The Wild Blue Yonder

You know that light at the end of the tunnel? The one Daniel has been seeing all year? Well, today he finally emerged from the darkness of undergrad academia into the light of having earned his Bachelor of Engineering with a major in aerospace engineering. This kid has been leaning towards a career in engineering almost all of his life. He did take a brief foray into the study of dinosaurs as a preschooler (At his preschool graduation when most kids announced that they wanted to be firefighters, policemen, or superheroes, he proudly proclaimed that he wanted to be a paleontologist. The people sitting behind us murmured that the parents must have coached him, not knowing we were the parents. I can assure you there was absolutely no input from us. It was 100% Daniel.) but by first grade he was firmly grounded in space travel. And his fascination with all things that fly has not diminished over the years.

Starting at about age four, Daniel turned his eyes and his aspirations to the sky. That was the year I sewed an astronaut costume for Halloween. In first grade he had the opportunity to meet a real astronaut and that solidified his desire to fly. As a fourth grader he discovered origami and a lifelong hobby was born. Within a few years, he progressed far enough that he became aware of the work of origami master and mathematician Robert Lang, who was deeply entrenched in the field of space origami. Meeting Lang was another experience that reinforced his passions. Cub Scout space derbies and teachers who gave him opportunities to build and launch rockets added further fuel to the fire. He visited as many airplane museums and attended as many airshows as he could, and his love of flight continued to grow. (In fact, the first time anyone in our family besides Nathan-who you will remember was one of Daniel’s roommates-met Tawni was at an airshow. Malia and I missed out on that one due to a complete lack of caring about the whole airplanes bit, but Kevin and Matthew got to meet her!) As his schooling progressed, he leaned into his strengths in math and sciences and decided engineering was the route he wanted to take. Post mission, he enrolled at USU and began the process of learning the nuts and bolts of engineering. I think one of the amazing things about Daniel is that despite the years of study and hard work, the many tests studied for and passed, and the many hours spent head down in his homework, he still gets just as excited about space travel as he did as a four-year-old. Only now that he has a better understanding of all the many things that have to be designed, produced and deployed perfectly to make it all happen, I think he appreciates it even more. As an example, he closely followed the launch and mission of the Artemis II last month with complete fascination. If you ask him about it, expect to get a detailed and enthusiastic account of the mission. His eyes light up and everything when he talks about it.

Today, Daniel reached a major milestone in his journey towards the sky. With his finals finished and his capstone project completed, it was finally graduation day. The college of engineering is one of the larger colleges at USU (although nowhere near as massive as the college Nathan is in-more on that tomorrow), so Daniel expected the graduation to be long. However, the speakers kept things concise, and with only about 340 graduates participating in the ceremony, it only took about 35 minutes to get through all the names. I had planned for a long haul and had my kindle and an audiobook all ready to go to quell the boredom, but I only ended up reading a few pages. 

After we were done with the official portion of graduation, we retired to Daniel and Tawni’s apartment for lunch followed by a copious amount of Aggie ice cream. Tawni’s parents and her youngest sister drove down from Idaho for the occasion and her two other sisters, both of whom live in Logan, came as well. It was so nice to visit with them on a day that was a bit slower than a wedding day! Unfortunately, Kevin and I were short on time as Malia needed us back home in time to help with her Arena scheduling for school next year. So, our visit was short. But I suspect there will be more occasions over the years to get to know Tawni’s family a bit better.

Now that Daniel has completed his undergraduate work, he will begin preparing to take the Fundamentals of Engineering exam, which is basically a certification showing that he does indeed have the skills necessary to work as an engineer. He has been submitting job applications throughout this last year, and now that he is officially done with homework, he is going to lean into the job search. Tawni is gainfully employed so they will stay in Logan for now, but that is not their long-term plan. However, Daniel doesn’t know exactly what is next. It all depends on where the work takes him. He and Tawni are not only open to moving wherever they need to, but they also have a desire to live somewhere other than Utah. So, there may well be adventures in their future. The sky’s the limit and Daniel would love to be in a job that focuses on the broad expanse of the heavens. And I hope and pray that he will have that opportunity. 

