I lied about the full, long, detailed report on the Combe round. It's going to have to wait as I'm shortly off to Road America in Wisconsin to partake in a little Spec Miata racing with my brother. Oh frickin yes. Will tell all upon my return.
In the meantime, here's a couple more of Mike Dugdale's excellent in car videos. This time from Castle Combe, where I scored another solid Top 10 finish. I was also pleased to take a rather starring role in Mike's video (I'm driving number 42 if you're wondering), even if it did end up costing me a place. The videos tell the story far better than I can really, so here we go..
Monday, August 09, 2010
Tuesday, August 03, 2010
PBMW Rounds 7 and 8 - Brands Hatch GP
As you may or may not have noticed, it's been a while since I posted here so I don't remember a great deal about this race - aside from the moment when I had to slam the brakes on to more or less a complete stop to avoid the spinning Clint Bardwell.
The bottom line was that I again thoroughly enjoyed myself around what is one of THE great circuits and came away with a 9th and an 11th. Not too bad at all if I may say so.
My confidence was growing after that, but a long lay-off until Combe meant that I was unlikely to be able to capitalise on it. You need to be in the car pretty regularly to really grow as a driver, but an opportunity to do an overseas race in August (more on this later) meant that I had to keep the purse strings tight and have a couple of months off.
I'll be back very shortly with a proper report on the Combe race which was held last weekend.
The bottom line was that I again thoroughly enjoyed myself around what is one of THE great circuits and came away with a 9th and an 11th. Not too bad at all if I may say so.
My confidence was growing after that, but a long lay-off until Combe meant that I was unlikely to be able to capitalise on it. You need to be in the car pretty regularly to really grow as a driver, but an opportunity to do an overseas race in August (more on this later) meant that I had to keep the purse strings tight and have a couple of months off.
I'll be back very shortly with a proper report on the Combe race which was held last weekend.
PBMW Round 6 - Thruxton
Bit late with this one... anyway...
This race meeting was unfortunately more sad than it was enjoyable. Tragically, an accident in the GT Cup race early in the day resulted in the death of one of the drivers. So our thoughts and condolences were very much with the family and friends of Jeff Leadley.
Much of the racing time was therefore lost while the rescue and emergency services dealt with the situation. Both the GT Cup and Heritage GT organisations withdrew from their respective races both as a mark of respect and because for a long time, it looked unlikely that racing would resume.
However after a long period, it was suggested to us (PBMW and TTRS) that we'd likely get the opportunity to race. A show of hands made it clear that most people would prefer to race, given the opportunity. But if the whole thing had been called off, I don't think anyone would have complained.
So at six o'clock in the cold spitting rain, we formed up to race.
Despite not having driven at Thruxton, I was well aware of its reputation for being fast, and both difficult and scary to learn. I wholeheartedly agree!, even putting aside the events described above. I should say though that having experienced racing there, I can't wait to go back. Some expert advice I received just prior to qualifying meant that I was given a fast-track to success with a couple of important bits on the circuit that I very much doubt I'd have figured out for myself very quickly. There are a couple of places where the best thing to do is counter intuitive, but turn out to make an enormous difference to your lap time. This, coupled with a car that is easy to drive made my learning process alot quicker than it otherwise would have been. But the over-riding pleasure is simply driving the car flat-out through a constant stream of curves for the better part of a minute every lap. Church corner is probably my new favourite, just pipping my previous candidate - Copse, at Silverstone. The car is fully loaded up and you can feel every little thing that is going on.
Life is curiously spooky sometimes.On the same day you get the worst feeling possible in motorsport (when someone succumbs to it's darker side), you can also get the best feeling. Opposites attract I suppose.
After qualifying I found myself 15th out of 40, after dropping from 11th on the last lap when I caught a load of slower cars.
