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Slats relationship with Flaps

cpteg — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 19:31:12 +0000

One thing which used to make me always wonder…those slats on the front of the wings of major jet aircrafts…how do pilots control them? They don’t…well of course they do but not directly!!

If you are thinking about what am I talking about take a look below:

So…it is clear that slats are the short airfoils that drop from the front of the wing. They are similar to flaps in function, meaning they increase lift and drag. This is of course used to allow flying the aircraft at slower speeds when taking-off or landing, just as flaps do.

As they are similar to flaps then they are controlled with flaps!! Yep, when you drop more flaps (using the flap control in the cockpit) you get automatically more slats which match your flaps input (the more flaps extension the more slats extension and vice versa). Therefore you never heard of a slats control in a B737…it’s fine as they are controlled with the flaps for you…how nice is that. Although this is said, I don’t know if there exists an aircraft with something called slats control (seperated from flaps)…there might be…but for the B737 this is how it works!

Flight 297 - The Truth

PH — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 23:34:53 +0000

This email is from Tedd Petruna, a diver at the NBL facility at NASA who happened to be on this flig

Atmosphere Airlines

thegreenstreetrenaissance — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 08:39:47 +0000

Mr. Morris has already referenced his love of airplanes several times on this blog, but, for a number of reasons, the time is right for me to share my perspective on the Wright brothers’ great invention. That several of my friends, including Mr. Morris himself, have flown out of the country this month to embark on foreign explorations has really got me thinking about the significance of flight and of travel in general.

To me, flying has always been a symbol of transcendence. It’s about leaving behind everything you have going on at the moment, the good and the bad, and rising above it. It’s that feeling I always got at the airport growing up–the excitement and uncertainty of knowing that you will soon be in the air far away from the comforts and complications of your home life and on your way to a new destination with seemingly infinite possibilities lying ahead.

A spiritual takeoff happens when the time calls for you to board your own metaphorical planes in order to elevate above the maze of your everyday life and become the person you are destined to be. The only way to really transcend the perceived limitations of your everyday life is to set aside a period in which you separate yourself from them. While extended leaves of absence from your routine, like a sabbatical or a month-long retreat, are great practices of separation, there are also smaller retreats you can incorporate into your regular routine. These include things like taking a few minutes to meditate before you start your day, taking a day off from work and your usual routine on the weekend to relax and reflect, or setting aside a time to really enjoy some music or other art forms.

There are times when you have the opportunity take your departure from the realm of the metaphorical to reality. Though changing your geographical location is not the “solution” to this problem of limitation, a physical separation from your environment can often expand your horizons and alter your perspective in ways that cannot be achieved in the comfort of familiar scenery.

William Shedd once said that “a ship is safe in the harbor, but that is not what ships are for.” Airplanes aren’t made to stay at the airport, just as humans aren’t made to stay in their comfort zones their whole lives. So, when the time calls for it, go forth from the comfort and normalcy of your daily routine! You are almost certain to inspire others to look past the veil of their limitations as well. But, there are always going to be those who, for any number of reasons, would like to keep your plane from leaving the runway. All I can say for them is that “they gon’ miss this plane” (c. Wiz Khalifa).

Safe travels!

Flickrfan: Lufthansa A340-600 Departing for Munich

sgarrett6 — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 01:19:30 +0000

Photographed by Carolinadoug

The beautiful Lufthansa Airbus 340-600 is taking runway 18C in Charlotte bound for Germany on a warm Carolina blue sky day.

See where this picture was taken. [?]

– License

Airborne!

trygoogleme — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 21:33:47 +0000

Boeing just released their new airplane, 787, for the first flight. As you would expect the event wa

The Egret's Takeoff

Allison Frost — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 14:02:46 +0000

This just looks awkward.

The Egret’s Takeoff
19 August 2009
Cranberry Marsh, Westhampton Beach, NY

India vs China Part 1: India comes up heads; Jim Rogers is wrong!

balirand — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 09:07:08 +0000

I firmly believe that if you have an interest in the India Story, you’ve got to also take a st

Export IntelliCAD or AutoCAD DWG files to Google Earth

Jennifer DiBona — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 15:43:26 +0000

I’ve recently started using a very cool feature in Carlson Software. The bad thing… it was in the 2009 version and I didn’t even realize it!

I had no idea exporting our DWG files from IntelliCAD or AutoCAD out to Google Earth was so easy.

