Eagle's Lair
Members Roster

April 2, 2005

Ladies and Gentlemen:

Tim Finley, Steve and Libby Wallace, Earl Gratzer, Omar Charamosta , Bernard McVay, Aaron McVay, Keith Zanghi, Ed Drumheller II, Ed Shadle, Von Armstrong, and Sean Rondestvedt stopped by the hangar today to take our dream of breaking the world land speed record a little closer to reality.

While the rest of us were at the hangar working on the car, Glenn Amy was fielding emails and telephone interviews from around the world from an article written by Connie McDougall that appeared in the Seattle City Light Employee Newsletter. In the April edition, Glenn and his exploits with the team are highlighted in full color. In a regular feature entitled "Off The Clock" Glenn was shown inside the massive North American Eagle™ engine bay. For the past year, Glenn and Jon Higley have been responsible for expanding the Public Relations part of the project through the website and an ever expanding NAE™ Gear page. Like all team members, we interact in society at our jobs and in the community with most people who are totally unaware of our "Off The Clock" activities. Team North American Eagle™ congratulates Seattle City Light for highlighting Glenn in their employee newsletter for the recognition he deserves.

Text of the article can be found here.

Omar, Earl, Keith and Ed worked on the ramps for loading and unloading the North American Eagle™ into the LevX Transporter. We made some improvements to the attaching plates that will allow us to make the job easier. Earlier in the week, Tim drilled and tapped steel plates that will be used in place of nuts with bolts on the ramps. From now on, all we'll have to do is just loosen the bolts: no need to fuss with nuts anymore.

Steve and Libby worked on the PCB Piezotronics data acquisition components. Von was busy drilling holes and attaching brackets for mounting the Larson Davis  multi-channel data acquisition system.

Steve brought in some drawings for the parachute load assembly. Utilizing PCB Piezotronics load cells, Ed II will be able to tell exactly the amount of loads that are exerted on the parachute lines when they are deployed. The data derived will be more crucial when high speed runs commence utilizing the parachutes supplied by Aerial. Tim will machine the components using 4130 chrommolly steel. We should have all the parts completed in about two weeks.

Ed II repacked two of the three parachutes into the deployment bags. Last week Bernard modified the parachute packing tool so that it made the diameter of the deployment bag smaller. This will allow it to exit the parachute tube easier. In addition Bernard started construction on a hydraulic parachute packing machine. The machine will be used to compress the parachute while it is being packed into the parachute deployment bag.

The process is exactly how parachutes on jet fighters and spacecraft are packed. Benard completed most of the work and will return it to McVay's Mobile Welding shop and finish it up there. In addition Ed II modified the lines on the drogue chutes so that they are now permanent. Last week Ed II built the lines; this week he installed them onto the deployment bag.

Tim was busy during the day finish up some final wiring of the shop. This was the first weekend we never had a single breaker flip! During the previous week Jon Higley has been busy updating the website. Glenn Amy has been working on the NAE™ Gear page. In the next week we will be offering some new embroidered hats. Look for those to appear in the upcoming week. 

That's it for now. See you next week!

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