On the Energy Front

Since the first of the year I have traveled 43,000 airline miles, taught three Piping System Fundamentals courses, attended a major trade show and visited countless customers.  It seems that everyone is asking what can be done to reduce their energy consumption.  I really enjoy that questions because of my deep involvement in helping people find the answers to that question.

I am a member of the ISO 14414-TC115-WG07 Pumping system energy assessment committee. I spent two days with 12 other committee member in Phoenix, AZ  to work on the final draft prior to submission for a wide review. We had members present from Europe, South America, and the United States, along with extensive comments from other members around the world.  The standard presents a variety of ways to look at how piping systems use the energy. 

In addition to the ISO meeting I’m a member of the Hydraulic Institute / Pump Systems Matter (HI/PSM) committee revising their Pump System Optimization course.  This course focuses on the value of conducting pump system assessments, and how to set up and conduct an assessment program.  

Since the first of the year, I have written a monthly column for Pumps & Systems Magazine on Pump System Improvements. Links to the articles can be found below:

•  Jan 2014 Solution for Pump Discharge Pipe Cracking
•  Feb 2014 Finally Justifying Improvements
•  March 2014 A Financial Justification for Pump System Improvement
•  April 2014 Overcome Resistance to Program Upgrade

They are a great group to work with and I would like to send out a special Thank You to Amanda Perry. She is a fantastic editor and does a great job of turning my submissions into a clear and concise article. I'm excited to share that last month they told me my column has been picked up for the remainder of 2014! I would encourage you all to get a subscription to Pumps & Systems Magazine, it’s full of excellent articles, and industry news. 

Once again, if you have any questions or comments please feel free to leave a comment. 

Bagpipes and Crested Geckos

There is a specific protocol when meeting someone for the first time. Last week at my Rotary meeting, I introduced myself to a visiting Rotarian from a club in Olympia WA. We looked at each other, and in unison both extended our right hand, made eye contact and shook the extended hand. We then in turn stated our names.

The next item on the protocol, prior to getting down to the business at hand is the small talk; how long we have been working at our respective companies, where we went to school, when we graduated, past employers, spouses name, kids name and where they go to school. 

During the small talk session, I like to mix thing up a bit by asking what they enjoy the most about their job. That question stops some people dead in their tracks; it seems many people look at their job as a way to make a living and don’t think it is especially enjoyable. 

If you really want to find out about a person, ask them what they like doing in their off time. That’s when the pictures come out on the smart phones, and they share with you what really gets them excited. You already know that I enjoy flying in my off time, but I thought you might be interested in some of the things the people of ESI do for fun. Let me introduce you to a handful of the people that work at Engineered Software.
 
Aldo in the development group plays the Scottish bagpipes in a pipe band "Olympia Pipers & Drummers."  He has a set of bagpipes and uniform complete with a kilt, high socks and a sporran (that’s the pouch that is worn in front of a kilt to hold stuff. It seems kilts don’t have pockets). This past summer his pipe band needed a place to practice for an upcoming highland competition, so for six weeks every Thursday evening they played and marched in our parking lot.



Chris in our sales group likes creepy crawly things. He has a variety of tarantulas (Chaco Golden Kneed, Mexican Fire Legged, and a Power Blue Pink Toe) along with a giant desert hairy scorpion. But his pride and joy is a crested gecko from New Caledonia, and does he have the pictures to prove it. You may ask what these critters eat; it seems they enjoy his homegrown Madagascar hissing cockroaches. And yes Halloween is his favorite holiday.

Paul’s passion is hot rods. Also a member of our sales group, he builds his cars and shows them around the northwest, attends parts swap meets, and helps his hot rod buddies with their challenging projects. His last project was a 1956 Ford pickup truck, that took almost two years to complete and it has a list of custom features that are too long to list, but were featured recently in a four page spread in Classic Truck magazine.  

His current project is a 1974 VW Bus Vanagon, with a Porsche 914 engine. The van was under a tree, covered in moss and the engine didn’t start when he bought it from the previous owner. The next Monday morning the moss was gone and the engine was purring like a kitten.  His original plan was to remove the existing engine and replace it with a V-8.  It seems that his wife had other ideas so he is going to be tricking it out with the existing engine, getting a slick two-tone paint job to match his 55 Ford station wagon and go camping with his wife.

Dennis our sales manager enjoys acting for Theater Artist Olympia (TAO) community theater group.  He has starred in The Merchant of Venice, The Tempest, Romeo & Juliet, and Othello. He prefers Shakespeare, but TAO likes to mix things up, for example, The Tempest was staged in the future with a Star Trek theme. He has also appeared in two productions of Cannibal the Musical (www.cannibalthemusical.net) based on the true story of the Alfred Packer the only person convicted of cannibalism in America. Asked why the production company did Cannibal the Musical twice, he said it’s the only play that makes money.

Finally there is Jesse, in our engineering department, his passion is snowboarding. You can find him in the Cascades just about any weekend in the winter having a good time putting first tracks in the snow.  When he’s not out on the mountain he is volunteering with SOS Outreach (www.sosoutreach.org) at Snoqualmie Pass, Washington and C.O.R.E. at White Pass, WA, teaching under-served kids how to snowboard, hike and climb, while stressing the core values of the program designed to promote positive self-esteem. Both programs emphasize making positive choices and practicing self-responsibility, while educating the youth about their environment, and helping build connectedness with their peers, adult mentors, and their community.

This is but a small cross section of the Engineered Software team and I have run out of space before I have run out of stories. One thing I always find amazing about our team is that they have as much passion with their full time jobs as they do in their extracurriculars.

Now it’s your turn. I would like your comments on this blog or even better, I would really enjoy finding out about what your interests are after work.

