NLC Week 5

Another week gone by! Getting back into the "student" mind set after having nearly two weeks off was interesting. Waking up at 4:30 a.m. seemed really early after sleeping in until 7:30. Tuesday was great though, I got two more A's on the tests I took before Christmas break. We also finished the Fundamentals of Linework book and started in on the Working on Lines and Equipment book. This week was also the last week of the Electrical Systems book. We start the Basic Electrical Theory book on Monday. Class was good, but the field was better. Climbing Pit for 6 hours is a lot of fun. We began the day warming up and getting back into the rhythm of climbing then after lunch it was all about getting more competencies signed off. Climbing up and over the front of a crossarm, doing the 6 foot lean out and climbing to the top of the pole. All were first time "GO's" and then a couple of us got to go make an obstacle course on a pole to climb over and practice transitions with our secondary lanyard. We ended the day doing "up-downs" . Wednesday was the usual classwork, then into the field at the Distribution Pit getting more competencies signed off. The competencies were framing a utility pole which meant installing crossarms and insulators, tensioning a utility pole guy wire and running the boom on the line truck through an obstacle course. Another fun day in the field. Oh yeah..."Squirrel" took our NEW class flag to the top of the 80 foot pole, he was the first of the term to climb it...The other class wasn't to happy about it. Thursday was review day for both classes and then off to the field this time we were in the last day of the Underground area getting signed off on making up 200 amp Load-Break Elbows that plug into the transformer. After that was done it was Vault Rescue Certification time. The rescue dummy didn't respond when I called his name so I had to go in after him! After everyone in my group finished we went over to the Transmission area and watched the instructor demo changing out an insulator. He did it at about 5 feet, we will be doing it at 55 feet...I can't wait. Friday we tested and then had our first "evaluations" of the term. I got great marks and all the instructors comments were positive and encouraging. What a great week.