Come race start I got a half decent launch this time. Grip levels were still pretty good so I pushed hard immediately and gained a couple of places back on the first lap. I tailed the bootlid of Tony Smith's car for the next few laps and had a couple of pops at him as we both moved up the order. Onto lap 5, he and Nigel Olive-Jones seemed to slow each other up a bit through Allard and then moved apart slightly so I kept my foot and took advantage between the pair of them on the run to the complex. There things didn't go quite so well I'm afraid, as I successfully passed Tony but had to tuck in behind Nigel on the way out of Cobb. I moved to my left to give Nigel some space and inadvertantly caught my rear left tyre on Tony's bumper as he poked his nose up the inside. Round I went and spun to a stop, losing the engine in the process. Bugger. Thankfully, nobody hit me and I got away pretty quickly and back up to speed in no time. I'd lost about six places, but you would normally expect to lose many more than that in such a close field. The rest of the race was spent trying to haul Jack Gabriel in, which I duly did but unfortunately not fast enough to get on terms with him. A number of other cars either fell off or fell away, so I was left with 14th place. Considering I'd been stationary at one point with the engine off, I was quite pleased with that! A quick trip to see the Clerk of the Course to explain my side of the incident with Tony and the day was done.
All in all, it was very a bad day for everyone. But, I came away a new perspective on just how much fun it is to be out racing in this Championship.
Some excellent video from Mike Dugdale's car provides an insight..
This race meeting was unfortunately more sad than it was enjoyable. Tragically, an accident in the GT Cup race early in the day resulted in the death of one of the drivers. So our thoughts and condolences were very much with the family and friends of Jeff Leadley.
Much of the racing time was therefore lost while the rescue and emergency services dealt with the situation. Both the GT Cup and Heritage GT organisations withdrew from their respective races both as a mark of respect and because for a long time, it looked unlikely that racing would resume.
However after a long period, it was suggested to us (PBMW and TTRS) that we'd likely get the opportunity to race. A show of hands made it clear that most people would prefer to race, given the opportunity. But if the whole thing had been called off, I don't think anyone would have complained.
So at six o'clock in the cold spitting rain, we formed up to race.
Despite not having driven at Thruxton, I was well aware of its reputation for being fast, and both difficult and scary to learn. I wholeheartedly agree!, even putting aside the events described above. I should say though that having experienced racing there, I can't wait to go back. Some expert advice I received just prior to qualifying meant that I was given a fast-track to success with a couple of important bits on the circuit that I very much doubt I'd have figured out for myself very quickly. There are a couple of places where the best thing to do is counter intuitive, but turn out to make an enormous difference to your lap time. This, coupled with a car that is easy to drive made my learning process alot quicker than it otherwise would have been. But the over-riding pleasure is simply driving the car flat-out through a constant stream of curves for the better part of a minute every lap. Church corner is probably my new favourite, just pipping my previous candidate - Copse, at Silverstone. The car is fully loaded up and you can feel every little thing that is going on.
Life is curiously spooky sometimes.On the same day you get the worst feeling possible in motorsport (when someone succumbs to it's darker side), you can also get the best feeling. Opposites attract I suppose.
After qualifying I found myself 15th out of 40, after dropping from 11th on the last lap when I caught a load of slower cars.
Come race start I got a half decent launch this time. Grip levels were still pretty good so I pushed hard immediately and gained a couple of places back on the first lap. I tailed the bootlid of Tony Smith's car for the next few laps and had a couple of pops at him as we both moved up the order. Onto lap 5, he and Nigel Olive-Jones seemed to slow each other up a bit through Allard and then moved apart slightly so I kept my foot and took advantage between the pair of them on the run to the complex. There things didn't go quite so well I'm afraid, as I successfully passed Tony but had to tuck in behind Nigel on the way out of Cobb. I moved to my left to give Nigel some space and inadvertantly caught my rear left tyre on Tony's bumper as he poked his nose up the inside. Round I went and spun to a stop, losing the engine in the process. Bugger. Thankfully, nobody hit me and I got away pretty quickly and back up to speed in no time. I'd lost about six places, but you would normally expect to lose many more than that in such a close field. The rest of the race was spent trying to haul Jack Gabriel in, which I duly did but unfortunately not fast enough to get on terms with him. A number of other cars either fell off or fell away, so I was left with 14th place. Considering I'd been stationary at one point with the engine off, I was quite pleased with that! A quick trip to see the Clerk of the Course to explain my side of the incident with Tony and the day was done.
All in all, it was very a bad day for everyone. But, I came away a new perspective on just how much fun it is to be out racing in this Championship.
Some excellent video from Mike Dugdale's car provides an insight..
