Eagle's Lair
Members Roster

June 7, 2008

Ladies & Gentlemen:

Present at today’s work party were Ed Shadle, Keith Zanghi, Jon Higley, Tim Finley, Steve Wallace, Bernard McVay, Gino Sanfilippo, John Winchester, Omar Chramosta, Von Armstrong, John Drury, Rich & Tom Pengelley, Sam Yellowbird put in a cameol.

The hangar was visited by several groups today. The first group was the Worcester & Byquist families. Dan Worcester, a music teacher at Enterprise Elementary, along with the Byquist family bid and won a tour as a fund raising item at the school’s auction earlier this year. The two families were given a tour by Jon, who had donated the item for the school’s auction.

Then, there were Ted Blakeley and his son, Shane, who came all the way from Boring, Oregon, to visit and drop off a piece of very unique, one of a kind aviation art. We wished they'd stuck around a bit longer to talk and tell us more about the artwork. We intend to place it up for bidding to raise funds for the project. Thank you, Ted & Shane, for your generosity.

Another group was local guys who dropped by for a tour. It consisted of Bill Pyle, Jason VanHoof, Bob Cruse, Seth VanHoof, Colby VanHoof, Kyle Flannery, Tyler Flannery, Kirk Flannery and Andrew York.

Then Rex Walter and his dad, Bill, stopped by to look around and watch the team work. At the same time, Dr. David Thomas dropped by to deliver the new high-speed chute that his brother, Randy, created specifically for the project.

All during the day’s activities, Kevin Casey, photojournalist for the Seattle Weekly, was on hand to capture images for an article about the project that will be published in June.  Jesse Froehling writer of the story along with Kristina Herz, who was visiting from Maryland, came by to do some follow-up interviews for the 6000 word article.  Jesse thoroughly researched the article with a phone interview with current world land speed record holder Andy Green. (To read a statement by Green about our project, go here.)

John, Rich, Tom and Omar worked on the semi-tractor. They replaced the  air-brake cans and air-lines. Gino, who purchased a brand new gas grill for the team, grilled chicken burgers for lunch.

Ed held a team meeting to go over logistics for the coming test session at the end of this month. Jon was assigned to coordinate motel room assignments and Tim is taking on the job of cook.

Steve and Tim spent part of the day adding wiring for our Ecliptic Enterprises Corporation RocketCam™ and Olympus Industrial iSPEED 2 HG high speed video cameras that will be mounted on the car at key positions to capture footage of our runs.  During our upcoming test session, five RocketCam™ cameras will be onboard the North American Eagle™.  If you would like to see the quality of these cameras, NASA has just released a new video in HG using RocketCam™ cameras attached to the SRB (Shuttle Rocket Booster).  The incredible video shows the shuttle leaving the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center, SRB seperaton and finaly splashing down in the Atlantic.  The same cameras are used on the Eagle.

Special thanks go out to a couple of our long time sponsors.   Covich Williams dropped off another load of sorbent pads to mitigate and recover oil and kerosene spills.  Over the years the Covich Williams products has been helping us meet our environmental responsibilities. Covich Williams supplies the entire NW Fishing industry with oil recovery and sorbents products for years.  Another is NW Sport Divers who fills and maintains our SCUBA tanks used to pressurize our AFFF Foam Fire Fighting units.

We would also like to thank the folks at TIMCO Inc. for providing all new air lines for our LevX Tractor.  Earlier in the week Ed was down at their headquarters in Tacoma ordering up hoses for the tractor when they asked him what they were for.   Like everyone who has met us they became instant fans.  When it came time to square up they said “these are on the house”.  The money saved will go toward our massive fuel bill for our upcoming test session.   If you need custom air or hydraulic hoses in the Seattle Tacoma area stop in at TIMCO Inc. who can make them while you wait.

Next week a few of the team will assemble at the hangar on Tuesday to load the NAE™ into the semi-trailer. Next Saturday will see the rest of the equipment needed for the test session being loaded into the second semi-trailer.

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