Old Plane, New Car

We have been planning a trip to Texas for a good long while. With a big band of Texas being in the path of totality for the upcoming complete solar eclipse, the timing for our trip was kind of a no brainer. I made our hotel reservation a year ago and ever since then, we have been planning and anticipating our trip. As we counted down the days, I have been increasingly more excited (although not as excited as Nathan!) and was glad that today was finally the big day.

So, let’s talk negatives first. I have discovered that I’m not a huge fan of flying. It messes with my tummy. It messes with my back. It messes with my head. 

The last time I flew was in 2009 when I went to New York. That was the trip when I discovered that the 1-hour lead time the instructions on the box of Dramamine recommend is not long enough for me. Armed with that information, I took the meds further in advance and they were fully active by the time we lifted off. Nevertheless, this time around I discovered that the over-the-counter type of motion sickness remedies are not quite enough anymore. I wasn’t super sick or anything, but I was definitely a bit on the queasy side. The turbulence we encountered during the first hour of our flight did nothing to help that, but once things calmed down a bit and I got some ginger ale to sip on, I felt a bit better. The next time I plan to fly, I will call my doctor and get the good motion sickness patches. I think it will make the experience nicer. 

The second strike for flying is the fact that I often have trouble sitting for long periods of time simply because chairs of all sorts are generally designed for people who are taller than I am. That means that all the ergonomic curves that make things comfy for taller folks are in all the wrong places for me, which means that I often come away with an aching back. And while frequent position changes help on long drives, the cramped quarters in airplanes make that much more difficult. In addition to those general seating woes, the plane we rode to Texas was an old one so all the padding in the chairs was compacted which made things even more uncomfortable. 

The trifecta of air travel contradictions is completed by the reality that the noise, the altitude changes, etc. are not great for chronic migraines. Kev has some really great noise canceling headphones and they helped a ton, but I still came away with a bit of a headache. Luckily for me, it was just a bit and didn’t end up being a huge headache like it could have been. Which was nice in a way because it gave me plenty of brain power to focus on the queasiness. 😂

Now that I’ve gotten the complaints out of the way, let’s get down to the good stuff.

We flew into DFW airport, and that airport is so big that it has its own freeway. Seriously. Once we hit the runway, it took a good 15 minutes of taxiing to get to the terminal. Our travels included traversing an airplane overpass. Yup. Its own freeway for cars and overpasses for the airplanes. Once we deplaned, we caught the shuttle to the car rental center and after 10 minutes riding on the bus, we were still in the airport. So yes, the airport is huge. And the city itself is supersized just like the airport. For any of you who think Salt Lake is an actual city, let me assure you that it is just a modestly sized town. 

Once we arrived at the rental car center, we were instructed to choose a car. Kev has traveled a lot more than I have of late, so being told to pick one was not unexpected for him. I was kind of surprised though. I had assumed that they just handed you the keys to whichever car was next in line. Having options was nice though. Kevin’s eyes were drawn to a gray car as light colors are cooler in the sun, and we are in Texas. Knowing that smells are a big deal for me and can trigger headaches, he asked me to smell it. I stuck my head in the window, gave it a good sniff, and declared it was fine as it just smelled like new car. Selection made, we headed to the checkout booth and when we were asked to report the mileage of the car, we discovered that the car had 2 whole miles on it. It smells like new car because it is a brand-new car!

Long travel days are generally the least enjoyable days on any trip. But with today behind us, Nathan is super excited to start visiting people tomorrow!

The Sky’s the Limit

As I’ve mentioned before, our experience gifts for the kids have been a bit on the fly the past couple of years. As things have really started to normalize post-COVID shut down, there have been more and more opportunities presenting themselves and there are things we have been able to arrange for the kids that we didn’t know about until close to the actual date. In fact, today ended up being an amazing experience gift for both Daniel and Matthew, one that Kev didn’t know was going to happen until they arrived at what they expected to be simply a viewing of a fantastic historic airplane. They had planned to drive to Wendover to see a visiting B-29 but didn’t know there would be two smaller historic planes in attendance as well. When the opportunity presented itself for the boys to actually fly one of those planes, Kev made a spur of the moment decision and gave both boys an unforgettable day. I would have done the same thing.

