Author Topic: What did you do during college? (Read 9424 times)

Howard Rush · « **Reply #50 on:** November 19, 2012, 12:49:25 AM »

That's why I told the lad to bear down on math.

Tim Wescott · « **Reply #51 on:** November 19, 2012, 10:27:41 AM »

Quote from: Matt Colan on November 17, 2012, 06:18:38 PM

I'm in Calculus right now, and its a little on the difficult side, but I'm managing to get through it with no problem. Physics I is next semester.

Pay attention to those basics! There's an astonishing number of engineers out there that just struggle through the math and science, then do all of their engineering by hearsay and ~~analysis~~ handbooks*. Then there's a few that still remember all of their college math and physics until the day they retire.

Knowing all that foundation stuff rarely gets you hired, but if you can tie it to the real world it means that when those problems that aren't covered in the handbooks come along, everyone in the room will turn to you. That, in turn, means that you'll be the last guy to get laid off in a downturn.

Of course, knowing all the math and physics without being able to apply it is even more useless than not knowing it but having all the handbooks ready to hand...

* Edit: analysis, handbooks, what's the difference?

Howard Rush · « **Reply #52 on:** November 19, 2012, 12:02:54 PM »

Yup. Even better after the edit. I like the alliteration.

Matt Colan · « **Reply #53 on:** November 19, 2012, 12:15:33 PM »

My bad on the typo

Related rates are posing a bit of a problem for me in calc but not having a problem with anything else in calc.

Not sure if I mentioned it or not but I am also a student blog writer for the university. Taking my skills from writing the Next Generation columns for SN and other articles for CLW and continuing on ith it. Here is the link to my blog entries:
http://www.erau.edu/db/journals/st1.html

Jim Thomerson · « **Reply #54 on:** November 19, 2012, 03:27:03 PM »

Hey Matt, go talk with your English instructor. There is a really stupid student culture which says no contact with instructors. Don't be one of those. One unfortunate thing about teaching an introductory class is that a certain number of students will not succeed. It is not good to know that your work has built in failure rate. That is why colleges and universities try to recruit students unlikely to fall. Anyway, I imagine your instructor is required to have weekly office hours and may be pretty lonely during that time. If not, you can make an appointment.

don Burke · « **Reply #55 on:** November 19, 2012, 07:53:27 PM »

Quote from: Matt Colan on November 19, 2012, 12:15:33 PM

Related rates are posing a bit of a problem for me in calc but not having a problem with anything else in calc.

Don't feel bad about having problems with math, with me it was a head on collision with differential equations. Got my engineering degree in spite of it. I had a successful 31 year career conducting tests for those who knew how to do the cyphering. The worst thing that happened was running into a dynamics engineer who thought the real world could be defined by equations, totally ignoring reality. We would waste hours repeating his tests because what we measured didn't match his calculations to the tenth place.

BTW built combat and racing planes in the dorm room, roomy wasn't bothered.

Chuck_Smith · « **Reply #56 on:** November 20, 2012, 10:22:22 AM »

Quote from: Matt Colan on November 17, 2012, 06:18:38 PM

Thanks Serge! I'm in Calculus right now, and its a little on the difficult side, but I'm managing to get through it with no problem. Physics I is next semester. The most difficult class I have is English. First reason it's difficult is trying to stay awake and you can't really figure out what the instructor wants.

Got the battery charging for tomorrow morning. Getting up bright and early at 8:30 to head to the field and get some flights!!

Cool that you get Calc1 over before Physics. The biggest problem many engineering students deal with is that the Physics classes are ahead of the math classes. If you go into Physics I knoing how to diiferentiate and integrate it will be very easy for you.

'Course, if you need a lifeline just shout out. I had people help me and I like to pay it forward.

Chuck_Smith · « **Reply #57 on:** November 20, 2012, 10:25:02 AM »

Quote from: Chuck_Smith on November 20, 2012, 10:22:22 AM

Cool that you get Calc1 over before Physics. The biggest problem many engineering students deal with is that the Physics classes are ahead of the math classes. If you go into Physics I knoing how to diiferentiate and integrate it will be very easy for you.

'Course, if you need a lifeline just shout out. I had people help me back in the day and I like to pay it forward.

