So I admit that I've been a little bit lazy this fall. I haven't posted a blog entry since September, but some cool things have happened since then...
The Big 3-0
Yup, that's right. I finally turned 30 earlier this fall. Of course my family threw me a big surprise birthday party at home, which was pretty special. They invited a lot of family and friends to help me celebrate. They even invited some of my old high school buddies that I had not seen in a long time. A good time was had by all.
So how does it feel to be 30? To be honest, not any different than 29. Or 28. Or 27. Or... well, you get the idea. I don't feel any older, but it is sort of a mental jab to one day wake up and realize that you're 30.
There were so many things I had on my "wish list," things I had hoped I would accomplish or that would happen in my life by the time I reached 30. Fifteen years ago, I figured I would be married and maybe even have a kid or two by now. But God's plan for my life just hasn't taken me in that direction. Instead, He has forged my life into a more unique path.
Even though some of the things on my "wish list" have not happened yet, there are a lot of things I have been able to do that I would have never dreamed of when I was a teenager. Things like having a job I love in an exciting industry. Things like being able to travel to many interesting places (like Southern California, Seattle, South Florida, Texas, and even France). And I've been able to experience things that few people ever get to (like testing engines and flying around in experimental airplanes). And there are a lot of other things that I'll get to take part in before it's all said and done.
And most importantly, The Lord has really worked in my life the last 3 or 4 years to bring me into a new place of relationship with Him. I have experienced so many amazing things in my life and in my church community these past few years that I don't even know where to start or how to describe it all. I know that God has awesome plans for my life, and the irony of it all is that He could not have done any of the things He has done in my life if things had worked out like I had wanted them to at times. So I am especially thankful for God's ultimate wisdom and love and that He has the final say instead of me. I'm really excited about what He's doing in my life and in my community, and I can't wait to see what He is going to do next.
Speaking of...
Band of Brothers (and Sisters)
Another cool thing that I've been meaning to blog about, but haven't had time to, is my awesome experiences with the Discipleship School that is being run at my church. This is basically a set of classes that teach you how to develop a meaningful personal relationship with Christ.
Some of the most important things I have learned are how to hear The Lord speaking to me, how to submit and obey Him, and how to trust in Him and love Him with my entire being. It has radically changed my life and I just can't say enough about it.
But even cooler, this year the lead teacher of the school asked me and a group of other young adults to be class facilitators. We were there to help him organize and run the class and would be there to work with the students and offer them support and encouragement. I really enjoyed the fellowship that the facilitators shared together, and I feel so blessed to have such good friends in my life.
It was an awesome experience getting to see people's lives being changed radically by a loving God. And I'm really looking forward to another year of helping out in 2012!!
100 Grand
I passed another milestone recently. Well, not me myself. But rather my car and I. On my latest trip home for Thanksgiving weekend, my car finally passed 100,000 miles on the odometer. And I have put practically every single mile on it myself since I bought it brand new back in 2005. It's hard to believe I have had my car for such a long time now and have put so many miles on it. But it's been a great little car and I love it. We have been through a lot of adventures together and I wouldn't trade it for the world. And, if the reputation of the Honda Civic stands up, it should be good for another 100,000 miles. Here's hoping...
So last weekend, I took a trip down south for a few days with some work friends...
One of my newer coworkers graduated from the University of Tennessee. And a couple of other coworkers graduated from the University of Cincinnati. And these two schools just happened to be playing each other in football last weekend! So what better way to spend the weekend than with my friends watching these two schools fight it out on the gridiron?
Of course, since I have no loyalties to either side, I was the unbiased observer. But the two parties made a few friendly bets as to who would win the game. Whichever team lost, the loser had to wear the winning school's colors to work on Monday. It made for a very interesting build-up to the game and a lot of smack talk during the game!
So we had reserved a cabin near Gatlinburg for Friday and Saturday nights, and we spent the weekend down in the hills. We got in late Friday night and set up shop in the cabin. We played a few friendly games of pool and air hockey and then rested up for the big day on Saturday.
On Saturday morning, we drove to Knoxville for the big game! It was warm, no doubt, with temperatures around 85 degrees. But as my UT friend claims, normally early September is much warmer in Knoxville, so it appears that we got a very nice day of weather. We milled around campus for awhile, soaking in the game day atmosphere and then headed over to Neyland Stadium. Our seats were really awesome, as you can see by my photos.