I wasn’t there and all I can tell you is that they came home giddy with excitement, so I’ve invited Daniel and Matthew to be my guest bloggers to tell us about their experiences. 

DANIEL: We have been watching for years to see when one of two remaining B-29 Superfortresses would be coming to someplace reasonably close to us so we could go see it fly. Because there are only two left in the world that are airworthy, it was a huge deal to discover that the B-29 named Doc would be coming to Wendover, Utah. Matthew, Dad, and I were all ecstatic to find it was coming to someplace within reasonable driving range, so we made the arrangements we needed to make so that we could drive to Wendover Wednesday. After waking up at O-Dark-Thirty (for me, at least) we drove two hours to see it.

When we arrived in Wendover around 8:15, we drove down to the hangar where the B-29 was stored overnight and saw that it had been pulled out of the hanger and was being prepared for taxiing over to the flightline where it would pick up the people who had paid for flights. We got to see and hear them start the engines. We were standing behind the aircraft at this point. As they started each engine, the air around us went from still to very turbulent as the propwash from the four massive engines washed over us. It wasn’t a little prop wash, either. It felt like a hard wind was gusting steadily towards us! And the sound was glorious. Nothing sounds like four high powered radial engines working in unison. After getting too cold to keep standing in the prop wash, we went over to the main gate of the airfield to watch it taxi up to the flight line. We watched and heard it taxi up and shut down for a while. The flight crew began preparing and briefing the passengers on the 9:00 flight. At this point, we had 5 cameras between the 3 of us all taking pictures and video of the B-29. Afterall, it was big, shiny, exciting, and unbelievably cool! Once the passengers were situated, they started the plane again. Hearing each engine start never gets old! Once it was started and the pre-flight checks were done, we watched it taxi to the runway and take off. The sight of a flying B-29 is the epitome of “they don’t make them like they used to.” We watched the take off and the flyover with rapture. Throughout the whole takeoff sequence, we were taking pictures. 

We waited a little bit while it flew around, and we watched it land. By this point we were allowed to walk much further onto the flight line, and so we got into a spot where we would be able to see the landing and taxiing back to the start. We watched as the B-29 landed, and then taxied towards us. We definitely took pictures of this as it moved towards us and turned around in front of us. It was quite the sight! At this point, we watched them brief the 11:00 flight. Matthew and I climbed to the top of the 60 ft historic control tower to watch the second take off, which was much the same in procedure, although the different perspective of being 60 ft above the flightline made it a separate experience once again! We watched the take off, and I had the chance to talk to a really nice old man briefly about how it is important to keep these historic machines in full operation so that we can learn about history from them. These historic airplanes are reminders of a bygone era shaped by a global war that we need to remember and keeping the warbirds flying is a fantastic hands-on way to teach history. Funny enough, while we were taking about this, we saw an elementary school arrive to look at and learn about the B-29. If I had a field trip like that when I was in elementary school, it would have been extremely memorable.

After the B-29 landed the second time, they had it pointing towards the meager crowd, and they opened it up for cockpit tours. We purchased the pass for that and got in line. We entered via ducking into the forward bomb bay, where we were told more about the specifications and design requirements for the B-29 and the instrumental role it had in ending WWII. After that we were let into the cockpit cabin proper. We were able to stand upright, which was shocking as most aircraft of early 40s vintage we can’t actually stand up all the way. One of the mechanics was in the cockpit telling us a little bit about the specific airplane. Most of the stuff inside was original hardware, with exception the radio and flight gear that helped make it meet current flight regulations. Me wanting reference photos for when I build a model of the B-29 proceeded to take a number of pictures of the panels and the equipment. After experiencing the interior, we stepped out and began to prepare for the next part of our adventure.