Wednesday, June 02, 2010
PBMW Rounds 4 and 5 - Silverstone GP
I have a love/hate relationship with Silverstone. Right now I love it, but I know the next time I spectate there, I’ll hate it again. As a place to drive, it’s an absolute joy. As place to just ‘be’ it’s a complete arse! It seems to suffer from an inability to tell the difference between an F1 race meeting and a club race meeting. The traffic/crowd management systems and security measures designed to deal with an F1 race day are, unsurprisingly, not appropriate for club race meetings, and I suspect this is the root cause of the myriad of unnecessary limitations and restrictions one encounters when just trying to get around the place.
Anyway, last weekend I was happy to be in one of the ‘love it’ phases of my relationship with ‘The Home of British Motorsport’. The weather was just beautiful and I got what I wanted: Close racing, good results and a lot of encouragement.
After Brands, I still didn’t have much idea about how much pace was in the car, or whether I was able to access it. But I knew the Silverstone meeting would go a long way to answering those questions. I’ve always gone well there and of course, I’d already driven the car there – albeit on the National.
We had 2 x 15 min races in store, but first we had to qualify. Now, with 50 plus cars, many driven by competitors who’d never been there before or hadn’t even driven their cars before (or perhaps even both), the chances of getting a clear lap were always going to be slim. They were made even more remote when what seemed like half the field got over excited and threw themselves into the gravel traps cutting the session to only four laps. I spent the first couple hunting down a bit of a space, warming the tyres and having a little feel around for the grip level. Everything felt comfortable so when the one clear lap came along, I could press really hard immediately. This came on the last lap and I got a completely clear run all the way to Vale where I had to thread my way through a few other cars, all of whom thankfully played along and made some space. Across the line, the flags came out, the session was over.
In parc ferme, most people including myself were pretty annoyed at the shortness of the session. But when Keith our eligibility scrutineer read out a list of numbers he said was the Top 10, and this list included my number, I felt a lot better! I was 6th overall with a number of Championship contenders behind me. Yes!
As a result of qualifying well up, my car became subject to a technical inspection, including Schrick test. All was good, apart from a minor bollocking for not having my race number displayed on the bonnet. Woops.
Having cocked up the starts at Brands three weeks earlier I suspected I might struggle a bit again in this department. I’m just getting a bit mixed up between different techniques for launching the car, coupled with little experience to inform the balance between bogging down and spinning the wheels! In both races it cost me three places within the first 20 yards, but I don’t think it made much difference to my finishing position in Race 1, following Nick Barke and Stu Waite home to a solid 9th place – my first Top 10 finish. This was a target I’d had in mind from the start so it was great to tick it off the list so quickly. I knew that I’d probably have ended up in the same spot even if I’d nailed the start as I doubt I could have held Nick or Stu behind me.
In Race 2, much the same thing happened again but this time I penalised myself further by attempting an overly ambitious move at Abbey that cost me a load more places. I recovered most of them during the 15 minute race, and probably enjoyed it more than the first but only came away with 12th this time.
In order to do well in this Championship, I’m learning that you need a lot of bases covered. The best analogy I can think of is the oft-heard ‘bag of golf clubs’. You’re going to need a full set, be reasonably expertise with them all, and be a genius with at least one. Currently, number 42 has got the idea with a couple of them, but the wraps are only just coming off the others.
A couple of pics worth posting I think... (courtesy of Jon Bryant - www.snappyracers.com):
Anyway, last weekend I was happy to be in one of the ‘love it’ phases of my relationship with ‘The Home of British Motorsport’. The weather was just beautiful and I got what I wanted: Close racing, good results and a lot of encouragement.
After Brands, I still didn’t have much idea about how much pace was in the car, or whether I was able to access it. But I knew the Silverstone meeting would go a long way to answering those questions. I’ve always gone well there and of course, I’d already driven the car there – albeit on the National.
We had 2 x 15 min races in store, but first we had to qualify. Now, with 50 plus cars, many driven by competitors who’d never been there before or hadn’t even driven their cars before (or perhaps even both), the chances of getting a clear lap were always going to be slim. They were made even more remote when what seemed like half the field got over excited and threw themselves into the gravel traps cutting the session to only four laps. I spent the first couple hunting down a bit of a space, warming the tyres and having a little feel around for the grip level. Everything felt comfortable so when the one clear lap came along, I could press really hard immediately. This came on the last lap and I got a completely clear run all the way to Vale where I had to thread my way through a few other cars, all of whom thankfully played along and made some space. Across the line, the flags came out, the session was over.
