Two Weeks Left!

Posted on April 14, 2017 by Jack

Hi All!

There are just two weeks of classes left!

Two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to work at Preview Day and talk about Career Services to future students and parents. It was really fun to meet many of the students who will be starting this Fall, and it brought back many memories of when I attended three years ago. If you will be attending ERAU in the future and have the opportunity to attend an open house or Preview Day, I highly recommend it as it helps you get acquainted to campus before you move in!

I have three presentations next week and one other project due. So much to do and so little time it feels like. While it may seem like a lot compared to high school, strong time management skills can help make juggling everything pretty easy while also getting some down time.

Next week, I am presenting a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) on San Francisco International Airport in my Airport Management Class; I am also presenting about a lawsuit about airline frequent-flyer programs in my Business Law Class; lastly, I am presenting about the cargo company Atlas Air in my Principles of Transportation Class. Plus, we are starting our sales call project for my Professional Selling Class.

While it is a lot to juggle, all of the presentations are group work which makes it a lot easier when you have a group. Plus, I have a lot of things coming up to look forward to which also helps getting through the crunch time at the end of the semester!

Eight months to graduation…less than a month until I go back to Delta for the summer…and just two weeks of classes left. Boy, time does fly!

Until next time,

Jack

Goodbye, Kentucky and Hello, Florida!

Posted on April 14, 2017 by Danielle

In two weeks, my Spring internship with Space Tango is over. This was sad news for me. I’ve grown attached the this company and their mission. Like I said though, I was sad. Space Tango has asked me to join them AGAIN in the Summer. Now I can’t stop smiling.

I’ll be working part-time in Florida for Space Tango continuing on as their Communication and Marketing intern, but with a perk – launches! As the company continues to grow, they will have more customer payloads to launch from Cape Canaveral. So although I’ll be doing most of my work online, I’ll only be an hour away from the Space Coast.

I’m certainly excited about this perk, but as their intern this is extremely ideal. I’ll have more access to Florida sources. I’ll also be present for the more intensive mission preparations prior to launch. They also have a location at the Space Life Sciences Lab in Exploration Park which is a great source for new photos and media content to advance their public image as the growing entity they are.

My time with Space Tango has been rewarding. I’ve taken a strong liking to this start-up company, and I’m excited to still be a part of their growth in (sometimes) sunny Florida!

⋆ Dani

I Began my Morning with a Little Bit of Gardening

Posted on April 14, 2017 by Danielle

I’m a Communication major and I hope to be a public relations specialist for the aerospace industry. Somehow though, I’ve gotten into a little bit of hydroponic gardening at Space Tango.

Each glass cup was filled with mulch pebbles surrounding a pod of seeds. Connecting each cup a tubing system that will cycle the water from one cup to the next until it returns back to the water tank. (That’s my hand by the way, doing science things instead of writing.)

This morning the Space Tango biomedical engineer and her intern asked for a little help with a prototype hydroponic system. I had no idea how to even begin such a system, but with a little guidance I soon found myself placing pebbled mulch, seeds, and burlap. A decent amount of duct tape later and we had a fully-functioning hydroponic system. As water flowed from cup to cup, I couldn’t believe I was “just ” a Communication major. I think our positions are what we make of them, but they aren’t meant to be boundaries.

To the right you’ll see our water tank accompanied by a small pump. Attached to the pump is one end of the tubing. After cycling through each glass cup, the final tubing flows water back into the tank to begin the process again.

To help contain the mulch and soon-to-be plants, burlap was taped to the surface of each cup. Believe it or not, this was the hardest part for us.

I spent my time here at Space Tango on a computer working on press releases, networking, websites, and social media. Just for today, I spent it in the lab. I got to get a first-hand try of what I report. It’s just a prototype, but it’s a step in the scientific process. It was exciting to be a part of it! As a writer, it’s great to be able to try the things you only get to write about.

⋆ Dani

A Week in the West

Posted on April 13, 2017 by Lindsey

A couple of weeks ago I had the ability to travel on my last Admissions trip. I traveled to Denver, Seattle, and Los Angeles with the ERAU Admissions team. I was excited to be able to go to Seattle again, since it is where I’m from. These trips are always something I look forward to because we have a lot of fun, while working, of course!