It Flies Just Like the Simulator

Estimated Reading Time: 3 minutes 37 seconds. Read Later

The Pacific Northwest is home to The Boeing Company and as such, the first flight of any new aircraft is big news.

When the 787 Dreamliner made its first flight, the two test pilots stated, “The airplane flies beautifully, it did exactly as we expected. No surprises and no major issues with the airplane.” 

Prior to conducting the first actual flight, the test pilots “learned to fly the aircraft” using a flight simulator and will do this before any inaugural flight. These simulators have all the flight characteristics of the 787 Dreamliner in the program, which is how the test pilots knew what to expect on the first flight. Flight simulators range from multi-million dollar three axis flight simulator to flight simulator programs for use on PC’s.

Boeing 787 Dreamliner Flight Simulator - image
courtesy The Boeing Company boeing.com

One of the things I like best about my job is the ability to visit customers to see how they are using PIPE-FLO. The majority of our customers use PIPE-FLO to perform the preliminary design of their piping systems, specifically to obtain the design data needed for equipment selection. More recently though, I’ve been learning that more of our customers are entering increasingly detailed design data for their completed systems into their PIPE-FLO models. This provides them a better understanding of how the finished design will operate once it is placed in service. 

For example, one of our long time PIPE-FLO customers needed to add cooling loads to a large cooling water system in their chemical process plant in Houston, Texas. The system was previously modeled using PIPE-FLO to determine if a new pump was needed for the proposed expansion. Once the system was modeled in PIPE-FLO, they determined that the existing pumps could meet the projected needs.

As the design became finalized, the PIPE-FLO model was updated with the design changes of the expanded cooling water system. After conducting a simulation, they were able to determine the valve positions of all the throttle valves. This was accomplished by entering the Cv characteristics of each throttle valve in the system into their PIPE-FLO model. Once this was done, PIPE-FLO calculated the valve position and identified that cavitation would occur in two of the control valves. Once the problem was identified in the simulation, the valve supplier was called in to see what could be done to correct the problem. The valve supplier suggested changing out the cavitating control valves with a different design. The model was updated with the new valve characteristics and the problem was solved. All this was done well before commissioning the expanded system.

When it came time to start up the expanded cooling water system, all the control valves were set to their calculated balanced valve position and the system was brought online. The client stated that normally it took an outside contractor two to three days to balance the cooling water system by manually adjusting things after taking readings. Using the valve positions calculated in the PIPE-FLO simulation, it only took half a day to validate that the system was balanced. Additionally, it was confirmed that no cavitation occurs in any of the control valves.

Many of our customers said it was difficult to get valve operating data for their control valves, so in PIPE-FLO 12 we made it easier by creating the Control Valve Estimator. Using default data found in the ISA 75.01.01 and IEC 60532 Industrial Process Control Valves standards, you are able to answer a few questions about control valve construction as well as the fully open Cv, and the program will create an accurate representation of control valve operation.

One of PIPE-FLO’s unique features is the used of manufacturers’ electronic pump catalogs. Using the same electronic pump catalogs the manufacturers use to pick a pump for customers, you are able to insert the pump into the piping system model to gain an accurate simulation. Once again the PIPE-FLO uses the methodology outlined in a variety of Hydraulic Institute standards for pump operation.

Finally, flow elements such as orifices, nozzles and venturi types are accurately modeled based on the applicable ASME and ISA standards. 

During the simulation, all the information is factored into the total calculations. For example if during the simulation the user changes the temperature of the process fluid the program:

• Looks up the fluid properties of density, viscosity, and vapor pressure and use this information in all calculations. 
• Calculates the head loss in all the pipelines affecting the pressures throughout the system.
• The change if the fluids vapor pressure and head loss in the suction pipeline affect the NPSH available at the pump suction.
• The vapor pressure also affects the cavitation calculations for control valves, flow meters, and pressure calculations throughout the system.

As you can see any change in the operating piping system affects the operation of every item in the system. 

I would be hard pressed to say that a PIPE-FLO simulation has as much entertainment value as a flight simulator program, knowing how much I love flying aircraft, but it can show you a clear picture of how your piping system operates. And that type of solid reassurance and validation is exactly what you need before you take a multi-million dollar system online for the first time. Leaving you to say on your inaugural start-up, “The system runs beautifully, it did exactly as we expected. No surprises and no major issues with this piping system!”

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A Wonderful Sunday in Rotterdam

Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes 23 seconds. Read Later

This almost sounds like it will be a travel blog, but not so fast.

I just got back from a two week business trip in Europe and would like to share some of my experiences.  First thing that I must admit is I hate to travel on business. That said I need to disclosed I just went over 1 million miles on United Airlines (that’s actual “butt-in-seat” miles, no bonus miles on that figure). I am a gold member for a variety of hotel chains, and I recently had to send in my passport to get additional visa pages, so I really do spend a lot of time traveling. However, it’s the traveling part I hate, the “getting to the next stop,” not the actual visits or meetings or any of the ground stuff.


I may hate to travel but I truly enjoy visiting customers so I am always looking forward to my next trip. I look forward to finding out how customers do their jobs, what we could do to make their job easier, and discover their daily job challenges. In addition I get to meet a lot of interesting people along the way.
  
So let’s talk about the “glamor” of international travel. 

I always show up at the airport two hours early just to be on the safe side. After checking in with United I discovered my flight from Seattle to Chicago was 100% full, but on the flight to London Heathrow I should have a row to myself. I finished reading my e-mail in the Red Carpet Club in SeaTac, and then boarded the flight for Chicago. I always read a book (paper not electronic) when I fly, I have long since given up working on my computer because of the tight spacing between the seats. In Chicago I discovered the overnight flight to London was full, seems like a flight to Germany was canceled and all those passengers were now re-routed through London. There went the open seats next to me. After I was seated, I started talking to my new row mate. I discovered that he was an engineer and a PIPE-FLO user! That always gives me a kick and I enjoyed his company on the flight to London. 

