NEW STUFF

hey for everyone who has followed me I found out that the life of a F/A may not be for me, even though I was missing it a little going through all my old postings. But I'm starting a new blog of my new life and career, hope to hear from yall!

UGH...IM GETTING SICK OF THIS!

Well as some of you may or may not have known I was "suppose" to leave this Sunday for training but, for whatever reason I won't be going until the APRIL class. Oh well I guess everything happens for a reason.

2.21.07 "I CAN SEE CLEARLY NOW"

Well here we go again. For some of you that may not know the airline I originally applied with in the beginning  "Colgan Air" well after leaving Chautauqua and finding out they would not allow me back I applied like crazy all over well low and behold Colgan Air called me back for a "second interview" and today I received the job to go to training in March. Now before some of you out there say "turn away" or anything like that hear me out. I feel that this is a GREAT company to start with. They just got unionized and got bought out by "Pinnacle Airlines Corp." Which brings great potential and upgrades for the company. The ONLY drawback with Colgan is they only fly Turbo-Props (the aircrafts with propellors) at THIS time, they eventually would be getting the CRJ's from their Holding company "Pinnacle" So I just wanted to let everyone know that once again I will be doing the training thing again and I WILL be "head down, staying down" studying. Watch for updates, and thanks to everyone for their support; family, friends and you guys! Oh-yea one last thing I WILL be based in my home town, so that works out even better!

A LIL BIT OF AN UPDATE...

I've been applying like crazy to all sorts of airlines, and in the meantime trying to get back into CHQ training program. I got a sniff of the airline business and no I cant get enough of it, even though it was just training. But I'm not giving up, Im going to be a Flight Attendant some way or another, haha

NOT A GREAT DAY...

February 12th, 2007 was not a great day. That was the day I failed my third test, so I went home. But Im not giving up Im reapplying to everyone which isn't many that hire at 19. Anyway I will everyone know if I find anything...

DAY TWELVE (BRACE,BRACE, HEADS DOWN!)

Not such a good day. To begin with being tired from just being exhausted and brain dead I failed my stupid test today!!!!! Why because I miss-spelled a word and well of course it was my fault and got it wrong. But we only have three more test and the instructor told me that is basically down hill from here, meaning easy, easy. So I know I will be fine. But I'm not going to stress over it, I just need to slow down some times. Anyway after that we went over "Emergency Procedures" and what are objective's are and what we need to do and also the thing that everyone hates "The Twelve Steps" which are basically the "twelve" steps needed to be taken in a PLANNED EMERGENCY. It consists of five pages which ALL have to be memorized verbatim. Which we are all stressing over because its a lot of remembering and then we get tested on it Thursday night so we don't have to much time and we also have another test tuesday. Im sure I will get it done though. 

Aside from that just some knowledge for your information, you may or may not know but 95% of the people involved in U.S. Airline accidents have survived. Aviation experts say that the number could be even higher if the airline industry made improvements and passengers took safety more seriously. Another piece of information, in the event of a cabin fire 53 seconds into the fire the interior is an inferno, with temps ranging from 90 degrees at the floor level to more than 2,200 degree at the ceiling. After about 100 seconds the entire cabin suddenly explodes in flames in a phenomenon know as flashover.  This is where I STRESS the importance of be alert and aware. According to the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) & the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) the best chance passengers have of surviving is to be fully knowledgeable of the individual aircrafts safety information. So please next time that you are on a aircraft read your safety information card and follow along as the flight attendant reviews important safety information.

Lastly we just got back from the hangar after testing over our "UNPLANNED EVACUATION" This would be for when there is NO time to prepare the cabin and the steps that would needed to be taken place would be as followed:

A "command" would be given from the Captain, then the F/A (Flight Attendant)

F/A then shouts "Brace, Brace Heads Down, Stay Down" until the second "command" from the 

Captain

F/A then shouts "Release Seat-belts, Get Out" Then activates the emergency lighting system.