Download and install Google Earth. You can download it here: http://earth.google.com/
Open any one of your project DWG files that has been positioned at its correct state plane coordinate system.
In Carlson, go to Settings –> Drawing Setup and then select the correct Projection and correct Zone for the project site. If you’re not sure of the Projection, try using “State Plane 83”. This will work for most systems.
Next, go to File –> Polyline File –> Write Polyline File. When prompted for “Polyline File Format”, type “G” for Google. You will be prompted to specify a new filename and save location for a “Google Earth File to Write (.kml)”.
You will then be prompted to select the entities that are to be exported out to the .kml file and viewed in Google Earth. After selecting the entities, press Enter. For this exercise, we only want to see the drawing entities in 2D, so press “N” for “No” when prompted to “Use elevation from drawing in Google Earth [Yes/<No>]?”
Finally, you are then prompted “Would you like to display the file in Google Earth now [<Yes>/No]?”. Press “Y” for “Yes”. Google Earth should automatically launch and zoom into the project location.

Click for larger image

In the example shown below and pointed out with arrows, notice how closely the new roads and designed turn lanes match up to the existing roadway. Also, you can see the designed graded slopes perfectly avoiding the tank that is to be preserved during construction.
Not too shabby…

This feature is available in all of the Carlson Desktop products: Carlson Civil, Survey, Hydrology, Construction and TakeOff.

Look for a future post on bringing Google Earth surface data into Carlson Software. Hint: It’s easy too!

PDF Conversion in Carlson 2010

Felicia Provencal — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 00:53:22 +0000

With more construction bid sets being issued in Portable Document Format (PDF), more companies find themselves in the position of needing to generate estimating and construction data from these files. Carlson Software now provides tools to import PDF files into a drawing as either an image or as CAD linework. These tools are available exclusively through Carlson Takeoff 2010 and the new Carlson Construction 2010.

To import a PDF file into your CAD drawing, go to the Tools pull-down menu, then choose Import/Export, then choose Import PDF. You will be prompted to select whether you want the file imported as a background image or as linework. If you choose the linework option, it will automatically convert the elements of the PDF image into separate polylines. Please note, since this is an automatic conversion, it may take a while, so be patient as it processes.

Once the polylines have been brought into the drawing, you can use the standard clean-up tools to assign elevation information to these polylines. These tools can elevate polylines representing contours (single elevations) as well as those representing breaklines (varying elevations). This can be done with most of the Carlson desktop software modules including Takeoff, Construction, Survey, and Civil.

Once the polylines have been updated with the elevation information, they can be used to create surface models for design, estimating, staking, or machine control. This procedure can literally save hours of time that used to be spent manually recreating the information released as paper drawings or PDF files. Digitizing may have become a thing of the past!

Takeoff

Mark — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 03:38:49 +0000

Scary Traffic Pattern Work

Matthew Everett — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 18:00:43 +0000

After having a break to study for the knowledge test and to celebrate passing the knowledge test, I decided to go flying. I scheduled some plane time and planned to do some touch and goes. It had been a little winy over the last few days, but upon arriving at the flight school, I was greeted by pretty decent weather. There was some wind, but it was pretty much straight down the runway so I elected to go forward with the lesson. It was a little overcast also, but it was a good solid VFR day.

I checked the plane out and went out to do preflight. Everything seemed to be in order with the plane and I loaded up, locked the doors, buckled the seat belt, and noticed that I had left the chocks under the left main tire. So I had to undo all the stuff and climb out and remove them. I did everything for a second time and proceeded to start the engine and moved out to call clearance delivery. They gave me all the pertinent information, I wrote it down and read it back. Everything looked good so I decided to maneuver into a position where I could do the run-up. It was at this point that I looked over at the transponder with the intent of dialing in my given code and it appeared to be off. Then I looked at the knob and saw that it was in the standby position. I switched it off and on again a number of times and each time all I saw was a little tiny light reading “fail.” It was at this point that I came to realize that I didn’t know what to do now. It was obvious that I shouldn’t just take off and I knew that ATC had me in their queue so I just let logic prevail and called clearance back and canceled my clearance. I taxied back over to the front of the flight school and shut down, chocked the plane, and ran back up to let Nathan know what was happening. It was at this point that he let me know that everything was copacetic, but that the transponder has a little sensor and that sometimes when the light outside is just right it turns off the display back light. Apparently, the fix is to shine a light at it. He grabbed a light and came out and showed me.

I still had plenty of time, but I was mad that I had wasted my time and I couldn’t figure out what the point behind the sensor is. Nathan went back upstairs, I started the engine, and realized the chocks were still under the nose wheel. So I shut down, removed the chocks and started again. This was not a good start to the lesson. I called clearance let them know I had worked everything out and they let me know that my previous clearance was still good. This was great because it meant that I had the right code in the transponder. I did the run up and radioed for taxi. They cleared me to taxi to 23L via alpha, which I did, received a clearance for takeoff, and I was in the air.