When traveling in Europe, I try to take public transit whenever possible because it’s so easy to get around. But since my first stop was in the county of Kent outside of London, and I didn’t know if I could get there by public transit, I decided to rent a Fiat 500. Let me tell you about the Fiat 500…
A Fiat 500 has an engine smaller than most soda pop bottles. It is billed as a four-passenger car, but can comfortably fit two skinny super models, or one full-grown man. The next morning I got on the motorway equipped with a local GPS and started driving on the left side of the street, with a stick shift. 

It turns out my customer was in a business park out in the middle of the county, but with a rail station next to it! Later in the day I took the car back, filled it up with gas (wow their gas prices are high), and took the train into London for the next day’s appointments. London was easy to get around using the Underground, and I had an excellent visit with a prospective customer. 

That afternoon it was back to Heathrow to catch a flight to Dusseldorf Germany. The next day I took two trains and a bus to visit a prospective customer. I arrived at 11:00 and started off with my standard PIPE-FLO presentation. They had many questions; I always like it when that happens. After an hour they asked when I had to leave for my next appointment. I jokingly said I have all afternoon, and at 4:30 on a Friday afternoon they wrapped up their last question. That was the longest presentation I ever made, and in reality, it was more like a training course than a demo. That night I had a great meal and looked forward to a weekend in Germany. 

It’s not all glamor in international travel. On business, I always travel light, fitting everything for the trip into a single carry on. Using this approach, I can only take a week’s worth of cloths and on a multi week trip; I have to find a laundry. In the states, most hotels have a couple of coin-operated machines, but I have yet to see one in Europe.

So early Saturday morning, I went in search of a Laundromat in Dusseldorf. I did a Google search and got a list of Laundromats in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, but nothing in Germany.  I then saw what appeared to me as a single, middle-age guy walking out of a local café by himself. I figured that he was not in a relationship and so he had to do his own laundry, right? He gave me directions, and after two hours, I had all my cloths washed, dried and folded, along with the knowledge of how to get the soap, where to insert the money, and the etiquette and practices of a German Laundromat.  

On the way back to the hotel, I stopped to get a sausage for lunch. I picked something that looked like a hot dog, and they gave me this 18-inch sausage in a three-inch bun. The only problem was where to put the mustard, but they gave me a dipping cup for mustard and I was right at home. 

On Sunday, I had all day to get to Rotterdam. Michael Blondin, our Chief Operating Officer was in Milan for a trade show and on Monday morning, he and I were meeting in Rotterdam with our local PIPE-FLO dealer. We both were traveling by train, and planned on meeting at the hotel in Rotterdam. When I got on the train in Dusseldorf the first person I saw was Michael. I sat down in my reserved seat, which happened to be right across from him.

They were doing track maintenance in Holland that Sunday so we needed to take three trains to get to Rotterdam. On our second train, we meet a young woman that was returning to her home in Rotterdam and had a great conversation. She talked about her job with the police department, along with her recent travels to the United States, Italy, and what her life is like in Holland. Before we knew it, we were at the central and were on our way.

When Michael and I made it to the hotel, we went to our rooms, dropped off our things, then immediately went exploring Rotterdam. The last time I was in Rotterdam was 1999, but now there was construction going on everywhere and the city was new and vibrant. We walked around the harbor and I was able to see the variety of merchant ships in port. Being a graduate of the Merchant Marine Academy, I never get tired of seeing ships. We went through their maritime museum on the waterfront and had a great walk on a sunny spring day. 

The next morning we met with Hans Vogelesang of PumpSupport, our local PIPE-FLO dealer. We have been doing business together since the early 90s and over the years, Hans has become a great friend. We talked about our current business development efforts, gave him a sneak peak of the next release of PIPE-FLO, and talked about old times. He then asked if we had time for a quick lunch. With a 2:55 pm flight out of Amsterdam to London, I thought three hours would be more than enough time for a light lunch and a quick trip to the airport. 

When we got to the neighborhood restaurant, he ordered and they brought out an open face club sandwich, with turkey, cheese, and three fried eggs… so much for a light lunch. As we waited for lunch, I watched the minutes tick off and my two-hour buffer began melting away. After an hour, we finally left the restaurant and were on the way to the airport. Then all of a sudden the traffic came to a halt, and we sat there for 15 minutes. I got to the airport at 2:00, fifty minutes prior to my scheduled departure.  By the time I got to the front of the check-in line, they said the flight closed two minutes ago, and I would need to be re-ticketed for a later flight.
 
I went over to the British Air counter and they said that since the ticket was purchased from Orbits, they would need to issue the new ticket. With an hours and a half until the next flight to London I didn’t have the time so I handed them my credit card and purchased a new ticket. I went through customs and made it out to the gate before my original flight started boarding. I asked the people at the gate if I could get on my original flight since I still had a ticket for that flight as well. They said that since I had not checked in and was not on their manifest, I couldn’t get on. Damn!

I got on the next flight to London and we arrived 10 minutes early! That is unheard of when flying into Heathrow. I thought, I am home free and this may be my lucky day after all… I rushed off the plane, went to immigration and saw a long line waiting to get through. They only had three agents at the gates, and often times two of them had to go to their office to make phone calls regarding arriving passengers. After one hour and forty five minutes I made some new friends from Nigeria traveling to London for spring break, and finally got through customs.