F/A then shouts "Stand back" until the main cabin door is opened. We must then asses the outside condition of the door before opening. Then after the door is opened me instruct our two ABP (Able Body Persons) to "Stand at the bottom, help people off, send them away" we then shout "Leave everything, come this way, run down the stairs, move" we continue to repeat that until the Galley Service door is opened. Then instruct two more ABP's "Stand at the bottom, help people off, send them away" We then move to the Main Cabin Door brace ourself in the corner and continue to shout "Leave Everything, come this way, run down the stairs, move" The entire command must be VERBATIM and loud enough to hear from the aft of the aircraft and able to evacuate passengers in under 90 seconds.  I passed that. Anyway off to bed!

DAY ELEVEN (HANGAR NIGHT)

The day is finally over! Normal routine wake up around 10am and class at noon. No test today; we finished going over the two other planes, the Embraer 140 & 135. Mostly just safety equipment and location of things. That was most of the day. The last half was spent practicing our "Safety Demo" We got back to the hotel around 6pm and then I my group had to be at the Hangar at 10pm and we just got back about an hour ago. Tonight we spent going over out "preflight checklist" all the items that we must check to ensure is in proper order and what are the preflight's for each item. Here are a few:

POB (Portable Oxygen Bottle) Present & Secure, Above 1200 PSI, Two O2 Masks & one connected to the output valve.

PBE (Protective Breathing Equipment) Present & Secure, Vacuum Packed/Sealed, Plastic Cover Intact

MRT (Manual Release Tool) Present & Secure

Halon Fire Extinguisher - Present & Secure, Gauge in green, Pin Intact, Tamper Evident Seal Intact

AED (Automated External Defibrillator) Present & Secure, Flashing hourglass Symbol, Two sets of pads, One razor

EEMK (Enhanced Emergency Medical Kit) Present & Secure, Tamper Evident Seal, Stethoscope & Blood pressure cuff in outermost pocket

First Aid Kit- Present & Secure, Tamper Evident Seal Intact

Grab & Go Kit- Present & Secure

Flashlight- Present & Secure, Solid red light

These are just a FEW of the items that MUST be checked at the beginning of every shift/or first flight or a/c swap to ensure that these and MANY other items are working and present. These are also items that the a/c can NOT fly without. So as you can imagine there is alot of background stuff that goes on that you as a customer are not even aware about. Anyway I gotta hit the sack, I got a test tomorrow over all the different types of aircrafts. Nite!

DAY TEN (SHORT DAY)

What a great day! It was a later day, I got up around 10am and got to the Training Center aka "The Hotel" and took my test and got an almost perfect score except I rushed through it and skipped the back page, But I still passed I just gotta slow down next time. Later on we went into detail about the first aircraft details, this included the exits, safety equipment locations, galley info, lighting almost everything you need to know about our first aircraft the "Embraer 145." After that as a class we took turns practicing the Safety Demo and then got spilt into two groups, one which would go to the hangar tonight and the other group tomorrow night, luckily I will be going tomorrow so we got back to the Hotel around 6pm and since then I've been well taking it easy, I will update everyone tomorrow.

DAY NINE (SAFETY DEMO)

Hey everyone sorry for not posting yesterday, I was really tired and just hit the sack. So forgive me if this entry isn't to lengthy. Thursday we spent learning the "Safety Demo" which if you've ever flown you're familiar with, if not it goes something like this:

We start the CD which has a prerecorded message for the passengers and we follow along with the CD and "demo" the equipment.

