ERAU Jet Dragster Project had a lot of advancement this week. Larsen Motorsports is the main sponsor of the project. Mr. Larsen was here on Monday and Tuesday for preparing us to start working on the jet Dragster as soon as possible.
The meeting started on Monday with an introduction at 9 AM in the AC1 Executive Conference Room. Mr. Larsen emphasized that this Project’s main purpose is to educate and make students understand what drag racing is all about. It is not about making a dragster for Larsen Motorsports. The campus is going to get a lot of sponsors really quick just because the project is intense, fun, educative and impressive. Most of the members would also be taught how to do TIG welding as well. The campus is going to receive new TIG welding machines as well as Plasma cutters.
On Monday, we had meeting for the Aerodynamics and System Integration teams. I did attend all of the meeting on Monday though I was in the Structures meeting. Aerodynamics covered all the topics from the parachutes to the front wing. It is basically going to be opposite of what is needed in an aircraft because the dragster is supposed to stay on the ground, obviously. As a result, the centre of parachutes supposed to be aligned to the ground such that the line connecting it crosses the front tires. The front tires won’t be aligned in the longitudinal axis of car. Instead, it would have a small angle with the axis so that it is not tough to steer a little bit, when steering is needed. The front wing is obviously created to provide as much down force as possible.
System Integration had meetings that basically described how to get the whole dragster build while maintaining or improving on the basic standards for the safety of the driver. We are going to have a specific weld on all the joints. That is the standard of NHRA and IHRA, the governing bodies that lay down the laws for Dragster Racing.
Structures Team is the most amazing team. We would be getting a j-60 Engine for the dragster and we are also going to get a custom made afterburner. There is also going to be a hot streak. What it all means is that the dragster is going to be fast. When I say fast, it is going to run at 290 mph or more. The limit is 320 mph. It is crazy fast. If that afterburner and hot streak is attached to the same engine and used in a business jet, it is going to blow up the structural integrity of the aircraft. It is POWERFUL! With so much power, the Structures Team basically needs to come up with genuine, creative, new and great ideas to reduce weight, temperature and increase the life of the engine.
Propulsion team basically had a similar discussion as Structures but then we went more into depth just because the engine would be dealt much more by the Propulsion team than the Structures Team.
It is surely going to be a crazy and busy project. The teams have been created finally and I am in the structures team. It is going to keep me busy for a long time.

I am just surprised how fast things move in here. It feels like a month since I have been here, but it is already the last month of my semester. The realization that the semester is about to end struck my when I got the green booklet in my mailbox the other day. It was the Spring Class Schedule.
My classes have been pretty easy and fun throughout until this month. Things begin to pile up like anything during this month. The classes are still easy and fun, but there is way too much work now. The main thing that concerns me now is EGR 101. It has been my favorite subject throughout but the last project of LTAV is extremely challenging. Physics 2 is also going fine. I am striving for an A in that class, which seems to be another challenge. I hope this semester ends really well for me.
Anyways, I have decided what classes I will be taking the next semester. I will be taking 17 credits. The courses will be CAD, Statics, Calculus 3, Technical Report Writing and Digital Circuits with Lab. I will be a sophomore the next semester. I am extremely excited for my CAD and Statics classes. I am sure Technical Report Writing would take a lot of time. I also have decided to do a double major in AE and ME. It would be possible only if I am able to complete both the degrees in 4 years. So, the summers are going to be really busy for me, which is good.
According to the schedule I set up, I would have classes at a stretch from 0800 to 1500 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. I will have two classes on Tuesdays which will include Calc 3 and Lab. On Tuesdays, I will have no classes at all. This is going to be pretty intense and fun too. I will have a completely free Tuesday in every week. This will help a lot in getting things done on time like homework and laundry.
I had my CDR ( Critical Design Review) on the LTAV on Friday. It was my first CDR. It went pretty good. Professor Romeiser went through our CDR. The only problems we bumped into were that the weight of the two wings were a bit different and since our release mechanism for the ping pong ball was completely mechanical, without any sensors or motors, it was imperative that we tested our whole LTAV properly on the Blimp to make sure the release system works. Overall, it turned out to be really good. Hope the grades speak a similar story.

Ok so Halloween was ok. Didn’t do much of anything. Went to dinner with a couple of friends then just hung out. Didn’t go out trick or treating as I thought it would be a little creepy and weird.

It’s November already and I just found out that i am traveling with the Admissions office to Denver for their Admissions Information Meetings (AIMs). I will be there the weekend of the 21st of Nov. It’s great becasue my hometown is Denver so i am just going to stay the whole week for Thanksgiving Break. It’s going to be great. Alright, got to go, talk to you all soon.