Steve Helmick · « **Reply #58 on:** November 20, 2012, 06:54:34 PM »

Quote from: Jim Thomerson on November 19, 2012, 03:27:03 PM

Hey Matt, go talk with your English instructor. There is a really stupid student culture which says no contact with instructors. Don't be one of those. One unfortunate thing about teaching an introductory class is that a certain number of students will not succeed. It is not good to know that your work has built in failure rate. That is why colleges and universities try to recruit students unlikely to fall. Anyway, I imagine your instructor is required to have weekly office hours and may be pretty lonely during that time. If not, you can make an appointment.

My observation during college was that this was a good way to improve your grades. Especially if you have "TA's" (Teaching Assistants)...they respond especially well to a** kissing. Senior Professors probably not so well. I didn't do that; flunked out. The other trick I observed in action was to ask questions for which you already know the answer. If you don't know the answer already, you probably should not ask the question. Rumor was, at UW, that TA's eat their young. I did know one guy that dated/lived with his TA. He got good grades from her, a secondary benefit.

Steve

Steve Thornton · « **Reply #59 on:** November 21, 2012, 04:47:48 PM »

Congratulations Matt! My first solo and experience with real terror, was in a Tri-Pacer. My CFI was a preacher-very fine gentleman-and he weighed about 260 lbs. When he got out of the airplane, it climbed faster than an Atlas booster, and I was approaching tunnel vision and hysterics! I started to pray but I knew that God would save me and then I would have to keep my part of any bargain that I was about to make, so after composing myself, I made 3 touch and goes and a full stop. Somewhere along that pattern, I accumulated some tree branches and leaves between the stab and the elevator and ran the nose gear through a couple of fresh cow pies and so I had to clean the bottom of the fuselage. I am still amazed at how that panic turned into the feeling of invincibility in such a short time!
Two months later, I moved my pregnant wife and son to campus housing at Texas State Tech in Waco. After 21 months of studying, flying, taking FAA test, check rides, fueling airplanes at night, and working in the control tower as a spotter, I graduated with an Associate of Science in aviation, and all my flight ratings through CFII. I had an Oriental that my uncle had given me and it hung in the utility room of our duplex for the whole time I was at school. I was 26. By the time I was 30 I was flying corporate jets, and retired off the B-727 in 2001, but still teach for a major airline.
Before that, I was a musician, exploring the farthest reaches sanity, and pressed the limits of my folks love and patience. There is a God!
Enjoy this time of your life Matt.

Steve Thornton

Howard Rush · « **Reply #60 on:** November 22, 2012, 12:42:46 AM »

Quote from: Chuck_Smith on November 20, 2012, 10:22:22 AM

Cool that you get Calc1 over before Physics. The biggest problem many engineering students deal with is that the Physics classes are ahead of the math classes. If you go into Physics I knoing how to diiferentiate and integrate it will be very easy for you.

Amen.

dave siegler · « **Reply #61 on:** November 22, 2012, 04:54:41 AM »

Don't give up on the math for sure. It will serve you well throughtout your career. The engineers that I work with that have average engineering skills tend to have less than average math skills. The great, ones even years later, still know calc and diff eq's.

This is all very intresting, as I write this as my two son's, one a Jr chem engineer, and the other a freshman mech engineer are home from Notre Dame for thanksgiving.

They both told me about this kid that flys electric RC, with lights, on the north quad, right by the dorms at 3am.

I told my boys I could set them up. Also the aero guys at ND have to build a zagi type airplane and fly it as part of their senior year. Neither of them are interested.

So with all the hard work, remember how lucky you are to get a chance to learn and grow doing something you love.

Also older one works in a lab that is researching the next generation of Lipo's. So we had a nice chat about that.

Bill Little · « **Reply #62 on:** November 22, 2012, 02:00:22 PM »

Quote from: Matt Colan on November 14, 2012, 09:12:57 PM

Hey Bill!

Little fun fact for you. Embry-Riddle's football team has been undefeated since 1926 when the school was first established! Pretty crazy isn't it?

We don't have a football team........

Hi Matt,

Well, lots of schools/colleges do not have football as a sport these days. Still are good schools, though! I think I would have enjoyed E-R as a college myself! Of course, I had no way of paying tuition those days.........

So I had to get a free ride.

BIG Bear
RNMM/AMM

Jorge de Azevedo · « **Reply #63 on:** November 23, 2012, 02:37:55 PM »

I spend my free time practicing Archery. Four Word championships; two Panam-Games; one Olympic games ; all of them I was defected by American teams, specially Darrel Pace and Rich McKinley. Now I use my Easton Carbon shafts on my planes.