I got up pretty quickly, which wasn’t hugely surprising given the wind. I turned a right crosswind and that’s when it hit me just how swift the wind was. I fought the wind and flew for what felt like forever and I could actually see the plane drifting. Finally it was time to turn downwind, I forced it around and it clicked onto downwind. I was conscious of the fact that I was really moving. The turn to base was another struggle and I turned well past 90 degrees to avoid drifting way out from the runway. The turn to final was a little alarming in that it was a little difficult to get the plane to line up with the runway. There was nothing wrong with the plane, but the wind was fighting me on the crosswind and base legs. The landing itself was pretty decent and I was headed around again.

Somewhere about midway through the downwind, the controller cleared me for the option and alerted me to the fact that the wind had increased. It was still straight down the runway and well within my personal safety minimums and this time I knew what to expect. I made a really good pattern this time. Another decent landing and I was off again.

This time however, when I was cleared for the option, there was a fair amount of turbulence. The plane was really rocking. Then, right at the tail end of the downwind leg, a gigantic gust of wind hit the plane and I immediately noticed a significant drop in altitude (maybe a hundred feet). To make a long story short, I hit my head twice on the ceiling. Just after the second gust, the controller called to let me know that the wind was now gusting at 27 knots and I responded the only way I knew how, “Roger that..I’d like to make this one a full stop.” They gave me a runway change and I put it down and taxied to the tie down.

Overall once I got up it was a good lesson. The very last little incident really got my heart beating and I was glad to be on the ground, but it was good practice for dealing with wind.

waiting for takeoff

Christine Bailey — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 13:23:29 +0000

Waiting for takeoff, originally uploaded by Christine Bailey.

Who is a gigantic super dork about airports and airplanes? ME. Possibly because of all the time we had to spend there as kids picking up or dropping off my dad for his trips. I do love to fly and don’t get to do it nearly enough.

Second Cross-country Flight

Matthew Everett — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 18:00:49 +0000

I left the airport and immediately started planning my next cross country, which would be to London-Corbin (LOZ) in Kentucky. It was of vital importance that I get most of the planning done because, for the first time in my training, I would be flying with less than 24 hours separation between flights. In fact, this would be my 2nd flight in 2 days and my 3rd flight in 4 days. I wish I could afford to fly like this all the time, but I’m paying as I go and I refuse to take on any debt. Josh told me that if I show up ready to preflight and takeoff, that we might have enough time to actually stop and eat at the restaurant on the field. It meant doing the weather and associated calculations at the end of my workday, but I was willing to make that sacrifice.

The weather wasn’t quite as good as it was for the trip to Cleveland, but it was still a good day to fly. The only issue that I could coming up was clouds on this side of the Cumberland mountains as the sky conditions were listed as few clouds at 4500 feet. That would mean that we might have to keep the altitude a little low on the way back and just climb over the ridges. Nothing risky, just not ideal. I wrote up nav logs for both legs of the flight, and I was prepared to calculate ground speed, etc with the E6B. Everything was perfect, except I forgot to fill in the radio frequencies on the forms, and I was ready for preflight when I walked into the flight school. The entire process seemed much easier this time, even having to deal with two sectionals.

I was determined to make this flight as perfect as possible, but it seems I was destined for some sort of issue from the beginning. That trouble was that I called clearance delivery, told them that we were headed VFR to London-Corbin, Lima Oscar Zulu, and they put us down as headed to Lima Zulu Uniform. This is an issue because, LZU is down near Atlanta and it exactly 180 degrees the wrong direction. We only became aware of this misunderstanding after we were handed off to departure and they gave us a heading that would take us way off our planned course. Josh quickly called them to ask what the deal was and where they had us headed. They had us stay on our current heading and await further instructions. The end result was that we were something like 20 miles off course initially. Josh let me use the GPS to get back on course and then it was up to me to find the visual checkpoints. This was not an issue with the exception of one — Powell STOLport, which I could not locate until we were past it. I did catch myself drifting a little right of course at the next checkpoint which was easy to see. I corrected and everything else was smooth sailing. I did notice that our current altitude, 4500 feet was about the highest one could fly and maintain cloud clearances. This would be interesting on the way back.

After we crossed the Cumberlands, the sky was clear. It is very interesting to go from dodging clouds to a completely clear sky in a matter of seconds. Not long after crossing the mountains, we had the field in sight. The wind was negligible and was reported as variable, which led us to select runway 6. It would make for an easy landing and a quick turn around, but on listening to the CTAF, we discovered that there was traffic in the area and they intended to use 24. We elected to follow suit and entered on the 45 for a left downwind for 24. We didn’t have time to eat, which I knew before we left, but Josh let me know the particulars for getting to the restaurant in case I return on a solo cross country or any future flight (which I know I will). Apparently they had quite a time trying to get into the restaurant.