In parc ferme, most people including myself were pretty annoyed at the shortness of the session. But when Keith our eligibility scrutineer read out a list of numbers he said was the Top 10, and this list included my number, I felt a lot better! I was 6th overall with a number of Championship contenders behind me. Yes!
As a result of qualifying well up, my car became subject to a technical inspection, including Schrick test. All was good, apart from a minor bollocking for not having my race number displayed on the bonnet. Woops.
Having cocked up the starts at Brands three weeks earlier I suspected I might struggle a bit again in this department. I’m just getting a bit mixed up between different techniques for launching the car, coupled with little experience to inform the balance between bogging down and spinning the wheels! In both races it cost me three places within the first 20 yards, but I don’t think it made much difference to my finishing position in Race 1, following Nick Barke and Stu Waite home to a solid 9th place – my first Top 10 finish. This was a target I’d had in mind from the start so it was great to tick it off the list so quickly. I knew that I’d probably have ended up in the same spot even if I’d nailed the start as I doubt I could have held Nick or Stu behind me.
In Race 2, much the same thing happened again but this time I penalised myself further by attempting an overly ambitious move at Abbey that cost me a load more places. I recovered most of them during the 15 minute race, and probably enjoyed it more than the first but only came away with 12th this time.
In order to do well in this Championship, I’m learning that you need a lot of bases covered. The best analogy I can think of is the oft-heard ‘bag of golf clubs’. You’re going to need a full set, be reasonably expertise with them all, and be a genius with at least one. Currently, number 42 has got the idea with a couple of them, but the wraps are only just coming off the others.
A couple of pics worth posting I think... (courtesy of Jon Bryant - www.snappyracers.com):
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
PBMW Rounds 1, 2 and 3 – Brands Indy
I’ll keep this report short because my intention going into the race weekend was just to stay sensible, get some race mileage on the car and see where we ended up. I got what I wanted, which means there’s not a great deal that’s worth going into any detail about I’m afraid. Sorry!
I came away with a couple of decent mid-field finishes, a new water pump and an engine mount courtesy of Nigel Olive-Jones and Jason at RAW motorsport who very kindly jumped in and fixed my car on Sunday morning. Thanks guys.
My Dad took some good video, complete with a short bit of Nigel and Jason at work and me standing around watching in wonder..
All in all, it was a good start and I went away reasonably convinced that I could do well at Silverstone.
I came away with a couple of decent mid-field finishes, a new water pump and an engine mount courtesy of Nigel Olive-Jones and Jason at RAW motorsport who very kindly jumped in and fixed my car on Sunday morning. Thanks guys.
My Dad took some good video, complete with a short bit of Nigel and Jason at work and me standing around watching in wonder..
All in all, it was a good start and I went away reasonably convinced that I could do well at Silverstone.
Sensible
It’s not a word one would normally associate with motor racing I know, but for me 2010 so far is probably best summarised that way. That’s not to say I haven’t been enjoying it of course.
Most of my weekends in February were spent finishing off the major jobs on the car and tidying up in a few areas. Even the smallest jobs seem to take disproportionate amount of time to finish, but I suppose that’s because I’m doing them VERY carefully. Part of the idea in racing ‘production’ level cars is that you can get them more or less to a point where you don’t have to do much more than you would with a road car besides increase the rate at which you change the consumables like oil and pads etc. The Astra was certainly like that and I hope this car will be the same. But more on that later ;-)
The next step was to attempt a set up and give it a run. For this bit I was lucky to receive some very valuable assistance from some racing friends who’ve much more experience in this department than I. Loaded Gunn Racing have for a number of years built and run Sports 2000 cars in the UK with great success. Their website offers much more information than I can and makes for some very interesting reading: www.loadedgunn.com In a later post, I hope to cover their progress in 2010 as I’ve always had a soft spot sports racing cars and having had a bit of insight to Loaded Gunn’s approach and the challenges they face, I’m keen to see them do well.
