first flight, first aid, and fighting bob

Week three. Almost halfway there. Thank God. This week was a little bit of a break compared to Emergency Management week. Our report times were a little later and we left a little earlier. We covered medical for two days, security for two days, an aircraft type, and then on Saturday, I had my first training flight!

My class after a session in customer service.

The medical section ranged from nausea/vomiting to life threatening medical conditions. If you know me, you know I love all.things.medical. I began on the track to nursing school last summer but due to a long series of events, God was clearly redirecting my path. So, it was nice to study medicine again, even if for a short time.

Ol' Stanley needed some serious resuscitation.

Next was security. Those two days were pretty intense. As you might expect, we discussed 9/11 and how that changed air travel in it's entirety. Reflecting on that day from the perspective of a flight attendant adds a whole new vantage point and is just truly heartbreaking. As I said last week, I pray that my class and I will never encounter any type of security related situation. On a lighter note, we briefly covered self defense. Enter: Bob. Bob is an angry passenger who has attempted to physically assault a flight attendant. Hint: don't try that. We have tricks up our freshly ironed sleeves to take you down.

My roommate with an unhappy Bob.

Friday, we covered three aircraft types. It was a long, stressful, 12 hour day. By the time I got home, I only had a few hours to study and prepare for my flight the following day. I was scheduled for a quick turn from Atlanta to St. Louis and back. This training flight is referred to as the OE flight. Essentially, it is required for all flight attendants to have an OE before the FAA approves you to become a flight attentant. It's huge. If you didn't pass Saturday, you were given a second attempt on Monday. If you failed again, you're sent home. On the flight, you sit with an instructor and go through a list of questions concerning door operation, emergency equipment, preflight checks, emergency situations, etc. You're really just proving to them that you know your stuff. After you finish, you're able to go and help out the crew with beverage service or whatever they needed. I was the first to sit with the instructor out of the two other girls in training with me and I'm happy to say, I passed!! It honestly wasn't as bad as I was anticipating, the stress of it all though was just incredibly overwhelming.

My OE instructor and the girls.

Being that our class flew on Saturday at different times throughout the day, we didn't have class afterwards. And my flight arrived back in ATL at 12:30pm! So I had the rest of the day to relax!! Woo hoo! They also gave us Monday off to prepare for our midterm on Tuesday. Not looking forward to that.

Overall, I'm grateful to have the flight done and can now move forward to the last half of training. 25 days to go!

*Sorry that my pictures have terrible quality! I used my phone for most of them and let's face it, my Droid has a crummy camera.