On the return trip Josh elected to show me some particulars of VOR/GPS navigation. He explained the button that switches between radio an GPS navigation and set it to GPS. He mentioned that it would be easier to deal with tracking the GPS course back to McGhee Tyson. He explained how to track the course on the HSI and how and when to correct. He also showed me some GPS features that would be helpful when tracking a course. It was very useful information. He also had me do some more simulated instrument work. In all I’ve got about half of the required 3 hours. Truth be told, I really don’t mind instrument flying and I find that not having to watch outside makes it easier to fly specific headings, altitudes, and etc. In order to avoid running into clouds, we kept the return leg pretty low and there wasn’t much excitement past crossing the mountains. Once we were within about 20 miles, I called approach and they set us up to enter a left base for runway 5L. For those unfamiliar with current airport projects, that runway is currently 2500 feet shorter and has non standard markings. That said, I made a really good landing and completed a really good flight.

After we taxied back to parking, we secured the plane, Josh debriefed me and we discussed the next step. He mentioned that he usually likes to get in a night cross country before he signs a student off for the solo cross countries. He also mentioned that we would hopefully do some VOR stuff on the night cross country and that I should select a destination accordingly. I mentioned that I was getting close to being ready for the knowledge test and inquired whether there was anything he needed to do. He said to let him know when I scheduled it and that he would sign me off.

Pictures

Matthew Everett — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 06:07:45 +0000

The week after my solo, we started working on cross-country flying. I had a week off following a ground lesson. It wasn’t really my choice - the schedule filled up. Then, I had a week with two lessons. I went Wednesday evening for what I thought was a cross-country planning session and then we would fly it Friday. What happened instead was I got in .7 hours of solo time and 3 more landings. Then Friday, after planning a cross-country to Upper Cumberland Regional, the weather wasn’t up to par for a flight to the plateau. I got in some ground regarding sectionals (very informative) and an hour of solo time in the practice area. The practice area time was pretty bad (I did some pretty sorry s-turns and turns sort-of-around a point). The two redeeming things were my steep turns, slow flight, and the landing (perfect). Anyway that is what I have been up to and I assure you there are entries in the works. For now I will post some pictures.

Twelfth Lesson - ground reference solo

Matthew Everett — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 14:00:35 +0000

I went in to the flight school today with the intention of flying a cross country to Upper Cumberland Regional Airport. The weather, however, had a different plan. Instead of flying to the cross country, since the weather was bad over the plateau, we decided that I should do a solo lesson. Josh recommended I fly out to the practice area and do some ground reference maneuvers and then come back in a do some touch and goes. With some discussion about cross countries and future lessons, I checked out the plane and headed down for preflight.

The preflight was pretty uneventful. I climbed in and started the engine. I radioed for clearance and moved to do a run-up. Everything checked out. I called for taxi and was cleared to taxi to 23L. I was ready to go and immediately called the tower upon reaching the hold-short line at 23L. The cleared me for takeoff and I took the runway, firewalled the throttle, and took off. They handed me off to departure over the end of the runway and cleared me direct to the practice area. Realizing that I had failed to dial in the departure frequency before taking the runway, I quickly dialed it in and switched over. I called them and made contact and they answered that I should “sqauwk 0355 and check transponder on.” That’s when I realized I had switched the transponder off rather than switching it to altitude. I quickly switched it over. This was not a good start.

I got out to the practice area and did a few steep turns while searching for a good place to do turns around a point. The steep turns weren’t bad. There was a little altitude fluctuation but otherwise they were good. I had initially searched out the barn that I originally used for turns around a point, but it was now a very busy construction site. I was a little uneasy about using it as a point, in case anything were to happen. I attempted to find another point, but I was unsuccessful. Thankfully, the workers left so I lined up for some turns. I had a little trouble initially setting up the turns, the wind was a bit dodgy, but I finally got set up. I made a pretty sorry turn around a point. I lost about 200 feet in altitude and I was bordering on a steep turn by the time I had made it back around. I tried one more the other direction which was only better in the sense that I maintained altitude.

I elected to move on to s-turns. I turned out toward 321 and attempted to set up a downwind entry. I started over the Superior Car Wash and proceeded snaking down the highway. Half my s-turns were pretty good the other half were really spectacularly bad. It was really depressing, but to be honest not totally unexpected. I tried some more moving back up the highway. They were only marginally better. I suppose this is to be expected since the intent of these exercises is to teach me, the student, how wind effects the path of the aircraft on the ground.

