Hey Everyone!
Hope you’re off to a great week! Hopefully you all remember me talking about AeroDesign Team here at USC and how we had been preparing for competition this past weekend- well it happened!
From Thursday to Sunday, USC ADT was in Wichita, KS to compete in the annual AIAA Design, Build, Fly (DBF) competition. Well, we certainly had been working hard this whole year to be ready for competition, and were ready to Fight On……
All was going well on Thursday afternoon as we left LAX for Denver: here’s a nice picture out my window-
Look at all the white puffy clouds…….
Then, once we left Denver, I knew we had entered the mid-West when this is what it looked like outside my window:
Yes…this is from the exact plane I was on…
Quite alarming…I know. Anyway, we get to Wichita at like 1AM, 3 hours late and make it to our hotel.
Friday consisted of technical inspection of our plane, where the judges make sure that your plane meets all the specifications set out in the rules back in August. Here are a few pictures from our technical inspection as well as the team waiting to make our first flight:
Balancing the plane. Ready to launch. Working on the plane. 
So, we managed to get our first flight in, where we tried to fly as many laps as possible. We got 7 laps done, about 2 more than the average- which put us in a very strong position.
On Saturday, a front passes through, making it too windy for us to have further attempts to compete the other two missions for which we designed the plane: passenger loading and time to climb. Winds were gusting up to 40 MPH. Here’s a pic of me impatiently waiting:
Since the flight line closed early on Saturday, we decided to go Go-Karting. Don’t mind the pink shirts…it’s an inside joke on the team.
Well, we had a nice early dinner at Bubba’s Nekked BBQ. I’ll let you make your own judgment of the establishment based on a few pics I have from there:
This is in front of the restaurant, with Bubba, the owner. Gotta say that the food was delicious, and well yes, there is an alternative way to resolve disputes around these here parts……as you can see.
You might be wondering….what happened to Sunday for all your flying? Well, let me show you what came through on Saturday night…..and you will see:
Above: All of USC ADT and other hotel guests hit the deck in bottom floor of hotel with power out as F3 tornado comes within 1/2 mile of hotel, slicing through Mc Connell AFB, and as luck would have it, the airfield where the competition was being held.
Below: What we last saw as the tornado sirens were going off and right before power went out. It was a bit nerve racking as they were talking about what street this darn thing was going down….they’re like ‘yeah…it’s moving down Rock Rd. and coming up on Kellogg’…..like right down the road from us…I was like like darn….better do something haha!
Sunday was another windy day, but thankfully with clearing skies! We actually went to go visit a glider port owned by one of my advisor’s friends:
Above: On the glide strip with the owners of the field.
Below: Dr. Blackwelder and myself. Dr. B is a great mentor of mine!
And on the way there, we observed some of the damage caused from the tornado….besides Spirit Aviation, the supplier of B-737 fuesleages for Boeing taking a direct hit, we saw some amusement park damage: yes, the Ferris Wheel is tipped over.
But alas, we all made it back home and man….it’s been a crazy week back…between wrapping up ADT competition logistics, and well, the semester as a whole really. Got a few more homework assignments to turn in along with two projects…then off to study for finals!
I’ll throw it out there- my b-day is on Saturday! So if you hear any rocking celebrations and the name Warren-com’on in!
See you all next week with full update on ADT and yes, about my favorite class at USC. (I have quite a few, so I’ll be thinking about them till then!)