I had to drop by the hotel that I had stayed in the previous week, because I left a jacket in the closet. Traveling on the London Underground is amazing. I typed my destination into my smart phone and I was presented with a map showing step-by-step instruction, when the trains left and when I would arrive at my final destination. All was well until I lost my ticket for the Underground. I had purchased an all location daily pass for seven pounds and it fell out of my pocket. In London you need a ticked not only to get on the train, but also to get off. I told the gate attended of my troubles and I must have looked in sad shape because he waived me through. 

Next I had to get the train to Hitchens at Kings Cross station. I needed to purchase a ticked (the ticket machines in England were harder to operate than the ticket machines in Germany), and then figure out what track to go to. As I got the ticked out of the machine, I heard my train to Hitchens would be departing in 1 minute. I made a quick dash to the platform with my carry on and computer back pack. With just three steps shy of the train the doors closed. I found out by looking up at the departure sign that they closed the doors two second early, and right on schedule the train pulled out of the station.

The next train to Hitchens would get me in after 9:00 pm, and I was giving a training class the next day. I was really down in the dumps after such challenging day. I made it to the next train, arrived at Hitchens, got into a taxi at the train station and had a wonderful chat with the cab driver. I gave him a larger tip than normal because he did a great job of cheering me up. I checked into the hotel and had a great night’s sleep. 

After the first day of class I went out to dinner with some of the attendees. We went out to an Indian restaurant for a curry dinner. The service was excellent, the food was great and my dinner companions were a fun group. It seems that one of my German dinner companions became a celebrity that night. He ordered the Vindaloo, apparently one of the hottest curry dishes available. He was warned by the waiter and when it came out he had a bite and asked if he could get some additional peppers to make it hotter.

The waiter came back in 5 minutes with a dish of tiny peppers (in the pepper world, the small the pepper the hotter they are, and based upon the size of these babies I was afraid that my German friend would auto ignite). He put ALL the peppers on his food and started eating without displaying any signs of distress. Two minutes later the manager came around, in five minutes the chef came out, followed by the restaurant owner, they all wanted to meet the man that could eat fire!

The next day I finished up the course, and then headed off to the train station for my final trip to Heathrow. After checking into my hotel, I was ready to try the Thai place down the road, but when I took my shoes off in the room, I knew I wasn’t going anywhere that night. 

The next morning I got on a big United jet homeward bound after 10 days on the road.  Before I went to sleep on the plane, I clicked my heels together on my traveling shoes said, “there is no place like home.”

To me traveling is a way to get to meet new and interesting people. First, the customers that have helped us stay in business and keep our business growing. Second, people (both customers and others) I meet along the way that can share their common experiences and grow in our understanding of each other. Best of all about traveling is the ability to sleep soundly on a long trans-Atlantic homeward flight.

Share your travel experiences or suggestions with me! Leave a comment below or send an email to blogger@eng-software dot com. Thanks for reading!

Instrument Flying and Collaboration

Estimated Reading Time: 8 minutes 40 seconds. Read Later

Long time readers know that I enjoy flying my own plane. This blog is about a flight I made in my aircraft from Boise, Idaho to Olympia, Washington. For trips I always file an IFR flight plan. IFR stands for Instrument Flight Rules. IFR are the rules established by the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) and used by both general aviation and commercial flights. Since most of you fly on commercial airlines, I thought you may be interested in the planning and collaboration that goes into a typical flight.

Flying under Instrument Flight Rules involves many groups working together to safely get us from a departure airport, reroute, and to the destination. This is often referred to as “the system.” The groups working in the system are made up of the aircraft and pilots making the trip, the controllers controlling the flow of traffic throughout the flight, and supporting groups that provide weather and other flight services. Each group has their specific tasks and we all have to work together to make it work. I will be outlining my flight and the various groups that I had to collaborate with from start to finish. As a single pilot flying a general aviation aircraft (private) I have to do every step myself, but commercial airline pilots have large support staffs that helps make sure things work smoothly in the airline. Every step I am about to explain must be done in both instances.

Flight Planning

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My first step is to determine the route I will be taking from the Boise Air Terminal (KBOI) in Boise, ID to the Olympia Regional Airport (KOLM) in Olympia WA. The first thing you will notice is the four letter code for each airport. There are unique codes like this for every airport in the world. The first letter K indicates the airport is in the United States, the remaining three initials indicate the airport designator. The airlines usually drop the (country code) K and use only the three letter code. These are the codes you see on your itinerary, tickets, and baggage tags. For example United Flight 916 goes from Seattle WA (SEA) to Washington DC (IAD) Washington Dulles International.

Looking on my low altitude en route charts, I decided to go by way of the V-4 (pronounced Victor four) airway from Boise to the Yakima (YKM) intersection then fly V-204 into Olympia. There are various “intersections” along the route defining each leg of the flight, and each leg of the flight has a minimum altitude assigned to keep the airplanes from flying into the mountains. For example when flying on V-4 from the BOI intersection to the BKE (Baker City, Oregon) intersection I must fly above 10,000 feet to avoid the mountains and be seen on the Air Traffic Controller’s (ATC) radar.

During this planning stage I determined the distance of the trip, my alternate airport (in the event I can’t land at Olympia). With this trip distance, altitude, and alternate airport I can calculate how much fuel I will need for the trip. I then calculate the total weight of the plane including the weight of fuel, passengers and luggage, along with the location of the center of gravity of the aircraft. This is called determine the weight and balance to ensure the aircraft is operated within the limits established by the manufacturer.

Using the weight information, along with the elevation of the Boise and Olympia airports I then calculate my takeoff and landing distances. After all, if I need 2,000 feet of runway to take off and there is only 1,800 of runway available then it will be a short trip.

