Monday Week 16

Nothing to do on the engines today, and no engine related testing for a few days, so we sat in on the test flight. The reason for choosing this flight was that it was a fuel dumping test, which involved max rate turns, side-slips, pushovers and pull-up. Then after every test, a T33 would pull up alongside and photograph the wing-tips to analysis whether there was any fuel impingement on the aircraft. See the Yuma photo album for pictures. For some reason we aren't allowed to take photos up in Seattle, but when on a remote no one cares.

Last night in Yuma, flights booked to go back to Seattle tomorrow. The bed in my hotel room requires a special mention; it has a remote control attached to it so that you can change the firmness of the mattress of either side of the bed - a number between 0 and 100. Its effectively a posh air bed, with springs, that rates the firmness of the bed based on the pressure in the mattress. The problem is the pressure changes when you lie on it. I made this mistake the first few nights; set the setting the same on both sides of the bed whilst lying on 1 side. As a result, to other side was much firmer, and thus higher, than the side I was on. The solution was to set the bed on each side separately whilst lying on the appropriate side to get a level bed. I'd seen the adverts on TV for these beds, I can safely save I won't be buying one.