Final Two weeks of the Spring Semester!

Posted on April 8, 2015 by Cherie

It is here, the final two weeks of the semester. Long awaited but, equally dreaded. I have two projects due on the 20th and so far they are going well. In my Structures II course myself and another student are working on the analysis of an F 16 C wing. The analysis includes lift distribution, shear, moment, torque, shear flow, stress distribution, panel buckling, ANSYS modeling, and finally a write up including the history of the aircraft. It seems like a lot but after two courses in structures it is actually pretty simply, we have had plenty of practice in each topic over the last year so it is coming along well.

The other project that I am working on with a team of 4 other students is in Experimental Aerodynamics.Basically we suspended a wire in front of the leading edge of a highly cambered wing and tested it at different angles of attack of the wire and of the airfoil. The testing was also completed at different distances of the wire from the leading edge. Overall, the results proved favorable as the maximum lift coefficient and angle at which stall was predicted to occur increased in both test cases.

To get the required data we had to rapid 3D print the airfoil, sand it, and adjust it for comparability with the balance that it was mounted to. We underwent 12 hours of testing to achieve our results and now we are working on the report. The report is in AIAA format and is so far incomplete but, I am hoping I can get it all wrapped up next week so it can be edited.

If you are interested in more information on coursework and the projects that you can be involved in please feel free to ask us! Thanks for reading everyone 🙂

ERAU Health Center

Posted on April 2, 2015 by Adam

For those current students or future students who might be in need of a quick visit with a nurse be sure you check out the Health Center on campus. Just recently I came down with a cold and needed a quick diagnosis to be sure I was taking the proper medication. So I decided to give you the low down on what to do when you get sick away from home.

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First off, if you don’t already know, at the beginning of each year you will be asked if you want to opt-out of the school’s medical coverage. If you already have an insurance plan then just go ahead and opt-out otherwise they will charge you for it.

When you happen to get sick/injured be sure you check out the health center. If it’s no big deal and you only need some Dayquil or Advil to get through it they will give you some. You can also schedule appointments with them. If it is a more serious issue they will be able to direct you the next step in taking care of your problem.

It is important to note that while they may direct you to a physical therapist or any other sort of specialized doctor, it is a great idea to check out a professional doctor outside of school. This may seem like an extra step but it can save you money in the long run because going straight to a specialist will cost you more with or without the proper insurance.

From my experience it has made my life much less stressful being able to see the nurse on campus. Because it is quick, easy and doesn’t take much effort or time away from your studies, it is a great tool to utilize. Plus the staff at Embry-RIddle is outstanding, they always do a great job when I’ve had the blues. Be sure to take note that they do more then just prescribe medication: Check out the link below to see they’re wide range of services.

http://prescott.erau.edu/about/health/

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned.

Tips for Moving Off Campus

Posted on April 1, 2015 by Cherie

After freshman year many students get what we like to call the “off campus fever”, essentially they miss the division between being at home and being at school. It is extremely common for students to consider finding a place off campus after freshman year. However, it can present many unforeseen problems as well. For example, sometimes the costs are way higher than expected and most places come unfurnished or perhaps a friend bails out on you at the last second. To prevent these common problems you need to have a solid plan. So here are some questions to ask and tips that will help you when you are trying to find a place to live off campus.

1. Can everyone afford it even in a bad income month? (think about utilities, food, and fuel)

— get a spreadsheet together of everyone’s income and estimate the average costs for each month.

— Identify ways to save money like not getting cable or buying cheaper food items.

2. Is everyone you will be living with 100% committed?

— Confirm they won’t be on an internship next year.

— have the spoken to their parents about moving off campus?

3. Analyze what you will need

— what furniture do you have and what will each person need?

— do you have cooking utensils and if not how much will you need?

— mattresses are expensive and its best to buy one new, this can be a large unforeseen cost if you do not plan for it.

— do you need a car for transportation?

4. If you don’t have a car how are you going to get to campus?

— talk to people in your classes or mutual organizations.

— get to know who lives in the area you are planning on moving to, if you know them they can always give you a ride but, remember it will be at their convenience

5. Once you have your plan set up find a place that satisfies your financial and convenience needs.

6. Talk to the manager and apply several months in advance of the date you want to move!!! Off campus housing fills up fast, you are not the only one looking to move there!!!!

When all that is done sit back and wait, you will eventually get a phone call saying that you have secured a place to live. 🙂 It is not a hard stressful move if you are prepared well in advance.

embryAnd of course on-campus housing is always a good choice as well. You can’t beat the convenience of being on campus! If you have any questions feel free to ask us! Thanks for reading everyone!

Graduating HS Senior To Do List

Posted on April 1, 2015 by Chelsea

Is your high school graduation quickly approaching? Are you nervous that you are going to forget something before you go off to college? Here is a short checklist that I compiled to help you out.

