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Show us your day job!

I?m Retired from some Most Interesting work??

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I don?t always build Airplanes, but when I do it?s Van?s RV-7A?..

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Keep Building My Friends??.
XX pk
 
I am a structural engineer at Boeing. During my build, I have to resist the habit of doing analysis on my RV7 parts :) But sometimes it doesn't hurt to have a peace of mind if deviated from the plan.
 
I spent two years in the Army (Combat Medic), then nine years in the Navy (Surface Nuke Electrician), and retired from the Coast Guard (Electrician served on Bouy Tender on the Puget Sound).

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USS California CGN-36 1987 - 1992


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USCGC Henry Blake WLB-563 2003 - 2009

I work for Seattle City Light as a Power Dispatcher. Most of the time I deal with switching operations and clearances for line crews, but sometimes the job gets exciting when the storms blow the wires down. Then it's "all hands on deck"!

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Wow, what an impressive group!

And a great thread.

As stated in an earlier post, this thread makes my life seem pretty boring. I run a small service group that works on boilers, burners, pumps and ancilliary equipment in commerical and industrial markets. We need to be experts in pumping systems, steam distribution, combustion, controls and instrumentation, pipe fitting, electrical, everything! It is very technical and I enjoy that. I've been doing this for over 30 years (Ouch! Started young!) with a brief hiatus in there somewhere to get an mechanical engineering degree. I've been with my current employer for nearly 14 years. This industry isn't particularly glamorous, but I learned a long time ago (as a cook/dishwasher in the restaurant business) that I'd much rather have an undesirable job with good people than a desireable job with bad people. And I work with a good group of people. This job has allowed me to partake in aviation as a hobby (and build an RV, which I hope to be flying before 2012 is gone), which we all know is not cheap. So I'm grateful I can afford it, among many other things.

Plus I get to surf VAF occasionally when I'm in the office.
 
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Figured I would update mine with a few pictures.

Doing my share of hearts and minds by giving kids some flip flops
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Me with some SOC (Secure Our Country) Gaurds
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One of my SGT's pulling security
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No Windshield? Kinda normal around here
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At Least he has a windshield.... well kinda
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Your Everyday Jingle Truck
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-david
 
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A big thank you!

To all our military guys and gals...a big, hearty "Thank you" for serving our country.

I did a small part during Viet Nam, from '66-69, teaching avionics...vor's, ILS's, Tacan's, etc.

Best,
 
I guess this is as good of a way to introduce myself as any. I spent five years designing and updating the interiors of business jets for a company in Wichita.
I did a little work on these planes
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but my main focus was on these interiors, primarily on the certification/tailoring of the cabin sets and seat restraints as well as the armledge and lower sidewall.

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After all the shakeup in the economy and how hard it has hit the business jet market in Wichita I decided to take a hard 90 degree 9G turn with the career and will begin school up in Lincoln, NE in August for this

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...After all the shakeup in the economy and how hard it has hit the business jet market in Wichita I decided to take a hard 90 degree 9G turn with the career and will begin school up in Lincoln, NE in August for this

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Welcome to VAF, Justin! (beat you to it, Mike...). Is your new profession dentistry, or robotics?:D
 
... After all the shakeup in the economy and how hard it has hit the business jet market in Wichita I decided to take a hard 90 degree 9G turn with the career and will begin school up in Lincoln, NE in August for this

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Justin, NO! DON'T DO IT!! There has to be some other avenue for you ... be an airport baggage screener ... become an IRS agent ... man the lunch counter at a maximum security prison ... clean porta-potties at Oshkosh ... anything but THAT!

Do you really want to be feared and reviled by everybody, an outcast, a societal leper? Have you heard all of the dentist jokes? I have, and they're no longer funny.

If it's not too late, get your deposit back, move to Alaska and learn to process whale blubber ...
 
Spent 24 years USAF mostly worked on these...

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(actually logged a 1.4 in the back seat of that exact Eagle)

also bent a lot of wrenches on Hogs (A-10s) and Vipers (F-16s)

No wonder i'm an RV-8 fan! :D

Now work for a large aeronautical university helping active duty and vets knock out college degrees.
 
Embryologist

This is a great thread...what a diverse group!

It's not as exciting as many of your jobs, but I'm an Embryologist at an infertility clinic. When I'm not building my RV-7, I'm building these:
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Welcome to VAF, Justin! (beat you to it, Mike...). Is your new profession dentistry, or robotics?
It is dentistry, I figure if I switch enough times I'll eventually find something I want to do....