Slightly disheartened, I decided to try to find my grandparents’ house and then head back for some touch an goes. I flew and flew looking for their house and never did locate it. I assume I was flying right over it. A quick glance at the time and I realized that I had better try to get in the pattern if I was going to do anything else. Just as I was about to key the mic a guy on an instrument flight plan, who wanted to land at Sky Ranch, began what would be 30 or 40 minutes worth of radio calls.

For those not in the know, Sky Ranch is a grass strip just outside the class charlie air space at McGhee Tyson. It has no instrument approaches. So those wishing to land there must file a flight plan as if they are going to McGhee Tyson and then cancel in the air before heading to Sky Ranch. Even though I was VFR my entire lesson, there was a very distinct ceiling at about 3500 feet so there were a ton of instrument plans being canceled in the air. Enough had been going on that I was familiar with the procedure. ATC vectors you around until you break through the clouds and then you cancel and continue VFR for your approach. I didn’t think it was a hard concept. Nevertheless, I wasn’t able to break in for at least 20 minutes. Finally, I was able to request permission to return for landing.

I elected to forego touch and goes in an attempt to lighten the load on the controllers and myself. They vectored me in, which was easy. I came straight in to my base leg and turned final. I set it down in the first thousand feet and made it to the first turn off. It was a really good landing. I taxied back, secured the plane and headed up stairs. All in all it wasn’t the best lesson ever, but I left with the resolution that I would practice more. If I could do it perfectly there would be no need for training.

Hopefully we’ll get the cross country in next time, otherwise I’m probably going to change destinations.

FLYING SOLO

Bryan Borland — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 21:36:57 +0000

I miss you during takeoff
Where it has been my routine to
Breathe you like an oxygen mask
To plant my fingers firmly on the
Solid ground of your forearms
Without you
The runway is a marathon
Long as life
A cross-country flight just to get in the air
I drink Ginger Ale to calm my turbulence
They’ve done away with free peanuts
Now they’re five dollars, skyway robbery
I’d rather spend the money on
Anti-anxiety medication
And a souvenir for you

Ninth Lesson

Matthew Everett — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 18:00:59 +0000

It’s Monday again and as is now usual I enjoyed the day because I knew it would culminate in flying. I have been instructed by my wife to wear my favorite polo to all lessons until I solo. On the off chance that I’m surprised with soloing and then they cut my shirt tail. I look forward to it. She just hopes that shirt finally dies. So this morning I left the house in my favorite shirt.

I got to the flight school and found the place stuffed full of people. Josh was finishing up what I assume was an introductory flight. Another instructor was finishing a lesson and there was some CAP guy there. It was pretty busy inside considering there wasn’t much traffic outside. After a brief conversation with some of the people I got the plane checked out to me and went down to do preflight. I thought I was going to have a bit of a wait but surprisingly Josh approached about half way through the preflight followed closely by Nathan. They discussed some aspect of the R182 and donuts in Evansville while I finished the preflight.

After finishing preflight and starting up, I rolled forward to the edge of the taxiway and radioed clearance. They cleared us to taxi to 5R via alpha and we proceeded to do so. We had assumed that since there was not a lot of traffic the run-up could be done at the end of the taxiway. Unfortunately, when we arrived at alpha2 I looked back and there were about 4 planes behind us. We expedited the run-up and radioed we were ready for takeoff. Just after we had completed run-up a business jet passed behind us and went to alpha1. They also radioed they were ready for takeoff. I expected ATC to send them ahead of us, but they didn’t. We were cleared to takeoff and we did so in a hurry because I looked over when taxiing out on the runway and saw a steady stream of planes coming down the taxiway.

We got into the air and ATC had us make right traffic. Once I got onto the downwind I slowed way down to give them time to clear traffic. We came back around and made a pretty good landing, retracted the flaps, and went around again. On that second time around Josh asked me if he had given me the pre-solo test. He hadn’t. At that point he said that it was too bad that I hadn’t because he would have gotten out the next time around. So he told me to make sure to remind him to give it to me before I left and gave me instructions for doing it. It gets a little boring when flying slow on downwind (especially when ATC extends the downwind indefinitely).

We made a couple of more passes and had a couple of more downwinds extended. Every single one got pushed out to 321 and Big Springs. It was good because I got to give Josh some directions for cutting across to 411 from 321. It turns out he has quite the commute. My landings all had good form right up to the point of the flare. What happens then is that I would flare too early leading to a bit of a rough landing. Something makes me think I’m lower than I really am.

The only real complaint I have is that if things are ever completely normal, I am afraid I won’t be able to cope. Every lesson since I started handling the radios something has been “abnormal.” Never anything big, but not standard procedures. I don’t think I’ve ever actually radioed ground control and I’ve done everything from extending downwind to a 360 between base and final. That said, it is good practice for abnormalities.