The next step is to ensure that I have all the charts needed for the trip (departure, en route, and arrival charts). Since my plane has electronic charts I also check to ensure the navigational databases are current and loaded into my GPS.

The final step in the preliminary planning is to look at the weather forecast for the day of the trip. The weather looked good, but it appeared that I will need to fly through a layer of clouds when taking off at Boise and again when landing in Olympia. I usually do this flight planning 1 – 2 days prior to the trip.

The Pre-flight

On the day of the flight I woke up to rain on the window and immediately checked the weather forecast. The weather had deteriorated during the night, but after checking the online weather I discovered the rain was only in the Boise area. We would be passing through a cold front on the trip so it could be a bumpy ride.

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When I got to the airport I called FAA flight services and talked to a flight briefer. I filed my flight IFR flight plan and got a standard weather briefing. All this can be done online but I like to file with an actual person. (See a Sample flight plan HERE.)

The next step is to load the fuel for the flight based on my fuel consumption calculations. I conducted a pre-flight inspection of the aircraft, then loaded my passenger and was ready to go.

The Take-Off

Using the engine start check list I started the engine, and once completed, my engine was running nice and smooth. I then checked in on the Automatic Terminal Information Service (ATIS) frequency to get a quick snapshot of the wind, temperature, and barometric pressure at the airport, the active runway (10R), along with the airport NOTAMS (Notice to Airmen). I set my altimeter to the local atmospheric pressure then contacted Boise Clearance to get my IFR clearance to Olympia.

The controller read my clearance per a prescribe format used on every IRF flight plan it was as follows:

Clearance as given by ATC	Description
Columbia N12345	This is the manufacturer and my tail number of my aircraft; this is how this aircraft is referred to for the remainder of the flight
Cleared to the Olympia Airport	I have been cleared all the way to the Olympia Regional Airport
via the Boise Two Departure,	This is a published departure procedure (DP) that provides take-off minimums, the direction of the initial turn to the first fix, and what to do in the event radio communication is lost after departure.
then as filed	After completing the DP I fly to Olympia using the route entered on my IRF flight plan
Climb and maintain 12,000 ft	I am initially to climb to 12,000 ft at the minimum vertical climb rate specified in the DP.
expect 14,000 ten minutes after departure	Approximately 10 minutes after departing the airport I should expect an altitude clearance to 14,000 ft, the altitude I filed in my flight plan.
Contact Departure on 126.9	This is the radio frequency for the Boise Departure controller.
Squawk 2314	This is the numeric code I am to enter into my transponder. Each aircraft has a transponder and the assigned code helps the aircraft show up on the ATC’s radar.

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I copied the clearance and repeated it to the controller word for word. We now have an agreement between ATC and me, I knew what to expect. I was now "in the system”. I entered the routing as specified in my clearance to the Olympia Regional airport.I then contacted the Boise ground controller on the radio, identified myself, and requested taxi instruction to the active runway for an IFR departure to Olympia.

I was given the following instructions:“Columbia N12345 taxi via Kilo, Juliet, and hold short of Runway 10R, contact tower when ready for departure.” (10R is the heading of the runway, rounded to two places. This runway had a heading of 100° and I was assigned the right runway). After repeating my taxi clearance I taxied to the assigned runway. On the way I saw four Air Force A-10’s taking off in formation, and a Navy F/A-18 Hornet landing. You don’t get to see these up close on a United flight.

After completing my engine run-up check list I contacted the Boise Tower on frequency 126.9. I was cleared to takeoff on runway 10R. I entered the runway, applied the power, then checked my speed and distance down the runway to make sure I took off close to my calculated distance. After becoming airborne, Boise Tower directed me to contact the departure controller. I then switched my radio to 126.9 and contacted the Boise Departure Controller.

The departure controller takes me from the departure end of the Boise runway to the en route portion of my flight. The controller instructed “Columbia N12345 turn right 330 and intercept V-4, resume own navigation” (turn right to a heading of 330 and intercept the Victor-4 airway and then proceed on my flight plan). I repeated the controller’s instruction and started my right turn. I then was instructed “climb and maintain one four thousand,” given my final altitude clearance of 14,000 ft.

En route

After intercepting the Victor-4 airway I was now in the en route portion of the flight. I was then handed off to Salt Lake Center. Each region of the country has a regional FAA control center controlling all flights within the region. The Salt Lake Center is located in Salt Lake City Utah and controls the traffic in southern Idaho. The controller mentioned there was an area of perception 20 miles ahead. I was already looking at the weather map on my GPS, but after looking out the window it appeared the clouds topped out at 16,000 ft. I requested permission from ATC to climb to 16,000 ft so I can fly on top of the weather. She cleared me to climb to 16,000 ft. After flying over the weather I contacted the FAA’s flight services and gave a PIREP (pilot’s weather report). Now other pilots flying the route know the elevation of the cloud tops, the ride smoothness, and other pertinent weather information.

Approximately one hour into the flight I was transferred to Seattle Center, and asked if I would like direct to Olympia. I accepted the clearance revision and updated the route in the GPS. Now instead of flying along a series of intersections specified in my flight plan I can fly directly to Olympia saving approximately 20 miles off the trip.

Arrival and Landing

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About 30 minutes from my destination, I got the ATIS information at the Olympia airport, and based on the information I knew I would be going through a cloud layer and would be landing on runway 17. I set up the approach in my autopilot, pulled out the correct instrument approach charts, and got the plane ready to land. The Seattle Center Controller then transferred me to the Seattle Approach Controller (they would direct me to the Olympia Airport). I gave Seattle Approach the current ATIS for Olympia and he asked what approach I would like. I responded with the Instrument Landing System (ILS) 17 approach; this is a precision approach and provides me with the lowest minimums for weather. The controller started stepping me down in altitude and giving me vectors (direction to turn) to intercept the ISL 17 localizer. At 4,000 ft I was in a cloud layer and flew the airplane using the instruments. About seven miles before the airport, the Seattle Arrival Controller handed me over to the controller in the Olympia Tower. After descending below 3,000 ft I was through the cloud layer and had the airport insight.