The Bearcats took an early lead with a sweet 65-yard scoring play from running back Isaiah Pead. I got a few good photos of him as he ran it in and scored right in front of us. Up until that point, the UT crowd had been pretty loud, but that score quieted them down a bit. Of course, the Volunteers came right back, scoring back-to-back TD's to take a 14-7 lead. Then, UC quarterback Zach Collaros threw a touchdown to Adrien Robinson to tie the game back up at 14-14 after one quarter.
After that, the Vols started to pull away. They scored two more times in the second quarter to take a 28-14 lead into halftime. It wasn't looking good for my UC buddies, but there was still a chance for a comeback.
But in the second half, the Vols started to wear down the Bearcats. Tennessee scored twice more in the third quarter and led 42-17 after three. Then they put the finishing touches on the victory, kicking a field goal late in the fourth quarter to come away with a 45-23 victory.
While UC came out firing, they were simply overmatched in this game. While the UC offense is good, their defense simply could not stop the Vols' attack. UT quarterback Tyler Bray had a career day, going 34 of 41 with 405 passing yards, 4 touchdown passes and no interceptions. He also added a rushing TD for good measure. The UT receivers also had great days. Justin Hunter had 10 catches for 156 yards and a TD. Fellow wideout Da'Rick Rogers had 10 catches for 100 yards and 2 TD's. The Bearcat defense just could not stop the UT passing game.
For UC, running back Isaiah Pead had a good game, gaining 155 yards on 14 carries. But his 65-yard TD run accounted for a large portion of those yards in only one play. Quarterback Zach Collaros was 21 of 34 for 230 yards with 2 TD passes and no interceptions, while receiver D.J. Woods had 9 catches for 111 yards.
Here are some photos from the game:
All-in-all, an exciting game and a good time had by all. It's always fun to get away for a weekend and do something fun. I had never been to a college game other than at Ohio State, so this was a pretty cool experience. Granted, the game day experience in Knoxville was pretty impressive. There were about 94,000 fans at the game, and the fans are passionate. But give me a game at the 'Shoe any day. It was good to experience another team's home field, but it just doesn't feel right to hear "Rocky Top" all the time instead of "Hang On Sloopy."
But regardless, the mountain scenery was pretty cool. Check out this sweet panorama photo I took from our cabin on Sunday morning:
So last week, we had a special visitor come to the Cincinnati area...
One of Boeing's new 747-8F flight test airplanes made a stop here at CVG, and a lot of us GE folks were able to go out and see it up close and personal.
You may remember me sharing a similar story a few years ago when Airbus flew their A380 flight test plane out here for us to see. This time, Boeing granted the same favor to us. So last Thursday afternoon, I got to go out to CVG with a few busloads of my coworkers and we got to see the fruits of our labor.
We arrived at the airport before the plane had landed, so we got to see the airplane make an approach and landing, which was pretty exciting. Then we got to walk around the plane and tour it, an
opportunity that very few people get!
The 747-8F is a freighter version, so it is basically intended to carry cargo. But there is a similar model out now (the 747-8 International) that is intended to carry passengers and compete with the A380.
The new 747-8I can hold between 400-500 passengers when fully-loaded. The new 747-8 models are essentially modernized versions of the original 747 design, with new engines, avionics, and wing/body improvements designed to increase fuel efficiency and decrease maintenance load. At GE, we are proud to supply the engine for this airplane, the GEnx-2B high-bypass turbofan engine. On the 747-8 models, there are 4 engines, each capable of producing about 67,000 pounds of thrust.
The model I work on is actually the GEnx-1B, which powers the 787 Dreamliner. But the two models (GEnx-1B and GEnx-2B) are very similar in design. I hope that one of these days, the good folks at Boeing will fly a 787 out here for our enjoyment!
Enjoy some photos from the afternoon!
So this summer, I finally did something I have always wanted to do...
I helped coach a Little League baseball team!
It's always been one of my dreams to someday coach a Little League team of my own, and this past summer I took a step towards that dream by helping out with a local team as an assistant coach. One of my coworkers has a young cousin that was playing this year, and he called up his coach and asked if he needed any help coaching, and he said he would love to have help! so I thought it would be cool to check it out and see how I liked it. Just let me say that I had a blast!
I decided to help coach this year instead of taking on my own team for a few reasons. First, I did not think I could commit to the amount of time required to be a head coach. I travel for work sometimes on short notice, so I didn't think it would be fair to the kids for me to have to miss games or practices if I were not in town. And second, I wanted to gain some experience working with a seasoned head coach so that I could learn the ropes from him. And our head coach this year is a really great guy. I have learned a lot from him about how to teach and interact with the kids just from watching and being around him. It has been a real treat to see the kids respond to his methods and to learn the fundamentals of the game.
