Life Update…Prepare Yourself!

Posted on April 3, 2014 by Paige

I admit, it’s been way too long since I’ve last updated you guys! So prepare yourself, because not even I expected this much to happen to me since August. Let’s just say that I have been extremely blessed. I am so grateful for all of the amazing opportunities that I have been given. It’s such a great feeling to reflect on all of the goals that I have set for myself since the start of my college career and to see them come to life. Don’t get me wrong, my junior year of college has also been the toughest for me. I’ve definitely had my fair share of struggles, but have managed to get through them shiny side up with the support of my family, hard work, and my strong faith in God.

So here is a quick summary of everything that you’ve missed. Last semester I unexpectedly took on the role of president of my sorority in order to fill the position of a sister who took an internship. It also happened to be the same semester that I was taking my toughest classes. I somehow managed to pull through while still maintaining a 3.9 GPA. It was a very stressful time, but I learned so much being the leader of my sorority and wouldn’t change it for anything. My best advice to get through times like these: don’t be afraid to take on a challenge, even if it looks impossible. During times like these, you will surprise yourself at your potential and what you are really capable of accomplishing. I know that this was the case for me. I really learned the meaning of being a leader and also learned how important it is to push aside any prideful thoughts and ask for help when I really needed it.

Speedweeks in February was definitely one of the highlights this year. Because I interned with NASCAR last summer, the department I worked with was awesome enough to get me passes to every race. I made it to as many races as I could, despite all of the assignments and tests that were thrown on me. I went to the Sprint Unlimited and NASCAR Home Tracks promoters hospitality event, the Camping World Truck Series race, Nationwide race, Daytona 500, Battle at the Beach, and saw the K&N East Series race at New Smyrna Speedway. You could say I was in heaven.

At the end of February, I got to take the trip of a lifetime!! This year I was selected as one of the Boeing scholarship recipients. Boeing invited all of the scholarship recipients from the Prescott and Daytona campuses to come tour the Boeing factory in Seattle, all expenses paid for. This was the first time that Boeing has ever done anything like this, so it was truly and honor to be selected to go on this trip. It was absolutely incredible walking through the factory where Boeing manufactures all of their planes, and then to walk on the flightline where these planes are delivered to the customers. We also were able to walk through a brand new 787 and 777! Can it get any better than that??

One of my goals for this year was to get involved in more engineering projects and focus more on my academic involvement because I already have a lot of experience with the social organizations I am involved in. I am proud to say that I have been initiated into Tau Beta Pi (an engineering honor society), Order of Omega (an honor society for Greek organizations), and I am currently working on a project that involves the design of a jet engine test cell. Last semester I was involved in Formula SAE as a Special Topics credit. Special Topics is such a great way to get hands-on project experience while also receiving credit hours towards your degree program. I was a part of the engine team and assisted in the selection of new engine and the preliminary design report.

I’m happy to say that I have continued my work at Larsen Motorsports and am officially traveling to every IHRA Nitro Jam race with the team for the 2014 season! How lucky can a girl get?! I have taken on a marketing position with Embry-Riddle in order to market the university in conjunction with Larsen Motorsports. As a result, I get to work every event with the team in the all new Jet Technology Center presented by Embry-Riddle. This is an interactive fan experience at the race track that will take fans through the engineering, human factors, fabrication, and art work behind every jet dragster. Fans will have the opportunity to see future Larsen Motorsports jet dragsters built in front of their own eyes.

Over Spring Break I went home to Houston for part of the week to catch up with the family. It was definitely a much needed trip and nothing ever beats going back to Texas. Some of the highlights included Whataburger (of course), Houston Rodeo (always a tradition), amazing Mexican food, family time, a new cowboy hat, and home-cooked meals!

