The Final Push

Posted on December 2, 2015 by Billy

Hello, hello! Sorry about that weird awkward gap thing that happened. One of my posts got posted a bit latter than expected and it threw off my whole posting cycle.

Over_Due_Rocket_Launch_Picture_(1).jpg

Over_Due_Rocket_Launch_Picture_(2).jpg

Anyway, since the rocket launch, things are starting to pick up since we’re at that point in the semester where everyone’s trying to cram everything into the last few days of class. I can’t believe we’ve come so far since August!

Me: “What’s the most interesting thing that’s happened to you on the job?” Her: “I can’t answer that!”

SPIN.

SMALLPOOLS?

On The Avion front, aside from covering the Atlas V launch that happened last month, I was able to cover another volleyball game, a fantastic Presidential Speaker Series with former CIA agent Valerie Plame, and Embry-Riddle’s annual homecoming carnival.

Embry-Riddle held a candlelight vigil for the victims of the November 13th attacks in Paris.

In terms of school and classes, I have never seen so many group projects and tests crammed into one month. It actually got to the point where I had to deliver two team presentations in one day, one of which had to last for a full 50-minutes, so that was fun.

As usual, Physics II is kicking my butt and so is Calculus II, but I’m slowly gaining traction in both subjects. I guess I’ll be living in the library for the next couple of days so I can study for finals.

I swear Deland’s Amtrak station isn’t a creepy place.

Thanksgiving Break has been really interesting to say the least. For starters, my and my roommate took a 20-hour train ride up the Northeast Corridor via Amtrak. At the time, taking the train was definitely cheap and with my roommate’s destination being Virginia and mine being New Jersey, we were together for a majority of the train ride so it was not too, too bad.

Because of my travel accommodations last year, I missed my high school’s annual Thanksgiving football game against our rival high school. I’m glad I was able to see it this year because it’s been about two years since I’ve been to a high school football game. It was nice to see all my friends and former classmates after so many months of studying. It was also nice to be welcomed back by the cheer team after not being on the team for so long.

Ah, New Jersey. Home of pork roll sandwiches and gas station attendants.

Flash forward a few days later, I’m back on the Amtrak train headed to Florida. It’s always a somber moment whenever I leave home, but thankfully I’ll be back in two weeks time.

Looking back at the beginning of this semester, I definitely noticed that I changed as a person. I was able to overcome a lot of the obstacles thrown my way, and for the ones that I couldn’t conquer, I used those as a learning experience.

With only a few days left in the semester, it’s time to apply what I learned as Finals Week approaches ever so quickly. I feel some-what confident in my self which is a first. So on that bombshell, happy holidays everyone. I look forward to telling you about my winter in the Spring of 2016!

Fall Break in Boston

Posted on October 21, 2015 by Lindsey

I cannot believe half of the semester is already over! Time is seriously flying. Fall Break signifies the middle of the semester, which is nice, but also frightening because of how much I still have to do before the end of the semester! However, it was nice to get away for Fall Break last weekend.

Like most people, I left Daytona to travel. However, what was different is that I was traveling for ‘work’. I say ‘work’ because I wasn’t going home to see my family, and technically I was working, although, my work is so much fun. I traveled to Boston for the Women’s Ambassador Program. I traveled with my friend Kalina, who is also an ambassador. The purpose of the trip was to volunteer at the Geek is Glam STEM Expo for Girl Scouts. We did volunteer, but we also got to sight-see!

Kalina and I woke up very early Friday morning to catch our flight to Boston. After a couple flights, coffees, and awkward naps on the plane, we made it to Boston. Once we arrived we were picked up by an ERAU Admissions Counselor, whom we work with a lot. We all went straight to downtown Boston. Kalina is from MA, so she knew everything about Boston, but what she didn’t know is that she would be surprised by her family when we arrived! After all of the excitement, the group of us toured around the city, since I had never really been downtown.

Hello, Boston!

Our first stop was Quincy Market, where I had the most amazing Lobster Roll. It was delicious!! New England sure does know how to do Lobster. Next, we walked around to Faneuil Hall, Town Hall, Beacon Hill, and through a few parks. I was amazed by all of the history in the city. Of course I learned about Boston in U.S. History, but it was crazy to be where all of the history took place. After our long walk, we walked to Little Italy to grab a cannoli at Mike’s Pastry, which is apparently pretty famous! The cannoli was to-die-for! After our treat we spent some time down by the water, and then headed out of town to our hotel in Central Massachusetts.

