A Trip to the MSP Control Tower...

Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport has been ranked 7th largest in the nation. So it was definately a priviledge to tour behind the scenes the workings of the air traffic control at the MSP airport.

The tour was for my aerospace engineering class, and though it was geared more towards the aviation technology class that was also on the tour, I got quite a bit out of it.

The MSP control tower:

A unique view of the Minneapolis skyline from inside the tower:


There was a catwalk around the top of the control tower that offered an awesome 360 degree view of the surrounding runways and the jetliners departing and arriving:


Overall, I was surprised how little security there was. No one ever even checked my camera case! Obviously they did background checks on us, but it was still pretty astounding. We were walking right into the heart of the air traffic control, the tower, the TRACON room (where we couln't bring cameras) and there was far less security than when you walk onto an air plane.

Update on Aerospace Engineering

You haven't heard from me in a while because of my busy schedule. I'm taking a strategic step forward with this aerospace engineering class, and I wanted to write a brief summary of how that's been going.

Before this point, much of my self-directed study has been on rocketry. This class has exposed me to a whole other facet of aerospace, namely aeronautical engineering. The structure of this class is right up my alley. It's only a class of 7 students! The teacher doesn't do a whole lot of lecturing. Instead, he lets us do our own research, and then present our results to the entire class.

Later on, we will be using what we learned about aerodynamics to actually design and build a small model glider in the adjacent workshop. I'm looking forward to that, because I learn best in hands-on activities as such.

I will be writing another post very soon, because I just recently ordered a 2.4 GHz micro transmitting camera, and will be building a rocket for it soon to fly in the spring! So stay tuned.

Aerospace Engineering at STEP

I'm all excited, because this next semester I'm going to be taking aerospace engineering via Secondary Technical Education Program. I don't know much yet; all I know is that its major outcomes are:

• Introduction to aerodynamics design and testing.
• Flight systems and areospace materials.
• Space life sciences and astronautics.

And its instructional focus is on: experiments, project testing and field trips.

It sounds right up my alley, and is completely free (considered part of high-school education). I'll post more about it when I get more information.