Odds and Ends

SPRING BREAK

Here's some belated photos of T and I on spring break in Florida:

This was taken outside an abandoned ranger's station on the beach island (peninsula?). This was during a loooong walk down the beach on a search for some old fort ruins. We didn't make it all the way, although we walked (and ran a bit) about 4 1/2 miles before we turned back. There was a storm brewing too; maybe we'll get a chance to bike/hike out there once we move.

Here is some beach wildlife. Portuguese Man o' War (s). Men o' War. Whatever. We found lots during our time on the beach that day, even bigger ones but these are the ones we got pictures of. Going in the water seemed risky!

Dude, it's a fort! This one was actually on the Naval Air Station (the base where Tobin will be training). It was so cool, with a drawbridge and moat and cannons and everything.

Inside the fort. If you look closely, you can see the Tobin ghost.

Airplanes! There is a lovely little museum on the base as well, where we spent a good few hours one day.

MIL BALL

On Saturday we had the military ball, where ROTC seniors were honored and a nice dinner was served, followed by a dance. It was a nice evening.

T and I.

Our table, minus T the photographer.

ART

Behold, my art. I don't know why I ever went into engineering. Look at this raw talent.

GRE results

I took the GRE today, starting just before noon. The essay sections went quickly, I didn't take the whole time allotted for those. Then I took the rest of the test and took all of the time on those parts. I got my unofficial scores (everything but the essay results), and I scored above what I needed to for the PAQ application. Funny thing is, I scored the same as what I did on the SAT the first time I took it, but I reversed my verbal and quantitative scores. Guess that means I'm finally better at math, but my verbal skills are going downhill. Thanks to good ole engineering, haha.

I'm glad I got the score I needed, and I hope to hear from the PAQ people down in Florida soon. I've been calling, but I don't have any updates right now. Love y'all, see you later!

Results

We finished 33rd out of 60 teams. Apparently, only 47 even passed spec tests on Friday. As mentioned in the previous post, we completed the first mission successfully this morning. The second mission attempt, which we flew at a weight of 23 pounds (all calculations were initially performed at 16 pounds...max), was flying but was very unwieldy (kind of uncontrollable when it had to turn 360 degrees), so it was landed with minimal damage. The team is heading home now.

Mission Successful

My plane took off, made two laps in about three minutes, and landed WITHOUT a crash this morning! That is the first mission. The second (loaded) will be attempted later on today. :)

I am very excited...I'll let you all know what happens when I hear further from my team. Love y'all!

Meanwhile, in Wichita, KS:

The following is an email from our senior design group leader:

"This morning started off with a very beautiful day. The sun was shining and there was little to no wind. Initially we watched several teams make their first flights and enjoyed our time because there are a maximum of 5 flight attempts and we weren’t in a huge rush to take them.

Flight attempt number one:
Once we made it to the runway, we turned on the motor and the plane moved backward. This was the result of wires from the motor to the battery being switched after the final test flight. The fix took approximately 30 minutes to complete as well as a few other very minor problems that we encountered.

Flight attempt number two:
With the 20x15 propeller attached we attempted the delivery mission. The plane did not make the takeoff distance, and Steve was unable to maintain control of the airplane during the rollout and we sheared off the landing gear and broke a few formers forward of the battery pack. The propeller was also broken in the process. Repairs took approximately 45 minutes.

Flight attempt number three:
With the 24x12 propeller attached, we again attempted the delivery mission. We got off the ground in the allotted space, but Steve was expecting to be holding down elevator and pushed the plane back down onto the runway after the 75 ft mark. This invalidated that takeoff, but he landed the plane successfully and brought it around for a second takeoff. This time takeoff went very smoothly and Steve was able to complete two laps of the course. However there was a crosswind and the plane stalled as he brought it in for landing. The firewall broke off, the horizontal tail broke, the elevator and rudder came loose and there was other miscellaneous damage to the plane. We are about to begin repairs and we should be making our 4th attempt early in the morning."

AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!! Yeah, go plane!

In which I survive an earthquake...

T and I were woken up this morning at around 5:30 due to tremors from an earthquake that lasted about 20 seconds. An earthquake in Indiana??!! We got up and found two of T's roommates also awake; one of them found, just a few minutes later, a site online that claimed it was an earthquake of a 5.2 magnitude. It wasn't until later this morning (when normal ppl wake up) that I found a site that corroborated that info. Apparently it was an earthquake in West Salem, IL that was felt all over IN as well.

Beyond that excitement, there are a couple of other things going on as well. I am taking the GRE on Tuesday, so I'm studying a bit for that now. Also, I have another job opportunity that I am in the middle of applying for. It's pretty cool, but I don't want to get my hopes up yet. T is going to be gone most of the weekend for a Feild Traning exercise.

See you all later, hopefully soon. (May 10th, at least)

DBF Competition this Weekend!

Our senior design project culminates this weekend. The Design, Build, Fly competition in Wichita, Kansas is this weekend, April 18th-20th. Our team is leaving at noon tomorrow to drive down there. I'm not going because I need to work this weekend, but I'm feeling all the nervous butterflies that everyone else is, too. In fact, I'm kind of sick to my stomach. I hope my batteries don't blow up, and I hope the stability issues on the plane are fixed, and I hope she flies beautifully and comes back in one piece so that we can show her off to the underclassmen and give them some pointers/help for their design project next year.

I never want to work with another battery pack as long as I live, either. There have been too many sparks, short circuits, weight issues, and hissing batteries. Everything should hypothetically work fine in the competition, though. :) Go batteries, go!

As for everything else: still working on finding a job; Tobin is doing GREAT; I'll probably be working in TH until June 13th, when we have to be out of the rental house; and I think that's it.

FE Tomorrow

We (almost all the seniors at Rose) have the FE exam tomorrow. It's an 8 hour exam required for engineers to pass if they want to become professional engineers (basically). Our two houses will be headed to Rose at 7ish tomorrow morning.

Also, the plane flew today! It still has instability issues but we are still excited with the progress; and this time it didn't crash, it just landed kind of hard.

Rough Times at Rose

Recently, there have been three separate car accidents involving four Rose-Hulman students, and two of those students have died (one had just graduated last November). The other two are seriously injured and are in hospitals recovering, both with head injuries as well as other injuries. Two of the students were on the football team and two were on the swimming team. It's been a shock, considering that I don't remember anything like this happening in all four years at Rose, and now in a span of seven weeks, four Rose kids have been in accidents. Although I was not close to any of the students involved in the accidents, many of my friends were and are having a tough time right now. Buses from Rose will be attending the funerals, taking any students who want to go. One of the funerals is in Indiana, and the other is in Texas.

Well, if you read the last post you know we had a not-so-successful first flight attempt in the old version of our DBF plane. We re-analyzed the plane and found that the tail setting angle, which had been calculated at 4 degrees, was built in the wrong direction. Basically, the tail was set 8 degrees off. This really affected the flight capabilities, allowing for take-off but not providing the moment needed to pull the nose down once the aircraft left the ground. Also, the plane was modeled in a simulator and, although it would now takeoff and fly in its unloaded configuration, it would not in the loaded configuration. So we made a change: biplane. Also, the area of the nose was so big that it reduced the effective area of the propeller quite a bit, so we made a change there as well. You can see the differences in tail setting angle, surface area of the nose, and added wing in the photo below:

The colorful tail and wing are not covered yet. Our second flight test will (hopefully) be tomorrow.

Job update: the company that I was excited about that I interviewed with over break will probably not be giving me a job offer since they decided to give an offer to another candidate first. I'm upset about it because it feels like discrimination. They asked me how long T would be stationed in the area, and their response to my answer was the only negative aspect of the whole interview. I'm currenlty looking at other opportunities. On the positive side, we found a house we want to rent and we are looking into applying for it.