It starts out to inform passengers or (PAX) the industry term for "passengers" to follow along in their Safety Information Card located in their seat back pocket. With some other stuff the lady on the CD says. We stand at Row 3 show the card then to Row 1 and display the card. Next is the seat-belt demonstration, start at Row 3 and finish at Row 1. After that is the Oxygen Mask demo, at Row 1 then Row 3. Finally we display the Safety Information Card section information the PAX of instructions to take in the "Unlikely Event" of a water landing or "ditching." Now keep in mind that ALL of the demo that we do HAS precise hand movements-that coincide exactly with a certain phrase. It is a very strict guideline we must follow as to where I hands must be positioned when showing, how to hold the demo equipment and so on.

After learning how to actually do the demo, we went out to the plane that night to demo it on the plane for real practice. For those of you, who haven't ever been to a hanger its a pretty amazing thing. The building which is about four football fields long and about 10 stories tall is filled with planes and service equipment. Anyway it was pretty fun, we got back around 2am and we stayed up till about 3am studying. Ok now for Friday's post.  

DAY EIGHT (FINALLY A DAY OF REST)

What an amazingly wonderful day, I slept till about two and did pretty much nothing. Just wanted to post to let everyone know we had today off. I just got done studying about 30mins ago for tomorrow's test. I have to go in early for my retest which I will do great on, and then our Emergency Equipment test. Anyway goodnight everyone!

DAY SEVEN (TIRED)

First of all let me say something about my post from yesterday. I briefly hit on the topic of not studying and I felt I needed to re-clarify this for everyone. What I intended to say was that staying up for 3, 4 or even 5 five hours is not necessary. Of course you should always review the material but not to the extent you deprive your self of sleep. So yes do study but don't stress. Today was probably the worst day for me. Before we took our test the In-flight Manager came into the room to "announce" to everyone that the test we all would about to take would be the hardest test yet. Well of-course he was right five people went home today and about 15 people have to retake it, including myself. I was soo close though I missed it by two, and they were common sense. So come Thursday all of us will be retaking. I really didn't want to have to use my retakes, which we get two, although I really didn't want to fail anything. So at this point I just need to move on and ensure myself everything else will go great. After the test we spent most of the day on Emergency Equipment and going of things of that nature. We also talked about turbulence and how a plane works etc. except normally a pilot comes in to discuss this section, well I guess with everything and us not being in the new training center changed this. Anyway not much to today just got back and tomorrow is our day off, I will repost Thursday.

DAY SIX

Not so bad today, normal morning wake-up routine for myself. We started the class at 1230 and listened to an hour keynote about the union which was REALLY quick. Then took our test which I ELECTED not to study for b/c I was tired the previous night, well low and behold I passed with a %98. My take on this is that if you can study easily and remember things easily, then paying attention in class with most likely be the only thing you need to do. What I'm not saying is to go back to hotel and party and no study but if you feel confident about the daily material there is no reason to have so much pressure to study in my opinion. Throughout our longer day we broke for "dinner" not lunch around 6ish. We then continued back to the classroom going over material such has International rules, and a huge issue that was stressed WEIGHT & BALANCE. Basically this is something that if not done properly then point blank the plane will probably crash, thats how I received it, but hey SAFETY is first then CUSTOMER SERVICE is second. Around 930 we left for the hanger which when we arrived was fun, but then sitting on the plane for over 2hours or something with just recirculated HOT air was not so much fun. Not too much happened today but were all eating right now, we just got back from the hangar about an hour or so ago, more to come tomorrow.

DAYS FOUR & FIVE (REALLY SHORT AND QUICK)

Let me begin with that so much has been going on that I didn't have the the time to post two separate-detailed entries, on Saturday class started at the normal 8am time. I honestly can't tell you what I did in class that day b/c I was soo tired but I think that we talked about cabin signals and safety and a lot of math stuff which I zoned out on and almost fell asleep. We got back to the hotel around 430ish, and I entered my room and went immediately to bed and didn't wake up until later the next morning with only several minutes to spare to get ready for class on Sunday. We took a test over Saturday's material and I barely passed with an 90% but sadly our really good friend in our group was dismissed from the program which has been kinda sad, but it just again points how the importance of studying. I've also found out that out of the seven previous flight attendants in the room, keep in mind all from different airlines have all said that Chautauqua is by far the hardest to go through for several reasons. Anyway after the test we went over a lot of interesting safety procedures and etc. We got back to the hotel around 530 or so and we all went out for out first night out, since Monday's class doesn't start until 1230 but I'm going to bed b/c Im really tired and I will give a full update Monday night.