Our first stop was Denver, Colorado. We actually headed out there a day early to take some vacation time in the Centennial State. I had been there once before, but only for about half a day. We were able to spend some time sightseeing in downtown Denver, trying some of the best restaurants, and driving up the mountainside to a lookout. I think we all really appreciated the scenic mountain views, and enjoyed being in a cooler climate for a few days.

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View of downtown Denver from our hotel room

Famous bear peaking into the Convention Center

View from Lookout-overlooking Golden, CO

Little Man Ice Cream (SO good!)

After our event in Denver, we headed out to my home state, Washington. We were grateful to have two days in Seattle to explore. I was also able to visit with my parents for a bit, which was really nice.

Our group loves coffee, so we went to the Starbucks Reserve Roastery and Tasting Room in Capitol Hill. It is one of the places in Seattle I had never been before, so it was fun to have a new experience in my home city. After tasting a flight of different coffees, I was ready to get back to my favorite order at Starbucks, an Iced Vanilla Latte. Although, it was pretty cool to learn a lot more about the coffee roasting process.

Seattle, WA

Starbucks Roastery and Tasting Room

The next day, we were lucky and we got to see some sunshine in Seattle, which is rare in the winter! We took advantage of the nice weather after our event and went out to Olympic Park, which is about 30 minutes outside of Seattle. It’s a beautiful park with tons of evergreen trees, mountain views, and Puget Sound beachfront. We also went to Kerry Park, which boasts the best views of the Seattle skyline, in my opinion.

Kerry Park in Seattle

We took an evening flight out of Seattle and arrived in Los Angeles around 11pm. Once we arrived in LA, we ended up taking an Uber to our hotel downtown. Let me tell you, there is never a dull moment with the Admissions team… We had some issues getting an Uber driver, and ended up laughing about the whole fiasco the rest of the trip.

We had a short time in LA, so we woke up and hosted the lunch event at a steakhouse downtown. As always, it was a great event! After the event, we quickly changed and headed out to Venice Beach. It is definitely a different vibe in Venice Beach versus Daytona Beach, but we walked around the eclectic beach town and all along the beach during sunset. We ended up going back to the hotel a few hours before our red-eye flight, and watched the planes land and takeoff at LAX while eating some appetizers in the lounge. We had a competition of who could name the type of aircraft the fastest, just like typical Riddle students.

Pablo and I presenting in Los Angeles

Pablo and I on bikes in Venice Beach

At last, my final Admissions trip had come to an end. These trips were one of my favorite parts of being a Riddle student because I was able to interact with prospective students, and share my passion for ERAU with them and their families. I will definitely look back on these trips with great memories.

Until next time,

Lindsey

Exploring the World’s Largest Model Railway

Posted on April 11, 2017 by Nicolas

Once Aircraft Interiors Expo and the World Travel Catering Expo were over, my friend and I had spare time in the afternoon to visit Hamburg. We used the Hamburg U-Bahn underground and headed to Miniatur Wunderland.

Opened in 2000, Miniatur Wunderland is the world’s largest model railway and also one of the most popular permanent exhibition in Northern Germany. As of today, there are nine sections of the Wunderland which are Hartz/Central Germany, Knuffingen, Alps/Austria, Hamburg, United States, Scandinavia, Switzerland, Knuffingen Airport and Italy. The work is far from over as the team is working on expanding the exhibition thru the following years to come.

The Knuffingen Airport was definitely my favourite section of Miniatur Wunderland. I wonder why?

I personally thought the airport was awesome. The designers paid attention to every detail. One thing that is amazing about this airport is that you can visually see the aircraft takeoff and land on the runway. Additionally, the planes can move around the airport and even head to a gate. Once the aircraft is parked at a gate, the jet bridge will move and align with the aircraft’s main door.

A Gate Gourmet truck loaded with beverages and meals.

Even the baggage loading vehicles and the catering truck pictured above can move around the airport. The airport, the planes and the small trucks all had lights. You could even see the orange blinker of a truck that was turning left or right at an intersection.