At the end of the week, I traveled to Tucson, Arizona for the first race of season with the Larsen Motorsports (LMS) teams! This year the LMS teams doubled in size. The team consists of 4 female jet dragster drivers who come from a variety of backgrounds but all have a passion for racing. Elaine Larsen, co-owner of Larsen Motorsports drivers the Miller Welding jet dragster. Marisha Falk, a double Embry-Riddle alumnae, drives the Embry-Riddle jet dragster. Kat Moller, one of the newest LMS drivers, drives the Matrix Systems jet dragster. And lastly, Dawn Perdue, the 2nd newest driver, drives the Sport Aviation jet dragster. Last weekend I headed back to Texas for the second race of the season in San Antonio! I’ll update you guys later about life on the road with the Larsen Motorsports teams. I have so much to tell you about our first two races and I’ll even include my race recaps.

Lastly, I am excited to announce the launching of my new website!! It was designed by Star Computer Services, a business that my parents own. I guess having your mom design websites for a living has its perks. (: Check it out! I would love your support! www.paigesanchez.com

Be on the lookout for race updates next week!

Just Plane Crazy

Posted on April 2, 2014 by Zachary

The Piper Pawnee tows the ASK21 gilder

My spring break started out pretty normal as far as Riddle-kids go. I slept in a little, I read a few hundred pages of Charles Lindbergh’s “Spirit of St. Louis”, and I took pictures of airplanes. I was satisfied with my quiet spring break, but it got much better on the Thursday of that week when a few good friends of mine from the Sport Aviation Club (SAC) called me up. ERAU students Matt Colan and Billy Janus invited me to join them and a few others at Pierson Municipal Airport (2J8), a 2,600 foot grass strip located on the OMN VOR 260 radial at 18.4 miles. They needed a cameraman for some aerial shots they were after. Folks in aviation say, “It’s good to know people”, well that came true in a rather modest way that day. It was a perfect day to play in the sky, one of those days that you live in Florida for. Let me put you there:

The winds are westerly at 5-7 knots; a refreshing breeze is satisfying under the 82 degree sun which warms your skin. Above you, clear blue sky arcs in all directions with some wandering lines of clouds. The smell of freshly cut grass hangs in the air, reminding me of the football field. Oh yes, this was a good day.

From left to right, Matt Colan, Billy janus, and Martin Hollatz.

For the flight we would have a Piper J-3 Cub flown in by Mike Breshears, and an ASK-21 glider trailered in by Martin Hollatz. Both of these aircraft are owned by Eagle Sport Aviation (ESA), a flying club based in Deland. A PA-25 Pawnee was also present, the Pawnee is the tow-plane for the gliders based at Pierson. An old cropduster, the Pawnee is basically the equivalent of an airborne tractor. After unpacking the glider, we had a careful discussion of the planned formation, as well as what photographs we’d like. We take safety seriously, even in simple operations.

The Piper J-3 Cub

When everyone was happy with the plans, it was time to go fly! I got to cram myself into a Cub for the first time ever, and it was also the first time I’ve been in a tail-wheel aircraft. Getting in a Cub requires gymnast-like precision when you’re 6’4”. I’ve been pretty fond of the aircraft for some time, so it was a proud moment. Earlier last year I had helped put some of the coating on the fabric of that very aircraft, while SAC and ESA were recovering the wings. The Piper Cub is a simple aircraft, and one of the things it lacks is a starter for the engine. This means the prop must be pulled through for the engine to start, which is called “hand-propping”. With a yell of “contact!” and a quick pull the 65 horsepower engine churned to life. We lined up on runway 5, and Michael pushed up the throttle. A few hundred short bouncy feet later we we’re aloft. The Cub’s door is located on the right side and is removable, so it was kept off for best photography results. Martin and Matt were in the glider, so we communicated over a transceiver to coordinate our formation as well as a photo pass at high speed. We spent about an hour in the air, and Michael even let me take controls for a bit. The Cub has a stick rather than a yoke, and it felt light in my hands. I thought of Lindbergh, Bleriot, Saint-Exupery, Amelia, and other early aviators who often flew with a stick at aviation’s dawn. The words of the poem High Flight, by John Gillespie Magee also came to mind as we soared through the morning air. I also relearned the importance of rudder for coordinated flight; we’re pretty spoiled with these Cessna Skyhawks. The flight re-invigorated the part of me that wants to get a tailwheel endorsement; it’s been dormant for quite a while. Does anyone know a good instructor? I’m a firm believer that it would make me a better pilot.

