Ground School Update

Everyday on the way to ground school we drive by the 747 outside the museum complex where our class is held.

Today we went out to the airplane with our instructor, walked around it, and actually got to go inside. Its pretty impressive, and it kind of hit me that I'll be flying one of the largest airplanes in service. Granted, its 1970's technology, but its still pretty darn cool.
There were no stairs to get to the main deck door, so we had to climb up an exit hatch behind the nose gear, to get in via the electronics compartment in the lower deck. From there another ladder took us to the main deck and up another ladder to the upper deck and cockpit. The main deck is really, really, big and it was easy to imagine it full of cargo pallets. The upper deck and cockpit are the "hump" on the airplane where I expect to be spending lots of time in the near future


Looking forward from the First Officer's seat, the view from three stories up is going to be very different than what I'm used to. I think the landing flare might take a while to get used to. Everyone was excited to be in the airplane, and we really enjoyed our "walk around," then it was back to class to finish learning about the fuel system.
Here's some pictures of my class mates Chris, Edul and Kevin in front of the #3 engine.
James "JB" Brown in the cockpit
Jason picked Edul up by his leg, (ok, actually Edul was doing a headstand and Jason was trying to "steady" him.
Me in the cockpit
Chris "let's go swimming" Farina