Famous Quincy Market

Kalina and I in front of Faneuil Hall

Myself, Crystal, Kalina, and a friend

Old City Hall building

Chocolate Chip Cannoli from Mike’s Pastry

The drive was beautiful, since I got to see the historic Fenway Park, and all of the leaves changing colors. It was nice to be in crisp air as opposed to Florida’s muggy, warm air. However, I did not like the temperature!! All weekend it was about 50 degrees, with lows in the 30s. I was definitely not used to that. We got to our hotel and went out for a nice dinner at a local Italian place. Then it was time for bed, since Kalina and I had such a long day of travel.

The next day, Saturday, we had our event. We had to run to Walmart to grab some supplies, which was an experience! We ended up searching for a long time for a laundry detergent called Borax, which we needed to make the Goo we were using for the event. After countless walks around the aisles, we finally found it, which was a relief. The event took place at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. It was a beautiful campus, filled with old brick buildings with modern flares. There were about 450 Girl Scouts who were on campus for the event, which as you can imagine, was pretty crazy. At our booth, we had straws and marshmallows for the girls to build towers with, and Goo for the girls to play with. Goo is a putty-like substance created with Borax, glue, and water. Other booths had robots, ice cream made with liquid nitrogen, and many other science-related items.It was about a 4 hour event, however I spent a lot of the time making Goo. It was a hit with the girls!! However, it takes about 15 minutes to make a batch of it, which had to be made in the bathroom. I ended up running back and forth from the booth to the bathroom making and delivering Goo. It was all worth it, though. I loved seeing the girls so excited and eager to learn about the Goo. It was a rewarding feeling knowing that I helped to keep them interested in science.

Kalina and I making Goo at the STEM Expo

After the event, we drove to Wahlburgers, which is Mark, Donnie, and Paul Wahlberg’s restaurant. They have their own show, which showcases the restaurant and their family life. I had Donnie’s Choice Burger, which turned out to be the best burger I had ever had, a frappe (milkshake), and fries! Now I understand why there was a 45 minute wait to get a table. The restaurant was unique and fun, which is why I think so many people love it.

YUM, Wahlburgers!

Once we had finished eating, we drove to Salem, MA to experience the spookiness. Since it is October, Salem was hosting many Halloween-related events. It was very, very cold that night, so we walked around the streets quickly looking at all of the famous sites. The place that blew me away the most was the memorial for those who died during the Salem Witch Trials. It is crazy to read how they died, and why they were believed to have been a witch. The history in Salem was incredibly overwhelming, however it is worth the visit.

The Witch House in Salem

The next day, Kalina and I headed to the airport at 5:30am to catch a flight back to our warm, Florida residences. I cannot explain how grateful I am to have been able to travel to Boston with one of my closest friends. I never thought I would ever get to see New England and all of its history, so it was an experience I am incredibly thankful for. I cannot wait for more amazing ‘work’ trips in the future, but for now, back to school!!

Until next time,

Lindsey

And We’re Back!

Posted on September 15, 2015 by Billy

Hello, hello! After a much needed 4-5 month hiatus, we’re back! And I’m not just talking about me being back on the blogging scene, but rather everyone coming back to Embry-Riddle. So on that note, welcome back returning students and faculty, and hello to the new students and faculty getting their start at Embry-Riddle this semester!

This summer has been a jam-packed one for sure. With things ranging from collegiate visits and parades to work and traveling, Summer 2015 may have been my most productive summer to date.

Summer 2015 also marked the time where I started taking “artsy” pictures.

With victory and triumph in my veins after conquering the spring semester, I boarded my flight bound from Orlando, Florida (MCO) to Newark, New Jersey (EWR) and rode the train home once I got to New Jersey. It was probably 1AM when I finally got to my house on May 1st. Unfortunately for me, most of my friends were still in school/college. Needless to say, I did not spend May wisely and spent most of my time at home. (Whoops.) I did however, visit my high school to catch up with some teachers and friends. I even spoke to a few freshmen classes about college and how to prepare for the next 4-5 years of their lives.