The Olympia Tower Controller then gave me permission to land, and within a few minutes, I was on the ground. The Olympia Controller then closed my flight plan (now I was no longer in the system). I received my taxi instruction and after a two hour and 20 minute trip and no less than 10 different controller contacts I was home!

As you can see, there was a lot of collaboration going on between me and ATC, but what is truly amazing is the collaboration between the various FAA controllers to safely move all aircraft through the system. For those of you that fly on United Airlines you can tune in to channel 9 on their entertainment system and listen to ATC. According to the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, at any given time on an average day of the week, around 5,000 planes are in the skies above the US. In a single year, controllers handle an average of 64 million takeoffs and landings so it's no wonder this job is considered high stress. All the more reason these individuals MUST work as a well-oiled machine, with complete collaboration and clear communication in order to keep everyone safe.

I would love it if you left a comment or even sent me an email to blogger @ eng-software.com. Also, we are currently welcoming guest bloggers. If you are interested, just send me a message about becoming a guest blogger, and what you would like to write about. Thanks!

I Can Explain

Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes 57 seconds. Read Later

I always run my blog ideas past Natalie in our marketing department. She is the one that makes my blog writing sound intelligent and well written as opposed to the various random ideas I send her. This special April Fool’s post was no different. I suggested to her that I write a post announcing a new software discovery that would solve the energy crisis by providing an unlimited supply of free electrical power simply by using unused computing power.

She said I should write about something that sounds more realistic, and then throw the punch line in at the end. After all, the more believable and entertaining the story, the funnier it will be when you reach the punch line. She suggested I write about taking the summer off and pursuing the life of an Alaskan bush pilot. Those who know me personally know I love flying and try to get up in my plane whenever the sun is shining. One of my favorite shows is the “Flying Wild Alaska” on the Discovery Channel. She thought it might be funny to have me claim that I was on a sabbatical trying out for this reality show. Tempting as it sounded, I have been in the energy business in one way or another since 1971 so I decided to use some of my energy experiences to help develop the story.

It always seems the solution to the energy crisis is only 10 years into the future. I don’t know why 10 years is the magic number, but it seems that everyone uses it. If you’re a politician 10 years is well into the next election cycle and no one will remember your campaign promises.  If you’re a CEO, in 10 years you’ll either retire rich or move on to a bigger company to cause more damage.  If you are in the news business 10 years is over 120 news cycles, (remember the infamous “wardrobe malfunction, ” the “Balloon Boy”, Pluto’s demotion from Planet Status, Leno vs. Conan, Tiger Woods' marital problems, the financial meltdown, ... see I told you). And if you are the one actually involved in doing the work, within 10 years you’ll have kids and you won’t be able to remember back 10 weeks let alone 10 years.

The next thing is you need to make the technology reward sound almost too true to believe. For example in the 1960’s I can remember GE, Westinghouse, and Combustion Engineering say that in the future nuclear power will be so cheap to produce, the power company will not need to meter the power anymore. That sounded really great so I decided to go study nuclear power in school. 

In the 1970’s when I was actually starting up nuclear power plants, it turned out the costs to build a plant got out of control and nuclear power was really not that cheap. In addition, everyone was worried about the China Syndrome and suddenly no one wanted a nuclear power plant in their state let alone their back yard. 

In the late 70’s the next big thing was the breeder reactor. Breeder reactors were supposed to make their own fuel (Plutonium) from Uranium 238 that could not be used as fuel in a regular nuclear reactor. The process actually worked, because that is how the US Government created all the plutonium for the nuclear weapons program. With the breeder reactors we can turn swords into plowshares (another great slogan of the time). It turns out that some people were concerned that with all the power plants making all that plutonium someone could sneak into a nuclear reactor, steal some plutonium and make their own nuclear weapons. As a result the breeder reactor lived a short life.

Well not to be outdone someone came up with the fusion program in the late 70’s and early 80’s. With a fusion reactor we would be able to harness the unlimited energy of the sun, with an abundant source of fuel coming from sea water. Once again, they promised power so cheap the electric utilities wouldn’t need to meter it. Trust me, the physics work; there is no need to go into details when we’re solving the energy crisis. Many of the world’s industrial countries started major fusion programs with the goal of developing working fusion reactors in 10 years. (Seems like all the smaller countries were developing their own breeder reactors to make their own nuclear weapons because of the cancelled breeder program in the US.)  Initially the fusion programs had some success by getting the temperature of the hydrogen plasma up to million or so degrees needed for fusion to occur, but the process never could be sustained. In other words, it took more energy to get started that it could ever produce. Work is still proceeding on fusion power but it is still a research project. 

In the late 70’s the shine had worn off anything nuclear and the US Department of Energy had to look at other ways to gain our energy independence from Middle Eastern oil. (Now that’s a concept we can all agree with, and it got started after the 1967 Oil Embargo). So we decided clean up our coal industry. I was in Indiana, PA working at a dirty coal preparation facility. Down the road, they had a clean coal gasification facility that would turn dirty coal into clean natural gas. The gas companies weren’t going to get rid of the gas meter but since the US has more than a 200-year supply of coal, we were well on our way to becoming energy independent within 10 years. 