Justin, NO! DON'T DO IT!! There has to be some other avenue for you ... be an airport baggage screener ... become an IRS agent ... man the lunch counter at a maximum security prison ... clean porta-potties at Oshkosh ... anything but THAT! Do you really want to be feared and reviled by everybody, an outcast, a societal leper? Have you heard all of the dentist jokes? I have, and they're no longer funny.

My father's been in practice for 25 years so while the jokes were not directed at me, I've heard them all. Funny thing is the worst jokes I've heard have been from dentists themselves.... think its to late to switch to the Baked Bean industry?
 
what a great variaty of jobs .... larger than life

I always wanted to carry on with my flying career (I flew corporate Cessnas 414 and 421 as a freelance FO in the mid eighties and have been a freelance PPL instructor at the time when I was still going to university and were young ... just twentytwo) - however health came into my way and I could not become an ATPL.

So I had to ´get a proper job´ after university and after years in IT (IBM) I am now the founding director of an outdoor advertising company covering large buildings called blowUP media being active in Germany, UK, The Netherlands, Spain and Belgium (this is our English website www.blowup-media.co.uk).

That is what we do (I am proud of that but I am still jalous of you guys flying the cool stuff for living ...):

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I work with a fantastic team of co-directors (I am the guy on the left holding the bottom of our company logo):

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... the only thing is that I am too often critised for my management style (lol):

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Another good thing is that I can fly to my European appointments with the Subaru Robin or with the RV-4 (this me in the Robin taxing out in Antwerp, Belgium to fly home - picture taken from a local spotter):

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Really good to put faces & backgrounds behind names and avatars - feel priveledged being a part of this group.

Best, Heinz
 
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I'm just another retired aerospace structural analyst.

Thanks to USAF, I had some great experiences here:
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Then as my career got going, I helped certify these:
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Later, I worked on some of the pieces and some of the payloads that Paul played with, and some of the pieces of this:
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By then I was working with the optics of the payloads a lot. I analyzed some of the optics of the MODIS instrument, which took this photo of the snow at my home a few days ago....
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and which paid for the new engine on my plane a few years back. Mine is the high-wing one:
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This last photo above was courtesy of my good friend Dallice, who recently got her private pilot's license. She's better at keeping her oxygen cannula straight than I am.
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Dave
 
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Sideslip in birds

Some pretty interesting jobs in here...

This is what I've been doing for the last while. This is a hummingbird flying in a sustained side-slip at a respirometry mask in a wind tunnel. I am measuring the metabolic costs of uncoupling yaw and roll, using fast response oxygen and CO2 detectors sampling air from a digitally controlled feeder mask suspended in the flow. It is just like a fighter tanking off a KC-130, except we can induce the "hookup" at any side-slip angle we want, and measure the power required to stay hooked in.

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This picture is a screen shot from a tunnel-based research program I have been associated with for the last couple of years. We're looking at the non-steady aerodynamics of birds in flight. Very cool, but lots of processing power required:

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This is what I used to do, back in the day. This was shot just after takeoff from Red Stewart airport, in Waynesville, OH (great name) with an experimental flock of Trumpeter Swans. That was an awesome job:

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I have been thinking about a project involving instrumenting my RV4, but more and more I'm suspecting it's the wrong airplane for the job. Lucky for me it happens to be the perfect airplane for the job of having fun!

WBK
RV-4
London, ON
 
CPE for CTL

I'm a cubicle defender for the 3rd largest Telecom company, CTL, in Denver. A picture of my cube would be pointless. It pays the bills though and really is a pretty good gig.

I'm a Sales Engineer (SE), and I specialize in CPE (Customer Premises Equipment), helping sales people and other SEs select and design telephone and data network solutions, small and large. I also help them navigate our CPE ordering processes, which are sort of tedious. CPE is any customer owned piece of equipment, from a basic phone to a several hundred thousand dollar data center switch.

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Structural Engineer

I work as a structural engineer for a steel fabricator. Where we design, fabricate, & erect various commercial and industrial buildings.


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Realtor/Boulder, Colorado

I am about to order my 9A tail kit this week! Does anyone need to sell or want to buy any real estate? I love Referal's!
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Some pretty interesting jobs in here...

