The Kalmyk
Well-Known Member
That is really cool.
Ships Log: Fat Aircraft carrier war games
- Thread starter UtahJoe
- Start date
Thats awesome, we would have loved to do the formula team...But in our case, most of us had jobs outside of school and school was taking up 200% of our time already, then add in the SAE stuff...Then we saw the total lack of support and just thought it would not be something we could pull off. We had no support from the school other than they gave us a room in the basement of central high school complete with bullet holes in the windows. @StayHydrated was showing me his formula car from Rutgers...MANNNN...we would have so loved to to do that.
@fidodie I was thinking about you because I know you mentioned your son and engineering school. HIGHLY recommend getting into one of these programs. I truly believe that I learned as much about engineering working thru the design and building of that plane than I ever did in class. Its a really great program...There is alot of hands on work, but there is also alot of design work that is practical. In our case...we liked to build and test, but we had to spend considerable time designing the wing for our plane. All we had was "Max 72" wingspan" so it left open a million options. Some teams for example did bi and even tri planes. In the end we decided that we wanted the plane to fly well, since like 90% of these planes end up crashing. They are typically very hard to fly, loaded near their max weight and underpowered. So while some teams went with tons of wing area, bi-planes...tons of lift, tons of drag...we went for speed. Many other teams had issues with the planes taking off, stalling, then crashing. In the end, we got very close, but we could have traded a little more speed for a little more lift and I think we could have done better..from from 4th to 3rd or higher...But there is such a time crunch to build this plane, you kinda have to pick the design, prove it on paper, then go with it.
the rutgers team had a massive budget to work with IIRC(so did RPI, MIT, and a list of other schools that i cant remember), we were there basically on our own blood sweat and tears, that included funding the trip to competition. The year i went was the first time stevens had been to competition in a LONG time (like 6 or 8 years) and we did not do so well, but we learned alot and passed down alot of information, a budget from the school would have been nice, and so would a place to work that we could use while it rained (and still stay dry :/).
hands-on or co-op assignments, where one has to work with others, and discuss the real aspects of all the bookwork...
you realize that you are actually learning something! and what you don't know, but are now motivated to learn.
How did you settle on a prop? was a constant speed prop an option?
Did you calculate the max wing loading per ft^2 ? kind of interesting.
love the spring loaded landing system. maybe getting into ground effect, and 3-pointing it might have been better than a carrier landing
my college roommate is/was a naval aviator - he'd plant his mooney just like he was taught in pensacola....
i think my kid is leaning towards architecture (still in HS.) but he started talking about an accounting course last week.....hmm.
you realize that you are actually learning something! and what you don't know, but are now motivated to learn.
How did you settle on a prop? was a constant speed prop an option?
Did you calculate the max wing loading per ft^2 ? kind of interesting.
love the spring loaded landing system. maybe getting into ground effect, and 3-pointing it might have been better than a carrier landing
my college roommate is/was a naval aviator - he'd plant his mooney just like he was taught in pensacola....
i think my kid is leaning towards architecture (still in HS.) but he started talking about an accounting course last week.....hmm.
hands-on or co-op assignments, where one has to work with others, and discuss the real aspects of all the bookwork...
you realize that you are actually learning something! and what you don't know, but are now motivated to learn.
How did you settle on a prop? was a constant speed prop an option?
Did you calculate the max wing loading per ft^2 ? kind of interesting.
love the spring loaded landing system. maybe getting into ground effect, and 3-pointing it might have been better than a carrier landing
my college roommate is/was a naval aviator - he'd plant his mooney just like he was taught in pensacola....
i think my kid is leaning towards architecture (still in HS.) but he started talking about an accounting course last week.....hmm.
So with the props (we actually lost points for this IIRC) there was a "range" that would work well with a .61cu OS engine...We decided that it would be best to build a mini dyno and figure out what worked best. So using a drawer slider and a fishing scale, we made a little dyno to measure thrust. Then we ran a bunch of tests on different engines, props, etc until we got the best combination. The plane was basically at max throttle for the entire flight. I dont think we were allowed to do anything with the engines, like adding anything that would alter the prop speed. But we lost some points because of some of the testing we did...Like I think they would have rather seen us run thru the prop calculations on paper...Our argument was...good luck getting that right and the dyno worked WAY better in less time.
I cant recall wing loading calculations...might have. I know there were a ton of calculations in our report, but we all worked on different parts of it...More so the speed, lift, drag, etc...In our case, showing why we went with a 6deg polyhedral, rather than a biplane....in the case of these heavy planes moving very slow...when you started to bank them, they would quickly lose lift and start slipping....the polyhedral was great for avoiding this.
And I do remember the tail dragger design was just A. simple B. longest wheelbase possible and stable bc we needed alot of take off/landing speed with our wing.
Funny, we walked out of there on saturday and we all had to run home for family obligations...but I swear, we wanted to just start building another plane again.
I did want to bring up the rest of my weekend.....
