So we'll start with how Eric's first cross-country went. The original plan was that he would leave on Friday (the 24th) and head to Knoxville for a midpoint and refuel and then he was headed to Raleigh for the weekend. Nature had a different plan! I got a quick text at about 4:30pm that said I was to pick up Eric from Key Field (hence all the pictures that you've probably been seeing). After Eric and his IP (instructor pilot) got up in the air they found out that there was a horrible sigmet (bad storm) in their path so the original plans went out the window. He got back at about 6pm and I did get some great pictures of the clouds and Eric pulling in right before it started pouring down rain. I took him back to the airport early Saturday morning so he could brief and then he was able to take off from Key Field around 11am. While prepping to take pictures and video of Eric taking off I asked a lineman (the guys who guide them in) what the flight line "etiquette" is. He later came up to be, right before Eric was getting ready to take off, and asked if I wanted to ride in the golf cart and get pictures & video closer to the runway. I took his offer and it was awesome. The only downfall was that Eric was under the hood for most of the flights so you couldn't see him in the pictures as he taxied by.
Right when he landed in Raleigh he got to see his cousin Stephen, Grammie, Dylan, Uncle Matt, and Marvin who where there when he got out of the plane. He got to hang out with them that night and didn't leave Raleigh till about 3pm on Sunday.
He had two more flights on Monday and that closed out the B.I. and R.I. (Basic Instruments & Radio Instruments) block. Since Tuesday he's now been in the Fam Block (Familiarization). The main point of the Fam Block is to work on the landing pattern and some acrobatic moves. The landing pattern is the route you have to fly before you can land the plane on the runway. He'll have classes, sims, and about 11 flights in Fams before moving into Air Navs (more on air navs when we get to that stage).
As for my job, let's start with the fact that it pays well. Actually very well by Meridian standards. I had friends that were working for $9/hr and were happy with it because that's typically high for this area. Overall my job isn't hard it's just tedious and we'll get to the other notes in a bit. My technical title is a Underwriting Service Tech at a Corporate Causality Insurance Company called Union Standard Insurance Group that's based out of Dallas, TX. What that means is that there's an outside independent sales agent that sales a policy to a company. That policy then goes to our Underwriting department and they decide what we need to charge to cover their assests and how much of a liability it'll be. Then the underwriters send that amount to me and I have to figure out how we can get that amount by changing different percentages to get the target premium. The tedious part comes into play because you can't just change any number to whatever you want. We have to check it against different state rules that dictate how much we can charge for what. So as you can see....not that hard. The thing that I don't mind about the job is the math, problem solving, and how much of a perfectionist I get to be.
Now for the side that may drive me crazy down the road. It may seem crazy and maybe I am but I can't stand how quiet it is. It's a fairly big office and we have around 50 people in there so you would think there would be some noise but NO....not much at all. You might hear a random phone ring, a printer, or some background talking but usually it's silent. I've never worked somewhere that's quiet and I didn't realize how much I thrive in noise but it also seems that the quiet makes the hours drag by. I'm just finding it hard to wake up early, sit in a cubicle, and in be in silence for 8 hours. Overall it's not bad, it's not a dream job, but it's really not a bad gig to have here in Meridian.
The idea is that we'll get a lot of bills (car and college) paid off by the time we leave here and head to the FRS (Fleet Replacement Squadron).
So in our warning once again....sorry if we're not communicating as much but we love you all and can't wait to see everyone again!!!!
Check out the website www.gallowayadventure.shutterfly.com to see some of the pictures taken at Key Field or once again the video:
No comments:
Post a Comment