From back to front: Lufthansa (Boeing 747), Air Berlin (Airbus A330), Air France (Boeing 777), China Eastern (Airbus A330) and Emirates (Boeing 777).

The airport’s schedule.

It was cool to see the actual schedule of the airport published. While looking at the schedule, you could anticipate what aircraft and airline would be the next departure and arrival.

Even though we spent most of our time at the model airport, we managed to visit the nine sections of the exhibition. There was a lot to see!

Grand Canyon, Nevada.

Pictured above is the Grand Canyon that can be found in the state of Nevada. It was fascinating to see the lively city of Las Vegas at night.

Train station.

Visitors can find railways in multiple sections of the exhibition. Like the airplanes, the trains move around the cities from station to station.

I would call it a "Centre of Operations."

I would call it the “Centre of Operations.”

It was intriguing to see “behind the scenes” of how everything worked to make this Miniatur Wunderland an attractive place to stop by. I believe these employees were controlling and monitoring some of the trains, cars, boats, airplanes, aerial tramways, chairlifts, etc. I am sure there is automation involved but they need humans to make everything work perfectly.

I really enjoyed spending a few hours in this “miniature world.” If you visit Hamburg, I would totally recommend you to go take a look. Tickets are only €9 per person!

Until next time!

Nicolas

Aircraft Interiors Expo #AIX2017

Posted on April 10, 2017 by Nicolas

Last week, I was in Germany to attend Aircraft Interiors Expo (AIX) in Hamburg Messe. The event welcomed more than 550 exhibitors from all around the world. Every year, more than 14,000 aviation professionals, airlines and international press go to Hamburg for AIX. The event is huge and covers approximately 24,000 metres square (258,334 feet square) of flooring. As you can see below, the large floor plan includes different buildings that are a walking distance from each other.

Below is a list of the major products you can find at Aircraft Interiors Expo:

Seats (First, Business Premium Economy and Economy)
Seats fabrics
Seats armrests
Seat power ports (110V and USB)
Racks that hold seats on the floor
Carpets for flooring
Cabin lighting
Galley carts
Lavatories
Inflight Entertainment (IFE)
And more!

Major News Announced

Zodiac Aerospace unveiled an economy seat for the Boeing 777X.
Hawaiian Airlines showed their future A321neo cabin interior by JPA Design
Recaro presented the Smart Cabin Reconfiguration for the A320 family. It revealed a quick way to swap seats between higher-density economy and more spacious Eurobusiness seats.
Airbus announced a new cabin version of its jumbo jet to accommodate an additional 80 seats.
ATR partnered with Geven to offer an increased seat width from 17″ to a more comfortable 18″.
Molon Labe updates its Slide-Slip Seat: the aisle seat slips over the middle seat for expedited boarding process.
Altran presented an autonomous robot trolley that can drive itself through the aisle.
HAECO Cabin Solutions offers a cocktail tray and PDE holder that will be offered on the Vector premium seat.

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Hawaiian Airlines A321neos will feature both First Class and Economy seats manufactured by B/E Aerospace. (Photo: Hawaiian Airlines)

World Travel Catering Expo (WTCE)

A l’Olivier, based in Paris, provides olive oil dressing for salads to airlines such as Air Canada.

On the other side of the road was held the World Traveling Catering Expo (WTCE). On-site, visitors had the opportunity to try and sample anything from munchies to First class level cuisine. Many of the major airline catering providers (gategroup, dnata and LSG Group) were at the event. There were also many smaller companies I have never heard before.

There were many small firms that provided important products for the food catering industry, such as the aluminum foil that cover the hot meals in economy. You could also find different sizes of aluminum containers for meals, plastic cups for drinks and various sizes and shapes of cutlery. There were also providers of amenity kits for premium cabins, as well as companies that design crew uniforms.

Overview of one of the two WTCE exhibits.

While walking, I saw a cleaning machine that was spinning vertically to clean galley carts. It sprayed water and soap and the centrifugal force disinfected the beverage trolleys for their next flight. It was pretty amazing to watch!

As an #avgeek, it was impressive to see all those providers. There are so many that you would not think at first. I definitely hope to go back next year for the 2018 edition!

Until next time!

Nicolas

Two Days in Berlin

Posted on April 10, 2017 by Nicolas

Hallo!