As it turns out, these plants had a tendency to blow up, so much so that they built special blast walls. These walls were designed to blow off to prevent a buildup in pressure that would bring the entire building down. It also turned out the byproducts of coal gasification were really bad for the environment, and even Pennsylvania didn’t want that stuff in their backyard.

Another group in the government was working on liquefying coal, or turning coal into crude oil that could be refined to end our dependence on foreign oil. This time they decided to do everything underground that way they didn’t have to worry about bringing the coal to the surface, blowing up the process plant, and getting rid of the waste products. I’m not too sure on the details, but I think it involved injecting steam into coal seams, high temperatures, along with problems controlling the reactions underground. Coal liquefaction inevitably turned out to be a dead end on the road to energy independence.

In the late 80’s and the 90’s were the government was serious about ending the cold war so they didn’t have many energy initiatives in the works. The power utility business was more involved in developing power plants that were smaller and cheaper to build. It seems large power generation units, (nuclear of fossil) were very expensive to license because of all the resistance by the environmentalists. So the power utilities started building many smaller gas turbines to run a generator to make electricity (simple cycle). By keeping the projects small, they avoided much of the opposition. They then added a steam boiler to the back end of the process to take advantage of the high exhaust gas temperatures of the gas turbines (combined cycle). Everyone was building combined cycle units and it looked like the energy crisis might be ending.

In the 90’s something strange happened, one day we woke up and we found out the west won the Cold War. With the end of the cold war, we had a much larger problem; the Russians and Chinese quit the cold war to become capitalists. With over 1 billion people in China and all of them wanting a Chevy Tahoe or Ford Explorer, the oil prices went through the roof, and we were no closer to energy independence.

In the early 2000’s after the dot com bust, people decided that it was high time to invest in something new, so why not invest in becoming energy independent. Not only independent but environmentally responsible with our energy consumption, if we used less then we wouldn’t have to produce so much. With the financial power of Wall Street and the promise of tax incentives for “Clean Energy” we were well on our way. 

World's Most Fuel Efficient Car

The next focus for energy reduction spurred by our need for independence from foreign oil involved automotive transportation, developing cars with the promises of 60-100 miles per gallon. California wanted it, the people wanted it (but we also want our SUVs) and with a healthy dose of tax incentives to help speed the process along we had a clear objective. The first step was the ethanol tax incentive where every farm co-op in the Midwest decided to convert subsidized corn into subsidized ethanol. The investment bankers all wanted to get some of this action so there were hundreds of ethanol plants popping up everywhere to feed our nations thirst for domestic oil. Unfortunately, this hasn’t quite panned out because the energy needed to produce and ship the final product was still supplied by burning oil and coal.

We also needed to replace dirty power plants that burned coal and generated green house gasses with clean energy, wind turbines, photoelectric energy, and tidal power. What was really amazing was the recent “Nuclear Renaissance” where nuclear power all of sudden became the green solution (that is until the nuclear meltdowns in Japan). It seems with “clean energy” all we need to do is cover large sections of the earth’s surface with wind farms or solar collectors then develop a “smart” power grid to get the power from where the land is cheap to where the people live.

The next energy solution is going to involve many different technologies. With the wisdom of Wall Street, a heavy doses of “clean energy” tax incentives, and lots of hard work I’m sure we can be energy independent of foreign oil within 10 years. So in a way, my April Fools is an example of how we need to continue to look outside the box for solutions and new technology to solve our energy crisis. There probably isn’t going to be only one fix-all answer. The US is going to need to be creative and figure out how to produce our own energy using new technology instead of relying on oil and coal to get us there.

Tell me your thoughts on the future of energy consumption, or how you think we might learn from the past. Please leave me a comment or send me an email to blogger @ eng-software.com

Also, we are currently welcoming guest bloggers. If you are interested, just send me a message about becoming a guest blogger, and what you would like to write about. Thanks!

Spruce Goose

Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes 7 seconds. Read Later

This past weekend my youngest daughter and I flew to the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum in McMinnville Oregon. McMinnville is a small town in the Willamette Valley approximately 30 miles south west of Portland. The Evergreen Museum (they Tweet!) is a world class aviation museum and is the home of the Hughes H-4 better known as the Spruce Goose.

We were in the massive cargo area of the Spruce Goose listing to a volunteer, who happened to be a retired engineer. He was explaining to a young person in our group that all the calculations to design the massive plane were done with a slide rule. A 12-year-old girl asked what a slide rule was and the guide was attempting to explain what a slide looked like and how it worked. The more he talked the more confused she looked. Finally, I stepped in and said the best way to find out was "Just Google It." Later I saw her with her Smartphone looking on Wikipedia to find out how the slide rule worked.

Later in the day my daughter and I were looking at a SR-71 Blackbird and I mentioned that this plane was developed by Kelly Johnson’s Skunk Works crew (See my November Blog) once again only using slide rules. Being a daughter of an engineer she had already listen to one of my demonstrations with a real slide rule in her youth so she had a better understanding of the accomplishment.

Later in the space portion of the museum, we saw the keyboard for the Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) that was developed to program the computers on the Apollo command module and Lunar Excursion Module. It had 19 keys and weighed in at 21 pounds. The keyboard had a Verb key and a Noun Key. The Verb key instructed the computer that the next number sequence being entered by the astronaut was a computer instruction, and the noun key instructed the computer that the next number sequence was data. The information could be entered in either octal or decimal. No mouse, no screen, no window, just hard-core computing. The term user interface had not been invented yet. When using early computers you had to think like a computer and enter data like a computer. I would imagine that the astronauts spent many hours learning about and practicing using the Apollo Guidance Computer for their moon mission. The AGC was one of the first computers based on integrated circuits with over 2,800 individual integrated circuit chips connected to form the 2848 words or erasable memory and 36,000 words of read only memory. It was a marvel of science at the time, but now a computer like that would reside on a single chip and you would be hard pressed to find a single chip with so little memory.

