletop labs. If it's a single digit, you work that position at a specific station in the Tower3D lab. It's pretty straightforward, and they try to make it so that everyone gets an equal amount of chances. Nonetheless, you should contrast and compare with others to make sure that everyone's on the same page.