Get all your paper work done for Embry-Riddle early: Whether it is submitting your final transcripts, making sure your financial aid is sorted out, completing health forms, get it done!
Take control of your courses: First year courses can be a pain, but there are usually more than one of the lower level classes. Look them up! One may be be less painful than the other for you.
Talk to your roommate: Get to know your roommate beforehand, even if its just a Facebook message. Sort out who is bringing what, because next thing you know you have four coffee pots and no room for them.
Hug people: Chances are you didn’t get to where you are on your own, thank the people that got you there, friends, family, your favorite teacher.
Try doing “adult-y” things: Make sure you know how to do your laundry, wake up on your own, make a budget, start eating healthy now! There is nothing worse than being the freshman who isn’t prepared!
Appreciate where you’re coming from: In just a few months, the place you called home will no longer be a daily occurrence. Appreciate the views, the smells, the experiences you’ve had.

Make your own checklist and make sure you don’t forget anything! There are several Facebook groups, admissions counselors, and current students that are here to help. Ask questions if you need!

Midterm Time Tools

Posted on March 26, 2015 by Cherie

Our second round of midterms begin this Friday!! After that there are only 28 days left before finals!!!! It is now down to that nerve wracking part of the semester when projects, presentations, final home works, and lab reports are due. It is simply amazing how fast yet another semester has gone but, as midterms approach the nerves never really go away.

If your a nervous test taker you know what I’m talking about, the sinking feeling in your stomach, the sweaty palms, and the panicked feeling as you search your brain for tiny details. It does get easier with time and practice but, there is always that initial feeling when you pick up that pencil and start staring down the midterm that will determine how hard you need to study for the final. For some reason midterms in college seem so much harder although they really shouldn’t, I mean you have done them all your life right?

Well, yes but, it can still be very difficult. So for our potential new freshman and current students who have some serious test nerves here are a few tricks that may help you out!

1. Take a deep breath and let it out!

2. Do not drink highly caffeinated drinks the day before your exam and within the hour before you take it. This will kill the jittery feeling in your stomach. Instead drink a lot of water the day before.

3. Get a good night of sleep, if possible have a regular sleep schedule for yourself.

4. Study in the gym, hop on a tread mill and put in those headphones while reading your notes. You burn off excess energy and stress which helps you focus!

5. Make your “cheat sheet” early and review it often.

6. Eat a well rounded dinner the night before and breakfast the day of to fuel your brain.

Finally, just relax, you know your stuff!! You are going to do great 🙂 Try this strategy out and if it works for you then do it again during finals, over time test anxiety goes away but, you have to put in the effort to make it so!

Preview Day is here!

Posted on March 26, 2015 by Cherie

If you happen to be visiting Embry-Riddle in Prescott this weekend for preview day feel free to grab a student you see wandering around campus and say hello!! The majority of students are very friendly (they won’t bite!) and all of them are willing to share their experiences with potential students.

Preview Day is a very exciting day for all of us here to meet our future potential freshman and recruit them into activities or organizations that they might enjoy. Each of our campus organizations are like a smaller family in a large community of students. We all get along well and support the other organizations by going to their events and fundraisers. Many campus organizations also do community service events. So if any of our new freshman are interested in gaining a family away from home and giving back to the community at the same time then please stop by the organization booths that will be set up on preview day 🙂 We would all love to meet you and help you find the perfect fit here at Riddle.

Preview Day is also a good day to check out our academic buildings on campus and meet some of the professors that you will be learning from in the future. Preview Day is all about YOU!!! College is one of the biggest growing/learning experiences you will have in your life so please come prepared with questions for our faculty, staff, and students. We would love to take part in your college decision and hopefully, make Embry Riddle the right place for you 🙂

Spring Break Recap

Posted on March 19, 2015 by Chelsea

Ah, the infamous college spring break. One of the most anticipated breaks of the year. Gather an easy-going group of people, jump in a car, and hit the road.

If you’re a baseball fan, man are you in luck. And even if you aren’t, Phoenix is the hub for spring training and it is pretty awesome. You can go to endless games for a decent price at any of the teams’ stadiums. My friends and I snagged tickets for an Oakland A’s/Anaheim Angels game. Nothing was better than Arizona heat, laying in the lawn, and watching America’s favorite past time.

After Phoenix, we drove back to Prescott for a day or so. But the weather was perfect and I was able to hike Granite Mountain, which is one of the things I will miss the most when I leave this place. Just look at this view.

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I am fortunate enough to have pretty much the most laid back group of friends in existence so we kind of just packed up, and drove to Malibu and camped on the beach at Point Mugu. It was too rad. We were swimming with seals and dolphins just past the wave break. For me, nothing is better than a campfire, roasting marshmallows, card games, the sound of waves, and of course that night sky.

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Next up was Santa Barbara. We hiked through some mountains that had more variety of vegetation than any mountain I have ever seen. At the top, it over looked the city of Santa Barbara and the Channel Islands. The next few days, we were just living the beach bum life off the harbor and ate enough fish to last us a year.

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Finally, we were in Tucson getting even more sun! Don’t ask how it happened, I told you we were spontaneous.