So, the day before I took the car for its first run, I stopped in at Loaded Gunn who performed a full static set-up, including tracking, camber, ride-height and corner weighting. The outcome was very satisfying as the car measured up well and responded to change in the way we expected. We quickly found that it needed little tweaking to get near a theoretical ‘ideal’ and was very straightforward to work on. A big thank you to them then, as it gave me a huge boost in confidence because I now knew I had a good car.
The following day, we took it for a track day on the Silverstone National circuit. It’s not the most exciting layout, but it does provide a good mix of corners, a long straight and a short lap – all the ingredients required for productive testing. It was pretty damp in the morning and the track was very busy, so after a lap or two and a few checks around the car, we settled into a few long but steady runs to get some miles on it and give me a chance to settle in. In the afternoon it steadily dried out completely, so we played a bit with damper settings and went through a simple process to find a reasonable dry set-up. I came away from the test very very happy. The car felt brilliant, behaved itself perfectly and responded well to the changes we made.
Most of my weekends in February were spent finishing off the major jobs on the car and tidying up in a few areas. Even the smallest jobs seem to take disproportionate amount of time to finish, but I suppose that’s because I’m doing them VERY carefully. Part of the idea in racing ‘production’ level cars is that you can get them more or less to a point where you don’t have to do much more than you would with a road car besides increase the rate at which you change the consumables like oil and pads etc. The Astra was certainly like that and I hope this car will be the same. But more on that later ;-)
The next step was to attempt a set up and give it a run. For this bit I was lucky to receive some very valuable assistance from some racing friends who’ve much more experience in this department than I. Loaded Gunn Racing have for a number of years built and run Sports 2000 cars in the UK with great success. Their website offers much more information than I can and makes for some very interesting reading: www.loadedgunn.com In a later post, I hope to cover their progress in 2010 as I’ve always had a soft spot sports racing cars and having had a bit of insight to Loaded Gunn’s approach and the challenges they face, I’m keen to see them do well.
So, the day before I took the car for its first run, I stopped in at Loaded Gunn who performed a full static set-up, including tracking, camber, ride-height and corner weighting. The outcome was very satisfying as the car measured up well and responded to change in the way we expected. We quickly found that it needed little tweaking to get near a theoretical ‘ideal’ and was very straightforward to work on. A big thank you to them then, as it gave me a huge boost in confidence because I now knew I had a good car.
The following day, we took it for a track day on the Silverstone National circuit. It’s not the most exciting layout, but it does provide a good mix of corners, a long straight and a short lap – all the ingredients required for productive testing. It was pretty damp in the morning and the track was very busy, so after a lap or two and a few checks around the car, we settled into a few long but steady runs to get some miles on it and give me a chance to settle in. In the afternoon it steadily dried out completely, so we played a bit with damper settings and went through a simple process to find a reasonable dry set-up. I came away from the test very very happy. The car felt brilliant, behaved itself perfectly and responded well to the changes we made.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Chipping away...
I'll be back soon with some stuff about my first PBMW weekend at Brands last month, and my second which is coming up this weekend at Silverstone. Suffice to say, its been going pretty well, but no great shakes yet ;-)
More soon.
Cheers,
Tom.
More soon.
Cheers,
Tom.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
The cuddly space ship
I started writing this post a while ago, but have only now got round to finishing it off. So apologies for the gap and the fact is has nothing to do with racing, but it was a day I'll not forget and I wanted to get it recorded some how.
Anyway...
In my day job I spend a lot of time dealing with the largely dull complications of supplying military organisations with communication equipment. But every now and then it gets me into some interesting places that members of the public like us don’t normally see. It’s reasonable to say however, that the subject of this post will prove hard to top in the coming years.
In the last year or so I’ve spent a lot of time in Florida dealing with a supplier based in the east in the area known as the Space Coast. Many aerospace and defence companies set up there for obvious reasons. So in amongst all of my dealings there it's hard not to be conscious of the ever present feeling of optimism and excitement provided by the close proximity of Kennedy Space Centre and Cape Canaveral. I’ve yet to witness a launch despite best efforts to design my meeting dates to coincide with one, but I think I got the next best thing a few weeks back when I was invited to attend a very rare NASA employees ‘friends and family’ open day. Of course the general public is able to visit the site every day of the week but it has to be said, what you are provided with is more of a ‘show’ than the reality of what NASA actually do. There are some excellent IMAX movies to see and you do get to wander around a few pretty convincing mock-ups, but you very rarely clap eyes on the real stuff. And if you do it’s from a long way away.
