Eagle's Lair
Members Roster

May 20, 2006

Ladies & Gentlemen:

Over the past week several different team members came to the hangar and got more work done. Thursday and Friday, Sam Yellowbird came and reworked the paint on one side of the car's body near the tail. Tim Finley came on Friday and camped overnight to get more electrical work done. Of course, Ed Shadle was there doing this and that all through the week.

Present at today's work part were Ed Shadle, Keith Zanghi, Jon Higley, Bill Eckberg, Rich Pengelley, Steve Wallace, Bernard McVay, Patricia Wood and Gabriella Dalton, Ed Drumheller II, Scott Robertson, Sam Yellowbird, Rob Martinson, Von Armstrong, Earl Gratzer, Tim Finley, Meeko, and Sparky.

The whole team was pleased to find that Bernard McVay had acquired a generator from our sponsor, Welders-Direct.com, for use while down at El Mirage next month. We thank Central Welding Supply for their great support of our project. It will be more than sufficient for giving us the power we need to run any of our electric tools or lights needed at night to do work under. We unloaded it from Bernard's truck and loaded it into the trailer for the trip.

Keith worked on the protective camera housing for the Olympus Industrial i-SPEED 2 High Speed Video (HSV) camera. The housing is made of a dust proof clear plastic that will allow the crew to quickly check the camera when it is in its housing, while protecting it from the harsh conditions we will encounter on the lake bed. The i-SPEED 2 HSV can be mounted on either side of the car, and camera angles can be adjusted to capture the parachute opening event. Across the hanger, Patricia and Gabriella were busy burning DVDs of the project's 5 minute promotional video produced by Puget Sound Video.

Ed II was busy preparing lines for the Aerial Machine and Tool high speed parachutes. With five low speed parachutes packed and ready to go for the El Mirage test session, Ed II started preliminary work on the high speed parachutes that will be deployed just under 800 mph. Tim completed work on the Rapp Hydema servo units that will control the LevX Magnetic Braking. Steve was busy all day finishing up the wire connections and testing systems for PCB Peizotronics / Larson Davis Data Aquisiton system. At the same time, Bernard worked on building an aluminum tray and mount that will be in Steve's car so the laptop he'll be using to trigger the data acquisition system with will be right next to his steering wheel. With antennas on the roof of his car and the laptop next to him, you'd almost be able to mistake it for a police cruiser if the car weren't a Honda.

Bernard also drilled some hydraulic fitting holes for plumbing tubing that will allow it be aft of the rear mid-axle, with Rich Pengelley helping with the starter holes. Scott Robertson, Ed Shadle and Bill Eckberg bled out air from the brake lines and we ran the system to check that it ran as expected.

We all chipped in at cleaning up the trailer and arranging equipment and supplies we'll be using while on the lake bed at El Mirage. The start cart was loaded into the smaller trailer and tomorrow some of the team will return to load the car into the trailer. A few of the team will come to the hangar on Tuesday or Wednesday of next week to take care of a few loose ends, but the whole team will take the Memorial Day weekend off to relax with their families.

Well folks, it's "show time" again in two weeks down in California. If all goes as planned, we should be hitting 400 mph tops on the aircraft tires after making sure everything is working as it should.

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