Monday it was back into the class swing of things. It was a little strange after being out for so long (basically 3 weeks). We had a couple of long classes today. The first was an introduction to the environmental control and life support systems on the Station. We covered all the bits and pieces that made up said systems - the equipment that makes oxygen, the equipment that scrubs out the carbon dioxide, the air conditioning, the water conditioning, the scrubbing out of other atmospheric components, smoke detection, depressurization detection, etc. There are tons of different pieces of equipment. Most of the "primary" equipment, i.e., the hardware that is used on a daily basis, is Russian. All of it resides in the Service Module in the Russian part of the Station. But, there are backups for each piece of the Russian equipment. The backup hardware is U.S. built and most of that resides in the U. S. Lab module. So, really, there is twice as much equipment as usual for us to learn in this system.

Our second class of the day was another class on deorbit burns, the engine firing that gets the Shuttle out of orbit and back on the ground. It was our second class on this topic. We went through different scenarios for deorbit burns, all of them dealing with the off-nominal cases. We dealt with how you accomplish the burns with only one engine (you normally use two), what to do if you can only use fuel from one tank (the center of gravity of the Shuttle gets, well, off-center, which can cause problems), and the like. There was lots and lots of information covered. I am supposed to have the simulation associated with this class later in the week. It should be fun. And, not to mention, challenging.

Finally, I went flying late in the afternoon. The pilot and I zipped over to College Station and did a few approaches. It had been over three weeks since I have flown. I felt rusty, but did all right. The flight was a workout, though. Just goes to show that you can never slack off in the flying department.

Tuesday was another full day of classes and flying. We started off with a class on the Station oxygen and nitrogen systems. We covered all the tanks, valves, regulators, and piping, as well as who uses what at what pressure, and how you transfer more gas in from the Shuttle. Whew! It was a lot to take in.

After that I had a class in basic photography. Because I am just a point and shoot photograph taker, this was a very informative class for me. Informative and yet confusing at the same time. We covered a lot of settings, and half of them seem to run backwards where larger numbers mean smaller items while the other half ran forward. That was definitely not intuitive for me. And, I never did figure out where the term "f stop" comes from either. Guess that is why I have never graduated beyond simple cameras. Unfortunately, there was no handout for this class, so I am afraid everything they told me is going to be pushed out of my brain soon enough.

In the afternoon our class had a debrief on our NOLS experience. It was a big picture debrief with the organizers of the trip to talk about how things went; what went well, what, if anything, did not go well, how the hurricane operations went, etc. Finally, at the end of the day, I went flying again. The last time I flew with this pilot, we went out to the working area over the Gulf and had fun. He got to Ellington before I did and figured that I would like to do that again. He was absolutely right. And, I got to fly nearly the entire time. He did the take-off and landing, but I did basically everything else. We did all sorts of dive-bombing of clouds and high-g loops. The first loop we did I pretty much put us immediately into 5-g's, which almost made me pass out. That probably was not such a good thing to do. But, I was able to hang in there throughout the entire maneuver and the pilot was fine the entire time. I think we may have actually hit 6 g's in some of the loops we did. It was great!

Wednesday began with a class on the Station's bar code reader. This was a hands-on class on the portable equipment that is used to scan just about everything in the Station and track their locations. It is kind of like scanning groceries, except that you can keep track of which sack your veggies are in. Each item in the Station has a bar code on it and all the storage bags and storage locations do as well. So, when you put something somewhere, you scan the item and scan the storage spot. Then the information is transferred to a giant database that tracks everything. Or, at least that is the plan. The database is only as good as the information that is put into it. Things still seem to get lost upon occasion.

Later, I was in a class on the internal thermal control system for the Station. This was a big picture look at the system and what the crew can and cannot do to it. The software for this system is quite robust, so mostly the crew does not have to do anything. However, failures outside of the system, such as in the electrical or computer systems, can prevent the automatic control of the thermal system. Thus, the crew must get involved in such cases.

After that I had a hands-on class on one of the basic film camera flown on the Station. I still do not have all the terminology down and there are about a zillion buttons on this camera. All of them seem to be secret double override buttons whereby you have to push one thing to slide another. The instructor kept saying that if you get all the settings and buttons just so, the camera will act like a "point and shoot." I am sure with a lot of practice, it will become second nature. But, I am definitely not there yet. Luckily, now that I have had the class, I am eligible to check out a camera and practice at home. That is something I will definitely have to do.

At the end of the day, I got with my sim group and did some preparation work for the deorbit burn session simulation we will have on Friday. It was a long day.

On Thursday we had an overview class on the Station robotics system and the parts and pieces associated with what we term stuctural and mechanical items, a.k.a., struc and mech. That includes all the hooks and latches that hold the pieces of the Station together. Luckily, due to my past work, I was already familiar with everything that was covered in this introductory class.

My afternoon was filled with a medical class on patient assessment techniques. This class taught us how to do basic exams on your fellow crew members. We practiced everything; how to examine the eyes, ears, nose, and throat. How to take blood samples via a pinprick to a finger. And how to listen to the heart, lungs, and other parts inside. My sister, the doctor, would be proud.

Friday morning, from 7:00 a.m. to noon, we had our simulation on deorbit burns. We definitely got better at running the complicated procedures and at working together as a team. Our pilot still probably had a hard time not just jumping in and diagnosing/doing everything, but he is managing. Even though it is not the usual order of business, we are trying to have the two mission specialists diagnose the failures just to give us practice. In real life, the failures of the sort we are learning about now are normally diagnosed by the commander and pilot. But, the mission specialists play in integral part, so we are trying to hone our skills (or, develop some, as the case may be).

I ended my week with a Russian class. It has been awhile since I have had a lesson. We did not study any grammar today. Instead, we just chatted and did some reading to get back into the swing of things.

This was quite a packed week.