So the league is actually called "First Pitch" league, since this level of play is the first year that the kids actually get to pitch to each other. Though, there is a twist to the rules. The coaches pitch for the first 3 innings and then the kids pitch for the last 3 innings. Of course, the kids are kept on pretty strict pitch counts and innings limits so that they don't hurt their young arms. The age group is 7-8 year-olds, so you can imagine that some of these kids have not played very much (if at all), and sometimes they don't even know the basic rules of the game or how to do simple things like throwing and catching the ball. It's amazing the sort of "skills" that you take for granted, and you forget that kids don't know how to do things like catch and throw unless they are taught. And you can really tell which kids have parents that work with them at home, and which kids don't.
While our team was about average in the win-loss department (we won about half of our games I would say), most of the boys are pretty good kids. I enjoyed getting to know them as people even more than I enjoyed teaching them the game. And it was really cool to see them progress throughout the course of the season. Some kids who couldn't even make contact with the ball in early practices were hitting line drives by the end of the year. It just amazes me how much the human brain is capable of learning in a short span.
And in getting to know the kids, you learn their individual personalities and talents. And we had some interesting ones this year! We had one kid whom the coaches called "Charlie Hustle" because he went 110% on every play. We had three boys who showed pretty good pitching talent, so I'm sure we will focus on developing that next year. And we had a few kids who could really hit. One in particular was an absolute masher at the plate. He was even intentionally walked a few times! Naturally, his favorite major league player is Joey Votto.
I think I am going to try to help coach again next year, hopefully with the same team. We plan on keeping this group of boys together for the most part so they can grow and develop together as a team. So I can't wait until next season, when the boys will be another year bigger and stronger. And hopefully, we can teach them even more about the game I love.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last week, I’m sure you have heard that things are going to be a little bit different for Ohio State football in the upcoming seasons.
Former Ohio State head coach Jim Tressel announced his resignation last Monday amid an investigation that revealed numerous NCAA infractions during his time as head coach. So the stoic, ever-composed, sweater vest-wearing coach that Bucks fans have come to love and count on is gone after 10 seasons, a 106-22 record, 7 Big Ten titles (including a record 6 in a row), 8 BCS Bowl appearances (in which he went 5-3), and 1 National Championship.
His crime? Failure to report non-compliance of NCAA rules, falsifying information to the NCAA, and failure to control his team. This is a very big deal that could end up costing Ohio State not only player suspensions and loss of scholarships, but also vacated wins and an extended post-season ban.
Of course, the investigation was initiated because of reports of improper benefits received by the now infamous “Tat 5” over the last few years. Star quarterback Terrelle Pryor, starters Dan Herron and DeVier Posey, and two other players were found to have sold rings, jerseys, and other memorabilia in exchange for tattoos, money, or other services. All of these things which Tressel apparently knew about, did not alert the appropriate authorities about, and then later lied about. This, of course, prompted Michigan fans to erect a billboard in Ann Arbor stating simply, “Liar, Liar, Vest On Fire” (which I thought was really clever). Pryor is now also being investigated for getting improper deals on cars from a Columbus dealership. The five players under investigation were suspended for the first five games of the upcoming season, but were cleared to play in last year’s Sugar Bowl, a curious decision by the NCAA. But more on that later...
As an Ohio State fan, I must admit that all of this news hit me pretty hard. I had come to trust Tressel as our coach and as an upright molder of young men. Tressel has publicly claimed to be Christian and has even written a few books about coaching and winning strategies, some including Biblical references. He had formed for himself a squeaky-clean image and came across as an honest man with integrity and Christian values. So I believed what he said. Over the last 10 years, while coaches at other universities (Pete Carroll at USC is an example) were slapped with penalties, I always felt lucky to have one of the “good guys” coaching my team. But now that the truth has been exposed, I feel so naïve to have trusted him. And also so betrayed by a man who claims to be Christian but his actions show otherwise.
Granted, Tressel is only human and he made some mistakes. Everyone does. But as more and more dirt on him was dug up, the truth started to be revealed that this was not a one-time mistake, but rather a habitual pattern of lies and cover-ups. Anyone remember Maurice Clarett, who played for the Buckeyes back in 2002 for Tressel? He was investigated for all sorts of infractions including drinking and driving and carrying loaded weapons, and spent time in jail. Santonio Holmes, who now plays in the NFL? He has been caught with drugs numerous times. Troy Smith, who won the Heisman for OSU back in 2006? He was also suspended earlier in his college career for accepting money from a booster. So perhaps I should have seen the signs. But I didn’t until it was too late.