Well I haven’t had much time to write lately so I’ll pull you up to speed. The semester started in the end of August. I live on campus and enjoying every minute of school. A great thing about attending ERAU is how the classes are focused intently on your specific major. For example, I am a GSIS major and these are my classes: Chinese 3, Creative Writing, Forensic Science, Forensics Lab, Computer Applications, and Geography. All of these courses will prove their worth in my future career.
Originally I was a Daytona Beach student planning on majoring in Homeland Security. Most people get the idea their head that Daytona is a much more interesting campus. In some ways it might be, but I’ll give you some examples of things I’ve done around Prescott. Prescott is in the mountains so if you plan on going anywhere besides the city you can count on having to drive, it’s just the way it is. Outside of Prescott there are plenty of things to do.
One day my suitemates and I decided we were bored so we headed off to the nearby city of Sedona to go cliff diving. Sedona is a small tourist city situated on a plateau of red cliffs. There were plenty of people from NAU and ASU hanging out and partying at the river where the cliff diving takes place. On another occasion we decided to take the 1 ½ hour drive to go to a Weezer concert down in Phoenix. There are many things that I haven’t listed due to the fact that I have homework and a life to lead, but you get the idea.
In addition to external activities, the school also puts on a lot student functions like dances, concerts and sporting events. These functions are usually top notch and there is a lot of effort put into the planning and executing of the event. Between the occasional school function and outside activity you can definitely find things to do around this area. Well I’m off to forensics now. I’ll be writing more soon.
Brett Watts

Sunday was a fun filled day. Kevin and I go to the Sacred Heart Church almost every Sunday for the Eucharist. We met a family there. The father graduated from Embry Riddle, Florida and was a pilot. They invited us for a mountain hike at Sedona this Sunday. Despite the Economics Exam that was on Tuesday, we decided that this was a much required break from campus. So, we decided to go for the Mountain Hike. They met us at the campus at like 2.30 PM. We went to Sedona through Jerome. Jerome is a really ‘different’ city. You get goose bumps looking at the landscape, at least I did. As said by someone’ It is a haunted city that has been transformed into a hippie artist community’. It is so true. Ghost stories flow like anything here and things are spooky here. They gave a place called the Haunted Burgers. And the whole city is on a cliff. Houses are built so close to the road, that is difficult to even imagine. Finally, we reached the place we had to reach. It is a mountain trail in Sedona that also has a creek. We basically wanted to walk the trail, cross the creek and reach the end of the trail. It was supposed to be a 4 mile hike, one way.
We started our hike. It was a bit late by the time we started. It was around 4PM. So, we just went till the creek. It was not at all a tiring hike. The landscape was amazing. There were huge mountains on one side and the whole city, Sedona, was visible on the other side. After reaching the creek, we just relaxed for some time. The kids, Kevin and I skipped stones in the river. Stones ranged from small smooth ones to really huge ones. However, it was getting really dark and we had to make a 2.5 mile hike back to the origin. We started our way back quickly. Kevin happily carried Elias on his back all the way. It was pitch black and we had nothing but my camera with a flash. So….?
We took random pics and tried to figure out our way back using the light from flash. It was way fun. We knew that we would not be lost, but still the night was really creeping out everyone. I kept taking pictures now and then just to make sure that we are on a track instead of walking along the greens. We finally reached the beginning spot without any problems. On the way back, everyone was way tired. Everyone slept within 30 minutes of being in the car. We finally stopped at the Fry’s to get some Powerade and they dropped us at the campus. It was a much needed break. We were so tired when we finally reached the dorms that we fell asleep without getting anything done.
The next day, Kevin and I toiled at the Library, the dining hall and the room before the exam. In EGR 101, we are making the LTAV. It is way too complex. We have LEGO bricks, Bluetooth and a whole lot of confusion about what is to be done.

