Last Class 7 re-certification

I got up very early to get re-certified on the Class 7 forklifts at the Union Training Center in central Washington, that was a pleasant drive. There were only 3 there to test out and my friend Bryant was running the class. I was the only guy there who had done that test ( 3 times now), so I went first to show the others how it goes. Then I wandered around the training grounds for what is the last practical time I need to go there, and took lots of pictures and reminisced about the equipment and people I had met there, and at the old school in White Swan. They had hosted the annual Top Hand Competition the day before, and all of that was still set up. Top Hand has morphed over the years from a serious competition between professionals to more of an Open House. The focus was to get kids up in the seat of real equipment, and I am sorry I missed this one. I will come back as a retiree. The I-beam is longer than the gap between the poles is. You have to telescope out and hook one end around and then drive forward around the curve and stay in the cones while telescoping in, until you have enough room to get by. Then you set it up on the brackets, ground the forks, go back up and get it, and back though the course and those poles. Then you get the pallet and set it up on the 25' high platform, get the forks out without moving it, and then get them back in and retrieve the pallet. It requires patience and good depth perception. you can see the brackets you set the beam on. Because of the proximity of the platform above, you have to get the beam out on the tip of the forks so you don't touch that, and you get deducts for touching either the little white end tabs or the tower itself with the beam sides. There were some other tasks and they gave you 20 minutes. I cruised on through in 12 and gave the clinic to the other guys Then you have to demonstrate mounting a jib and carrying a suspended load through a course.