While college football players behaving badly is nothing new (see USC, FSU, SMU, etc), and there is no way that coaches can babysit these players 24 hours a day, where Tressel failed is that he knowingly lied about his knowledge of what was going on. When the NCAA was first investigating this whole mess over a year ago, they asked Tressel if he knew anything about it. Tressel replied that he did not know anything and he even signed a paper stating as such. I can’t blame Tressel for the stupid stuff that college kids do, but I do blame him for lying about it and for withholding information from the investigators. If he had been truthful and cooperative, his career may have been spared. However, he sealed his own fate by lying and covering up everything, and his removal from the OSU head coaching position was the only appropriate action.
So the larger question appears to be this: How can you prevent stuff like this from happening again in the future? How do you stop these college athletes from taking money from boosters and from selling their trophies and jerseys? I don’t know. But I think the majority of the problem is money, plain and simple.
The truth is that college football (and basketball too for that matter) is a money-making machine. Universities, TV networks, the NCAA, and the BCS are making untold millions of dollars off of these athletes (Remember those 5 Buckeyes who were cleared for the Sugar Bowl last year? I’m absolutely convinced that decision was made purely for TV ratings and ticket sales. There was no way the NCAA and BCS head honchos were going to miss cashing in on that game). And while it’s true that the athletes are compensated with tuition and board, many of the players feel that they are not seeing enough of the profits return to them. Also, with the demanding practice and travel schedules, athletes are not allowed to have jobs. So they really don’t have a means to make money for themselves. So what is a player going to do? Well, if a booster comes up to you and offers you $500 or offers you a free tattoo or a free car for some memorabilia, you take them up on it. Only an athlete with a strong moral stance would not consider it. And remember that most of these athletes were like gods in high school, so they are used to being (and are expecting to be) treated this way in college as well. But of course, the NCAA rules are that athletes cannot use their celebrity or affiliation with the university to make a profit.
While it’s true that the athletes should be held responsible for complying with the rules, perhaps the rules themselves should be re-evaluated. When the story first broke about the athletes selling their rings and trophies, my first thought was, “so what?” If these items were the property of those athletes, they should be free to sell it. Since when was a person prohibited from selling his own property? The silliest part of it all is that if the athletes had waited another year and sold their stuff after they left school, there would have been no issue whatsoever. So when does something actually become your property to keep or sell as you choose? I think this rule is silly. Now I agree that it’s not right for an athlete to receive improper benefits (such as free goods or services), but they should be able to sell or trade their own property.
Perhaps the solution would be to just pay the players. I would think about creating a minor league system for football (and basketball too). That way, athletes who want to get paid to play can join the minor leagues and athletes who want to accept an athletic scholarship as a means to go to college can play for the university teams. Let’s face it, a large percentage of college football players have no concern for their schoolwork and do not belong in college anyways. Most of them schedule easy classes, have tutors who do their homework for them, and don’t even go to class. To call them “student-athletes” is a joke. As a taxpayer, this makes me angry because I’m funding “party-time” for these boneheads while many other deserving students miss out on scholarships.
But you might say that if you create a minor league, then no one will watch the college games. Not true. I was talking to a friend earlier this week and I basically said that I am a fan of Ohio State football not because of the names on the backs of the jerseys, but because of the name on the front. To me, it doesn’t matter who plays for the team, I would root for them anyways. The great thing about college sports is that it’s based so much on tradition and emotion. Your roster rolls over every 4 years anyways and you consistently have new guys to root for. I think that if a minor league system were to be created, then the drop in talent across all college teams would be fairly distributed. And the teams would still be very competitive and there would still be great games. At some point you realize that the game itself endures because of its very nature, not because of the athletes’ individual skills. The minor league model has worked well for baseball. Sure, the attendance at college baseball games is not overwhelming, but there is a good following at the College World Series. And besides, when was the last time you heard of a college baseball player receiving improper benefits?
Of course, a minor league system would never happen because there is too much money being made under the current system. The TV stations could probably pick up minor league games, but the universities, NCAA, and BCS are making way too much money to allow that to happen. So I guess we’re just stuck with a system that inevitably results in cheating.
So yes, it may take a few years for Ohio State to become competitive again. But as a fan, I would rather have a clean program than a program that wins by cheating. I just feel sadness for the fans and alumni of the university. We support the university and the football program and they repay us with deceit and betrayal. Today, I am embarrassed to call myself a fan of Ohio State football, but I also look forward to the day when the program can get back on the right track. I know they will.
So this last Thursday, I got a unique chance to journey down memory lane. I'll explain here shortly, but a few background details first...