The wife of one the engineers working at the supplier is the Flow Director for Space Shuttle Endeavour. Essentially, she manages the processing of that particular orbiter from the moment it lands to the moment it next launches; quite a job and one that I still can’t really grasp. So, on a sunny Saturday morning we were invited to KSC to meet up with Dana and her husband Jeremy to be taken around the Shuttle in its processing facility. A little bit of background may help here so forgive me if you’re already fairly well versed on how the Shuttle operates. After landing, the shuttle is wheeled across from the massive runway they have to the processing buildings next to the vehicle assembly building, where later on it is mated to the external tank and solid rocket boosters in preparation for launch. But before that happens, the shuttle is ‘processed’. Essentially everything that needs to happen to it before it can fly again happens in this building. It might help to add a few piccies at this point… some of them I’ve pulled from Wikipedia because they’re better than mine, but all of the shots inside are mine.
To get inside you walk through a dark corridor to some double doors, not knowing quite what you’re going to see on the other side. Through those doors you’re first presented with a massive clean white structure with bright lights dotted all over it and pipes, valves and god knows what going everywhere presumably containing the star of the show embedded within.
Right at that moment, it was impossible not be struck by the complexity of this thing and the amount peripheral kit that’s needed to keep it alive. But still, for all its complexity it achieves something that whilst enormously difficult, is very easy to understand. It’s a space ship. I think it’d take anyone a long time to fully comprehend this, no matter how long you stared at all the surrounding gear in awe. But the labyrinth of gubbins crawling all over it was also somehow reassuring. You knew you were looking at the real thing.
There was a short queue to a flight of stairs leading up the back of structure which gave us a nice period to stare at things for a while, talk to Dana and try to get a grip on what we were looking at. Looking through the lower part of the structure, it was possible to make out the smooth dark tiled surface that covers the whole of the underside of the shuttle.
Climbing up the stairs, we were presented with the business end of the craft and from an engineers point of view it was in some ways a bonus that the engines hadn’t yet been installed (they’re overhauled after every flight) as it gave us a rare view of the internals.
Moving back down the other side, we were then treated to a comprehensive overview of what may, understandably, seem one of the duller bits of the shuttle – it’s underside and it’s thermal protection system.
Ok, it’s just a load of tiles. But any comparisons with your bathroom walls end right here. These things do the hardest job in space flight – bring your crew home safely. A single flaw can as Columbia unfortunately found in 2003 be catastrophic, and I can’t begin to describe the care and attention that goes into inspecting and managing them. No two tiles are the same and each one is incredibly delicate – when inspecting a sample tile, the dark outer surface could be cracked and chipped off just with a light flick with your finger. Replacement of any of them takes several weeks. The most critical tiles were those in the first metre or so of the underside of the nose as much like an inverted F1 car, this area sets up the aerodynamics of the rest of the underside. Any interruption or distortion in the smoothness of the surface can result in disruption to the essential laminar flow and set up a turbulent stream that can overheat tiles further back in the stream. But despite the constant rework that goes on many of the tiles at the rear of Endeavour have survived since it was first built. Dana had spent a large part of her career working on them so was able to give us an in depth explanation of what goes into it, but I’m not going to try to relay that here. There’s masses of information on the web for anyone who wants to know more.
Moving back up the gantry, this time at the front, we got a good view of the nose. It was at this point that I saw that the white surface I’d previously thought was some kind of hard composite was actually made of some kind of cloth. Dana then confirmed that most of the white surfaces on the shuttle are simply Nomex wadding. It’s cuddly!!
Onward to the side we got a glimpse of the door the astronauts use to get in on the pad.
To finish up, we learned a tremendous amount about both the shuttle and everything involved in running it, but the bit I liked after all the talk of cutting edge technologies and clever task management was this sight as we came back down the stairs and walked past the tools area..
Probably the best advert Snap-on could have ever hoped for.