DAY THREE!

I've figured at this point instead of starting off by stating how long the day was I will just say from this point on EVERY DAY is a LONG day and some even longer. Today I woke up a little bit later since I had signed up for the 7:15 shuttle. When we arrived at the hotel today we watched about an hour or so long powerpoint over the history over the company, which honestly was somewhat interesting. Although some of the terminology and background about the company was a little confusing at times. Proceeding that we took our City Code Test, which I truly thought would send me home b/c I would do so badly, but I surprisingly got 98% correct which wasn't too bad, although we did have two people get sent home today for making a 70% which according to training policy any person that receives a score of 70% or lower on ANY exam will be an automatic removal from the program. So this would be a key point to inform you NOT to mess around. Following that we all had about and hour and half lunch depending on what time you finished your exam. When we returned from lunch we had a compliance check to insure we had the required items on our person, which you know who...me failed! I forgot to bring my flash-light with me but we found out later that it was just a warning/reminder and no demerits were actually given. But by far the WORST part of the day was putting together our "FAM" (Flight Attendant Manual) which is mandated by the FAA and its about 3 inches thick filled with every piece of information you should know or be able to reference too. This manual is one of the most important items that we carry with us we were told, it is our bible to our career. It must be taken with us EVERY flight and if it is not present you will not be able to fly. In addition since it's mandated by the FAA, at any time aboard any flight a FAA Inspection Agent may ask to see your FAM and for EVERY mistake which includes but not limited too: ANY writing in the book, ANY missing pages, ANY stapled pages would result in a fine assessed at $1,000 for each fine and will be fined DIRECTLY to the individual and NOT the company. Although most instances the individual is not fined but just sent a letter from the FAA instructing the amount of the fee and corrections needed to fix the issue.  So as you can imagine its a vital resource. Lastly we reviewed some definitions for our Third test and that about summed up the entire day which ended around 7pm. Now for some of my little rants throughout the day.

My first one would defiantly have to be PAY ATTENTION, I can't begin to tell you how annoying it is for someone to ask a question that was answered TWO SECONDS ago, its holds the class up and most importantly its hold ME up.

STUDY STUDY STUDY, if this is not done for one you do not need to be here and for two you WILL fail

Also just an update I've found out that there will NOT be a graduation ceremony. Not too much else is going on and my I also just realized I may sound a little cranky or whatever you call it, but I'm just tired and going on like 5 hours of sleep for the past two days and trying to maintain my study skills. So just as a note FA School will kick your butt! Everyone have a good night!

SECOND DAY (FIRST DAY OF CLASS)

Wow what a lot of information today! Yet another long day, my day started off at 5am b/c I forgot to sign up for the later shuttle, so I was stuck with the 6:45am shuttle. Once we arrived at the other hotel  we all gathered in a large meeting room with about sixty of us all seated in alphabetical order. The instructors all introduced themselves and seem to be great people. They mostly went over expectations and rules followed by a lengthy presentation from HR discussing insurance, benefits, and tons more. Proceeding that we had an hour lunch break and we all found out that the training center that we all were told we would be moved too won't be ready until later next month, which means no microwave or fridge for our lunches which meant eating at the Food Court in the airport or the hotel restaurant. After we all ate we then started our fingerprinting followed by Test #1 which tested over our knowledge of the Boarding Announcement. As for the test don't stress, they are very easy going. Lastly was my least favorite part; drug testing. Now this is one of those things were you are either or your aren't comfortable being told to "pee." After my second time and 9 gallons of water later, I finally was able too. Probably TMI but it was the little laugh of the day in class. Toward the end of class we discussed the next day and prepared for Test #2 by playing City Code Jeopardy. Tonight I made it back to the hotel around 6pm. But I gotta finish this up b/c I have to REALLY gotta study my city codes tonight for tomorrows test, so I anticipate a long night studying with others.  