So this past winter, the leader of the Ohio State recruiting team at work sent out a mass email to OSU alums to see if anyone was interested in joining the recruiting team. So I looked at the email and thought about it, and figured, "Why not?" If nothing else, it could be a fun experience.
So I told my boss that I wanted to be on the OSU recruiting team, and he wholly supported me, saying that he thought I would be a good representative. So at first, I figured I was just going to help out every so often. But at our first team meeting, the head folks showed a list of leadership positions that they needed filled for this year. I saw one that struck my fancy and decided to volunteer for it. That position was "FEH and Honors and Scholars Focal."
It made sense to me because I was in both programs when I was at Ohio State. The Honors and Scholars program was great, but what really caught my eye was the FEH program. This is the Freshmen Engineering Honors program, which I was fortunate to be a part of my first year at OSU. The coolest part about FEH is that you get to split off into teams of 4 and build a robot in Spring Quarter and then a competition is held at the end of the year to see which team has built the best robot.
The instructors give you a problem that your robot has to solve, and you can attack the problem in any way you want to (within the rules, of course). But the coolest part is that it has to be totally hands-off. That is, you press the "start" button and then the robot has to do everything else on its own, including making decisions and executing tasks in the right order to complete the course objectives. It's a great program that gives you a taste of real-world engineering problem solving as a college freshman, which was fascinating for me. And of course, companies like it because we get to see young engineering talent in action.
So I participated in the program as a freshman 10 years ago, and now I had a chance to go back and watch this year's competition as a representative from GE and even to serve as a judge! Exciting!
So the first thing that struck me was that the problem statement and the course were significantly more difficult than it was for us 10 years ago. This year, the teams had to build a robot that could manage a small farm simulation. That is, the robot had to be able to traverse rough terrain, harvest specific crops and drop them off in specific bins, drop a bail of hay onto a conveyor, and pull a wagon out of the barn... all in 2 minutes or less!! So you can imagine how difficult this task can be, especially considering the robot had to designed, built, and tested in about 8 weeks' time.
So below are some pictures I took from this year's competition:
As you can see, the course was very challenging. Of course, they have made some improvements since I was in the class. They added a GPS system that hangs over the course to send position information to the robots to help them know where they are on the course. When I was in the competition 10 years ago, we didn't have this feature. We simply had to measure distances and then keep track of where the robot was by counting wheel rotations. It's amazing to think of how far our technology has come in just the last 10 years.
I also got to talk to some of my former professors and classmates that were there. It was cool to talk to some guys and see what they have done with their lives since we were in school. And I got to talk to some representatives from other companies such as John Deere, Shell, P&G, Exxon, etc.
I've included some pictures from back when I was in the program in 2001. A few things you'll notice right away (other than the fact that I was so skinny back then)... our course was much less complex, but it was also much larger. So we spent a majority of our 2-minute time period just traveling from one point to another. Also, we could only compete 2 robots at a time, whereas this year's course allowed 4 to run simultaneously.
But I remember a lot of cool things about our project, and in pretty good detail. Just thinking of all the tasks that our robot had to do, it amazes me to this day that our team was able to make it work. We had to identify which side of the course we started on (via black/white surface detection), we had to determine which of the 4 boxes to pick up (via IR frequency input), and also determine which bin to drop it off into. And finally, we had to navigate our way through the course with only the lines on the course and the walls to serve as reference points. But looking back, it was such a fun time. Sometimes I wish we could do it all again. But then again, this is basically the kind of stuff that I do in my job every day. Just cool stuff.
I've included photos from my project below. Notice the poor camera quality. It's amazing how far our digital cameras have come since then too.
And while we are on the topic of technology, I had an interesting evening last Monday night. I came home from a church function and the power on my whole block was out due to the storms. When I pulled up to my house, the first thing I realized was that I couldn't open my garage door, so I had to park outside in my driveway. Then when I got in the house, there was literally no light anywhere. So luckily, I had a flashlight in my car and the batteries were charged. So I came in the house and used my flashlight to get around. It's funny, but you don't realize how much we depend on electricity until we don't have it. I strolled into the kitchen and realized the fridge was not powered. And since my alarm clock didn't work, I set the alarm on my phone for the morning. And then I sat in the living room and just pondered on how all of our entertainment and technology rely so much on electricity.