Sunday I took bob skiing at campgaw again....This was his 3rd time and he is progressing nicely I think. Initially I thought...well I have taught many many people how to ski in my life...I cant wait to teach my son...Much like my dad did with my when I was ~4. However, after the first 15 min of in my yard...I realized the problem with kids/parents and teaching them things. So with this in mind I decided to have him go for a couple of group lessons. This worked perfectly....0 whining, he was super into doing what the other kids were doing and oh ya,....kids listen to everyone BUT their parents. I didnt have much success showing him pizza and slowing down...but they showed him and he couldn't wait to show me what they showed them....kids.
Whatever, hes got it down now and we did lap after lap on the magic carpet/bunny hill. Latest time, i found that letting him ski behind my poles is working great. After like 6 trips up the magic carpet, he started demanding to go on the lift chair. I initially told him no, but he insisted that he wanted to go. Soooo..I mean I looked at it like...well, I can ski down this hill at campgaw, drunk while holding a 4 year old in each arm...whats the worst that will happen? ill just pick him up and ski down the hill.
Of course now im remembering all of the things my Dad used to do for me...like you know...always reassure you kid that "no worries, dad's got this" even when he dont got this. With this in mind, I managed to pop him onto the chair lift without incident...WHEW.
I was expecting him to be scared like I was...im actually still scared of the lift chair bc I hate heights. But he couldnt get enough of it
we made our way to the top and off the lift without incident. I expected at the top of the lift, he would freak when he saw the downhill...nope...OMG THIS IS SO COOL....of course im 10 times more nervous about getting him down. Using my poles and holding his jacket, I slowly got him down without an issue, but wow was that a workout standing in awkward positions. After that, we went on the smaller lift and made a bunch of runs. Eventually I started to let him go on his own more and more and telling him to stop. So far, so good. I think a harness would be a good next step.
Afterwards we had ice cream for dinner...what the hell.
Sunday I took bob skiing at campgaw again....This was his 3rd time and he is progressing nicely I think. Initially I thought...well I have taught many many people how to ski in my life...I cant wait to teach my son...Much like my dad did with my when I was ~4. However, after the first 15 min of in my yard...I realized the problem with kids/parents and teaching them things. So with this in mind I decided to have him go for a couple of group lessons. This worked perfectly....0 whining, he was super into doing what the other kids were doing and oh ya,....kids listen to everyone BUT their parents. I didnt have much success showing him pizza and slowing down...but they showed him and he couldn't wait to show me what they showed them....kids.
Whatever, hes got it down now and we did lap after lap on the magic carpet/bunny hill. Latest time, i found that letting him ski behind my poles is working great. After like 6 trips up the magic carpet, he started demanding to go on the lift chair. I initially told him no, but he insisted that he wanted to go. Soooo..I mean I looked at it like...well, I can ski down this hill at campgaw, drunk while holding a 4 year old in each arm...whats the worst that will happen? ill just pick him up and ski down the hill.
Of course now im remembering all of the things my Dad used to do for me...like you know...always reassure you kid that "no worries, dad's got this" even when he dont got this. With this in mind, I managed to pop him onto the chair lift without incident...WHEW.
I was expecting him to be scared like I was...im actually still scared of the lift chair bc I hate heights. But he couldnt get enough of it
we made our way to the top and off the lift without incident. I expected at the top of the lift, he would freak when he saw the downhill...nope...OMG THIS IS SO COOL....of course im 10 times more nervous about getting him down. Using my poles and holding his jacket, I slowly got him down without an issue, but wow was that a workout standing in awkward positions. After that, we went on the smaller lift and made a bunch of runs. Eventually I started to let him go on his own more and more and telling him to stop. So far, so good. I think a harness would be a good next step.
Afterwards we had ice cream for dinner...what the hell.
When Will was learning so snowboard, the lessons had vests with a handle/strap on the back so you could a) help him on/off the lift and 2) easily pick him up off the ground. Don't do the tether/dog leash thing... Awesome that he's having fun! And yeah, kids learn way more/better from people NOT named mom or dad.
Robin
Well-Known Member
When I worked on the mountains, I would always say that it's better for parents to put their kids in lessons rather than teach them. Just like when a spouse tries to coach/teach on a bike...that never goes well. Or at least it didn't for me.
Love seeing the photos on IG!!!
Love seeing the photos on IG!!!
Fact.
JDurk
Well-Known Member
Did Mini Baja at TSC (TCNJ) from '88 to '90. We competed in the East competition, which required the vehicle to float and maneuver in water. Helped the seniors as a junior in '88-'89 and as a senior project member in '89-'90. Think we finished 4th place overall at University of Central Florida. Will have to look. Our juniors went on to finish 1st place for '90-'91 in Montreal with basically an improved version of our vehicle. Got some pics at home to scan.
StayHydrated
Swedish Chef
Man, I miss playing racecar, that was good times.
Pushing that thing around the Yellow Lot while it idled brought tears to my eyes. Mostly because of no emissions controls and a real rich mix of Sonoco 100.
JDurk
Well-Known Member
Here's a few pics. 8hp Briggs motor, Club Car trans, sand cast front swing arms, no rear suspension, separate brakes front and rear with independent rear brakes for steering on land and water.
Mountain Bike Mike
Well-Known Member
Much excite
NICE. I love proper paint jobs. I hope the painter puts in plum purple by accident on purpose.