Last few weeks have been really busy for me. I had 2 exams last week, took one this week and will be taking another one the next week. Last week, I took the Physics Exam. It was a nightmare. It had a total of 6 questions and the total mounts to 320. A single numerical problem is worth 70 points and a single discussion question is worth 40 points. I have no idea how the instructor is going to give partial credits. The questions were simple enough, and I think I have done well but the grade heavily depends on how it is graded. It covered chapters that I have completed in my high school. However, I am not confident about the exam.
There was a MATLAB Exam too. It was another (un)pleasant experience while I was taking the exam. We had a total of 4 questions out of which one was the bonus question. I got the 1st question working perfectly as well as the bonus question. However, the remaining questions were not up to the mark. My programming was not good enough for the 2 questions. However, time was running out. SO, I got all the pseudocode and algorithm I could think of for those questions. I wrote them in the M-Files and saved them and printed them out. I was so sure I would be getting something near 50% because of the remaining 2 questions. However, on Monday, we got the test papers back. The result was a pleasant surprise. I got 106 out of 100. Dr. Gally reduced 14 points in total for the flaws I had in the 2 questions. However, I got the bonus question that was worth 20 points. So, I had a total of 106. Now, Dr. Gally decided to curve the points by 20 for everyone. So, now I had 126 out of 100. And thus, the final grade I have now is 100.44%. I was so surprised how a really bad exam according to me turns out to be fine enough for a great grade.
Physics results are yet to be out. I am barely making a B on that. This exam can make or break my grade. Hope everything turns out to be good. Today, I also took the Engineering Economics Exam. It was a really long exam. The exam went good enough, according to me. The results would be available tomorrow, I think.
Tomorrow is going to be an interesting day. Physics and Economics results are going to be declared tomorrow. Hope it is good.

This week has been extremely eventful…
My classes are getting to be a little more stressful as the semester goes on, but it is nothing I can’t handle!
I finally had my third Psychology test today. Professor Lohn’s tests are some of the harder tests I’ll have to take this semester. I studied all week and I think I did pretty well today.
It was twenty-five open ended questions, and the answers had to be really detailed.
I have the class every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 4:10 until 5:10 . Because it’s such a late class on Friday’s we have discussions, contests and videos instead of lectures, which definitely helps keeping the entire class awake! We have only had a few homework assignments, all relatively short essays.
The class is alot of fun, and the discussions we have are always hilarious, which makes the really hard tests alot easier to handle.
Now that the test is over tonight, I think I’ll probably finish some other homework, practice my first persuasion speech and then hang out with friends.
Tonight is Karaoke Night at Buffalo Wild Wings in Prescott Valley about 15 minutes away. It is always alot of fun watching everyone sing, but i’m not really the singing type. (I think the rest of the restaurant would appreciate it if I didn’t sing too!) I am most likely going to go tonight, but I need to go to bed early.
I have only been to bed early once since the semester started, most days I stay up until about 1 or 2 in the morning. (I know! I know! it’s not good for me!)
The other day Sean, Daniel, Katie, Christina and I made a random trip to ASU to help out our friend.. He wanted to stay with a friend before flying home out of Sky Harbor, so we all made it a road trip to drop him off. What was supposed to be a three hour trip ended up lasting five hours!!!!!!! We left at 9:30 p.m. and had a blast the whole way down… at least until we realized how far in the wrong direction we went. We all started to get a little cranky (well, at least I did) at how lost we were but we ended up figuring out where we were, but we still didn’t get back until about 2 in the morning. In the end we had a blast even though we all got a little tired and hungry.
I’m getting excited for Thanksgiving and the holidays, after all it’s already almost Halloween. the semster is half over and it really feels like it just started!

The rocket we build was launched on Oct 23, 2008. It had a lot of surprises in store for us. First of all, our unique model got us the Most Creative Rocket Award. My team( Kevin, Eric, Payton and I) were the third group to launch the rocket. The rocket was shot, it didn’t scale much height, because a strong wind was blowing and it billowed up the exterior parachute. The rocket actually zigzagged all the time it was scaling the height and it came down crashing towards the benches we were sitting on. It was so close to make a vertical landing as it didn’t had much speed. However, after it fell it shot out the wadding. The burning wadding shot out of one end. Jake got hold of the burning wadding. It was hilarious! By that time, two other teams made a great launch and one of them got the award for the Longest Duration. However, we had another engine left. So, we decided to strip off the exterior parachute and get rid of the additional fins too. And then, the magic began.
The C6-5 Engine gave the ’Screaming Jelly’ an unprecedented amount of thrust and the next thing every notices after I make the second launch is that they have to crane their necks really bad and squeeze their eyes to search for the rocket that has scaled a height that couldn’t be imagined. It was a perfect vertical launch. Nothing went wrong. The parachute came up after the rocket reached its apogee and the parachute helped it to remain in air for a long time. While the rocket was on the way down, everyone of us ran towards getting hold of it. Finally, Landon got hold of it.
We were not satiated by that performance. All of our team members were sure that it deserved another launch. However, the C6-5 went out of stock. I had 3 of them for our rocket. I rushed to my dorms to get them and we used the three engines for two other teams as well. The launches were conducted at the rugby field near AC1 and AFROTC Buildings. There was a vast expanse of barren land besides the Rugby Field. The third launch was eventful. Nothing went as expected. However, it was amazing. The launch was a perfect vertical one. So far so good. However, the wadding we had was not good enough. While coming down, the string that attaches the nose and parachute to the main body was burned due to inadequate wadding. We could see a white parachute (though it was yellow and black) with a nose coming down slowly and the main body of the rocket crashing down to the Earth. We went for the parachute. To get hold of that, we almost crossed the whole expanse of the barren land. We got hold of it at the edge of the land. The string was burned out which helped us to confirm that what we thought about the mishap was correct. However, it was a great exercise and I completely loved it.
Our team got the award for the Most Creative Award and though we clocked the longest duration, it was too late for another award. However, we are happy that we put up a good work and everyone of us had a lot of fun. In the end, everyone got some spooky gifts, thanks to Halloween, and lots of chocolates.

