Whatever ideas I may have harbored about the quality of instruction in company-offered training have been torpedoed. We are being taught by a bona fide expert. This guy is GOOD. I’m having a blast, getting down to details on engine subjects in a way few people ever get a chance to see.

I have to admit that I’m in a different world here. My previous experience with internal combustion engines did not expose me to much of the big iron we’re learning about. When you’re talking about our engines, you’re looking at pistons a foot and a half in diameter and RPMs around 250-400. We’re talking about all sorts of little technical tidbits in details I’ve never had to deal with before, and I’m having fun translating previous experience to the new hardware.

When I say ‘new’, I mean ‘new to me’ because many of these designs have been around for several decades.

I’m hoping that I will be able to get a few pictures to back up the engines I’m talking about.

I’m also getting another wonderful view of how government regulation is colliding with common sense. Suffice to say that many operating parameters are now NOT concerned with most efficient operation in terms of cost and fuel consumption but instead are based on making sure that emissions comply with government regulation.

Further, with The One in office, the regulations are tightening up, and to be honest, we’re wondering how we’re going to keep things running at all. You see, EPA and state environmental regulators aren’t the least bit concerned about whether or not we cna keep horsepower on line to push the gas from down here to you folks up north. If we can’t meet regulations for emissions, we simply have to shut equipment down. And if you can’t run the stuff, the gas doesn’t move. It will be interesting to see how this all shakes out.