<< WEEK 6

2004-08-02, Monday
Julia Lee
Benjamin Sanders

Today we continued work on our pterosaur. The magically cnc-ed foam wings arrived today inside their large blocks of sky blue foam. The looks on our faces would make any mother smile!! We then got to look at the wings themselves and saw the true beauty of a foam cutter. The final neck of our new pet was cut out today and the body got it's last bit of fiberglass. Julia continued work on the tail/legs. And then just as the day was coming to a close she took the controller and receiver and low and behold LIFE!! The creature we are creating took it's first few steps today with the ability to moves its legs up and down and twist!!! And now here at the end of the day our nail-biting moment has arrived. These beautiful wings that have been delivered to us must now be fiberglassed! With paintbrushes and 20 min epoxy in hand Clark and Marianne began the high-risk job. Pushing out every bubble and smoothing over every wrinkle they painstakingly glued and laid out the fiberglass for the two wingtips. How this part of t he story ends we will not know until tomorrow. Till then, take care of yourself and each other…

2004-08-03, Tuesday
Cameron Tacklind
Clark Willison

Tuesday started with everyone wondering how we were going to manage with Axel gone and having too much work that needed to get done in so little time. The morning meeting consisted of a look at the schedule for the rest of the week and it was full, we had four days to complete seven days worth of tasks. As luck would have it, on our way out of the conference room, we found Axel coming up the stairs to greet us.

The day progressed and the membrane team continued tests on the three foot model. The rest of the team was working away on preparing the wings to get fiberglassed. Stips of Carbon Fiber were set on the wing to transfer the loads from the wing tips to the fuselage.

At 1:30, we were called to the conference center for another meeting on what we were to be doing in the afternoon and we were all surprised that it was a birthday party for Erica(July 25th, 17) and Jeff(August 3rd, 18). We had delicious frosting covered brownies, which was a great break for all of us.

At 3:30, we were called over for yet another meeting, but this on was real. We talked about the tasks at hand and what needed to get done before our final flight tests on Monday. Axel then left for Toranto to work on membranes with Hall Train, Peter Heppel and John Conway. We got back to work right away and stayed until 6:30 to fiberglass both of the wings.

2004-08-05, Thursday
Luis Torres

After most of the students arrived, they went into the conference room where they discussed what had been accomplished the previous day, and what needed to be done in terms of the fiberglassing, attaching the horizontal tail, and attaching servos to the membrane wing. The membrane team started building a fuselage that would be a able to hold five servos. The membrane team also started building a more realistic membrane that looked more pterosaur-like our of a material called ripstop nylon. The rest of the team members worked on the wings and added a five-degree dyhedral to the wings, and then taped the cable on to the wing. Most students stayed after, and took a break to have a barbeque in the courtyard outside Margot's office. Then the students returned to work.

WEEK 8 >>