In summary, you had to complete three flight missions. One "delivery" mission that involved completing as many laps under 5 minutes, and two "cargo" missions where you needed to take off with about 7lbs of cargo under in under 75 feet of runway. Scoring for these missions were heavily weighted on the actual weight of your aircraft, and battery pack. The heavier, the more penalized your score got. Plus, 50% of our total score came from a written report with an extremely rigid rubric. Apparently we used the wrong font size, or margins so we received a 23/100 score. Immediately that took us out of the mindset of trying to get a competitive score. Originally we were really only designing this aircraft to perform all three missions… so we stuck to that.
In the weeks leading up to the competition, our team had successfully done some test flights. The results were posted on Youtube, and provided entertainment and satisfaction. It also served as an insulting monument to the individuals (and professors) who said we could never achieve our goals, and insisted upon making life difficult for us.
Well the day I had to leave for the DBF, I was working on my homework, makeup exams, and then I received notice that my group needed a video to display for design day. I sped home and compiled a thirteen minute video compilation of our test flight footage, photos, and music. Then I returned to campus and helped set up our "booth" for sneak preview night. There they had most of the professors, advisors, and sponsors for the senior design projects. Since our aircraft was enroute to Kansa, we were without a physical display. My laptop cycled through the video, and people could come by and see the cool poster, and video. During the viewings, the douchebag of a professor who despised our team forcefully avoided eyecontact throughout the duration of the exhibit. He passed by two times, and turned his back to us in each passing. Perhaps seeing our success was too much for his concrete expectation of our utter failure.
The next morning Bryan drove me to the airport and I boarded a packed flight to Denver where I jumped onto a smaller turbo prop to fly into Wichita. As they were seating, I saw about a dozen college aged people board, and most had that "engineer look" about them. One cute girl sat next to me, and I asked her what they were all doing. After she found out that I was also in the contest, we yammered on all the way to Wichita. I got off the plane, and realized I needed food. I didn't want overpriced airport food, so I began to walk towards town. Wichita isn't the most pedestrian friendly area around, since about 50% of my total walking was done on grass, or the shoulder of a road. Very limited sidewalks. Eventually, I came across a Wendy's, and it started to rain harder, so I decided to stop there for a bit. I ate, and checked out hotels on the laptop. After selecting one that was near downtown according to my team's request, I started walking there. I had my trusty GPS that informed me how to get there. It was about 6 miles away and I had plenty of time to burn, so I cranked my Zune and began to walk. After a while I checked into a room which turned out to be rather nice and spacious. I was tired, so I showered and crashed on one of the beds. I was pretty much out for a while until I got a call from Steve and I gave him directions on how to get to the hotel. After they arrived, we unpacked the plane, and equipment. Since we were close to downtown, we headed out to some of the bars and grills downtown. It was pretty much what I expected to see. Oddly similar to parts of Ohio. Simple people, lots of drinking and smoking. Ate a burger, and we then did a brief tour of the town, and got back to the hotel.