The Commemorative Air Force wing out of Heber City had brought two WWII trainer aircraft out to the same event, a Stearman bi-plane and an AT-6 Texan trainer. Matthew and I had the chance to fly in one of them, and we both chose the AT-6. The Stearman was the beginning trainer of WWII where all pilots started, but the AT-6 was the trainer that pilots flew when they were training to fly single engine fighters. I figured that the AT-6 was about as close to some of my favorite single seat aircraft as I was going to get. And I think I was right! Matthew and I got a 30-minute flight in it each, and I will say that those 30 minutes were something that I will never forget! Matthew went up first and looked like he had a grand old time! I got into the back seat of the AT-6 behind our pilot, Skip. After getting all strapped in and had the headset ready to go, Skip started the engine and we started taxiing. The way that this worked was that it was our flight, in that we could decide what we wanted. I said that I wanted to try some aerobatics out along with his standard control showing. We took off, and after he got the plane all trimmed out and flying steady, we climbed to about 8,000 ft. He then proceeded to talk me through what the controls did and demonstrate some slow lazy turns. He then said that I could do some of those nice lazy turns and gave me control of the aircraft. That was when I knew I would never forget this! Not only was I in a plane from 1943, but I was in control. I looked past Skip’s head at the horizon and was in complete control to keep it level and then do slow left and right turns. Let me just say this; An actual airplane is much easier to control than any flight simulator I have ever played. It was surprisingly easy to keep it flying in a gently turn. I realized why the AT-6 was such a good trainer. It was an incredibly forgiving and stable airplane! After some slow lazy turns, he started into his aerobatic portion. We started by doing wing-overs, which is when you put the wings vertical and let the plane swing back to level like a forward moving pendulum. After that, we started pulling some Gs (the force of gravity on Earth is 1 G). We started with a 2 G turn, and then did a 3 G turn. I think we were between 3 and 3.5 Gs at one point, and that is a wild feeling! After the G turns, Skip did a few barrel rolls to the left and right. Not all at once, but we did probably 3 barrel rolls. Seeing the world spin but not really feeling a huge difference in my stomach was a crazy moment! After the barrel rolls, we did one more lazy turn in my control. After that, Skip landed the plane. I had a smile on my face the whole time because there is no feeling like flying a vintage aircraft like that. The simple joy of being separated from the world by 7,000 to 9,000 ft of air in a little airplane that is easy to control on your own was easily the best thing I have done for a long time! After I was unstrapped, Skip told us and Dad that we were some of the easier people he has taken flying in the AT-6. We knew to keep our movement smooth and controlled, whereas the guy who flew before both of us was really choppy and Skip had to fight the controls a bit to keep the plane steady. Long story short, Skip enjoyed flying with us as much we did him!

It made for a long day, as we didn’t leave Wendover until 4:00 pm, but it was a day well spent. Seeing and hearing a rare bomber fly and flying a vintage aircraft over the Salt Flats created a day I will long remember with fondness and joy!

MATTHEW: It was really cool. Starting the day standing in the prop wash of a WWII heavy bomber, then walking around and hearing its absolutely massive sound, was amazing. It was a wonderful way to start the day. We then booked it down to the other end of the air base to meet Doc as it moved. We got some wonderful pictures. It was amazing to hear it from forever away, progressively getting louder and not a bit less proud. We did see it fly twice, and I will say, it was very amazing to see how fast it got off the runway. When he came back and was taxiing down the tarmac, we also got more amazing pictures. After the second flight we got to walk through and see the cockpit. It was so amazing to see that such an intricate thing could be created in such an intense time and make it so that it worked so well. Afterwards we went through the museum on base as well. We then waited for a few hours to take our flight in a T-6 advanced fighter trainer. When it was our turn, we got a briefing as we prepared to fly. After we got in, taxied, and got ready to take off. As this was my first flight ever, I had no clue what to expect. But when we did, I realized how amazing it was. We went out over the Salt Flats, and we flew for a couple minutes as he (the pilot) taught me about the plane and how to fly it. And then he was off the controls and let me fly the plane. That was an amazing experience. Flying a WWII era plane was such an experience, and one that I will never forget. One of the first things I noticed as we got over the salt was how beautiful the salt is from 6000 ft above the ground. It was very pretty. As we were passing back over the airbase to come back for a landing, he let me have full control of the plane. Stick and rudder. He told me exactly what to do, and I waggled the wings as I passed over the base. (Waggle the wings was slightly right, slight left, slight right, etc. It was essentially waving at the ground). As we landed, I realized how amazing it is how they have the science and technology to do that.