I gathered my recorder from my days of university classes and managed to capture some audio during this lesson. It was surprisingly good. It’s pretty easy to turn it on and record the lessons. The only problem is that my lessons are usually about an hour long. There is some really good audio, but it is mostly just engine noise and random chatter. I’ll probably just cut it up into interesting clips and post them.

Carlson Webinars - BIM, GIS and CAD Standards

Jennifer DiBona — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 19:20:59 +0000

Carlson Software recently asked Felicia and me to present webinars on topics we have particular interest in or specialize in.

Felicia’s webinar on BIM, GIS and Carlson Software can be viewed here: BIM, GIS and Carlson Software Webinar

My webinar on CAD Standards can be viewed here: CAD Standards for Carlson Software with AutoCAD or IntelliCAD

Measure and draw takeoffs directly on your Cintiq21 UX

Peter Sommer — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 14:24:15 +0000

On-Screen Takeoff is the industry standard for creating quality takeoffs (= cost estimating process in the construction industry) from digital and paper plans. The software increases accuracy and efficiency, which in turn helps win more profitable bids.

With increasing demand for a faster, more accurate way to complete takeoffs, this is an advanced solution for the common woes of estimators worldwide.

The custom integration between On-Screen Takeoff and the Digital Takeoff Table solution allows estimators to quickly and accurately draw digital takeoffs directly onto an adjustable pen display (Cintiq 21UX) with a cordless, battery-free pen.

For more information: http://www.oncenter.com/

h:a:n:g:m:a:n

circadia — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 03:51:57 +0000

The least we can ask — although not demand — is some dignity as bad becomes worse. And this is the least and last of all things to be granted to us; instead, the whirl of events and people and things and thoughts moves faster all the time, until we lose our way entirely. Today I was like a general planning a battle. So many little details to manage and keep in order; so many names and dates and places to juggle; so many options to keep open while closing just enough to make the thing happen.

I might be good at this. I might not be.

And sailing above it all is the knowledge that it takes so little to acknowledge other people’s efforts in the way that I would like mine to be honoured: gracefully and quietly and without any great flourishes of faked enthusiasm.

US Airways Flight #1549

Official M-Dub — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 14:37:33 +0000

Recovery of US Airways 1549

I was given a very quick reminder this week as to how sobering life can be. A co-worker who works in IT Support for the company I work for was baffled by what to do with the contents of the package he just received. Numerous people came by his desk to take a look at this very unique item. Content to mind my own business, I didn’t bother to see what all the curiosity and amazement was all about. Then, one of his counterparts invited me over to his desk to take a look.

The item was a laptop that was badly damaged and corroded. I asked “Did someone pour acid on it?” He said “No, this is the laptop of an employee who was on US Airways flight #1549 when it crashed. It was just returned to us after the plane wreckage was retrieved.” I said “Wow, I can’t believe it!” He said “Yeah, we have to contact Dell to get a replacement laptop. We have a replacement program with them.” I said “I hope you don’t plan on sending that laptop back. You have to keep it. That thing needs to be placed in a museum or something. How often does plane wreckage actually end up back in the hands of the original owner.”

After that statement, I pulled out my iPhone and began snapping photos of it to share with the world. Once again, I don’t want my photos floating around the InterWeb. So, I have put them in a view only photo collage.

US Airways 1549 after landing in the Hudson

To me, an encounter like this is a reminder as to how unpredictable and random life can be. I had seen coverage of the crash in the news. I never once thought I’d be touching and photographing anything related to the crash. It made me think “I’m only two degrees of separation from that crash.” Seeing a piece of that wreckage made me think “What if that were me?”

Captain Chesley Sullenburger

The US Airways Pilot, Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenburger has gotten his due recognition for his quick thinking and safely landing the plane. But, his heroics cannot fully be appreciated until one reviews the transcripts of what took place during the flight and how he responded. See the video below.

Über den Wolken Teil II

davivo — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 09:55:00 +0000

Wie gestern bereits angekündigt,
hier noch einige Eindrücke vom Hamburger Flughafen.

What's In Your Surface?

Felicia Provencal — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 19:14:42 +0000

With the adoption of machine control for construction, the ability of various GIS systems to accept 3D data, and now with the expansion of the term BIM to cover elements outside of a building proper, surface modeling has become a critical aspect of any project. Since so many elements down the line rely on the surface model, it is critical that the model be as accurate as possible and free of errors. This article will be the first in a series that will take a look at various tools and options within the Carlson product line to ensure the accuracy of your surface models, sometimes known as triangulated irregular networks (TIN) or digital terrain models (DTM).