This is what I've been doing for the last while. This is a hummingbird flying in a sustained side-slip at a respirometry mask in a wind tunnel. I am measuring the metabolic costs of uncoupling yaw and roll, using fast response oxygen and CO2 detectors sampling air from a digitally controlled feeder mask suspended in the flow. It is just like a fighter tanking off a KC-130, except we can induce the "hookup" at any side-slip angle we want, and measure the power required to stay hooked in.

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Now THAT is cool...is that an Allen's Hummingbird, by any chance?
 
I am a squirrel

I work for a 4th largest energy company in North America that has natural gas pipelines all across the North America. The squirrel part is that the pipelines do not meet market demands in Chicago or Houston during peak demand periods. As a petroleum engineer we have created our own gas storage fields near market areas where we store gas between the sand grains in naturally occurring sandstone formations across the US. During the coldest winter days in Chicago area about 50% of the gas comes from these sandstone reservoirs where we store gas during the summer. In Houston we store in salt caverns mined out of salt domes by water. Gas is injected at night and taken out during the days to power gas fired generators. The equivalent amount of gas I am responsible for on a daily basis from these underground facilities would equal about 15% of ExxonMobil?s daily production or about 500,000 BBLs of crude equivalent a day.

I love the job because I work on puzzles (mathematical and engineering) every day. Every day is a new day.

If you heat or cook with natural gas, I have a part in it getting there.

Dave Syvertson
 
Hummingbirds

Yep, it is pretty darned cool.

Gary nailed it - the photo is a female ruby throated hummingbird. I'm not surprised that Gary got it, since I know his birding binoculars cost more than the last transponder package I bought.

(His airplane is cooler than mine too, but he's forgiven because he's such a nice guy)

For what it might be worth, we are thinking about a project looking at hovering in and out of ground effect at high altitude. Our wind tunnel is hypobaric, and has a service ceiling higher than most RVs. It allows us to test a lot of predictions that are very difficult to work in the field.

Cheers,

WBK
 
I am Merrell

I was responsible for trying to get Merrell a foothold in the competitive outdoor apparel industry.

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Now I'm looking for a job... 72% growth in 2011 didn't cut it I guess.
 
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Airline pilot

I'm flying the A330 and A340 at a french airline, the one with the stripes on the empennage.
I'm also involved in some management work dealing with safety issues.

I'm currently in SFO.
I flew in yesterday and had a colleague pilot in the plane flying to San Francisco to hear the San Francisco Symphonic orchestra play this evening, his wife is one of the singers, may be Jeremy Constant will part of that too.

You said a small world !!!!
 
I am self employed with a sign/graphics business. The way the economy has been, I feel like I have spent the last three years bent over too, just like the Farrier!
 
Unfair contest

Could well be, but I like the name Rufus.:rolleyes:

Not Rufous .....

Sorry, just my strange sense of humor:eek:


Mike,
I had the inside info on this one. Where Wayne lives, there is only one species commonly found. Also, I have seen his work, including the small mask the Ruby is flying up to. It is truly amazing what he does with birds in the wind chamber.
 
Did this for 4 years going through school. Crank Start. Nice.



Did this for 4 years for the USAF:D


Jarhead trying to teach me this:eek:


Worked as Lineboy at KADS for 1 year.



Been selling the good stuff for 29 years. Looking for key to this room.
If you have it call me.:rolleyes:
 
Spraying and Fire Bombing

In the winter I do what Pierre does. In the summer I do this. :eek:
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What, no lawyers??

Great thread. My airplane partner and I are both lawyers at a large insurance company in Ohio. Back in 1999, our offices were next to each other. One day I noticed he had an airplane picture on his office wall. I said, "Oh are you a pilot?" He said "Yes." I said "Me, too." I said, "I've been thinking of getting an airplane but I would like to have a partner to share the fixed costs." He said, "Me,too." I said, "Actually, it's always been my dream to build one, specifically, an RV-6." About three weeks later he said, "Let's do it." Seven years and 6,000 hours later, it was done, and it's been the perfect partnership. What were the odds of finding that person in the adjacent office in an insurance company law department?? Our skills sets were a good match, too--he is good at electrical/wiring/CAD, and I am good at structures, fiberglass, painting. Even better, both of our wives like to fly. His wife has her PPL, and mine will be starting flight training this summer. "Esperanza" has been to both coasts and on trips is generally flown IFR. The dream has come true.

