inigo88
Composite-lover
Hey everybody,
I'm not big on this whole member's announcements thing, but I figured this was worthwhile. I've been reading JC since I was 14 years old, and only worked up the courage to make an account much later. Got my PPL after high school following an A&P apprenticeship, which really broadened my understanding of aircraft systems and construction to the point where I wanted more. I grew up watching "The Right Stuff," idolizing designers like Burt Rutan, Kelly Johnson, Ben Rich and the like, and the test pilots of the 40s-60s. I wanted to know why the aircraft was made the way it was. The ultimate goal was to design, build, test and fly my own airplane. Just one problem: I wasn't good at math in high school. After a lot of perseverance and more years than I'd care to admit of community college in Northern California (playing catch up on Calculus, Physics and Chemistry), I'd fixed the problem.
I was overjoyed to learn I'd been accepted to transfer into the Aero Engineering major at a great school in San Diego. My father lived there and was battling brain cancer, and I was able to both go to school and help care for him. After 5 years of cancer, he passed away. I was devastated, but stayed in school and kept pushing towards my goal. I had a rough time being design/build/test-oriented in a school that emphasized theory, research and analysis, and more perseverance ensued.
Finally last year was my final year of college. I was heavily involved in the rocket club, whose goal was to send an amateur rocket into space by launching from a high altitude weather balloon (A "Rockoon" design, invented by James Van Allen in the 1950s). Back in May we designed and built a hydrogen-fueled high altitude balloon as a first step towards the Rockoon design. I packed it with a GoPro, APRS telemetry tracking system (which uses HAM radio to send lat/long/course/speed telemetry line-of-sight back to the ground), and a redundant SPOT tracker. We flew launched it from Warner Springs (after filing a NOTAM and following all the rules of 14 CFR Part 101), and I followed in a chase car for 2 hours collecting data. It reached the edge of space at almost 106,000 ft before bursting, and 11 minutes after it touched down in a farmer's field we were packing it back into our car.
Here's the footage that resulted (I did not pick the music, but hey at least it isn't SAIL!
):
Meanwhile in May-June I was also working on my senior design project with a group of 6 other students. We were extremely fortunate that our professor was an expert on liquid rockets (here he is launching one on the Discovery Channel), and had access to surplus Rocketdyne LR-101 engines - which were used as vernier maneuvering motors on the Atlas rocket that carried the Mercury astronauts into space. For 10 weeks we worked on restoring the motor and building a test stand to hold it and electronic sensors to record detailed data (unfortunately we didn't have the funds to make a flying rocket with it). My job was to design and build a fuel and liquid oxygen plumbing system from scratch, which would use high pressure helium to force the Kerosene and LOX into the motor at the proper mixture and flow rate. On June 7 we took it out to the Mojave desert for the test, an d here's the result!
The motor met our exceeded our expectations on thrust and specific impulse, and although we weren't able to run any alternative fuels through it, the option exists for future students to continue building from where we left off.
A week later, I finally graduated college:
Here's where JC comes in:
Even though I didn't pursue a professional pilot career (in fact, you guys probably talked me out of it in high school), the NETWORKING lessons I've learned here have been invaluable. In the last year I networked my butt off with professionals in the industry. I was terrified "putting myself out there" and writing or talking to people out of the blue, but the results were almost always positive. Going to job fairs, info sessions and introducing myself to people, shaking hands, asking for business cards and dropping off resumes was HUGE. I was really intimidated when I PM'ed @Jimflyfast out of the blue, and I'm so glad I did. He gave me a pep talk I needed to hear and gave me the courage to apply to one of my favorite companies. I kept networking and reaching out to more people, and it paid off. I got the interview and the offer. I moved out the Mojave desert this month and started working at my dream job.
So I guess the moral of the story is listen to all these guys when they preach networking. Don't be afraid to take risks and put yourself out there, and then PAY IT FORWARD after people do the same for you (I've already recommended two classmates to HR, and I'm happy to answer ANY questions about the degree, process or projects via PM).
You've got a real nice living room here @Derg, this place kicks ass! (You can totally say "ass" here!) Thanks again for making JC the way it is.
And P.S. If anyone finds themselves flying into KMHV, PM me for an M&G!