Just a few other things I left out:

-Seniority is based on the last four of your individual SSN, I was #18 out of 60. So I'm guessing thats good

-Pay attention, the instructors do not like to repeat themselves or speak over other people.

-Lastly PAY ATTENTION there is a lot to be learned!!!

  

FIRST DAY IN INDIANAPOLIS (PRE-TRAINING)

Today was a long day. It begun with a late wake-up call, ha-ha. With catching a nine-o-clock flight from IAH to ORD then ORD to IND around 3pm local time. The trip from IAH to ORD was amazingly pleasant, the group of us traveling for training all got upgraded to First Class, and it was a terrific experience. When we arrived in ORD we "toured" the airport trying to locate our gate and finally boarded around 1pm, with a short more cramped flight to IND. After arriving in Indy we waited in the blistering cold for about an hour for our shuttle to arrive which we were told would be there "any minute."  We all check into the hotel and find out that we proceed to uniform sizing and fitting, which thinking the amount of money you pay for your uniform that there would be a actual person measuring each person one by one for a "custom" fit. Unfortunately I was incorrect. It was like a match up clothes warehouse. There were several different sizes of Blazers, Pants, Shirts, Belts, & Ties and Coats to try on to see what size fit you best. After finding the size yourself you fill out your paperwork detailing the specific size of each item needed and payment information, I choose deductions from my paycheck over a 12 month period which seemed to be the most popular choice. I also found out that my luggage was not acceptable due to the fact that the "Kenneth Cole Logo" found on the zippers and front of the bag as well as the non-black wheels were a no go. So I would suggest either purchase the luggage from the company which will set you back about $150 for the Roller-board and RON bag. Next we met some of the other people here at the hotel and decided to take a trip to go eat and purchase some supplies for the upcoming week. We arrive back at the hotel after out outing around 930 and through-out the hotel there are small study groups of everyone studying.  My group which went over our boarding announcement for the test the next day seemed to do great. After all the excitement from the day we finally decided to call it a night around 11:00pm. Tomorrow morning I got on the early shuttle at 6:45 so I WILL be waking up around 5AM. More to come tomorrow.

TRAINING IS ALMOST AROUND THE CORNER...

Five months ago I would have never have begun to fathom the idea of myself becoming a Flight Attendant, and I still cant. Lets start with the fact that I was a normal college student doing the college thing, until I moved back home trying to refocus my studies and debating if I should work full time or part time and school and just a whole mess of things until I came across job listing for a small airline which we will call "Company A." Well I got invited to an interview with "Company A" and everything seemed like it went well I was really excited to begin work, until I got the run around about a new training program being started and they wouldn't start this until several months later. At the time needing a job and facing financial hardships I declined to wait. Several weeks later my financial burdens were solved by another source but I still needed a job, the idea of a Flight Attendant still was in my mind, but who to work for at the age of nineteen. As many might not know most commercial airlines don't hire until the age of "21" nevertheless I wasn't giving up. Then came along "Company B" I read several bulletins about them, spoke to different people who worked for them and heard great things, next step was to sign up. I completed my online application and was invited for a "Open-House/Interview" in a very cold city up in the North, all expenses except for the hotel which had a discounted rate at forty dollars a night. After waiting a couple of days I got the call that they wanted to invite to attend a three week training with the company, I was overwhelmed with excitement, but told the recruiter I would call her back the next day with my answer, she understood that it was a very big decision to make and to take my time. Well jump forward to January 29th, 2007 the day before I fly out to training and begin my new life. I can't wait!