The best part, getting back to Prescott and realizing the school year is almost over! Final stretch. Overall a very fulfilling senior year spring break. Hope yours was equally as great!

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Top Secret ERAU Secret You Must Take Advantage Of!

Posted on March 18, 2015 by Adam

If you happen to be a Riddle student then there is about a 50/50 chance that you know something that many others don’t. Curious to know what I am talking about? Embry-Riddle started as flight school in 1925 and the training great pilots continues to be a strong degree program. But, not only is ERAU a top flight school, it is a major contributor of graduates to the Engineering, Business, and the Global Security & Intelligence industries.

Why is being a non-flight student at a University with a flight program COOL? I can almost guarantee that any non-flight student knows at least one pilot. And, any student that is a pilot knows that you can include one of your friends on a ride-along during an instruction. You may think, oh well that’s not a big deal, but it is! To share the experience of flying with your friends is awesome!

Just last weekend I went on a ride along and took a couple pictures from the back seat. For someone who has only flown in the large 747 plane it was a hell of an experience. It was a great way to start off spring break and I would do it all over again in a heartbeat.

The view in one of our practice areas.

So if you are a student at ERAU then ask your flight friends about it, and if you are an incoming freshmen then be sure to make friends with a pilot! And don’t worry about safety, the instructors at Riddle are pretty incredible. So be sure to take advantage of this experience that most of your friends at state universities won’t ever have.

Thanks for reading, stay tuned.

College Decisions!

Posted on March 18, 2015 by Mike

Hello all!

Being a senior about to graduate, I feel I can look back and reflect on my decision to come here. Furthermore, I hope to share this decision with you to help better make yours.

As I have said in the past, I have always wanted to fly as long as I can remember. In 8th Grade, Google was becoming the big thing, and I searched “Number One Flight School in America.” Among the top search hits was Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. I had never heard of this school, however they kept putting quotes on their website saying, “Most advanced flying fleet”, and “A quarter of all Airline Pilots studied at Embry Riddle.” It was these types of statements that had me interested in the school in general. Like I have told you before, I am from Syracuse, NY and the Daytona Beach Campus is much closer than the Prescott, AZ campus. However, I decided to check out the Prescott Campus for two reasons. First, I have family in the Phoenix area and wanted to be closer to them. Second, because of flying, I looked for the diversity in high altitude operations that Prescott has to offer.

In 10th grade I flew out to Arizona and toured the school. As soon as I stood on the campus I was convinced this was where I wanted to study. The mountains, the campus, the smaller town feeling, I knew this was a place where I could be successful. The tour guides where more than helpful, and my Admissions Counselor Bryan Doughtery (Now Dean of Enrollment Management) also showed me every option I had at Embry Riddle. With that knowledge in hand, I applied in 11th grade and got an early acceptance.

One last choice I made was to attend Accepted Student Preview Day before coming in the fall. Preview Day is essentially a tour on steroids. All the labs, all the professors, all the facilities are open to only the accepted students to give you more of an idea of what being a student here is all about. You can get your student ID card, and make your schedule even. It was exciting to get into the mind set of attending college. This year’s Accepted Student Preview Day is March 28th, 2015 hope you can attend! For me though, after August of 2011 the rest is history and I am very happy with everything that I have accomplished here.

Finally, I will provide you some suggestions to better put your mind at ease about choosing this school. Firstly, ask yourself is this really what you want to do? If yes, then Embry-Riddle will provide the tools to make that dream a reality. Secondly, are you willing to put forth the effort during the good times and the bad? Honestly, it is not all a picnic getting a college degree at any school, and you need to have the vision to get to where you want to go, no matter what. Finally, I suggest you visit multiple schools. If I could change anything about my college making process, it is that I did not visit any school other than Embry-Riddle. That said, at the end of the day, ERAU is the best at what they do and that was what I wanted.

Overall four years later, I am very happy with my decision to come to this school. I will always recommend it to anyone interested in the programs Embry-Riddle has to offer.

I wish the best for you on your journey of making what is the biggest decision of your lift so far. A blog on my Spring Break in the Caribbean to come soon! Take care!

ERAU AFROTC Advantage

Posted on March 18, 2015 by Cherie

Here at Embry-Riddle in Prescott, AZ our Det 028 Air Force ROTC has the privilege of getting to hear from amazing guest speakers who come to share their life experiences in the Active Duty Air Force. Most recently, several quest speakers shared inspiring stories of their military careers and good advice to current cadets who want to commission as officers in the Air Force. They spent their entire day getting to know cadets and answering questions about life in the Air Force. Last night one of the guests even did a low altitude fly over at Prescott’s Love Field, it was amazing!

Our detachment is very lucky to be well known in the Air Force community due to the ties that the world wide campus has with the military and as we produce slightly fewer pilot candidates from our campus than the Air Force Academy. So why not come and join us here as a cadet?

If you are interested in coming out to tour our beautiful campus and checking out DET 028 please contact us! As a cadet and a student here you too can meet some really amazing people who will inspire and cultivate your career goals!