Day 1

First day of class was Wednesday 11/4. Class is normally from 7am-330pm, however they recommended we arrive extra early on day 1, as we had to go through security to get our credentials and parking passes. I was sitting in the security building at 6:15am, and it was still dark outside! Everybody on campus has a gov't issued photo ID that they need to wear at all times. Apparently if you're caught without your credentials, it's not a good thing! Once we got through security, we went to the Academy building where our classroom is located (there are many buildings on the academy campus). Our schedule for the day included welcome from division management, policies and procedures briefing, info on the credit union, lots of HR paperwork, and the usual information about sexual harassment prevention & workplace rules. We don't do any actual learning until day 2 begins.

My class has a total of 9 people, all going to the same types of facilities (TRACONS -more later). There are 4 of us going to Potomac, 2 going to New York Tracon, 2 going to Dallas tracon, and 1 Memphis. With a few exceptions, most of the class does not have aviation experience or background. However, everybody is a lot of fun and its obvious that they all want to be there! Here's a picture of the class:

It was exciting to get started, but day 1 was most definitely very boring. The next few days are when it starts to get interesting!