Early this week, I travelled to Europe with my friend to attend Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg, Germany. Before we arrived in Hamburg, we spent two days in Berlin to visit the city. Here are the cool things we did during our stay:

Victory Column
The first activity we did once we arrived in Berlin was to visit the Victory Column (pictured on the right). From the top of the monument, you are able to view the city. It is located in the centre of a roundabout very close to the Tiergarten, one of the most popular park in Berlin.

East Side Gallery
The following morning, we took the U-Bahn (subway) and headed to see the Berlin Wall, which is also known as the East Side Gallery. The 1,316 metre (4,318 feet) long section of the wall is covered with various paintings. Many portions of the wall have been damaged by erosion with time and graffitis since some parts are not protected with a fence.

Brandenburg Gate
This is the city’s only ancient gate remaining. The construction of this landmark started in 1788 and was completed in 1791. What is interesting about it is that it is aligned with the Berlin Victory Column. You can see the tip of it on the picture below.

Topography of Terror
This outdoor and interior museum housed the headquarters of the Gestapo (secret police) during the Third Reich.

Photo: Topographie des Terrors

Checkpoint Charlie
Checkpoint Charlie was the checkpoint between the American and Soviet sectors of Berlin. After the construction of the Berlin Wall, it primarily served as a crossing point between East Berlin and West Berlin during the Cold War.

Reichstag
The Italian High Renaissance building served as the seat of parliament in the German Empire. Today, it functions as the seat of the federal German parliament.

Berlin Tempelhof Airport
This was probably one of my favorite part of Berlin. The Tempelhof Airport is an abandoned airport that ceased operations in 2008. The airfield has two parallel runways (09R/27R and 09L/27L) with a length of more than 6,000 feet. It only had one taxiway that was basically circled the runways.

We rented bikes for about one hour and rolled down on the runways and taxiways! We saw a Douglas C-54 of the USAAF parked under the terminal (pictured above) and a Let L-410 Turbojet that was used for fire training purposes. The hour flew by really fast!

After our passage through the abandoned airport, we headed to the city’s main railway station (Berlin Hauptbahnhof) to take a train to Hamburg. In my next post, I will talk about Aircraft Interiors Expo 2017 in Hamburg!

Nicolas

Some Tips to be a Great Intern

Posted on April 5, 2017 by Maryam

Hello everyone!

Exactly one month from now, I will conclude my current internship with Delta Air Lines, so I wanted to share some tips that I’ve learned. I know many of you will be off for internships during the summer, so it will be great to keep some of the following in mind.

1. Learn about the company:

Being offered an internship is a great boost to your resume, but it’s always great to learn more about the company before hand. Always do you homework- conduct some additional research of the history of the company you are going to intern with and learn about their culture. This will help boost your knowledge and maybe impress your boss! I mean you could even end up scoring a letter of recommendation from your manager in the future!

2. Mentor:

It is important that you find a mentor while working in the company. It doesn’t necessarily have to be your manager, but someone whom you could talk to and will give you continuous support. This will also help develop relationships and connect with the employees on a personal level. At my current internship, my manager and I have set up an “intern status meeting” every Wednesday, so I would highly recommend doing something similar. It has helped me connect with my manager on a personal level, and I always learn new things about her!

3. Commitment:

Never show up late to work, unless you have an emergency . Be sure to communicate with your manager in case you know you might be late or need a day off (car trouble, stuck in traffic, sick leave, etc). It’s better that your manager knows where you are instead of wondering whether you will show up to work or not. Communication is an important key to developing your relationship with the manager. Always keep them in the loop. Don’t be afraid to talk to them in case you’re facing any problems. If necessary, stay back later in the evening as well. This will show your manager that you are committed to do your job. Prove to them that you are someone who stands out and goes the extra mile. Your internship is your time to shine. Standing out in your company could even open up job offers after your internship is over.

4. Social Media:

AVOID AVOID AVOID! Do not be on social media unless your job requires you to be on it. The internship is your time to learn more about the industry and gain valuable experience. If you need to, you can use social media preferably on lunch break. I still avoid it, even during lunch break, since I treat my break as a bonding experience with my fellow coworkers and try to learn more about them. Always be polite and friendly when you’re talking to your employees/ employers and beware of gossiping.