There was much more to our tour that I can’t cover here as it didn’t take long for my brain to fill up. But I really didn’t want to leave, I just wanted to sit in there and stare at it for a few more hours.
In the months since our tour, processing of Endevour was completed and she was rolled out just before Christmas, finally launching last week on her penultimate mission to the ISS for STS-130. Later on this year, she'll complete her final mission to space and will then be decommissioned and placed on public display somewhere in the US. 2010 is the last year that NASA will operate the Space Shuttle, and having watched the first launch on TV when I was in primary school, I feel very sad that they won't be flying any more.
A big thankyou to Dana and Jeremy for having me along with them on a very special day.
Anyway...
In my day job I spend a lot of time dealing with the largely dull complications of supplying military organisations with communication equipment. But every now and then it gets me into some interesting places that members of the public like us don’t normally see. It’s reasonable to say however, that the subject of this post will prove hard to top in the coming years.
In the last year or so I’ve spent a lot of time in Florida dealing with a supplier based in the east in the area known as the Space Coast. Many aerospace and defence companies set up there for obvious reasons. So in amongst all of my dealings there it's hard not to be conscious of the ever present feeling of optimism and excitement provided by the close proximity of Kennedy Space Centre and Cape Canaveral. I’ve yet to witness a launch despite best efforts to design my meeting dates to coincide with one, but I think I got the next best thing a few weeks back when I was invited to attend a very rare NASA employees ‘friends and family’ open day. Of course the general public is able to visit the site every day of the week but it has to be said, what you are provided with is more of a ‘show’ than the reality of what NASA actually do. There are some excellent IMAX movies to see and you do get to wander around a few pretty convincing mock-ups, but you very rarely clap eyes on the real stuff. And if you do it’s from a long way away.
The wife of one the engineers working at the supplier is the Flow Director for Space Shuttle Endeavour. Essentially, she manages the processing of that particular orbiter from the moment it lands to the moment it next launches; quite a job and one that I still can’t really grasp. So, on a sunny Saturday morning we were invited to KSC to meet up with Dana and her husband Jeremy to be taken around the Shuttle in its processing facility. A little bit of background may help here so forgive me if you’re already fairly well versed on how the Shuttle operates. After landing, the shuttle is wheeled across from the massive runway they have to the processing buildings next to the vehicle assembly building, where later on it is mated to the external tank and solid rocket boosters in preparation for launch. But before that happens, the shuttle is ‘processed’. Essentially everything that needs to happen to it before it can fly again happens in this building. It might help to add a few piccies at this point… some of them I’ve pulled from Wikipedia because they’re better than mine, but all of the shots inside are mine.
To get inside you walk through a dark corridor to some double doors, not knowing quite what you’re going to see on the other side. Through those doors you’re first presented with a massive clean white structure with bright lights dotted all over it and pipes, valves and god knows what going everywhere presumably containing the star of the show embedded within.
Right at that moment, it was impossible not be struck by the complexity of this thing and the amount peripheral kit that’s needed to keep it alive. But still, for all its complexity it achieves something that whilst enormously difficult, is very easy to understand. It’s a space ship. I think it’d take anyone a long time to fully comprehend this, no matter how long you stared at all the surrounding gear in awe. But the labyrinth of gubbins crawling all over it was also somehow reassuring. You knew you were looking at the real thing.
There was a short queue to a flight of stairs leading up the back of structure which gave us a nice period to stare at things for a while, talk to Dana and try to get a grip on what we were looking at. Looking through the lower part of the structure, it was possible to make out the smooth dark tiled surface that covers the whole of the underside of the shuttle.
Climbing up the stairs, we were presented with the business end of the craft and from an engineers point of view it was in some ways a bonus that the engines hadn’t yet been installed (they’re overhauled after every flight) as it gave us a rare view of the internals.
Moving back down the other side, we were then treated to a comprehensive overview of what may, understandably, seem one of the duller bits of the shuttle – it’s underside and it’s thermal protection system.