Suddenly June came barreling in, and I suddenly found myself in a chaotic ballet of commitments and unexpected events. My sister’s orientation for Penn State University was during the first week of June so I had to put off working in New York City until the week after. Despite the logistics, 4-hour drive, and uncomfortable hotel beds, it was a fun time. Most importantly, my sister enjoyed the school which is what really mattered.

I guess Penn State ran out of rock climbing walls.

With Penn State’s orientation over and my sister finishing high school in 2 weeks, I went back to work in New York City. Not much has changed since I left last summer, but it was still nice to go back to work in place that was familiar to me. The atmosphere and pacing is so different from life here in Daytona Beach, and that’s the lifestyle I was accustomed to.

Sometime in the middle of July, the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team defeated Japan during the Women’s FIFA Cup and to celebrate, there was a ticker tape parade in New York City. Conveniently, my office was on Broadway and I managed to get some really nice pictures. It was my first ever ticker tape parade and it was really special considering the last one was in 2012 after the Giants won the Superbowl.

ERMERGERD. ERMERGERD.

I saw people just dump entire packets of paper outside their windows. It was crazy.

Annoyingly, August rolled around signalling the end of my summer vacation a few weeks later. By that time, I finished my internship and spent my time at home preparing for the fall semester. I managed to go out and photograph a few sunrises, the Perseid Meteor Shower, and sunsets. It was nice and a fitting salute to my home state before leaving for Riddle.

I saw the Milky Way in person for the first time ever!

The last sunrise I saw in New Jersey. *sheds tear*

Oooo.

On my flight back to Orlando, I ran into William Stirna who was a graduate of Embry-Riddle’s class of 1994!

With things at Embry-Riddle in full swing now, nothing’s really changed since I left last spring. My classes are very interesting with SIM 200 being the most “technical” class I’ve taken to date. My professors are wonderful and they make class enjoyable, and I’m honestly glad things worked out the way they did. So, on that bombshell, thank you for reading, and I’ll talk to you all soon!

This isn’t Daytona Beach, but this was taken in Florida…that counts right?

“Oh so artsy.”

Let Freedom Ring: Independence Day Weekend Activities

Posted on July 8, 2015 by Lindsey

Although I have been working non-stop this summer, I did take a break last weekend to enjoy myself. I was fortunate to have a Friday off, so I decided to take a road trip to the Nike Employee Store in Beaverton, Oregon. A few friends and I piled into a car and started our journey bright and early. We shared many laughs along the way and made it to Portland in what felt like no time at all!

I have a travel philosophy, which is that while you’re traveling, you should never eat at a restaurant that you could eat at while at home. So, of course, we looked up some of the best local restaurants in Portland. We ended up stumbling upon a small BBQ restaurant, which made some of the best pulled pork I’ve ever had.

After our appetites were satisfied, it was time to do some major shopping. I had been to the Nike Employee Store once before, however, never as an official Nike employee. The rule is you can only get into the store if you have a pass from a Nike employee. The exclusivity, in my opinion, makes it more exciting when you get the chance to shop there. The best thing about the Employee Store is that almost everything is 50% off. The bad thing about this is that you can do some major damage to your bank account in a short time, while still believing you’re saving money.

Once we had shopped for about an hour and we had grabbed all the Nike product we could, we journeyed back home. Not only was it a great shopping experience, it was awesome to spend some quality time with friends and family on the road!

The next day, July 4th, is one of my favorite holidays of the year (even though I’m Canadian)! I love all of the parties, fireworks, and pride that Independence Day brings. Where I live, we spend the 4th of July by the lake. This year was the perfect weather for a good BBQ and fireworks show. Because we didn’t get to light off any fireworks this year, at the end of the night, my friends and I went out to the lake to watch other people’s fireworks displays. Almost every house on the lake was lighting off their own fireworks, along with the professional show put on by my neighborhood. The night of July 4th is always one of the highlights of my summer, just because of the happiness and pride it brings to everyone.

The beginning of my Independence Day weekend was one for the books, however July 5, 2015 was a day I will remember for the rest of my life. Find out why in my next blog post!

Until next time,

Lindsey

We have how much time left?

Posted on April 7, 2015 by Billy

In terms of time, this might be the 2nd to last post I make for this semester which is crazy. I can’t believe the semester went by so quickly.

It was a really foggy night when I got back from NJ.

