Classes ended, summer started, everyone went their way, and here we are – mid-July! It’s amazing how fast the summer goes. A quick update of all the going’s on with Naish as of late:
I started working for Boeing in late May as a Test Program Integration Intern (TPI) on the new Dreamliner, 787-10. TPI coordinates engineering changes with schedule requirements, shop constraints, and cost control. It’s a really cool internship assignment, because knowing just the engineering isn’t enough – you have to pull together the right team to make it all happen. The most rewarding part of the job is that when the right people are on the bus, everything goes great (people are good at their job when they’re talking their specialty). Another great part of the internship is being able to go cross-functional and support other flight test engineering requirements, such as FTEA (Flight Test Engineering Analysis) which is a team that writes the plan for a given Flight Test. I was given the opportunity to write a test plan for the 737-9 cabin air system test scheduled for later this year. There are other areas to flight test too – all the instrumentation that goes on the aircraft has to be checked out, calibrated, and maintained for precise and meaningful data acquisition. (It doesn’t stop after you’re done with mechoptronics!!!)
Elsewhere in my life, I’ve been training for my Instrument Rating – Airplane pilot’s license. It’s most definitely one of the more challenging ratings to earn as a pilot, but you get out of the rating what effort you put toward it. This rating allows me to fly in reduced visibility, through clouds, and at night more freely than just a private pilot rating. With this increased risk comes increased responsibility – it’s an absolute necessity that you stay on top of everything that’s going on in the aircraft when you’re flying without any visual aid!
And lastly, USC is already on the radar – after a brief trip to Colorado to see the family in August, I’ll be driving my car down from Seattle back to Los Angeles for one final year! It’ll be one for the books, and I can’t say that I’m ready to finish it. (I won’t at graduation either, but we’ll cross that bridge when I get there).
TL~DR version:
Working for Boeing is great. Flight Testing is totally cool. Instrument Rating is hard, but worth it. USC never leaves your life. Fight on, and enjoy the rest of your summers!
-Naish
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