Eagle's Lair
Members Roster

September 22, 2007

Ladies & Gentlemen:

Present at today's work party were Ed Shadle, Keith Zanghi, Jon Higley, Steve & Libby Wallace, Bill Eckberg, Tim Finley, Scott Robertson, Rich Pengelley, Eric Helpenstell, John Drury, Von Armstrong, Omar Chramosta, John Winchester and our newest member, Eric McClain - welder.

As with any operation that meets only once a week on Saturday, members were working in varying combinations of several different tasks. The main tasks were carry overs from the last work party involving hydraulics, electronics, parachutes, data acquisition and others which need to be finished, or done as much as is possible with the time left before we must load the beast into the trailer.

Earlier this week, Ed Shadle purchased some stainless steel tubing - folks, that stuff ain't cheap - for our high speed parachute system. Ed's also been busy calling dozens of people who are key in the completion of several different projects that have been outsourced for parts critical to our next test session. Hopefully everything will come together as expected.

John Drury set about cutting open the two stainless steel tubes Ed brought to the hangar so they could be sized down around the new high speed bags built by John Winchester.

After placing straps around them and fitting them to the bags, Eric went to work with the tig welder provided by our sponsor Central Welding Supply/Welders-Direct.com. After some marking, Eric then welded the connector flanges to the tubes so they could be bolted to the tail's belly.

Meanwhile, Steve spent time at his bench checking on sensors while his wife, Libby, put together some tasty tacos for the team at lunch. Tim switched out a hydraulic valve in the rear hydraulics bay and performed several other electronics tasks in the cockpit.

As the day approached early evening, the last few members who remained sat down to discuss more details about the coming trip to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the British team - ThrustSSC - breaking the sound barrier.

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