In this first article, we will take a look at quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) and how it applies to surface modeling. This is an essential step of the model building process, and one that is often overlooked by software manufacturers. For most people, the QA/QC process generally involves examining the contours and looking for issues, or spot-checking points on the surface. All current surface modeling software allows for the generation of contours and spot-checking, but these rely on the user to manually review the entire surface after it has been built.

Carlson Software is one of the few products that include an error checker as part of the surface building process. Most other programs either return a generic error message, or simply fail to complete. If you use the Triangulate & Contour routine, an error log is displayed showing any major issues after the surface data is processed.

The issues listed include the following:

Crossing breaklines
T-Intersections between breaklines
Vertical faces

If there are no issues with a surface model, the error log is not displayed. You can use the various options to change the sensitivity of the error checker, and to highlight any issues found. Simply select a single error on the log, then click Zoom In. You can then either correct the errors using any of the surface editing tools, edit the original data (such as the breaklines) and rebuild, or choose to ignore the errors if they are minor.

Although no errors may be found as part of the surface creation, there may still be errors in the surface model resulting from bad data. Once the surface has been built and any build errors have been corrected, you should do a manual review of the spot elevations and contours. The easiest way to check and verify spot elevations in Carlson is by using the Surface Inspector, which is available from the Surface pull-down menu of various modules. After you select the Surface Inspector command, you can change options as to which surface(s) you want to examine, as well as labeling settings. Once this has been done, move your cursor over the surface previously specified and a floating dialog box will show you information about that surface. Click anywhere on the surface to label a specific point.

Press Enter to exist the Surface Inspector.

By taking just a little time to verify that your surface model is accurate and free of errors, you can save time, money, and effort in the later stages of your projects. The Surface Error Log is an invaluable tool for locating any errors and flagging them for editing at a later time. The next article in this series will look at checking a surface model using contours.

Online Training - Friend or Foe?

Jennifer DiBona — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 12:36:38 +0000

With the economy what it is and everyone trying to get as much bang for their buck as possible, I’m finding that online training for your CAD software programs is an increasingly popular and cost effective option.

Although this post describes my personal approach and may be different considering your trainer, hopefully it will answer some of your questions about online training and will encourage you to give it a try.

How does it work?
There are several online services that trainers may use for online training. WebEx, GoToMeeting and GoToWebinar are all very commonly used and popular. My preference is GoToMeeting and GoToWebinar as they have a very low footprint on your computer and are simple to use. When first entering an online meeting, a small installation of the program occurs allowing you to view and interact with the presenter’s computer.

GoToMeeting is smaller scale and better for personalized training. GoToWebinar can handle up to 1,000 “attendees” and is typically used for presentation or demonstration to a large group.

Some of the online meeting services are free, but most require a monthly fee. The fee is paid by the organizer who then has the ability to schedule meetings/webinars in advance or “Meet Now” for meetings on the fly. Your organizer will either email you a link to the meeting site or can tell you the link on the phone. Each meeting has a unique “Meeting ID” that you’ll enter at the main page.

GoToMeeting is typically used for standard training where more than one person may need to show their screen and/or be given control of the mouse and keyboard. This interaction can take place in a variety of ways. When in a meeting, anyone can be given (and must accept) the “Presenter” role which allows others to view their computer. And, even though the Presenter always has priority, control of the mouse movement and keyboard entry may be granted to others in the meeting. This allows someone else to work on my computer remotely.

The audio portion of the training usually takes place by calling in on a conference call line supplied by GoToMeeting. VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) is also available allowing you to use your computer’s speakers and microphone but it is not recommended because of quality.

GoToWebinar is used for larger scale demonstration and presentations and can accommodate up to 1,000 Attendees. Online Webinars are generally structured to have one or more Presenters making the presentation.

Like GoToMeeting, the audio portion of GoToWebinar usually takes place by calling in on a conference call line supplied by GoToWebinar. However, in a Webinar setting, the Attendees are muted automatically by the Presenter so that everyone isn’t blessed with the sound of crinkling potato chip bags and elevator music when someone puts the phone on hold. The Presenter has the ability to un-mute one or more Attendees as needed. The audio of all Attendees is managed by the Presenter by having each Attendee enter a unique “Audio PIN” upon arrival.

GoToWebinar has 2 ways to ask and respond to questions from Attendees. The Control Panel has a “Raise Your Hand” button that notifies the Presenter there is a question. Depending on time constraints, the Presenter may decide to un-mute and answer the question during the online session. If there are more questions than can be answered during a session, the Organizer may ask that you type in questions in the “Questions Log” so that they may be addressed at a later time.

Pros and Cons
I’ve put together what I consider to be the Pros and Cons of online training for CAD Software programs. Please pitch in and offer your comments.

