Busy, busy

Ok, so here's how things are lining up:

Friday (today)
11:45am - Meet with Amy to get voice recording for Creative Date (CD) video
1:30pm - Lunch at Earhart
Later Afternoon - Preparing character profiles for CD, perhaps beginning to distribute them
3:30pm - MAYBE (hopefully) flying so I don't have to fly Saturday morning
7:00pm CRU!!! I have to do EveryStudent shirts again this week, but that's not hard
Later - The traditional After-Cru Movie Night, if Natalie's sticking around instead of going home we're going to watch Groundhog Day and (time and DVD availability permitting) SG-1 Windows of Opportunity (arguably the best Stargate episode ever, and like the earlier movie of the night centered around time loops)

Saturday
7:30am - Flying if I don't get to Friday afternoon (likely)
9:30-11:30ish - Catching up on sleep
Afternoon - Finishing character profiles and distributing them, maybe some film work
Late afternoon - My parents arrive for the weekend

Sunday
Morning - Church
Afternoon - Some special honors thing in Elliot
Late Afternoon - Parents head home (with some of my stuff)
7:00pm - JVAG meeting

Monday
Cramming for exams (esp. Checkride)
Finishing CD videos (hopefully)

Tuesday
7:30am - Exam in Mitch's CFI Ground class (moderately hard)
Afternoon - Finishing CD prep and cramming for Checkride
8:00pm - Creative Date (I've already talked about this one a lot, it'll be a lot of work but should also be a lot of fun)

Wednesday
7:30am - Final pre-checkride review flight with my instructor
9:30-1:00 CRAMMING!!!!!
1:00pm - Instrument Rating Checkride with Prof. Larry Gross as examiner (I've heard he's not too bad on this checkride, but it'll still be extremely hard)

Friday
9:30am - Exam in Bernie's Commercial Ground (moderately hard)

As you can see, it's going to be an extremely busy week. Needless to say I might get in one or two updates all week. After the checkride on Wednesday I'll definitely update with how that went and how the CD went the night before. I'll also hopefully be able to post the videos for the CD online for your viewing pleasure.

Couple of links to tide you over until the next update:

This is a crazy video prepared by some Cru people. It's extremely funny and has gained some level of fame across campus. The only thing I don't like about it is that they didn't think to put the Cru logo at the end, so hundreds of people on this campus have seen the video and even linked to it without ever knowing it's a Cru thing. Warning, the download is 60mb, but completely worth the wait:
http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~gcheney/Movies/Monkey%20Madness%202.wmv

I've told some or most of you about the Jet Warrior I designed for a class project last fall. As a review, we were doing a sales presentation group speech on a jet engine (the Williams FJ-44 series, in case you care) to our Aircraft Powerplants class. As a way of making it actually a sales presentation (the other groups were really just doing informative speeches) and making it funny, I decided to suggest retrofitting our Piper Warriors with jet engines. So for our intro and conclusion I talked about the many benefits of going to the Jet Warrior. The link's to a zip file with three pictures of it and a text file explaining the pictures a little. I suggest you look at them in the following order:
Throttle Main - This picture shows how much more simple the engine controls would be with the jet. This engine features FADEC (Full Authority Digital Engine Controls), which is very similar to the computer in your car's engine to control all the settings for maximum efficiency. Our normal airplanes are still flying on 1970's engine technology because the FAA, in all their idiocy, has made certifying a new engine too expensive to be profitable, so nobody has made better engines. Because of the simplicity of FADEC, I took out the mixture and the key (not in picture anyway) and left it with just an On/Off switch and a throttle.
Jet Warriors on ramp - shows a side view of a Jet Warrior taxiing by, with other Jet Warriors parked in the background. Notice the placement of the engine just behind the wing. This picture gives one a good idea of what the design changes would entail, including changing the nose from holding an engine and prop to something more aerodynamic.
Side Vertical Climbout - When you are flying solo with fuel tanks not full, the thrust from the FJ-44-3 engine exceeds the weight of the airplane, thus allowing you to do a vertical climbout. Basically you are playing rocket in a Warrior. Side note: one other notable airplane that can do this is the F-16 fighter.
Enjoy!
http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~serdenbe/JetWarrior.zip