Matt Colan · « **Reply #64 on:** December 01, 2012, 07:55:47 PM »

Well today was a day filled with model airplanes. I spent probably 3/4 of my day at the flying field, with my RC friends, and got 6 flights on my Vector today. Of those 6 flights, 4 were full patterns. I had an issue on my last two flights where the fuel tubing kept popping off the engine. Thank God it was in level flight when the motor quit. Tonight, I just put the engine compartment back together and hopefully the fuel tubing won't pop off.

BTW, I heard one of my RC friends yell out, "holy sh*t!" when I went inverted on the reverse wingover at 5ft above the ground.

Mike Keville · « **Reply #65 on:** December 01, 2012, 08:20:18 PM »

Sure doesn't sound much like the college days I remember...which involved heavy studying (and beer drinking) and very little model airplane frolicking. Guess I should've gone to ERAU.

john e. holliday · « **Reply #66 on:** December 02, 2012, 07:47:53 AM »

Well Matt, there are guys on here that will tell you to go electric and you won't have that problem. But, then again they don't tell you about the problems you have getting the electric system working reliably.

Matt Colan · « **Reply #67 on:** December 02, 2012, 01:58:22 PM »

Quote from: john e. holliday on December 02, 2012, 07:47:53 AM

Well Matt, there are guys on here that will tell you to go electric and you won't have that problem. But, then again they don't tell you about the problems you have getting the electric system working reliably.

Well one of my friends had his ESC go bad in his F-16 yesterday, and also something reversed the throttle servo in my other friend's small Edge and the it went full throttle on the ground.

Tim Wescott · « **Reply #68 on:** December 02, 2012, 02:41:54 PM »

For whatever reason I'm currently flying electric RC and slime CL. For every problem that you can have with slime engines, an electric power system will have a problem of comparable severity.

I think the three big reasons that 'lectric is gaining popularity is because (a), for stunt, you've already got motor speed regulation built in, (b), it's more acceptable to the hoi polloi (read that: easier to find flying fields and easier to tune up airplanes in the driveway), and (c), there's folks out there who just can't get their heads wrapped around slime engines that do fine with 'lectrics (and visa versa, but those folks are already flying nitro).

Me, I think about electric power every time I get the paper towels and the Windex...

Randy Powell · « **Reply #69 on:** December 02, 2012, 06:39:08 PM »

I heard Paul W say that engineering classes made a lot more sense after he took tensor math. I can see why.

Tim Wescott · « **Reply #70 on:** December 02, 2012, 08:00:38 PM »

Quote from: Randy Powell on December 02, 2012, 06:39:08 PM

I heard Paul W say that engineering classes made a lot more sense after he took tensor math. I can see why.

Yes, but for most people, the more math they think they have to learn, the tensor they get.

Howard Rush · « **Reply #71 on:** December 02, 2012, 08:53:43 PM »

Stay away from Helmick.

Joe Just · « **Reply #72 on:** December 03, 2012, 09:46:06 AM »

When i was in college, after Football and Lacrosse, I decided to learn as much as I could. I kept at it, and after my playing eligibility was over I discovered that I knew more and more about less and less until I knew everything about nothing at all! And to top that off I still do!
Joe

don Burke · « **Reply #73 on:** December 03, 2012, 05:16:16 PM »

We all know what BS means.
MS means more of the same,
PHD means piled higher and deeper!

TADADUM!

Mike Danford · « **Reply #74 on:** December 07, 2012, 01:40:28 PM »

Wow, this thread really brought back some memories.

I, too, had limited stuff to build and fly in college, the US Naval Academy. I remember building some rubber free flight models ON my bulletin board, as that was the only thing I had I could stick pins in. Not much freedom the first year, down to the point you could have like six non regulation ANYTHINGS in view in your room... The bulletin board didn't really count and the upper classmen found it creative.

I would keep saran wrap from the salads on the dinner tables to cover the plans with. Used the little, no kidding, REGULATION ISSUED bottle of Elmer's white glue, that was issued to all Plebes. During later years, I would steal the glue from the Plebes, er, rather, ask them to "donate" it to the cause! Not sure why we were issued that stuff! Even came in a little cigar box like we used to take to elementary school...

Anyhoo, I digress. As the models grew, I found it was easier to build on the top side of a drop ceiling panel. I'd just stick it back up there when I was done with the building session. Kept everything neat and clean!

Insofar as flying, I mostly flew control line. We'd go out to a soccer field (I was the only one that flew any of this, my buds would tag along for the curiousity of it all and to launch me) where I figured out how to turn the lights on and would fly at NIGHT! That was wildly cool.