So with my flashlight in hand, I got my Bible out and sat the flashlight on the arm of my couch and read a few chapters from Numbers and Psalms (I've been following the RC3 journal since about April). And I thought about how people in the olden days must have read their Bibles by candlelight and I felt a weird connection back to a simpler time without all the distractions of our modernized world. And right then and there, as I read my Bible by flashlight, I praised God for the fact that His Word withstands everything in this world that otherwise obstructs our relationship with Him. And The Lord reminded me, through the way that He led Moses and the Israelites through the wilderness and provided for them even in their habitual disobedience, just how much He loves us, and how He will always reveal Himself to those who earnestly seek Him with their whole heart.
But I thought that it was somewhat ironic that I had these two experiences within days of each other. It is true that man is capable of some amazing things with the technology that we have today. But that can be made into nothing very quickly by the very hand of God if He so chooses.
Very humbling...
So as some of you know by now, I recently took a long business trip to sunny Southern California. What was originally supposed to be a five-week trip turned into a seven-week tour of duty. Although I was traveling for work, I did get a chance to do some sweet sight-seeing on the weekends. So I wanted to share some photos and stories with everyone before I forget. I actually returned from my trip over a month ago now, but I have been so busy lately that I have not had time to post until now. So enjoy the stories and photos!
Aloha, my happy West Coast friends – do you feel alive
When the breaking waves arrive and rush all around you?
The beach homes in Oceanside are quite well-known by the evening tide
And we can sleep where we reside with redwoods around us.
The blue air is up there and could I bring it down,
I’d bottle it up and save it for a sweet summer night.
Am I awake or is this just a dream?
The New Year is out here
And I will make a lovely list of your charms
So I’ll never feel alone in your arms.
I must be in California
-- “West Coast Friendship” by Owl City
January 12th: Arrival into California
Some of you might remember stories and photos I’ve posted in the past from other business trips. Back in the winter of 2007, I went to Toulouse, France, to support our GP7200/A380 testing at Airbus. Then, last spring, I spent almost 3 weeks in Seattle, Washington, supporting our GEnx/787 testing at Boeing. Well, this time, I got the call to travel to GE’s flight test operation in Victorville, California. So I would be spending 5 weeks (later stretched into 7) supporting GEnx testing on our Flying Test Bed (FTB) aircraft.
So on January 12th, my work buddy and I took off from Columbus on our way to Southern California. We chose to land at the Ontario Airport instead of LAX, since Ontario is actually closer to Victorville and because we also preferred not to mess with the passenger traffic at LAX. When we left Columbus, it was about 25 degrees outside and there was snow and sleet. When we arrived in Ontario, it was about 65 degrees and sunny. I thought to myself that it is going to be very nice to get away from the cold Ohio winter for awhile.
The city of Victorville is about 80 miles east of Los Angeles, just across the San Gabriel Mountains. The city is in what the locals call the “High Desert” area and is part of the Mojave Desert. So needless to say, the weather there was very different from what I was used to here in Ohio. Their winters are sort of like our falls in Ohio, and I love fall weather here. So every day was around the low 60’s with low humidity. Perfect!! So I thought to myself that maybe this trip won’t be so bad after all!
January 15th-16th: San Diego
So I went into the office on Thursday and Friday and got to meet the test team and get acclimated to the hanger setup and safety procedures. But it would be a few more days before we actually ran the engine. The first weekend I was there just happened to include the Martin Luther King Day holiday. So my work buddy and I took advantage of the long weekend and made a trip down to sunny San Diego. It was actually not that bad of a drive. It only took us about 2 1/2 hours, and it was mostly Interstate (I-15) the whole way. And the views of the mountains and valleys along the way were gorgeous!
So earlier in the week, I had called my Aunt Tamara and Uncle Bruce, who live in the San Diego suburb of El Cajon, and we decided to get together. My friend and I drove to their house early Sunday morning and we were greeted by their dog Rufus. I think they were both pretty excited just to have company, since it’s such a long trip for the rest of the family to make from Ohio or Indiana.
So Sunday night, the four of us went downtown to the Gaslamp Quarter, an area of town famous for their festivals and restaurants. After grabbing dinner, we walked down along the waterfront and we saw Petco Park, the USS Midway Museum, and other landmarks along the bay. Then, on Monday, Tamara had to work, so Bruce played Mr. Tour Guide. He took us to the world-famous San Diego Zoo (where I saw a hummingbird land on a flower right in front of me) and then he drove us down to the Navy Base where we saw the first boat that he served on. Then he took us to the beach, where it was about 90 degrees in the middle of January. Crazy!! All in all, it was a great weekend spent with family. Bruce and Tamara were very hospitable and I would gladly go back someday. San Diego is a beautiful city and I highly recommend it! Of course, I told them if they are ever in Cincinnati, I would return the favor.
