Well, as of about 8:45 this morning, I'm officially done with OE. Fed ride was yesterday, It could have gone better, but the fact that the first OE CA I flew with basically let a lot of stuff slide without telling me a) I was doing it wrong or b) I wasn't doing it at all along with the fact he didn't sign off on some stuff he should have sorta set a sour tone for the whole thing. I hadn't had any issues (minor or major) and of course on the fed ride they over fuel me and send me past my max takeoff weight. So, I decided to park it in the pad and burn fuel, which was the correct choice. Takeoff out of MEM on our way to CMH, and suddenly I'm a bundle of neves. I feel like it's not going well at all, but there's nothing else I can do about it. While we were taxiing out, I asked the check airman playing FO to give dispatch a call and see what's up. All operations told us is "you're not legal. Call dispatch." So, I wasn't sure if it was a weight issue or a balance issue b/c of the jumpseater. I got jumped on....HARD. I was more or less berated for telling the FO to do something that would have him heads down and not looking out the window. In retrospect, they (the check airman and the APD on the jumpseat) are right, I just felt they were a little harsh with the judgement. Especially since almost every CA I've flown with had me doing that on the taxi out. But, that's neither here nor there. When we got to CMH, I was taxiing a little fast, and I sorta got nailed on that one, too.
Taxi out from CMH after getting another weight and balance issue sorted (this time it WAS balance issues b/c of the jumpseater), and we're off and running again. Everything was fine coming in to MEM, but I got jumped for not slowing down to 200 kts in the terminal area. Now, I've been told by several CAs, check airmen and controllers in MEM they want you doing 250 until the last second, so that was what I was doing. Now, I'm suddenly being told something different. Add to that ATC kept me high and then cleared me for the visual. Now, it worked out, and I was stabilized on the approach all the way down. Got to the gate, taxiied in, and shut it down. More or less got the "I'm gonna sign you off, but you've got a lot of work to do" speech from the fed, and that was it for the ride.
Honestly, I felt I had gotten a bad shake on the whole deal. For about 2 years I'd seen it done one way, been doing it the same way for the past 3 days and told I was doing it fine, and never heard a word that I was doing anything wrong. Then I get more or less blasted for it on the fed ride. Essentially, it seemed like a training breakdown somewhere. I know ultimately I'm the one responsible, and I HATE making excuses. But that's honestly how I felt about the whole deal.
So, I had two more legs with the same check airman (who I actually get along with really well), and he said "Look. I have yet to have a guy bust that I flew with for a while, and I know you got hosed by the guy you've been flying with." So that helped out. So, we did a leg to MGM, and the only thing he had a comment on was I should have started my descent earlier. Ultimately, it turned out to be a beauty of an approach with about a 7 mile final. During the debrief at the hotel he made the comment that he probably shoulda just waited to see how it turned out instead of saying something about the descent b/c it worked out much better than he thought it would. Points for me....finally.
Next morning, we get up and fly back to MEM. Uh oh. Turns out station ops decided to clean the plane using the emergency lighting.....and left them on all night. Batteries were dead, so I called mx. Oh, yeah. We also need someone to look at our #2 hydraulic accumulators since they're low. So, we wait for the contract mx guy to service the accumulators and charge up the emergency lights. By the time he got everything serviced, the lights were good to go. Take off, fly, land, taxi, ZERO issues. So, he tells me all the issues I had yesterday seem to be cleared up, I'm good to go, signs my stuff off, shakes my hand, and that's that.
Now, I'm just waiting on scheduling to call so I can find out when my reserve days start.
OUTSTANDING, bro!! Congrats!!! First round (for you) is on me in Vegas, baybay!!! 
:bandit:
