Flying seemed farfetched. I couldn't imagine a way to pay for an aviation college. So, I put that dream on hold.
Next to airplanes, English literature was my love. Any sort of short story or fiction absorbed my time. Reader's Digest condensed novels like Jaws and the Eagle's Flight captivated me until the wee hours most evenings. I relished English during high school, especially classic short stories.
First in my immediate family to attend college, education never seemed to be a priority, academics never seemed to be discussed, and there never seemed to be a clear picture of the way to choose, enter, or pay for college. Little money was available, and my guidance counsellor suggested that the Georgia Institute of Technology Textiles Department could offer an academic full scholarship for enrollment. I was good at math and science, and after a short discussion with my parents, I weighed the options: attend the University of Georgia and major in English (FUN) or attend GA Tech and major in engineering (all work and no play). Aviation always in the back of my mind, the practical thought that a technical degree might help with a future aviation career swayed me toward GA Tech.
As fortune had it, I did make the dean's list my first year, and therefore kept my scholarship eligibility, even though my freshman year roommate dropped out. After my first year, I heard about the Cooperative Education Program where I could work for 3 months and rotate back to school for 3 months. Alternating between work and school, I could graduate in five years - school paid!
However, after a plant visit at a prospective textile mill, it became clear to me that I would NOT like investing my life in textile engineering. Considering the textile industry collapse after the foriegn trade agreements in the 80's, I consider the lack of interest a WIN.
Switching majors caused me to loose my scholarship, but I realized that ANY Cooperative job would pay for college, and the only thing immediately available was as a plant engineer with GA Power Company at Plant Hatch, a nuclear plant in Baxley, GA. (That's a story unto itself, my coop jobs and the many interesting people I met in my days in the Cooperative Education work-study program.) After one work session, I informed the Cooperative administrator that I would not like to return to Plant Hatch, due to a lack of interest in plant engineering. I agreed to work another session after which we would reevaluate.
During the days at Plant Hatch, I visited the heavily radioactive areas to retrieve value numbers. The subterranean structure of a nuclear plant is surreal - imagine a 10 story donut sitting on legs inside a vast underground room. There are monstrous, locomotive size engines, enormous pumps and pipes, and of course the external structures like the parabolic cooling towers with the never ceasing steam.
Aside from miscellaneous jobs, I did produce one significant contribution. One job assignment involved logging the hours that the steam turbine stayed engaged with a small turning gear. This turning was required to keep the turbine from warping damage when the unit was offline - a long, heavy turbine will bend if not spinning! I initiated a design project to record "time on the turning gear" with a meter, rather than a logbook. My design was eventually approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and I suppose it was implemented nation wide.
After the second three month session at Plant Hatch, I advised the Cooperative Education Coordinator that I would like another job. He asked about what interested me. The only thing that came to mind: Aviation. Viola! There was an opening at Gulfstream Aerospace in Savannah Georgia and an opening at Great Lakes Aviation in Minnisotta (?) I opted for Gulfstream, and what a great decision that turned out to be! (Details in the Coop Story).
I held my own at GA Tech academically initially. But, it seemed I never had a study group, what with the constant moves between work and school. Also, I never seemed to be willing to ask for help from the professors and TA's. While I did study - a lot - the time was largely ineffective, continually resorting to textbooks to understand concepts - which was not a an effective learning method for me. (the reality is that I never learned the secret of being 100% prepared until my days in the Navy.) In my junior and senior years, my grades slipped, except for my very favorite courses, Thrermodynamics and Transport Phenomenea. And, of course, my love of english and liberal arts carried me on to earn an english minor - and I discovered GERMAN.
I spent many hours in the German Language Lab, where I could practice pronunciation, hear my own speech, and make progress. Sadly, this was my first experience with a foreign language, but wow, I loved the concepts of new cultures and linguistic comparisons. Perhaps in language lab, there I largely lost most my "southern accent."
A big discovery for me was working with my two senior design groups. I found two things: one, I have a talent for visualizing and creative solutions to design problems, and two, working in a design TEAM for the first time, I was amazed at how, just when it seemed we were stumped by a problem, a team member who may not have contributed previously, could surprise us by proposing a workable solution...thereby moving the design forward.
One of the defining characteristics of my school years was an inexplicable shyness, especially of performing or public speaking. I’d say that shyness incapacitated my development. Socially, I was continually selfconcious, especially avoiding conversations with girls. More on this in the story about my early school years. However, all this lead me to defer one very important college course until my senior year - Public Speaking. With no expeience, no skill, no talent, and only fear…I can say that my performance in this course was an epic disaster…imagine watching a speech delivered by the most self conscious speaker, who forgets lines, gets stuck, and turns fifty shades of red. One very important thing I did learn, I observed as I walked the last hallway toward my execution classroom the morning of my speech: my feet seemed powerfully repelled away, pushed by an unseen force toward the far side of the hallway, but I kept moving one foot after another and continued to progress until reaching the threshold, through which, with much effort, dreadfully, I dragged myself into the classroom. I was amazed that my mental fear and mind could exert such a powerfully perceived force upon my very feet as they moved down the hall. What an experience!