January 22nd-23rd: Las Vegas
Following another week of work, my work friend and I again decided to sight-see on the weekend. This time, we decided to travel in the other direction towards Las Vegas. From Victorville, it is about a 3-hour drive along I-15. Let me tell you though, there is literally nothing in between. It was 2 1/2 hours of empty, barren desert. There was maybe one town in between, but not much more. A really boring drive, but since it is so desolate, everyone drives really fast on that stretch of highway.
So we got into Vegas around noon and got an el-cheapo room at The Riviera. We figured we would only be using the room to sleep, so we didn’t really care about the quality. After parking our car, we walked all the way up and down The Strip. We stopped into a few casinos and lost a few rounds of slots, but overall we had a good time. We also got tickets to a comedy show in the evening which, despite the unnecessary adult language, was pretty entertaining. We stayed the night and then drove back to Victorville Sunday around noon to try to beat the traffic returning to the LA Basin.
January 29th: Los Angeles and Hollywood
After another week of work (and a few test flights), we decided this time to check out the LA area. So on Saturday, we drove across the mountains, through the El Cajon Pass (elevation 4200 feet) and drove all the way to the oceanfront to check out Venice Beach. This area was supposed to be good for touristy types, since they have a lot of activities and shops and stuff. So we walked through the beach and checked out folks doing all sorts of things: skateboarding, basketball, roller skating, flying kites, volleyball, surfing, painting walls, playgrounds, etc. It was kind of neat to see folks out doing stuff in January. Don’t you just hate these people?
Then, later in the day, we drove over through Beverly Hills and on into Hollywood. We found the Hollywood sign and posed for a few quick photos before the sun went down. Then we walked around the Walk of Fame and found stars for the greats such as Michael Jackson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Tom Hanks, as well as some fun ones like Pee-Wee Herman, Chuck Norris, Charlie Sheen, The Simpsons, Kermit the Frog, and Godzilla. Later that night, we checked out Mann’s Chinese Theater and then had dinner at the Hard Rock Café. A pretty fun night.
February 5th-6th: K1 Racing and Las Vegas (Super Bowl)
After another week of work, my original work buddy left and went back home while two more work friends came out for different testing. So on Saturday, we again drove across the mountains and into the LA Basin area. We found a sweet indoor go-kart place called K1 Racing and we did 3 races. Out of the three of us, I think I finished last every time. But that was ok, it was fun anyways. The karts were electric and reached speeds up to about 35 to 40 mph. It was pretty intense!
Then on Sunday, the three of us took a drive to Las Vegas. This was the second trip there for me within a few weeks, but the first for the other two guys on this trip. That Sunday, of course, was Super Bowl Sunday. So we wanted to go to Vegas just to watch the game. We ended up going to the Hofbrauhaus to watch the game. Yeah, this is the same place that’s in Newport, Kentucky. There are only 3 or 4 locations in the whole world. Cincinnati, Las Vegas, and of course the original in Munich, Germany. So we went in and sat down to watch the game and then our waitress showed up. She was an interesting character. We’re fairly certain that she was OCD. If you want to hear some funny stories about our experience with her, ask me sometime.
By the way, the Green Bay Packers won the Super Bowl by beating the Pittsburgh Steelers, 31-25. There were fans of both teams in the restaurant watching and it was funny just to watch them react as the teams switched leads back and forth. One Steelers fan in particular was pretty annoying and was a sore loser in the end.
February 12th-13th: Cabazon and Temecula Winery
After another rigorous week of testing, the three of us decided to take Saturday and rest. So I took the chance to drive around and do a little more sight-seeing. I drove across the mountains towards LA again, but this time headed east on I-10 towards a town called Cabazon. Why, you ask? Well, that is the town where the famous Cabazon Dinosaurs are located. For any of you children of the 80’s, these are the dinosaurs featured in the movies “Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure” and “The Wizard.” They have a big Brontosaurus statue (named Dinny the Dinosaur) and a T-Rex (named Mr. Rex). They have a gift shop inside of the Brontosaurus statue with a lot of tacky souvenirs. You could go up inside of Mr. Rex too, but it was extra, so I didn’t do it.
So then on Sunday, the three of us got back together again and headed out towards San Diego to the Temecula wine region. We found a neat winery and sampled a few wines. Their almond wine was really good! We were joined there later in the evening by one of the test pilots who lived near Temecula. The wine country is absolutely gorgeous that time of year. Just perfect weather and beautiful rolling hills and mountains in the background.