The little time out of the place we had was reserved for boozin and chasing wimmen. Daylight hours were athletics, classes and marching.

Hehe, my roomies weren't real happy when it came time to dope the thing... which of course I just did in my room, with no a/c or forced ventilation. Winter in Maryland with the windows open and fans on trying to get the wonderful smell of dope out of the place. Fun times.

Tools

Brad Smith · « **Reply #75 on:** December 07, 2012, 03:05:49 PM »

Mike Danford man thats a name i havent seen in a long while how the heck you been email sometime.

Valentin Apostolov · « **Reply #76 on:** December 09, 2012, 09:56:02 AM »

I build my first glassfiber body airplane over GYPSY model airplane.
It was a bit of time ago. Very long ago.

Valentin Apostolov

Dave Hull · « **Reply #77 on:** December 10, 2012, 07:10:17 PM »

Trying to get thru 4 years of college in 4 years with an engineering major and a job left me time for exactly two airplanes. The first was a mental meltdown weekend when I built a Jetco Hawk rubber job in a day and a night. (That is phenominally fast for me, and, the only glue I had was white glue from the grocery store.) The second one was a 1/2A control line plane I designed and built during spring break when I was studying for exams. I called that one the "Spring Break Special." Flew pretty good and now that I can fly a bit better, I'd like to build another to see just what it will do.

Chances are, your plane building during school will be pretty limited, and you will remember them the rest of your life.... I sure do! (Of course, there always seemed to be some guys that did lots of other stuff during school. They must have just been smarter than the rest of us.)

Good luck on formal--and informal--studies!

McSlow

PS--the only worksurface available for either of these was my study desk, so it was a "finish fast and go back to homework" deal.

Matt Colan · « **Reply #78 on:** December 10, 2012, 09:43:09 PM »

The first semester of college has been completed for me! I only had two finals, one was a take home and the other was an actual final in a class room, so I think I got lucky there. I celebrated by going to the flying field and getting 3 flights in before dark. One of my friends recorded a flight for me and I'll post it on youtube when I get a better internet connection. Even though it was recorded on the wrong side, I found a couple errors I gotta practice for King Orange!!

Starting this weekend when I get home, I'll get started on painting my Thundergazer!! It's gonna be a good one!!!

Edit: A couple of my friends have built Guillows static balsa models and I decided when I head back for the next semester, I'll get one so I have something to build and satisfy my need to build something. Also one of my friends is bringing her big 50cc Edge 540 for the next semester (the same person who's APC prop sliced my fingers open, LOL)

john e. holliday · « **Reply #79 on:** December 11, 2012, 08:21:19 AM »

Didn't you realize that APC props are for shaving. Anyway have a MERRY CHRISTMAS when you get home. Also, hope you aced those finals.

Matt Colan · « **Reply #80 on:** December 12, 2012, 08:03:24 PM »

Here's the video of me flying the Vector at the soccer field.

Peter Ferguson · « **Reply #81 on:** December 12, 2012, 08:44:12 PM »

When I went to ERAU of of my classmates brought his full scale kit glider. The school provided him a loft to work on it, The A&P shop gave him covering and dope. It eventually got finished there. My roommate built a dunebuggy and we raced around the dunes at Ponce Inlet. I didn't do a lot of modeling while I was there, I was busy at the beach, but I do remember going out to the local flying fields and watching some contests. Enjoy yourself, its the best of times.

Vince Mankowski · « **Reply #82 on:** December 14, 2012, 11:33:36 AM »

I lived in a '51 Ford the last months of high school & for the first year of college & a '58 Ford station wagon as a sophomore. Worked the midnight shift in a packing house on the kill floor, had burbon & eggs for breakfast then went to my first class. Worked in the student center washing pot & pans during "lunch" and after afternoon classes, played football, then caught a few hours sleep before going off to the kill floor. Summers allowed me to pick up a couple extra jobs (mostly shagging trucks). No 'student loans' (no 'home') and no private loans (no permanent address) so everything was cash up front. Modeling was resumed again a few years later.

Tim Wescott · « **Reply #83 on:** December 14, 2012, 12:07:55 PM »

Quote from: Matt Colan on December 12, 2012, 08:03:24 PM

Here's the video of me flying the Vector at the soccer field.

Delete the 'm' if you're on a boring old sessile PC: .

What I watched of it looks like a nice flight.

Author Topic: What did you do during college? (Read 9424 times)

Joe Just