BloodOnTheIce
Addicted to ArboristSite
Ok Blood its time to fill you in on what your really going to.
When I was there we did stay at the beach facing the ocean and yes Stihl did send Lincolns to come pick us up and take us back to the hotel.
First day in class Eddie will be teaching alot of the basics. He doesn't waste alot of time beating the same subjects, he rolls right along. You will need to be alert because alot will come back in tests.
Safety and EPA will be beat into you. The last thing you want to do is drop start a saw in Eddie's presence. He will scold you very quick, trust me I know from first hand experiance. He's very gung ho about safety and doing things by the book and book only.
You will be given some sort of unit to tear down and find faults with that Eddie has on purpose rigged up. You will be graded on finding every fault with the unit. Your given 1 hour to tear it apart and put it back together and list all the faults you found. This test is critical for your passing so take your time and find each and every fault.
There will be a bunch of items that you will be told to look at and try to figure out what happened to them. You will be given 2 minutes to look, list what you think happened to it and then you go to the next item. In this deal if you don't know the cause guess at it and move on, 2 minutes is all your going to get. Not allowed to hold up the others.
You will get the pleasure of seeing Eddie's $19,000 automatic chain sharpener he is very proud of. You'll get a tour of the Stihl museum which is very cool. You'll get a full factory tour in which you will see a multi billion dollar operation in action. They can produce 6000 saws a day in full swing. You will enjoy all the multi million dollar equipment they use throughout the factory.
You will go outside and run some equipment and blow up some as well only to put back together in class. You will see they don't cut pennies when teaching, they really put out some big bucks for the Gold School.
Finally and foremost all the mod talk and alterations that are common practice on this site is shunned. He won't listen to it, has no interest in it so don't even go there. Everything is taught and done strickly by the book and nothing else. Half of what goes on here is considered idiot talk at the factory so spare yourself and stick to the book.
Oh, yes the factory does have a Stihl Cafe. The walls are indeed bright lime green. Dayummest thing I ever seen but the food is good!!
Now your informed of what to expect. I got one of the highest grades in my class when I was there so if I can do it you should have no problems at all. Getttttttttttttttter done,
Oh, while your there tell Eddie ole Hall said I'll be down in the spring to check his saw collection again and that even though he has more saws, mine are prettier,haha
Since I went to the Silver Training back last April, I've been trying to use the Stihl Engine Checklist as much as I can.
So I've got that pretty well memorized at this point, and know that's a BIG part of the test.
I've been practicing doing leakdown tests, and pressure/vac tests as much as I can to get them down quickly.
The thing I'm weakest on is the 4 Mix stuff, just because they are new enough that I rarely have to do any real repairs just usually general service.
My tech services guy Pete, told me "Take this serious, you're at work, and I'm signing my name that I'm recommending you, and I'm the one that gets chewed out if you screw up and fail"
The Hilton I'm staying at is the on further away from the beach in the city center.
I like how they tell you NOT to bring any equipment with you to the class, and same with tools. I guess they get enough guys trying to drag in saws that it's an issue.
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