LeRoy Johnston
RV-6A "Esperanza" 550 hours
 
Hi Gang! I'm a new VAF member today! I've been following awhile and finally joined. I'm a little over a 1 year pilot :D . I work for a "Major" defense contractor (one that used to make a lot of very dark colored planes). Like many others here, pictures are verboten. I install equipment for, support and troubleshoot video teleconferences. I basically help to allow participants to be on TV! I love my job and look forward to building my -7A!
 
Agriculture Industry

No real pictures, but I'm in a training program to be a regional chemical business manager for our chemical brand (top), which is a product of a subsidiary company (middle), owned directly by the butter people (bottom).

 
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Its been a interesting ride.

My latest job is working for the Federal Government as an Industrial Safety Engineer here: http://www.pantex.com or http://nnsa.energy.gov/aboutus/ourlocations/pantex-plant

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Pantex is just the latest job my safety career has taken me. Other work was here: http://www.huntingtoningalls.com/nns/ were I was assigned to safety inspections of Los Angeles SSN688 Class Fast Attack subs and Carl Vinson class aircraft carriers during their construction. Saw several subs slide down the ways and splash into the James River. Was there when they laid the keel for the USS George Washington. Enjoyed watching them test the steam catapults when they launched dummy loads into the James River.
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Somewhere along the way I worked in/on several commercial nuclear plants, Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station, Turkey Point Power Plant, and Plant Vogtle when it was just a hole in the ground. Did some time working oil refinery turnarounds in most any oil company you can mention. TEXACO, BP, EXXON, MOBILE (before it was EXXON-MOBILE), SHELL.
Oh yeah, almost forgot, baby-sat some radioactive waste in Idaho for 6 years before they started shipping it to Carlsbad, NM
 
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holy!!

Steve H
Cold Lake, Alberta
RV7A #70015 - built - sold
RV7A #71629 - built - sold and flew across Atlantic
RV7 #70215 - flying - sold
RV8 #82842 - building slowly
RV7 #70703 - flying + undergoing panel overhaul

Steve there are 12 step programes for people like you.

How did you get the time to do all of that considering your job comitments which are sizeable? I know what I was offcier for the Australia Army I didn't have time to scratch myself.
 
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Steve there are 12 step programes for people like you.

How did you get the time to do all of that considering your job comitments which are sizeable? I know what I was offcier for the Australia Army I didn't have time to scratch myself.

Ha - that is funny - I've learned to multi task and I have a very understanding spouse that supports aviation addiction.
 
Space and stuff

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That is me 10 years ago. That TRMM instrument gives these pictures to the weather guys. It has lasted way longer than anyone expected and keeps on ticking. Can't wait to stop innovating for someone else and start on my RV.

Johnny Stick
 
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Living the Dream

I was going to be a Naval Aviator until Crohn's Disease took me out of flight school. Luckily I found a pretty cool fall-back to spend the last 19+ years occupying my time. This picture is of me (on the left) with my boss at my promotion to Lieutenant. My wife thought it was funny that it took me 20 years after graduating from USNA to make Lieutenant. ;)

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The second picture was me back in the glory days. I'm the shorter one in front trying to rescue a kid who ended up in a rain swollen creek in the winter of 2000.

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I'm currently trying to kill a three story rubber tree

But life hasn't always been this hard.

I spent five years Army as a Psychology Specialist then NCOIC psychiatry in Okinawa. After going back to school and studying Industrial Psychology with emphasis on statistics and man - computer interactions, I became a headhunter and started a small consulting business in electronics, countermeasures and spread spectrum secure communications. Ten years later, I accepted a couple of impossible assignments back to back, regrouped by heading back to school to add a nursing degree. I've spent the last 12 years or so as a psychiatric nursing supervisor for adolescent acute inpatient care at a University of California teaching hospital. A few months ago I was retired, so considered going back to school in yet another futile attempt to get educated.

My wife has stipulated the we live somewhere quiet with lots of trees, be within easy distance of amenities and have no planes within earshot, so my plans are to sell this house, buy in an air park, learn to fly and build a 12. Even better would be the challenge to modify a 12 to run on rechargeable batteries and take off from the back yard .

I'd be happy to develop a 12 step program for repeat offenders.
 
President, engineer, salesman and accountant for PowerTech, Inc. My very small electrical contracting company specializing in the design and installation of power and control systems for large commercial HVAC retrofits.

Last day at this will be 12/31/2013. Then it's nothin' but RVs from there on out.
 
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