After a day at the Evergreen Museum, I got into my airplane for the flight back to Olympia, WA. It is equipped with a Garmin G-1000 integrated glass cockpit. I started up the system, programmed my flight plan into the GPS, checked the current weather using satellite radio, activated my terrain warning and aircraft collision warning systems and then set off. Once I got to cruising altitude, I displayed the moving map, complete with the current satellite weather, and activated the autopilot to fly the plane back to Olympia. At Olympia, I loaded the instrument approach into the G-1000, set the autopilot to fly the approach and all I had to do was fly the last 200 ft until touchdown. This is far from the drama that Neal Armstrong experienced in the first moon landing.

No matter how old you are, it is amazing how much progress has been made in your lifetime.

As engineers we are able to perform very involved calculations on our computer (desktop, laptop, netbook, or smart phone), search the internet to select equipment from manufacturers supplied data, and then e-mail the design to the client for their review. All this without the need to use a slide rule (pre 1970), pocket calculator (circa 1974), programmable calculator (circa 1978), or microcomputer (circa 1980).

So next time you use your smart phone to, take a picture, create a video, video conference with your kids, get directions, access the internet, update Facebook, send a tweet, play a game, or even make a phone call think of the intrepid Apollo astronauts with their 22 pound AGC and their moon landing.

What common technology that you use everyday are you most astonished by, grateful for or just plain can’t live without? Let me know by leaving a comment or sending me an email to blogger @ eng-software.com.

Or better yet, maybe you have some gadget or technology that you’d like to tell everyone about in a full blog? We are welcoming guest bloggers. Just send us a message if you would be interested in becoming a guest blogger.

Why Some Engineers Prefer Old Slippers

Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes 25 seconds. Read Later

I have a habit of waking up between 4:30 to 5:00 each morning to read when the house is quiet. Today I was enjoying an article about Flowmeter Selection in Richard W. Miller's, "Flow Measurement Engineering Handbook." He said “… orifices flowmeters continue to account for 80+ percent of installed process plant meters.” He continued on that newer flowmeter designs were starting to be considered but he was amazed at how slowly the newer technology was catching on.

As I was pondering that statement (I can easily ponder before sunrise), I looked down and saw my ratty old slippers. It then hit me like a ton of bricks. “Engineers continue to use what is comfortable, sometimes long after it is practical!” How else could I justify wearing 15 year old slippers when I had three new pair (still in their box complete with gift cards) that my kids had given me on previous birthdays? 

How many times to we do something because, “that’s the way we have always done it?” I know using new technology has its risks, but it also has its rewards.

Taking a Risk on New Technology

Now don’t get me wrong, I like new technology, especially if someone else is paying for it. I really enjoy seeing how other people implement a new technology, particularly the challenges they may encounter along the way and how they overcome them. So often we like to take the safe route because we are familiar with the existing method and don’t want to take unnecessary chances.

But what would happen if Kelly Johnson, head of the Lockheed Martin Skunk Works® (makers of the  U-2 and SR-71 spy planes), Admiral Rickover the father of the US Nuclear Navy, or the NASA engineers getting a man to the moon and back took the easy route. They all took ideas that were the stuff of science fiction just a few years before and converted it to bleeding edge technology, then to cutting edge technology, until it finally trickled down to products we use every day. These engineers had to overcome limitations by employing new methods and technology for their ideas to get off the ground.

I have the good fortune of having very talented engineers and programmers that work hard to provide easy to use and understand products for our customers rather than taking the comfortable, less challenging way out. For example in an earlier version of PIPE-FLO®, one of our customers told us they didn’t like the way our drawing tools worked. After further discussion we came to find out the problem was that, our drawing tools didn’t work like the CAD program he was used to using.

We could have taken the easy way out by saying PIPE-FLO is an analysis program not a drawing program and leave it at that. Instead, our team came to the realization that PIPE-FLO may be an analysis program, but our customers use our drawing tools to create their flow diagrams and they wanted the drawing features to operate more like their CAD program. In the next release, we overhauled the drawing tools to work like the drawing tools of the CAD programs. This involved a sizable bit of the programming to update the code behind the PIPE-FLO software but the customer had spoken. Problem solved.

A Challenge Extended

I would like to pose a challenge to all of you reading my blog. Take one of your particularly difficult problems (now I know the PC police say we’re to call them issues and not problems) and figure out how to solve it.  It can be something as simple as determining why a given pump’s mechanical seal continues to fail every six months, or find out the true operating cost of a differential pressure flowmeter and see what new technology is available. You identify the problem, arrive at a solution and sell your solution to your team. It won’t be easy, after all, you’ll have to convince others that your idea is better than the way it is currently done, but it will be enjoyable, and who knows maybe they will even use your idea.

Actual slippers -
No editing was performed.

After my mornings ponder, I sat down at the computer and wrote out this blog article in a single sitting. I was so excited I went to my closet, picked out one of the slipper boxes and put on a brand new pair of slippers. Guess what, they felt great and looked much nicer. I then took the old slippers and put them away, after all, I couldn’t throw them out. Who knows when I may need a pair of comfortable slippers.

Now it’s time to hear from you. What do you think are the biggest concerns or obstacles to using new technology in plant maintenance and design? Do you think it’s the cost, or is there some other reason? Moreover, what problems have you overcome, and what new technology have you employed to solve that problem?

Please feel free to share your experiences, or opinions on this blog entry or any other subject that is of interest. Leave a comment below or email me. I can be reached at blogger@eng-software.com.