Ok, it’s just a load of tiles. But any comparisons with your bathroom walls end right here. These things do the hardest job in space flight – bring your crew home safely. A single flaw can as Columbia unfortunately found in 2003 be catastrophic, and I can’t begin to describe the care and attention that goes into inspecting and managing them. No two tiles are the same and each one is incredibly delicate – when inspecting a sample tile, the dark outer surface could be cracked and chipped off just with a light flick with your finger. Replacement of any of them takes several weeks. The most critical tiles were those in the first metre or so of the underside of the nose as much like an inverted F1 car, this area sets up the aerodynamics of the rest of the underside. Any interruption or distortion in the smoothness of the surface can result in disruption to the essential laminar flow and set up a turbulent stream that can overheat tiles further back in the stream. But despite the constant rework that goes on many of the tiles at the rear of Endeavour have survived since it was first built. Dana had spent a large part of her career working on them so was able to give us an in depth explanation of what goes into it, but I’m not going to try to relay that here. There’s masses of information on the web for anyone who wants to know more.
Moving back up the gantry, this time at the front, we got a good view of the nose. It was at this point that I saw that the white surface I’d previously thought was some kind of hard composite was actually made of some kind of cloth. Dana then confirmed that most of the white surfaces on the shuttle are simply Nomex wadding. It’s cuddly!!
Onward to the side we got a glimpse of the door the astronauts use to get in on the pad.
To finish up, we learned a tremendous amount about both the shuttle and everything involved in running it, but the bit I liked after all the talk of cutting edge technologies and clever task management was this sight as we came back down the stairs and walked past the tools area..
Probably the best advert Snap-on could have ever hoped for.
There was much more to our tour that I can’t cover here as it didn’t take long for my brain to fill up. But I really didn’t want to leave, I just wanted to sit in there and stare at it for a few more hours.
In the months since our tour, processing of Endevour was completed and she was rolled out just before Christmas, finally launching last week on her penultimate mission to the ISS for STS-130. Later on this year, she'll complete her final mission to space and will then be decommissioned and placed on public display somewhere in the US. 2010 is the last year that NASA will operate the Space Shuttle, and having watched the first launch on TV when I was in primary school, I feel very sad that they won't be flying any more.
A big thankyou to Dana and Jeremy for having me along with them on a very special day.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Coming along nicely
Still got a lot of jobs to do, but the car's taking shape. It took me a bit longer than expected to get the new suspension on but it was a straight forward job. I bought a few shiny new bits from Jimmy Cuthbert via his new shop: www.raceperformancemodified.com which went on at the same time.
Today, I sorted out one or two minor things I didn't like such as the way the bonnet was fastened and the positions of the safety cable handles. Also, I swapped the coloured bumpers from the 318i across which make the car look quite a lot nicer.
My current ponderings are all about the ride height and spring rates. I don't think I'll come to any useful conclusions until I've driven it a bit, but I quite like pondering so that's what I'm doing! I might get it MOT'd and on the road, but then again I might not. Not sure I'd really gain anything more than the ability to drive around a bit on a Saturday afternoon cos I'm certainly not park it in the street at home in Cardiff, or drive it to a race meeting. It'd be useful for basic checks, but that's about it.
Next jobs on the list are the new exhaust, a sump guard (no prizes for guessing why I'm so keen to get one on it) and a swirl pot. After that, I'm pretty much done aside from the usual tidying/checking/bleeding brakes/changing oil etc.
Anyway, this is how it looks now. Quite a bit more business like I think ;-)
Today, I sorted out one or two minor things I didn't like such as the way the bonnet was fastened and the positions of the safety cable handles. Also, I swapped the coloured bumpers from the 318i across which make the car look quite a lot nicer.
My current ponderings are all about the ride height and spring rates. I don't think I'll come to any useful conclusions until I've driven it a bit, but I quite like pondering so that's what I'm doing! I might get it MOT'd and on the road, but then again I might not. Not sure I'd really gain anything more than the ability to drive around a bit on a Saturday afternoon cos I'm certainly not park it in the street at home in Cardiff, or drive it to a race meeting. It'd be useful for basic checks, but that's about it.
Next jobs on the list are the new exhaust, a sump guard (no prizes for guessing why I'm so keen to get one on it) and a swirl pot. After that, I'm pretty much done aside from the usual tidying/checking/bleeding brakes/changing oil etc.
Anyway, this is how it looks now. Quite a bit more business like I think ;-)
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