After the Cub flight it was time for the Yellow friend to head back to Eagle-Sport Aviation at Deland Airport (KDED). So I took a few more photos of Mike taking off again to head home, what a great time it was! Matt Colan had brought one of his RC planes, an Extreme flight Edge 540T, so he flew it around a little while and I took some pictures of aerobatic maneuvers.

Matt Colan’s ExtremeFlight Edge540T

Mike and Martin preparing the Glider for a tow

Billy Janus flying the Piper Pawnee

Then something pretty cool happened, I was offered a ride in the glider as well! I had never been in a glider either, and I proved this fact when I asked Martin if I needed a headset. He looked at me funny, because you see, the thing is, you don’t need one for intercockpit communication in a glider. It’s quiet, there’s no engine, go figure! Billy cranked up the Pawnee again and we hooked up the ASK-21 with the towrope. The jolt of the glider (or Pawnee) starting it’s roll caught me by surprise, the canopy was closed around me, and I felt a bit trapped. But that passed quickly, because once again, I was in the air. It was impossible to feel trapped in the wide blue openness that was aloft that day. We we’re towed to about 2,000 feet before Martin released the towrope. I didn’t even notice, I was too busy looking all around me.

The View of Pierson from the glider at around 2,000 feet

Sailing was another vastly different experience. I felt more ‘In-tune’ with the sky then I ever have. Glider’s depend on thermals to climb. Thermals are like wide pockets of warm rising air. An instrument in the cockpit called a Variometer shows the rate of rise or sink of the glider. It’s similar to a rate-of-climb instrument in powered aircraft. We spent an hour and a half aloft, used no gasoline, and lost no altitude. We sailed up to 4,500 or so on the backs of the thermals, and went North of Pierson past lake George and to the southern shore of Lake Crescent. I took around 700 pictures that day, and was able to share them with the guys that flew me around. A fair payment I think for services rendered! It’s a delight to see others enjoy your work and a greater delight still to spend a day in the sky.

Matt Colan and Martin Hollatz as we pass by in the Cub

Onwards and Upwards!

The Final Stretch of Spring Semester

Posted on April 1, 2014 by Lynsey

Hello hello!

I left my last entry on a “will Lynsey get a summer internship?” cliffhanger, so I think I’ll address that first… I will officially be spending my summer in Mountain View, California (AKA the most awesome city in the country – look it up) with an REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates – the science version of an internship) at The SETI Institute! (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) I’ll be working with one of their scientists to study the formation of planets around different types of stars, and investigate how these planets could form to support life. I’m very excited for this opportunity, and pleased to announce that I will be blogging again this summer, so you’ll get to hear all about it!

The beach near Ft. Lauderdale. Beautiful, turquoise waters.

Spring break came and went, and it was really awesome. Being at Riddle is great, because all of the major spring break destinations are really just a few hours away by car. I cruised down to Ft. Lauderdale at 90 mph down I-95 and spent the week there, where my boyfriend is doing an internship with Spirit Airlines this semester. He spent the days at work, and I spent them swimming, sleeping, relaxing… oh, and gambling. Ft. Lauderdale is on the Seminole Indian Reservation, so there are lots of casinos! One of my guilty pleasures is blackjack; in Minnesota the gambling age is 18, so I used to go down to the casino every couple weeks, and I usually had a pretty good turn out. Over the break I went to a couple different casinos (mostly in search of a good $5 blackjack table, which are not as common here as they are back home), and over four trips I ended up winning twice, losing once, and breaking even the last time. It’s dangerous to my finances that the casino was only 20 minutes from where I was staying – probably a good thing we don’t have any up here in Daytona.

Ville Valo of HIM at their concert in Ft. Lauderdale – we had a great view of the stage, this is an iPhone picture!

While in Ft Lauderdale, one of my favorite bands, HIM, had a concert at a club downtown (a great coincidence!), so we got to see them. They’re the first band I’ve seen three times, and in three different states for each tour, and they put on a really great show – a very long set, and a good mix of some of their really old music and their newest album. This was also my first concert as a 21-year-old, and let me tell you, it ain’t cheap.