Good vibes all around when flying.

Spring break was lovely and, even though I miss it, I know that in three weeks time it’ll be summer vacation, so I can’t complain. It’s nice that we get like 3-4 months off because I could really use that time to get caught up in my hobbies and school work, not to mention going back to interning in New York City.

I’m very excited for the Touch ‘N’ Go “Big Show” this Saturday! I hope that I can get credentials for the event just like last year with Gabriel Iglesias as it would be a nice way to end my Saturday work day. I’m also working on getting credentials for a rocket launch next week; hopefully the date stops moving around because it’s really hard to plan out your itinerary when the dates keep getting scrubbed.

At this point of the semester I’m starting to really focus on my school work and the results have been very promising! CAD class is wonderful, though we’re diving into tolerances which is starting to mess with my head. Psychology gets very interesting with each lecture. Hopefully I can find a similar class to fill my high-level social sciences (crosses fingers.)

Aside from all the other usual stuff that goes on, I’m still writing letters and postcards to my friends and keeping in touch with my family, and writing to people has so much more meaning and worth than just sending a text message. I dare you to try it.

So jealous that the math teachers have this view of campus.

Nothing makes your better than getting a letter.

Unfortunately the past two weeks have been somewhat of an “off-week:” no real action going on, but that will change when the next post rolls around. So, until then, cheers!

Snow? During Spring Break?

Posted on March 23, 2015 by Billy

Wow, here I am back in NJ, and it’s snowing on the First Day of Spring. None of it is sticking however, but it’s nice to see snow falling after spending so much time in Florida.

Someone please tell me that isn’t jet fuel being dumped out of my plane before landing…

Surprisingly this is the 2nd time I’ve flown out of Daytona Beach Int.

Unfortunately, my break hasn’t been all that eventful thanks to Mother Nature’s winter-weather-fury. I manage to visit my friend who goes to school at the University of Delaware, got to go back to my high school and visit my friends in the drama department, had dinner at my friends’ house, and spent some quality time with my family; what more could you ask for?

I found the University of Delaware’s equivalent of the COAS.

I got a nice chunk of my homework done, but there’s still more to accomplish so hopefully I don’t get sidetracked. Speaking of sidetracked, the snow is actually sticking! All the lawns on my street are turning white!

I’m glad we had a week off for Spring Break (technically 10 days for me but I digress.) I definitely needed the break to take some time to think about what I need to accomplish when I get back to Riddle. Not only that, it was nice to see my friends rooting for me because we all need a little motivation in life.

With that said, I think I’m ready to come back to school. I can’t wait to get back into the swing of things. I definitely need nicer weather to get more practice with my quadcopter so I’m excited. So, on that bombshell, I’ll see you all soon!

12:41 “Eh, nothing’s gonna happen.”

1:14 “NO WAY.”

More fun!

Posted on February 20, 2015 by Billy

At the expense of my procrastination, I bring to you all another blog post. With 2 weeks passed, let’s reflect on the many things that happened since February 4th.

I love name tags. Makes a you feel official.

My day was made when someone handed me a flower as I played piano while on break.

I was gonna be like “Woah, I can’t believe I got hired by the IT Department bro,” but then I realized I said that last week; so I won’t. I will, however, discuss the aspects of my job, and hopefully not bore you all to tears in the process.

In addition to golf cart driving privileges (finally) and fancy name tags, I’m a part of a 30+ person strong team that, well, fixes computers. Originally, I had the intention of wanting to work for ResNet, which is the Geek Squad equivalent of tech support for students here at Embry-Riddle, but I wound up being placed in desktop support. I really like the job, granted I work weekends and Thursdays. I mostly look at tickets that have been placed in our system and check to see which ones I can handle with my 4 hour shift on Thursday. Once the weekend comes, I’m off with a 2-3 person team that inventories, replaces, and recycles computers. It’s not a bad gig, and I’ve meet some really cool people through the job. I can’t wait to see where this job takes me.

With Spring Break rapidly approaching (4 weeks and counting) I booked my airline tickets for NJ. Normally I would fly out of Orlando to Newark, but after talking it over with my father, we both agreed that flying out of Daytona would be better. And you know what? With my last class on the 13th ending at 11:30AM with a 2:00PM flight putting me in NJ at 7PM, you can’t beat it! (Well I guess you can, if you fly out of Orlando with the 2.5 hour flight but I digress.) Anyway, I’m so excited to come home. I started making plans with old friends and will be looking forward to some R&R.