I'm not big on this whole member's announcements thing, but I figured this was worthwhile. I've been reading JC since I was 14 years old, and only worked up the courage to make an account much later. Got my PPL after high school following an A&P apprenticeship, which really broadened my understanding of aircraft systems and construction to the point where I wanted more. I grew up watching "The Right Stuff," idolizing designers like Burt Rutan, Kelly Johnson, Ben Rich and the like, and the test pilots of the 40s-60s. I wanted to know why the aircraft was made the way it was. The ultimate goal was to design, build, test and fly my own airplane. Just one problem: I wasn't good at math in high school. After a lot of perseverance and more years than I'd care to admit of community college in Northern California (playing catch up on Calculus, Physics and Chemistry), I'd fixed the problem.
I was overjoyed to learn I'd been accepted to transfer into the Aero Engineering major at a great school in San Diego. My father lived there and was battling brain cancer, and I was able to both go to school and help care for him. After 5 years of cancer, he passed away. I was devastated, but stayed in school and kept pushing towards my goal. I had a rough time being design/build/test-oriented in a school that emphasized theory, research and analysis, and more perseverance ensued.
Finally last year was my final year of college. I was heavily involved in the rocket club, whose goal was to send an amateur rocket into space by launching from a high altitude weather balloon (A "Rockoon" design, invented by James Van Allen in the 1950s). Back in May we designed and built a hydrogen-fueled high altitude balloon as a first step towards the Rockoon design. I packed it with a GoPro, APRS telemetry tracking system (which uses HAM radio to send lat/long/course/speed telemetry line-of-sight back to the ground), and a redundant SPOT tracker. We flew launched it from Warner Springs (after filing a NOTAM and following all the rules of 14 CFR Part 101), and I followed in a chase car for 2 hours collecting data. It reached the edge of space at almost 106,000 ft before bursting, and 11 minutes after it touched down in a farmer's field we were packing it back into our car.
Here's the footage that resulted (I did not pick the music, but hey at least it isn't SAIL!
):Meanwhile in May-June I was also working on my senior design project with a group of 6 other students. We were extremely fortunate that our professor was an expert on liquid rockets (here he is launching one on the Discovery Channel), and had access to surplus Rocketdyne LR-101 engines - which were used as vernier maneuvering motors on the Atlas rocket that carried the Mercury astronauts into space. For 10 weeks we worked on restoring the motor and building a test stand to hold it and electronic sensors to record detailed data (unfortunately we didn't have the funds to make a flying rocket with it). My job was to design and build a fuel and liquid oxygen plumbing system from scratch, which would use high pressure helium to force the Kerosene and LOX into the motor at the proper mixture and flow rate. On June 7 we took it out to the Mojave desert for the test, an d here's the result!
The motor met our exceeded our expectations on thrust and specific impulse, and although we weren't able to run any alternative fuels through it, the option exists for future students to continue building from where we left off.
A week later, I finally graduated college:
Here's where JC comes in:
Even though I didn't pursue a professional pilot career (in fact, you guys probably talked me out of it in high school), the NETWORKING lessons I've learned here have been invaluable. In the last year I networked my butt off with professionals in the industry. I was terrified "putting myself out there" and writing or talking to people out of the blue, but the results were almost always positive. Going to job fairs, info sessions and introducing myself to people, shaking hands, asking for business cards and dropping off resumes was HUGE. I was really intimidated when I PM'ed @Jimflyfast out of the blue, and I'm so glad I did. He gave me a pep talk I needed to hear and gave me the courage to apply to one of my favorite companies. I kept networking and reaching out to more people, and it paid off. I got the interview and the offer. I moved out the Mojave desert this month and started working at my dream job.
So I guess the moral of the story is listen to all these guys when they preach networking. Don't be afraid to take risks and put yourself out there, and then PAY IT FORWARD after people do the same for you (I've already recommended two classmates to HR, and I'm happy to answer ANY questions about the degree, process or projects via PM).
You've got a real nice living room here @Derg, this place kicks ass! (You can totally say "ass" here!) Thanks again for making JC the way it is.
And P.S. If anyone finds themselves flying into KMHV, PM me for an M&G!
