Posting this here, on the off chance anyone from the class happens to spy it, or if anyone in the area has been thinking about taking a class from Rainier.  

BLUF:  Good, if basic, class, and good instructors.

Link to class info/listing, for point of reference.  The primary instructor was Don Smith.

So, for some background, I've got a fair amount of carbine experience thanks to Uncle Sam, and I've taken a few other classes before.  However, I haven't taken a class in many years now, and needed a refresher before diving in to a more advanced class.  Since Rainier's Essential Carbine Class was a prereq for their Defensive Carbine class, that worked out fine.  

Since I tend to overthink things, I brought way more equipment than they listed as required on their website.  Doubled their ammo requirement, and brought not only my belt rig, but also my plate carrier.  Decided to take my SBR SCAR 16S, and added my Sig to the bag just in case they ever wanted to add in some pistol transitions.  The Sig never got a chance to play, but the plate carrier ended up being a good choice for a couple of reasons.  At the very least, it was good to get out and move/shoot in full kit again.

The student body for this class was incredibly mixed; we had at least one other Veteran in the group, through the mix of civilian shooters, and right down to a guy who had never fired the AR he brought to the class.  The instructors did a good job of tailoring their instruction to the needs of the individual shooters.  The only time the extra instruction needed for some became noticeable was right at the beginning, while zeroing, but even that wasn't too bad.  

The class itself followed the outline/curriculum listed on the above link, starting with safety concerns, fundamentals, and the set ups of our individual carbines.  Zeroing was next, and the class focused on the 36m zero.  I had a 25m zero on my SCAR, but had no problem changing it for the class.  After we zeroed, we kitted up.  Most folks had chest rigs, but there was at least one other with a plate carrier, and the instructor covered kit set ups and considerations.  While basic, it was good to see kit/gear considerations being included in a class, as I've been to more than a few where that subject is completely ignored.   The carbine employment and presentation part was next, with discussions on stance, recoil control, and rifle carry positions.  The positions the class covered were high and low ready (my bread and butter), high port (something I'm familiar with, but not one I have a ton of experience with, and a belt ready position (apparently from competition).  Can't say I'm a fan of the last position, and it was "weird" enough that I was noticeably "double crouching" once I had the carbine in position.  I figure my brain was trying to shift gears, and felt the need to reconfirm the stance because the first task was so foreign.  It slowly worked itself out as I got more used to the newer presentation methods.  

Reloads were covered in the form of both tactical/administrative reloads, as well as emergency reloads.  Emphasis was placed on observing the reason for the "dead trigger", which I understand, but it was hard not to immediately go into reloading mode when you can feel the carbine lock open.  One tid bit that was nice to see mentioned was doing administrative reloads from the opposite side of your kit from emergency reloads, so that your emergency mags tend to be the ones that are most likely to still be completely loaded after being swapped.  After reloading, we moved on to the oh so fun malfunction clearing section.  The malfunctions mentioned were mostly AR-based, as were the methods of clearing them, but they mostly work for the SCAR as well.  We induced double feeds, failure to feeds, and even bolt override malfunctions.  The last was good to see, because, again, I've taken classes where that is skipped completely.  The Leatherman MUT tool was mentioned as one potential method of fixing it, but the "fix the problem however you need to" solution was pushed, including mortaring the carbine.   This section was interesting for me, as the SCAR seems far more forgiving against these malfunctions; for bolt override, I mostly just racked the charging handle a few times until the brass worked itself loose and fell out.  Stripping the mag and racking the gun fixed 95% of the induced malfunctions we did all day, where AR guys had to get a bit more personal with their carbines (SCAR Master Race for the win!)  Finally, the class wrapped up with some multi-target enjoyments.  As fitting the class, these consisted of 2 rounds on 3 different targets, in the order given by one of the instructors.  Relatively simple, but we did burn through a few mags doing this, giving folks the opportunity to work on reloading on the fly.  We conducted a brief AAR, got our certificates of completion and Rainier Training patches, and the broke up for the day.  

As basic as the class was, it was good to get out and practice the basics under someone else's watchful eye.  It's too easy to miss what you're doing wrong if you or a friend are your only critic, so in that sense the class was great.  The "double crouch" that I mentioned earlier wasn't even something I noticed I was doing, but both instructors mentioned it.  Whoops.  The only "uh oh" moment of the class was during the multi target engagement portion, when one of the students caught a bit of shrapnel from a steel target in the arm.  It started bleeding moderately, and didn't want to stop.  I had some band-aids in my plate carrier just for this, so we were able to continue the class without even having to go back to the staging area.  Score one for over thinking things! I'm looking forward to the next class, Defensive Carbine later this year, and hopefully they'll include the few things I would have liked to see in the basic class.  (using cover, transition to side arms, etc)

Hope this helps!  I didn't take any pictures, but I know that some were taken by the instructor, including the class photo at the end of the day.  I'll post those if I receive them.

I wanted to go to that class but my weekends are booked solid for a bit.

Don does the NV drill night I've been to and I like his style.

Yeah, he seems to be a good instructor.  Definitely has the ability to teach, which isn't always a given with some folks.