I don’t talk about it a lot, but I am a part of Embry-Riddle’s Solar Decathlon team. The Solar Decathlon is a contest set-forth by the United State Department of Energy (DoE), and it challenges schools from around the world to design and build a solar-efficient home. In years past, schools like Stevens Institute of Technology and Arizona State have competed along with schools from Italy and China. If I remember correctly, and I tend to be wrong often, this is Embry-Riddle’s first year competing so there’s a lot on the line. I’m on the architecture team and we believe that we have a design that may work. At this point, all we need to do is to finalize all of the details and submit it to the DoE by October; plenty of time right? Once that’s done, we start building the home and ship it to California in 2017 which is where and when we’ll be participating.

I flew my quadcopter again today and I was pleasantly surprised with how well it flew. I feel like if I practice just a few more times, I can start mounting cameras to it. Speaking of, as we speak, I set up my GoPro to shoot a time-lapse so I might as well go check on it. So on that bombshell, not really, I’ll see you all later!

“This Isn’t ‘Goodbye,’ It’s Only ‘See You Later.'”

Posted on November 20, 2014 by Billy

Hello there!

I’ll assume that if you’re reading this, you’ll have no idea who I am: which is good because I have a few lines to make a good first impression!

In addition to living in NJ, I also work in New York City!

My name is Billy Nguyen and I’m from Eatontown, NJ. For starters, no NJ is nothing like the TV show “Jersey Shore.” Actually, it’s quite far from it and I highly recommend coming down in the summer since the beaches and night life is pretty cool around here, or you can go to California: I won’t judge you. Growing up, I didn’t have that many opportunities to pursue my interest in engineering or really anything aerospace related. What I did to get by was take the engineering courses offered at my high-school and spend countless hours flying in Flight Simulator X. Still to this day, I fly regularly in that game.

Oh so artsy.

On the side I started doing photography, videography, music, acting, graphic design, drawing, and computer work; a mouthful right? While my hobbies weren’t directly related to my major of Aerospace Engineering, I was able to find some outlets for my hobbies to keep myself engaged and active during my first semester here at Embry-Riddle. Thanks to my ingenuity, I’m now a general member of the Avion newspaper and I regularly cover campus events as a photographer. I wish I had time to join the Acafellas and Riddle Players, but maybe someday I’ll tryout. (You have been warned.)

Adjusting to life at Riddle was extremely challenging: definitely a step-up from high-school for sure. As we near the end of the first semester I can really start to grasp how much I’ve learned and changed these past few weeks and it’s really amazing. I think I’ve changed for the better; I’m now more aware of how important time management is (note how I didn’t say I got better at time management,) and I’m starting to learn how to navigate the world on my own. It’s a life changing experience and my curiosity and passion for learning is what will ultimately carry me through all of this.

As my high-school’s cheerleading manager of 3 years, the quote in the title was

adjust is to get involved. If you have a passion for

tossed around a lot towards the end of each season and it makes me think about all the things that could happen in the 4-5 years when you’re away at college; only time can tell how things will turn out for me. For now, hopefully I come home for Winter Break I can impress my friends with the MATLAB programs I can write.

My advice for anyone still trying to adjust is to get involved. If you have a passion for something, chances are there is a club for you; you don’t even have to join a

Wings & Waves was my first ever airshow and I was amazed.

club on campus per-say. There’s plenty of opportunities in the Daytona area. There is literally so much you can do at Embry-Riddle but you have to take that first step. Also, keep in touch with your friends and family. I like to send letters to my friends and I think I’m one of the few people still keeping the post office running.

So on that bombshell, “Allons-y!”
Billy N.™

Summer Life – Delta Air Lines Internship

Posted on May 30, 2014 by Kyle

Hey all! I hope everyone is having a great summer as we fly into the month of June. My month of May was quite eventful; I wrapped up finals at the beginning of the month and then headed up to start my summer internship at Delta on May 12th. I’m working with the great folks in the Network Planning department where a large group of individuals plan where and how we are going to fly all of the routes that are out for sale to the public. The process isn’t as easy as saying you’re flying from point A to B at this time, it is a very choreographed process with tons of steps between deciding when and where to fly and how they are actually going to do it.

