Flying north for the winter

I will be leaving for Vermont tomorrow. For five days I will get to experience the icy north. I have only been in snow twice in my life and never had the chance to do anything cool in it. It is going to be a pleasant change from the weather here in Florida. It cooled down a little today but we have had highs in the 80's lately. I'm sure those of you from the north can really feel my pain. When I return I will start writing about more engineering topics. Also, if there are any other engineering students out there that have any questions about what a class will be like or questions about specific topics in a class I will do my best to answer.

Material I am familiar with: Any math up to Diff Eq, Statics, Dynamics, General Physics, General EE, Materials, Solid Mechanics, Flight Structures, Machine Design, Aerodynamics, and math programs like Mathcad, Matlab.

Whats with the lobster?

I used the picture of myself holding the lobster because that is the only decent picture of myself that is digital. Really, I am telling the truth. My wife really likes her film camera, so the only digital pictures I have are ones that someone else took. I have tried to talk her into getting a digital, but a decent digital camera is pretty expensive. She is an amateur photographer so those little cameras everyone has will definitely not be good enough. She will not be satisfied unless she can swap out the lens, replace a filter, adjust the shutter speed, and change the aperture before every picture. Also, she still insists that film is more detailed than the multi-mega-pixel cameras out today. I'm not sure. I can't really tell the difference. Anyway, every summer we go down to the Florida keys to catch lobster (sorry vegetarians) with her family.

As for the shirt. Yes, I worked for Northrop Grumman for about five years. I worked at the Airborne Early Warning / Electronic Warfare Manufacturing Facility is St. Augustine, FL. I know, that is a long name.

Airborne Early Warning: We built new production ( that means brand spanking new) E-2C's. Now they are building the next generation, the E-2D.

E-2C

Electronic Warfare: We overhauled and re-winged EA-6B's. That is the program that I worked on. I built sub-assemblies for the new center wing sections.

EA-6B

Working there is how I got interested in engineering. Life as a mechanic was pretty good, but I knew that I could do better. I took all my calc, physics, and chemistry while working full time. Once I realized that it would take me about 10 years (at least) to get my degree I made the decision to quit and go to school full time. I got into UCF and here I am.

What about you?

My First Post

WOW, this is pretty cool. I am new at this, so take it easy on me. Ok, so, um. I am an aerospace engineering student, a junior to be precise. I will not be taking classes this spring because I got a co-op job with the United Space Alliance at the Kennedy Space Center (The coolest place on earth). I will be working in the fixed crane department. Yeah, I know what you are thinking. An aerospace engineering student working on cranes? Yes, it is more of a mechanical position, but you take what you can get. The opportunity to work at KSC is overwhelmingly awesome and if I get a job there after I graduate I should be able to transfer to a vehicle program, hopefully. Not that working on the cranes there is not cool. If you do not know about the cranes at KSC, you should check them out. I'll leave you with a link to video footage of the shuttle Atlantis being lifted and mated to the SRBs and main fuel tank. Soon, very soon, I will be there to see this first hand. Awesome.