In the morning we visited a hobby shop to pick up some equipment, and do some last minute modifications. The guys at the shop were very helpful to us, and even offered the keys for their shop in case we needed to come back later that evening to fix some things. We bought them all some BBQ for lunch, and snarfed it down as we trimmed out the plane with the new radio receiver. After the hobby shop we headed out to the East Cessna Airstrip where the competition was being held. Registration was hectic and the hanger was full of chaotic teams fixing up their planes from the disturbance of travel. Our plane needed to be inspected before we could fly any mission, but the line to do so was insane! We didn't get a chance to get our plane inspected, but we got to see other teams, and visit with a few other teams. Georgia Tech was next to us in the hanger, and a guy who went to Utah State was there with them, hired to assist the team in making a successful aircraft. Apparently Georgia Tech was tired of going several years without a single successful scoring mission, so they hired Dr. Nicholas Alley. He came over and chatted for a while, happy to see Utah out there representing. He then offered us his team's pilot who they flew out from Logan UT. Since we didn't have a pilot arranged to fly for us, we happily took the offer. Since we were pretty much out of luck getting our plane inspected for the competition that day due to the lines, we decided to meet up w/ Georgia Tech out south of Wichita on some RC park where they were doing some test flights. After getting something to eat, we headed out in the acres of infinite farmlands, and eventually stumbled upon a neat little RC park w/ a crowd of engineers and rental vans. The wind was pretty strong, so we waited a while until the sun got lower, and the wind subsided. We let Georgia fly around for a bit, and then we got our plane ready and let the pilot do some checks, and then we hit the runway. I tossed in my GPS for the flight to record speed, altitude, etc . The flight went great, and the pilot got a good feel for the aircraft, but the landing busted a support cable connector. It wasn't the pilot's fault, the tension was simply too high to begin with, so all the load from the impact went straight to the cable. We didn't want to risk another testflight w/ landing gear which could fail on the next landing. Eventually the sun went down, and we followed Georgia Tech to Outback for some steak. There we chatted with, and picked the brains of the pilot and engineer during dinner. We later got back to our hotel and repaired the damage, and went to bed.
The morning of the competition, we scrambled out the door in an effort to beat the crowds. Still, the hanger was a total mob scene, and we had to wait a few hours to get our plane inspected. Our inspection was fine, even though our plane was built like a tank, and weighed about 10.5 lbs unloaded. This didn't disqualify us, it was just not very common, and would heavily impact our score. Plus, our battery packs were about 3.45lbs, and would devastate any flight scores we could get. Most other teams had these expensive lightweight flashed NiMH battery packs that were only good for about 10 cycles. Some teams spent well over $4000 on batteries alone. Since we didn't have much of a budget to begin with, we simply used what we could get a hold of that worked. We made some judges chuckle on how heavy our system was, but we also could brag on how our plane could do cartwheels down the runway, bounce, and fly again. We got in line for our delivery mission, and the air was completely still. Many teams had done their delivery mission in the calm air w/ their super lightweight and fragile airframes. MIT for example had a flimsy design that would fall apart if you sneezed at it, but it scored VERY high since it weighed almost nothing. We stepped up to the line, and flew our plane with no trouble. It completed 5 laps, which was pretty high considering most could only complete 2-3 laps. Some team made a super fast streamlined aircraft, and they set the record with 7 laps. After such an easy flight, we thought we'd try to load up some cargo, and go for it. Some teams were already doing their cargo missions with the stagnant and still wind conditions. Since there was no wind to speak of, we had to put on different propellers to get better acceleration if we were to take off in under 75 feet of runway. This would sacrifice airspeed, for torque. (similar to gearing on a bike) We didn't really expect to take off without a headwind, but we thought we'd try and make an effort anyways. Now the cargo mission was an interesting one, because the team had to RUN over to the plane, read out what cargo assignment configuration they gave you, and then had to load it in as little time as possible. It looked kinda goofy, and a little over the top. Since we knew we weren't sure if our plane would make the takeoff, we didn't see the need of making fools of ourselves quite yet. When the judges started the stopwatch, we sauntered down and lazily loaded the cargo, taking our time so we didn't do anything stupid. This was quite the display apparently, because the crowd didn't expect to see ANYONE not rush like a bat out of hell during this relay portion. Some people who LIVED for this competition found our behavior extremely offensive and disrespectful, and uttered some snide remarks to us on our way out to the runway. It was funny though! Some teams cheered for us because they also saw our behavior amusing, and a refreshing nonchalant attitude compared to the competition Nazis. In anycase, we got to the starting line, and attempted a takeoff. Our acceleration was so high that it compressed the nose gear all the way to the fuselage, and the pilot couldn't steer on the runway. The plane rolled off the runway into the grass. We tried it again within our 5 minute window to takeoff. Once again it did the same thing because the motors were putting out so much thrust, and the spring on the nose gear was too flimsy for such force. This crash however was a bit harsher, and bent our aluminum reinforced fuselage, and broke part of the landing gear. We decided we were done for the day after that. We packed up the plane, and watched a few more teams fly their missions. That evening we made some repairs, installed a heftier landing gear, and went to some local spots for dinner and dancing.