5. Feedback:

Always ask for feedback when you’re working on projects assigned to you. This will shine light on your strengths, and you can always learn from your weaknesses before you leave. Everyone makes mistakes so do not be afraid to correct them. Do whatever it takes to show your employer that you are eager to do your job! Talk to your employer if you need more projects to work on or need to lessen the load.

There are definitely many other factors involved, but I just wanted to give a brief insight of some of the factors I considered while working on my current internship. I wish you the very best in all your endeavors. Be yourself, be amazing!

Until next time,

Maryam

Spring Break in the Mountains

Posted on April 4, 2017 by Nicolas

Hey all!

Mont-Tremblant, Quebec, Canada

For the second part of Spring Break, my family and I went to ski for a few days in Mont-Tremblant, which is just a bit over 80 miles north-west of Montreal. I believe it was time to something else in the snow after shovelling snow for a few days due to Winter Storm Stella. I had already been to this skiing resort when I was younger.

I think it is my favorite mountain on the East side of North America. It is not comparable to the height of the Canadian Rockies or Colorado in the West, but it is a great mountain. The village is awesome and you have the feeling of being in Vail or Whistler.

Beautiful sunset over the Mont-Tremblant village just after our arrival at the hotel.

Beautiful sunset over the Mont-Tremblant village just after our arrival to the hotel.

The village has all sorts of restaurants, coffee shops, hotels, boutiques and ski equipment stores. While we were there, it was also Spring Break for many high schools and universities in Ontario. I felt like I was in the United States since I was only listening to people talking in English.

The village during daytime.

The village at the bottom of the slopes becomes lively in the afternoon.

The Fairmont Tremblant is right by the slopes and is “ski-in ski-out.”

Even though Mont-Tremblant is mostly a winter seasonal destination, I heard many tourists come visit in the summer. There are many activities to do in the warmer months of the year such as golf, mountain biking, wall climbing and hiking. The is also a lake where you can fish, go canoeing and kayaking. I have not been in the summer but I hope to do so next summer!

If you want to visit Mont-Tremblant, you can either fly to Montreal (YUL) and drive to the resort, or you can fly directly to YTM seasonally via Montreal, Toronto-Pearson (YYZ) or Toronto City (YTZ).

Until next time!

Nicolas

Spring Break

Posted on March 31, 2017 by Jack

Just two weeks ago, my Spring Break started, and it could not have arrived any sooner. It was very nice to just take the week for some R&R with some of my friends that came to Daytona Beach for the break.

Campus during Spring Break is very quiet, and a lot of the places to eat on campus are closed or have very odd hours. However, Daytona Beach is not a bad place to spend Spring Break, especially if one is just looking to lay out on the beach for a few hours every day.

This year, Daytona was quite busy during our break; there were thousands of college kids in town for their break as well as thousands of bikers in town since it was Bike Week. It was definitely busy on the beach side to say the least.

I escaped Daytona for a few days with one of the program managers in the Career Services Office to make a few site visits in Atlanta with Delta Air Lines and Expressjet. It was really neat traveling with the program manager and participating in the meetings with the different people discussing a wide variety of topics from education to recruiting. Plus, It was very nice to be back at the Delta headquarters and spend some time with the folks I worked with over the summer. I am so excited to return to Network Planning in just over a month for the summer!

My friends and I also spent some time at Epcot over the break; one benefit of being a student at ERAU is that we can buy discounted park tickets to the different Disney parks from our athletics department, and it can save a lot of money! There are some blackout dates, but it is a perk that is totally worth taking advantage of while at ERAU.

Well, time to get back to work…just five weeks of the semester left!

Jack

My Life @ Riddle

Daytona Beach Edition

Category Archives: 2016 – 2017

Two Weeks Left!

Goodbye, Kentucky and Hello, Florida!

I Began my Morning with a Little Bit of Gardening

A Week in the West

Exploring the World’s Largest Model Railway

Aircraft Interiors Expo #AIX2017

Two Days in Berlin

Some Tips to be a Great Intern

Spring Break in the Mountains

Spring Break