I am a member of a total of 3 clubs right now. I am in the Structures Team for both AIAA and ERAU Jet Car Project. I also am a part of the music club. When I started college, I decided that I have to do much more than just studies here. I know the basics of playing a guitar but I am not that great at it. The drum kits have always amazed me and I have always been looking for an opportunity to play them. I joined the Music Club for the same. I would be able to get my hands on drums and learn it how to play! I also would be improving myself on the guitar.
ERAU, or for that matter any other college, can prove to be really stressful. I do know all that is being taught in Calculus 2 and Physics 2, however there is a lot of stuff to be done every single day that there is no escaping it. I am yet to come across a day when I had no homework to do. Something like music can be a real stress buster. Besides, having a GPA less than 4.0 and a lot of creative skills and talents looks much better than a solid GPA of 4.0 in a resume.
We meet every Thursday at 9PM at the Davis Learning Center and jam out, learn and have fun. The Club did take part in some programs at the October West. I am just waiting for my guitar to be shipped as soon as possible.
ERAU Jet Car Project is the biggest project that is been undertaken at the college. It is headed by Dr. Nafziger. Even though being a freshman, I have been selected in the structures team and would be working and learning a lot with the upperclassmen. I believe this is going to be the most exciting thing the whole semester. I will actually get to engineer! Not just tweak those physics and math formulae, but get to do the ACTUAL Stuff! We would be working on the chasis beginning this week. Just waiting to get things rolling!
AIAA Design, Build and Fly Competition is going to be a tough challenge. We are supposed to work on a design for an aircraft that can hold 4 liters of water and still make 4 fast lap times. It’s going to be a real challenge. However, a lot is to be gathered, learned and understood in the process. We have meetings every Tuesday where we discuss the basic ideas and come up with better ones.

Well, as you all should know by now, I am a senior on the women’s volleyball team; which means that this is my last year to ever play and represent ERAU as a student-athlete. As crazy as it seems, I am anxious for the start of season but sad that this will be my last. I have seen our volleyball program grow so much in the past four years that I have been apart of it, that I am really excited to see our team push our way to Nationals this year…but there is always the burden of going through the much dreaded preseason first.
Our coach cooked something up for us new this year: on our first day of training (which was August 4, 2008), we drove to the rope course at Northern Arizona University (NAU) to learn about team building, communication, trust, and about building our relationships with each other. My teammates and I have learned a lot about ourselves and what goals we wanted to set for ourselves and each other. There was a ‘rubber ducky’ challenge, where we were split into two teams, each having their hula hoop empty. Between our teams was a hula hoop filled with rubber ducks, and our main objective was to see which team could end up with the most ducks in their hoop. We all started sprinting back-and-forth between the main hoop and our own hoops along with stealing from our opponent’s hoop. The leader of the activity just gave us strange looks for the ten minutes that we were sprinting (and I am sure that coach was happy that we did sprint). One of our teammates thought of putting all the rubber ducks into the main hoop and place both of our hula hoops over the main hoop. Yes, we finally got the message from that: we are ONE team, and if we should ever have a division between us we will never get anywhere.
We also did a few communication exercises before a lightning storm decided to roll on it. We went into their indoor rope course, and dude, I was excited! Everyone did the flying squirrel (which basically means one person will run in the opposite direction of her six teammates pulling her on the other end of the rope and therefore fly and be suspended into the air for a bit until her teammates slowly bring her back to the ground). The second team ropes activity was basically trying to balance on a wooden platform with your teammates pulling you up on both sides. Our teammate’s job was to make sure that the wooden platform would stay horizontal on the journey up. Once each person got to the top, we rang the bell and then slowly be dropped back down to earth. Next were the individual tests: rock climbing, rope ladder climbing, and air-swings. I officially LOVE rock climbing!!! I did two of the five rock climbing courses that they had. It took me about eight minutes to get to the top for one since I had a difficult time trying find some grip rocks for my shoes.
We ended with learning our new favorite game called “HAIYA!