On another music-related note, The Pretty Reckless launched their new album a couple weeks ago and it’s great. That is all.

Picture of some reef fishes taken with my underwater camera in Key Largo!

One of the highlights of the break was snorkeling down in Key Largo. They take you out into the ocean about 30 min by boat – to the point that you really can’t see any land – and toss you in the water, equipped with a wet suit, mask, snorkel, and fins. And the water was so nice. There is a shallow reef of the coast of Key Largo, so you swim out to the reef and get to see all sorts of really cool corals, fish, and even some jelly fish and stuff. It was an awesome experience, and I highly recommend it if you ever have the opportunity. The coolest part was having an underwater camera – pictures below! I’m doing everything I can to do “Florida things” while I’m living in Florida. Overall, this was definitely the best spring break in my three years of college. It was a great escape, and just what I needed to get back into the swing of the whole school thing, after feeling pretty burnt out the last few weeks.

There’s less than a month left of Spring semester, and frankly I can’t wait for it to be over. I mentioned a couple times that this semester had earned the title “semester of death,” and I think I have to agree. So I wanted to pass along a lesson that I’ve learned to any and all of you reading this, especially those of you sitting in high school having never gotten anything below a B+: college will test you. You, most likely, won’t get out of an engineering degree with a 4.0; not to discourage you from trying of course, because I certainly have been, and I’m, of course, not giving up. But I’ve had a bit of a mid-life crisis (well, quarter-life, I suppose) about my grades this semester, and I’m finally starting to learn some things:

Always give your best, and realize that you can’t give more than that.
It’s not the end of the world if you can’t get the A.

I’m a huge perfectionist/over-achiever/etc., and I focus so much on grades. I remember when I got my first few B’s in high school, and it felt like the end of the world – I was convinced that I wouldn’t get into the colleges I wanted to. Well, I love my college, and now I don’t even remember what my GPA was in high school. So my words of wisdom are: grades aren’t everything. Put in your best effort, learn as much as your brain can hold, and that is what makes you successful, regardless of the number on your transcript. Don’t have a mental breakdown over a poor exam grade – take that as a lesson, and improve on it in the future. Stress never helps.

Speaking of the future, I’m beginning to figure out mine. Every EP student has to complete a senior design capstone project, which you start planning during the second semester of junior year and then work on throughout your senior year. Well, I was asked to be the Guinea pig for a “senior thesis” option, aimed at students looking to go to grad school, in lieu of a group design project. I’m really excited about it, and I even have a topic, as of last week. I’ll be developing a one-dimensional atmospheric acoustics model in FORTRAN and MATLAB with flexible atmospheric parameters, which means that the model will be able to run for any planet. Then for my master’s thesis, I’ll use this model to do some scientific investigation into the propagation of atmospheric acoustic waves in the atmospheres of Venus, Earth, and Mars – three very different planets. This project will be a good mixture of planetary science, atmospheric physics, and development of a scientific tool.

Doing some homework with Sally the Space Hamster

That’s about it for this entry. Lots of cool stuff on the horizon, and still a lot to do before this semester comes to a close. I have three final projects and a thesis proposal to do, as well as third midterms, final exams, and standard weekly homework assignments before I’m free to go hunt aliens all summer. I’m also looking forward to having a nice long visit home before I start at SETI mid-June. And because I only needed a one-way ticket between here and home (since I’ll fly right from Minneapolis to San Francisco on SETI’s dime), and because the tickets were surprisingly cheap, I get to fly first class! That’s one to cross off the bucket list.

Oh, one more thing. ERAU does some really cool events, especially with all the different student organizations on campus. The week before spring break one of the fraternities hosted a fundraiser where you could pay $5 to sit in a pen full of puppies for 30 minutes. Who doesn’t like being climbed on by adorable puppies?

Puppy selfie! Excuse the extreme Florida-ness of my hair in this picture.

My Life @ Riddle

Daytona Beach Edition

Monthly Archives: April 2014

Life Update…Prepare Yourself!

Just Plane Crazy

Onwards and Upwards!

The Final Stretch of Spring Semester