February 20th: San Diego (USS Midway Museum)
After yet another week of testing, the three of us decided to head down to San Diego and check out the USS Midway Museum. The USS Midway was an aircraft carrier originally built during World War II, but it had been renovated and upgraded a few times since then. It was retired in 1992 and then returned to San Diego where it was made into a floating museum. It was pretty cool to walk through the hanger deck and above on the flight deck too. You can’t believe how big these boats are until you are on one. The flight deck had about 10-15 airplanes parked on it and there was still plenty of room. You could even go below deck and check out the living quarters. You could walk through the kitchen and cafeteria, the sick bay, the movie theater, machine shop, sleeping rooms, and even the brig. It was a pretty neat place and I highly recommend it, but you had better be ready to do a lot of walking!
February 27th: Legoland and San Diego Beaches
So by this time, my work friends had left and gone back home. I stayed behind to complete the final few flights. So after another week of testing, I decided to drive down to San Diego (again) and go to Legoland. I think that this time of year was a good time to go because it was not very crowded. But it was a perfect day… in the mid-60’s and sunny.
So I have always been a big fan of Legos. I had a lot of sets when I was a kid and I always loved the creativity that you could show with them. The Legoland theme park is on the north side of San Diego and it has rides and other attractions just like a normal theme park. But what I wanted to see was what they call “Mini-Land, USA.” This is a large section of the theme park where they have built miniature models of famous cities and places in the US. They have models of places such as New York City, Las Vegas, Washington DC, Los Angeles and Hollywood, San Francisco, and even New England. They also have a boat tour you can ride to see models of the Taj Mahal, Eiffel Tower, and Mount Rushmore. So cool and such amazing detail! Check out the photos!!
So after checking out Legoland, I stopped by some beaches on the way back. The San Diego beaches are simply gorgeous this time of year. It was brisk, but not cold. And the sun provided nice warmth and light. I could have stayed there for hours, staring out over the majestic Pacific Ocean, but I had to get back to my hotel.
February 24th: New Flying Test Bed
So throughout this whole trip, I was working during the weekdays. As I said before, we were testing the GEnx engine on our 747-100 flying test bed (FTB) aircraft. The 747 aircraft has 4 engines, and the FTB airplane is set up so that 3 of the engines are the original engines and the fourth engine is the new test engine, which is set up on the left-hand inboard position. If you look at the photos I’ve included of the airplane, you can see that the one engine is different from the others.
My job was to sit at a computer on the airplane and monitor the test engine for controls issues. So I got to go on every single flight of this test campaign. We made 14 flights all told, with each flight varying from between 5 to 9 hours long depending on the mission. Most of the time, we just flew in circles around the Mojave Desert airspace. But on a few occasions, we flew up and around Montana, Washington, and even out over the Pacific Ocean (where we even saw an aircraft carrier). We flew at all sorts of altitudes and airspeeds and even shut down and restarted the test engine and purposefully stalled it a few times. But the pilots and test team were all very professional and I was not nervous or anxious about flying with them at all. Though I still had to wear the orange jump suit as a safety precaution in case there were any fires on the airplane. Luckily, there weren’t.
March 4th-5th: Return to Ohio
So with our testing finally completed, I had to get back to Columbus for our family get-together at Fort Rapids indoor waterpark. We were all supposed to meet there on Friday night, but we did not complete our final test flight until that Friday. So I did the next best thing… I booked the overnight red-eye flight from Ontario to Columbus and made it back to Columbus at about 10am on Saturday morning (after a lay-over in Atlanta). I tried to sleep a bit on the plane, but only nodded off for a few hours. Needless to say, I was exhausted! I tried to stay awake long enough to swim and spend time with the family, but I was just so tired. Finally, at about 8pm on Saturday night, my dad drove me back home to Cincinnati (since my car was still at home). I got back and luckily my house was still in perfect working order (electric and water and everything was fine) and my car started right up on the first try after sitting there for 7 weeks without running. Amazing!! So I took the following Monday off to get my mail and get caught up on my laundry and other chores.
Trip Summary
It was a great trip, but perhaps just a tad too long. Despite the awesome weather (I was lucky enough to miss the “snowpocalypse” storm of the century), it gets really old living in a hotel for 50 days. Plus, I missed my friends and family and I missed our church here, so I was ready to be back. I returned to a few bills that were about a week overdue, but other than that my house was like I never left (which is a good thing). So I spent the next week or so just switching back to the Eastern Time Zone and catching up on my house and mail. It was a great experience and I was glad that I could go. I would definitely do it again. And I highly recommend checking out the Southern California area if you’re looking for somewhere to go for fun. There is a ton of stuff to do there and the weather is always gorgeous. I think next time I will try to check out some of the National Parks in the area.