: Sabre AirVision is the software that we use in Network Planning to schedule all of the flights that Delta operates.

My internship started off very quickly as I quickly became acclimated with our scheduling software, Sabre AirVision. The product is very easy to use and not only contains the flight schedule that we are working with, but it also generates reports on things such as flights that may have the same number as another (duplicates, which you cannot have on the same day) and hours that airplane types and crews will fly (we only have so many airplanes and pilots and crews are restricted by the FAA on how many hours they can fly in a day). I cannot imagine scheduling flights without a product such as this one.

Putting together the schedule is quite a challenge because of dozens of things that the normal traveler doesn’t see. Things such as performing overnight maintenance on our fleet and keeping the number of flights coming into and out of a hub within max limitations is a very hard task due to the number of flights that we are trying to fly in a day. The Delta system is based around a hub-and-spoke style layout and every hub has special characteristics that the folks in Network Planning have to keep in mind. No one flying on an airline likes delayed or cancelled flights and it is our job to make sure that every flight gets off the ground as planned, on-time through major planning months before the day of the flight.

Traveling while interning at Delta is a must! I went to NYC for the first time over Memorial Day and it was a fantastic experience!

One great perk of interning at Delta is the flight benefit package. A normal intern has the opportunity to non-rev, or fly anywhere in the world for minimal or no cost at all as long as there is an open seat in the cabin, aka a non-revenue generating seat and passenger for the airline. So far I have worked at Delta for three weeks and have gone home to Indiana twice and to New York City, Myrtle Beach, and Daytona Beach all once. Being an airline intern definitely has its perks other than gaining awesome experience behind the scenes. I cannot wait to use my non-rev benefits to travel around the world!

Delta World Headquarters, known as the G.O. by employees, is an awesome place to work and I am extremely honored to have been chosen to work for and represent such a well respected and successful entity. Stay tuned for blogs in the coming weeks and months from here in Atlanta!

Happy flying,

Kyle

Goodbye island life

Posted on June 4, 2013 by Joshua

This is probably the only blog from an Embry-Riddle student who started two first days at this University, 5 years apart.

Sometimes it’s hard to imagine that one year ago, I was a Key West trolley tour guide. I entertained tourists with facts of the island and repeated the same corny jokes to them every day, sometimes with a few originals. Chances are good that if you visited Key West and rode on an orange and green trolley over the past year, I was your bus driver and guide. I also drove the Key West haunted tours, a type of meet and greet with Key West characters like Robert the doll as well as the other types of spirits….not necessarily the ones found in haunted houses. I found myself living on the island by accident. I went to be a dog sitter for two weeks and ended staying almost a year! You might say I caught what the locals call the “Keys Disease” and it’s hard to resist. People come for a visit but never leave. It’s said on the island that if you show up to work every day, you have a job. If two weeks later you’re still showing up on time, they’ll make you the manager. Well, sure enough, the dog left town with its owner and I stayed. As well as being a tour guide, I worked other side jobs such as newspaper delivery boy, bakeshop dishwasher, and event security (a.k.a. bouncer).

The island life was a relaxing and good one. It is hard to resist the sunniest place in Florida with the least amount of rain. It ‘s truly Paradise except, endless renditions of Jimmy Buffett songs blaring down from Duval Street. One day I woke up with one more hangover and realized I wasn’t moving forward with my life. It was time for me to progress forward on my flight plan for life.

This was the culmination of a restlessness that I tried to resolve, and it brought me through many different experiences. These included several semesters at a state university, a shopkeeper in South Beach, and an unpaid Internship for Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen in DC. This was right after I withdrew myself from Embry Riddle; I wanted to try something different in life. But my passions drew me back.

On August 27, 2012, my second first day of college began. Once again excited to be making progress, living in campus dorms, and starting from where I had left off, but more focused on my degree: Aviation Business Administration. In one week, I will be curing my desires, dusting off the backpack and train hopping across Europe to appease my wandering soul. In one month, I will be attending classes with the Study Abroad program in Berlin, and in one year, I will be an Embry-Riddle alumnus. It’s a long way from the old island life, and it feels great!

My Life @ Riddle

Daytona Beach Edition

Tag Archives: Travel