Pros

Can eliminate travel time and expenses
Very cost effective option for customized one-on-one training
Allows for personalized, absolutely customized training because it’s normally one on one.
Can’t find a local trainer? No problem. Felicia Provencal can train you from Hawai’i – although you may want to go to her!
Can be set up within minutes if there is a pressing technical support issue or project that suddenly comes up.
Can be scheduled in shorter blocks of time – one of the best ways to make sure you retain what you are taught. I like to schedule 2 hours maximum per session.
Shorter blocks of time allow for easy customization of training topics from one session to the next. If more time is needed on certain features, it’s easy to squeeze in another 2 hour session.
It IS interactive!
All sessions can be recorded and played back at your convenience for a refresher.

Cons

Some people are more comfortable sitting beside and working directly with the trainer
It’s less interactive than hands-on, in person training.
For hands on training and depending on the material being covered, it may not work as well if you have several folks needing training at one time.
Requires a high-speed connection and a telephone headset allowing two hands on keyboard. A speakerphone can be used as long as feedback doesn’t become an issue.

Real World Example
I recently worked with a client from out of state. He is a grading contractor who thought he needed Carlson TakeOff training but, after some discussion, realized training in basic CAD (IntelliCAD) needed to come first and then TakeOff training.

The initial proposal was for me to travel there and spend 3-4 days training this client plus a second person (a competitor, in this case) who needed the same training. Both of them decided to give online training a try.

We scheduled online training for every morning one week. I worked with one from 7:30 – 9:30 am and then with the other from 10:30 – 12:30 pm. After the 3rd day, we had covered so much material that one asked to skip the next day so he could work with it himself and apply what he’d learned so far.

We ended up skipping two days. By the time we met again, he’d worked with it enough and become so much more proficient with the basic CAD operation that we were able to fast-forward through the next couple sessions and started working on his current project. Another subsequent session was cancelled because the rain finally stopped!

And then a few days later, he needed to get his project finished and out to bid. So, after our first session one morning, we set up another session at 4:00 that afternoon and worked until almost 7:00 that evening.

Both customers ended up very happy with the amount of material we covered and where they were with the software when we wrapped up our regular training. They still have the video recordings of the training for their reference to go back to when needed. In the end, the cost was almost the exact same as it would have been had I fulfilled the original proposal but they both learned and retained much more because the training was customized and personalized to their specific jobs.

Thirst of First!

moqsh — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 22:12:24 +0000

Month is June! Gud afternoon. Me writing this blog, just below the moon…. Hello Mr. James cameron! Whom you gonna sink this time? Float my blog if you could do. Shhhhhh…. its night time. I Mentioned gud afternoon just to conceal my sluggishness as I thought of writing it in day time ….. ridiculous start na? Sorry readers (sorry for what! You dint even lend me a penny and you are not gonna exercise western union for me so what if m not your relative)

what else I could write, nothing is coming to mind, m devoid of topic, m searching for a good one, and the topics are playing everywhere except my mind. M thinking of stealing someone’s blog and paste directly without a hitch, problem is that I am unique (just like everyone!). I don’t want to attach my name with someone else’s blog causing him to be famous. So Mr. William Shakespeare, better luck next time!.

Friends! I continue to maintain my singularity and start with nitty-gritty. Blogging is not a big deal (They told me! Don’t ever trust liars), you just have to peel your mind off and lean your fingers on keyboard if you have not appointed a PA for yourself. Blogging is an “(F)art” that you don’t wish to stop inside you and wish to make people sense.

As no single topic shining in my head and I have to head to writing my first post, m gonna write anything that comes to my mind. Anything means anything be it Apple “A” or Zebra “Z”. Oh! I forgot about special characters after all alphabet is not the end of characters, here we are! that’s me friends “Special Character”, sent from above “down to earth”.

The mind, once expanded to the dimensions of larger ideas, never returns to its original size. – Oliver Wendell Holmes

Well Said Mr. Holmes. That’s the main motive of writing this blog, Blogging is just one step ahead for getting out of ruts and doing something nuts because bungee jumping zone is too far from my place and sky diving is not allowed by my pocket.

Friends, Indians, Countrymen here is first post of MY BLOG! …………….. Hey! Hey!! stop clapping! stop whistling, let me finish my first post.

Now it’s time to being honest, though this blog is started by me but I am pushed by someone and that someone is her. She herself is a damn good blogger and she thinks I can be a blogger too. So all credit goes to her. Getting ideas na? Who is this “her”? wanna know name of “her”? well, greeders oh sorry! Readers, her name starts with “F”. Yes off course there are remaining letters but they are scattered around I will have to assemble them.

The best thing just happened to me right now is that I came to the end of MS word’s document first page, that was I thought of before writing this post that I should write at least one page. Friends, bye for now, don’t come like an ant, come fast, leave comment!