First Scratch-Built RC Plane

I just finished the maiden voyage of my first scratch built plane, named appropriately as "One".  The first flight was a rolling take off ramping up to full thrust but as the plane lifted off, the wings bowed  backward forming a "U" and it lost lift and tilted back to the ground.  Thinking that a lighter plane may not have the same effect on the wings, I took off the landing gear and attempted a hand launch.  While it flew for about ten seconds, a gust hit the plane and bent the wings again.  Luckily they were reinforced plentifully with packing tape, a last minute decision that I'm glad I did.  The plane lost control and nose-dived into a pile of mulch.  I decided that I needed a wing spar or struts for further reinforcement to test whether the plane will even fly at all.  I went home, cut a notch at the top of the wing and laid a 1/4" carbon fiber spar the length of the wing, then secured it with more packing tape.  The final product was both flexible and stiff where it needed to be.  Happy with the upgrades, I just had to try one more time.  
We walked to a nearby field and ,before hand launching, I tested the controls.  No servos.  Good thing I didn't just pin the throttle and toss it!  I opened the wing to find the receiver pushed to the front of the battery compartment, both servo wires pulled from their plugs.  It seems on a nose crash, the unsecured receiver has some room to move.  I plugged the servo wires back in, tested the connections, and re-installed the wing.  Confident on my repairs, I pinned the throttle and launched the plane.  Another successful ten seconds, up until the plane veered left and plummeted into the ground.  Hmmmm, no right rudder.  Upon re inspection, I noticed the control arm for the rudder had an s-curve, plenty of tension for a left rudder, but on pushing for right, it just bent between my the wire guides.  I moved the wire stays a few notches out, provided more leverage, less push on the control arm and decided, against better judgement that I wanted one more try to fly it.  
Hesitatingly, I spun up the throttle, prepared to launch, and one second before throwing it, the propeller spun off its shaft and flew into the air like a bumble-bee.  It spun up about 20 feet, turned and headed for the ground, all the while, buzzing through its revolutions.  I was still holding my plane in launch position when the propeller hit the ground.  That was sign enough that it was time to call it a day and make some much needed adjustments.  Plane One will fly. For how long, is to be determined.  

Job Search

Well, lately I've been pretty worried about whether this path in graduate school will open doors for a good job, a nice place to live, and the finances necessary to raise a large family.  I went to the temple on Tuesday with Jessica just searching for some comfort and guidance.  Its Friday now, and I got an email from a local research firm telling me to contact them for a job when I am finished.  We've been praying every night since the first of the year for guidance and direction in finding the right job for our family.  While this contact may not be the exact job I get, it is incredible comfort to know that I have some definite job prospects when I graduate.
On another note, I've been working on scratch building my own RC plane.  For $4 I bought some foam from Home Depot and with some hot glue and sand paper, made my own plane.  I followed some basic flight principles and physics of typical aircraft and scaled them down to my plane.  Today, the electronics arrived from Hong Kong.  I'll have some pictures of the maiden flight once we get it together.
Finally, I must comment on my latest cooking adventures.  I've been doing sourdough whole wheat bread for a while, but it seems lately that all my bread keeps failing.  One success however, has been my beef stew, which I cook each Friday (that or Chili).  Additionally, we've been making a roast each Sunday with carrots and mashed potatoes.  It's been about 2 months since we've kept that tradition.  We put the roast in frozen the night before, and when we come home from church, it's ready to eat.

Graduate School

Well, here we go. It's the last week of summer before I officially start Graduate School. My books are ordered, my tuition is paid, and my summer research is coming to a close. I'm not sure what to expect over the next two years. I'm sure I'll work harder than ever, with longer hours and less rest. I'm sure it will be worth it. I hope so!

All the while the family will be running on autopilot, whose name is Jessica. I leave the family in her capable hands while I am staying late nights and leaving early in the morning.

So here we go, no turning back, no stopping until I finish.

Bon voyage!

Aquatic Center 2010

Aquatic Center 2010

Is the Semester Over Yet?

I have just finished with the toughest week of my college career. I did two all nighters and the sleep that I got the other nights was minimal at best. Every day was to the wire with senior projects and reports due by the handfulls. I have nothing left at the end except to argue with everyone and write in this blog. My Boss mentioned something about a masters project in Zion's national park doing temperature modeling of the river. Now that would be nice. One can only hope. As if it doesn't stop there, I have to meet in the morning with a classmate and write two papers and prepare for an exam, five of them, for next week. 5 years down, 2 more to go! I feel like I should include a picture of some of the things I've done.

Well, No one has posted anything for awhile. I don't blame em. Everyone's so busy with life, no one has time to share all the little things in life happening. So this post covers the whole month of October. Whatever happened between July thru September we will never know.

Well, as Mark and Shannah moved to California, Keeley and I moved out of the expensive 3 bedroom appartment and found a nice townhouse to settle in. 4 Truck Loads later, and a garage sale, and we're done. Keeley's Mom has been nice enough to invite us over for dinner every Sunday night. So once a week, we spend a nice evening with the Martins. Keeley and I will be celebrating our 1 year anniversary in a month 1/2, so I already got that booked. (Yes, I'm trying to be a responsible husband and not forget) The place I booked isn't even built yet, so I hope that means something...And as far as our health goes, we've tried to cut back on our eating out, and Keeley settles for a homemade sandwich for lunch instead of the #6 at Taco Bell. Me, well, that's a different story.