There’s plenty more to say, but I’ve got to stop writing for now!
Next to airplanes, English literature was my love. Any sort of short story or fiction absorbed my time. Reader's Digest condensed novels like Jaws and the Eagle's Flight captivated me until the wee hours most evenings. I relished English during high school, especially classic short stories.
First in my immediate family to attend college, education never seemed to be a priority, academics never seemed to be discussed, and there never seemed to be a clear picture of the way to choose, enter, or pay for college. Little money was available, and my guidance counsellor suggested that the Georgia Institute of Technology Textiles Department could offer an academic full scholarship for enrollment. I was good at math and science, and after a short discussion with my parents, I weighed the options: attend the University of Georgia and major in English (FUN) or attend GA Tech and major in engineering (all work and no play). Aviation always in the back of my mind, the practical thought that a technical degree might help with a future aviation career swayed me toward GA Tech.
As fortune had it, I did make the dean's list my first year, and therefore kept my scholarship eligibility, even though my freshman year roommate dropped out. After my first year, I heard about the Cooperative Education Program where I could work for 3 months and rotate back to school for 3 months. Alternating between work and school, I could graduate in five years - school paid!
However, after a plant visit at a prospective textile mill, it became clear to me that I would NOT like investing my life in textile engineering. Considering the textile industry collapse after the foriegn trade agreements in the 80's, I consider the lack of interest a WIN.
Switching majors caused me to loose my scholarship, but I realized that ANY Cooperative job would pay for college, and the only thing immediately available was as a plant engineer with GA Power Company at Plant Hatch, a nuclear plant in Baxley, GA. (That's a story unto itself, my coop jobs and the many interesting people I met in my days in the Cooperative Education work-study program.) After one work session, I informed the Cooperative administrator that I would not like to return to Plant Hatch, due to a lack of interest in plant engineering. I agreed to work another session after which we would reevaluate.
During the days at Plant Hatch, I visited the heavily radioactive areas to retrieve value numbers. The subterranean structure of a nuclear plant is surreal - imagine a 10 story donut sitting on legs inside a vast underground room. There are monstrous, locomotive size engines, enormous pumps and pipes, and of course the external structures like the parabolic cooling towers with the never ceasing steam.
Aside from miscellaneous jobs, I did produce one significant contribution. One job assignment involved logging the hours that the steam turbine stayed engaged with a small turning gear. This turning was required to keep the turbine from warping damage when the unit was offline - a long, heavy turbine will bend if not spinning! I initiated a design project to record "time on the turning gear" with a meter, rather than a logbook. My design was eventually approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and I suppose it was implemented nation wide.
After the second three month session at Plant Hatch, I advised the Cooperative Education Coordinator that I would like another job. He asked about what interested me. The only thing that came to mind: Aviation. Viola! There was an opening at Gulfstream Aerospace in Savannah Georgia and an opening at Great Lakes Aviation in Minnisotta (?) I opted for Gulfstream, and what a great decision that turned out to be! (Details in the Coop Story).
I held my own at GA Tech academically initially. But, it seemed I never had a study group, what with the constant moves between work and school. Also, I never seemed to be willing to ask for help from the professors and TA's. While I did study - a lot - the time was largely ineffective, continually resorting to textbooks to understand concepts - which was not a an effective learning method for me. (the reality is that I never learned the secret of being 100% prepared until my days in the Navy.) In my junior and senior years, my grades slipped, except for my very favorite courses, Thrermodynamics and Transport Phenomenea. And, of course, my love of english and liberal arts carried me on to earn an english minor - and I discovered GERMAN.
I spent many hours in the German Language Lab, where I could practice pronunciation, hear my own speech, and make progress. Sadly, this was my first experience with a foreign language, but wow, I loved the concepts of new cultures and linguistic comparisons. Perhaps in language lab, there I largely lost most my "southern accent."
A big discovery for me was working with my two senior design groups. I found two things: one, I have a talent for visualizing and creative solutions to design problems, and two, working in a design TEAM for the first time, I was amazed at how, just when it seemed we were stumped by a problem, a team member who may not have contributed previously, could surprise us by proposing a workable solution...thereby moving the design forward.
One of the defining characteristics of my school years was an inexplicable shyness, especially of performing or public speaking. I’d say that shyness incapacitated my development. Socially, I was continually selfconcious, especially avoiding conversations with girls. More on this in the story about my early school years. However, all this lead me to defer one very important college course until my senior year - Public Speaking. With no expeience, no skill, no talent, and only fear…I can say that my performance in this course was an epic disaster…imagine watching a speech delivered by the most self conscious speaker, who forgets lines, gets stuck, and turns fifty shades of red. One very important thing I did learn, I observed as I walked the last hallway toward my execution classroom the morning of my speech: my feet seemed powerfully repelled away, pushed by an unseen force toward the far side of the hallway, but I kept moving one foot after another and continued to progress until reaching the threshold, through which, with much effort, dreadfully, I dragged myself into the classroom. I was amazed that my mental fear and mind could exert such a powerfully perceived force upon my very feet as they moved down the hall. What an experience!
There’s plenty more to say, but I’ve got to stop writing for now!