Sunday morning, the wind had arrived. Even early, the wind gusts were getting to around 20mph. After scarfing down some free continental breakfast at the hotel, we blasted out to the competition. Upon our arrival we were trying to assemble our plane in the parking lot. Every now and then we'd hear a "OOOOHHH!!" coming from the crowd in the distance as some team's plane plummeted into the ground due to the high winds. I watched one fly around, and it lost control past one of the turns and impacted with a sickening "thud", followed by the usual crowd reaction. I found out later that that particular aircraft was Georgia Tech's on their second cargo mission. We made our way to the line for our cargo mission. We still had three more flight attempts to do our two remaining missions. The wind was howling and planes were dropping right and left. Most just couldn't fly upwind, and had to land due to their battery life, or other power restrictions. The ones that couldn't gain control for a landing littered the field with expensive confetti. Since we were such a small team, with such limited resources, most everyone in the crowd didn't expect us to get off the ground, and if we did, they fully expected us to crater our plane somewhere out with the rest of the carnage. This time we actually put some effort into loading up the cargo in a speedy fashion, but since we were borked anyways for our competition scoring, we really didn't care too much. Amazingly enough we were able to take off in about 50 feet with the headwind. After lifting up the flaps most the way, the plane charged into the wind like a lumbering ox. The first lap was pretty slow and suspenseful. We told our pilot to lift the flaps all the way, and the next lap went much smoother and airspeed was much more favorable. During the landing approach, the batteries were showing signs of loss of power. I was nervous, and the crowd also picked up on the sudden change of throttle control. The finish line was marked on the airstrip, and we had to cross it before we landed. Lower and lower the plane dropped in altitude, but just BARELY made it across the line before the wheels touched down! The crowd exploded in cheers, and I accidentally turned off the camera and only got some of the residual crowd cheering after the immediate touchdown. We had some issues with our second battery pack charging the night before, so we had to wait for a full charge before our next flight attempt. This turned out to be not a wise move, since the wind got worse and worse. Eventually after about a dozen consecutive aircraft crashes due to the high winds, people stopped flying. Most the teams went out for lunch figuring that nobody was stupid enough to fly in this hurricane. About this time our batteries were charged, and we attempted our second cargo mission out of fear that the wind was only going to get worse. Our second flight we put on a "higher geared" propeller to increase our airspeed since getting off in 75 feet was easy with this crazy headwind. The flight was quite a bit less stressful than the first, even with the gusts reaching up to 35-40mph. The plane came to rest after the second lap, and what was left of the crowd applauded, more out of shock than anything. The remainder of the competition I spent recording the crashes of other teams in the battle of the winds. However, the wind had died down significantly since our second flight. We took the guys from Georgia Tech out to lunch in gratitude for their assistance. Even though some of the competition Nazis were upset with them for "sharing knowledge" and "assisting the enemy". Thankfully, the Georgia Tech group didn't care too much, and were more than happy to assist just about anyone. After the competition, they held an award ceremony for those who scored well. No remark was made as to which nine teams out of 51 were successfully able to complete all three cargo missions though. Apparently its all about your score, and your written report. Oh well, we were very happy to be one of those teams that actually built an aircraft that could accomplish the three objectives, including flying in hurricane winds. We then packed up and left the competition. Nick and Steve dropped me off at a hotel near the airport, and they began their road trip back to Denver and thereafter to Salt Lake. I checked in to my hotel room, and I found that my reservation got overlooked. They were out of queen sized beds, so the guy behind the counter gave me a king sized bed at no extra cost. I took a hefty nap after I got settled in, and did some email before going to bed that night.
Monday morning, I got on the shuttle to the airport, and flew back to SLC. I had Kelsey pick me up from the airport and drop me off so I could begin the scramble of makeup homework I was needing to turn in by the next day.
Videos:
No comments:
Post a Comment