And if you couldn't tell, we were zombies for halloween. I thought it would be fun to scary old people. Everyone took a second look at us everytime we saw somebody. Good times, good times. Well, I just got my flu-shot today so I'm feelin' pretty quwoozy, so til next time.

Badlands Trip

Today Keeley had a very spontaneous desire...she wanted to go
to the Badlands. So after getting Kendall in the carseat, and
getting in a quick conversation with Mark and Andy via
conference about other stuff, we loaded up the Environment-
Friendly Matrix and headed off to the BADlands. We encountered
lots of various things including alive TREX that roared
(see facebook video), and DOZENS! of Germans, Francs, Brits,
and Aussies sharing the outdoor experience with us. We could
only understand the Englishspeaking ones (naturally), when
they came and admired our 2 week old young one.And thank
goodness she didn't get sunburnt. I was afraid she would,
but so far so good. And the British lady said: "She's on
her first Holiday!" Yah I know. Sweet right. Anyways, we ended
up the trip with some french fries at Keeley's Step-mom's
diner at the foot of the badlands. And now we're all tired
so I think we'll try to go to bed.

Summer Survival Camp

Last weekend we went on our Summer Survival Camp put on by Richard. Although the numbers were few...the hearts were, um, big. We roasted hot dogs, made smores, played in the river, told scary stories, played in the fire, played in the fire some more, burned stuff, threw things in the fire, and played in the fire. The following morning we went on a hike to the Wind Caves. Richard and his friend Aaron had a good time as long as they didn't think about how much their legs hurt!

Picture Slideshow

PhotoShop - Wednesday Morning

Bored this morning...so I decided to make a cool little ditto.

Suction Power 5000zT Series

Our Latest Adventures today included the horde of old ladies crowded around
us at the grocery store, as well Kendall Growing to her 7 lbs. mark.

Also, while some friends were over we demonstrated Kendall's newly
acquired trick of the trade: Bottle Balancing. And is she a Pro or What?

Family Searching

A few weeks ago I went record searching for records of Don's
real Parents...Well, after much dead ends I just ended up with
some lousy marriage and death records. I guess if I want to
continue my search, I'll have to move to San Diego and search
their hospital where he was born. The image above shows the
record of Mom and Don getting married. Thought it was kinda cool.

Español del día

After my 3 years of high school French has let me down, I decided to enroll in a summer Spanish 101 class. 5 days a week. 9:00-12:20. I may be practicing my Spanish on this blog from time to time. Here's my first:

¿De dondé son los todos otros hermanos?

Mark? Sarah? Es Matt aqui?

Katie had her ballet class yesterday and has been told she's doing very well by her teacher. She has class two days a week for an hour at a time. Yesterday they warmed up at the bar and then did jumps and tumbles. Richard also has a ballet class he loves attending.

My Wordle Week!

Our Family week at a glance, in wordle

Battling the Summer Heat!

While Texas definitely has its advantages over the winters in the mountain west, summers can be real nasty. Most days are over 100 degrees by noon and by 3 or 4 pm, the heat has become intolerable. Our most recent attempt to battle the heat is our neighborhood pool. Once Howie got used to all the splashing and cannonballs he had a really enjoyable time. In fact, by the end of our outing, he was contributing to the splashes.

We spent the holiday cooking a beef brisket, making rootbeer floats, and touring San Antonio in our car. We figured that soy dogs and grilled squash just wouldn't have the same effect as a nice fat piece of meat for the Fourth of July.

July 4th at Central Park

Mark and his family came out to visit us for the July 4th weekend. Mark and Andrew went to the Cruise-In, stopped by Andrew's research project, and got hamburgers (thanks Mark) for the families to eat while we watched the fireworks. We spent Saturday at Central Park playing in the water, eating food and waiting for the wives to finished comparing how old each other was. We returned back to the apartment to go swimming for a couple hours before dinner. Tacos were on the menu which were delicious (thanks Jessica) and then we bid farewell to Mark's family as they left for Orem.

Wordle!!!

Just found this wedsite:
http://www.wordle.net

So much fun!!!

Cousin's Birthday Party

Today was the last of the heel pokes at the hospital. Kendall
is all healthy with little to no Jaundice so that is good. I'm
not sure why they call it Jaundice, but I know most babies get it.

Keeley Loves being a Mom. There isn't a second that goes by that
she isn't begging to hold Kendall after I feed her. (which is good)

And we finished our evening off with a trip to the in-laws for a cousin's
birthday party. Nothin' like Icecream and Cake.

Little Feet

Just organized all of our important files finally. Trying to find a good way store sensitive documents/bills/etc. Any Ideas. Anyways, thought this baby feet poem was a good one. Not sure if the rest of you had a similar thing for your kids, but here's Kendall's.

Visit to the water tank

I took my motorcycle to the shop yesterday so Jessica had to drive me to work. That was the first time she was able to see my water tank research study. It was neat to be able to show her 'my other life' that takes so much of my time. Even though I tried to explain what I was doing there, I think I might have gotten carried away. Solar radiation is just so exciting!