A bit Heath Robinson

In the later part of 1990 one of the structural proposals I was involved with for Menasco was for a latch mechanism for the Boeing 777, not just a simple door latch that is, this was one latch actuator (of a series of seven or eight a side) that would allow the wings to fold up.

Yes, you heard me, a folding wing concept on a massive airframe like the 777.

I'd heard the phrase before, probably from good old Jim Collins and here it was again from Larry Abram, as he put it in a meeting one day:

"It's a bit Heath Robinson"

That's one of the English phrases in life that can sum up an entire concept as being far-fetched, overly complex or just plain old silly, yet here we were, a group of important design and structural engineers, giving it a go (again, the paint it pink approach for your average contractor).

The latch mechanism was the first that I had been involved with where the "rapid prototyping" approach was used, nowadays we just call it 3D printing which is fairly inexpensive, but in 1990 it was far from cheap. However, watching a three-dimensional CAD solid be created into a tangible, full size prototype was impressive.

This was not the first full size prototype in my career however, if you exclude photo-elastic models for various landing gear systems, the best, most exciting mock-up was for the C-17 fuselage, back in 1985 when I was enjoying life at McDonnell Douglas in California.

I've never mentioned the T-45 mock-up that we had back then either, however, something hand crafted from foam board, sitting on a table, could hardly compare with my first rapid prototype that evolved from a designers sketch, stressed using a rudimentary beam model, developed into a CAD solid and finally printed (sintered) using minute plastic beads to produce a life size component.

Amazing, even if the (doomed) concept was a bit Heath Robinson.

NTN

The pub of choice for those midweek outings had NTN trivia, a radical new way of wasting time (and encouraging extra beer to be drunk) and it provided an excellent break from the real world.

The pub up on Taunton Road, was called Mickeys (eventually turned into the Waltzing Weasel) and provided great food, atmosphere, BEER and of course, NTN.

I adopted my online nickname of DRYICE and for some reason, Karen's monica became PICKLE.

It was the start of a decade or more of occasional play on the trivia network with various bars in the Oshawa region, Mickeys would become the Waltzing Weasel (and lose the NTN franchise) and eventually, years later, we would find ourselves at a great bar, Jack's Filling Station, on Simcoe Street, home of four dollar pints, free peanuts (throw shells on floor) and of course, NTN and a good crowd of working people out for a good time.

Sorting it all out

So here I was in 1990, a very hectic year and what would be a very rapid year as fifteen hour days would strip all the daylight from my life, Winter, Spring and Summer.

Although the Summer was far better.

When we left Britain in 1988 there were a few things that were left outstanding, I still owed part of my college grant, a lump of money on the Barclaycard (Visa) and four hundred pounds to the National Westminster bank.

The middle of 1990 presented a zero balance on all of that and the only link left to the UK was a monthly money order that I was sending to my first wife.

So, the money situation was being sorted out, probably due to the excess from jobshopping and not particularly from any business savvy, we were still extremely inefficient in the managing of money, but it was slowly starting to change.

Weeks flashed by and we made sure that we had our midweek pub night, something that was an oasis from all the ridiculous lost time from both our epic commutes, the Summer made it all that much better because even leaving the house at 7.30pm we could walk down to our local pub in the daylight.

This second (or third) pub night per week was essential...

...we needed the receipts.

Music Revisited - Part One

How many times in this life will it happen?

When I was younger music was one of the most important things in my life, a feature (almost) bolted onto my head using these amazing ear things, it always seemed to be available even without the aid of walkmans or ipods or anything else remotely portable.

It was elusive, but I sought it out.

And when music became more portable, it seemed, for me, that the appeal of music became diminished, because, music was being fed into my head while other things were happening, not when I was relaxing on the couch or spread eagled on the floor meditating between two speakers.

(because we had no headphones in our house)

So, bit by bit, because of portability, music became less important to me, not more important.

So in 1990, during all those long, long commutes, I was able to sit back once more and enjoy music, not just soundbites, I was listening to full albums once again, all the way through, and it became vibrant and meaningful once again.

And as life is cyclical, I would lose it once again.