by "DrJohannVegas" (drjohannvegas)
Published 05/09/2017 at 02:07
by "DrJohannVegas" (drjohannvegas)
Published 05/09/2017 at 02:07
No Tags
STARS: 6
Please do not grind near your fuel tanks or run the engine with tires closer to the ground than the paddock rules allow. I am still recovering from a cold and cannot yell with the force or exasperation I usually bring to the paddock.
Also, please be safe driving to competition. Hell, just be safe in general.
And have fun. Have lots of safe-ish engineering fun. Really, just have your fire bottle nearby.
-Doc
PS: The closest store to MIS with metric crescent wrenches is in Napoleon.
PPS: The skydiving school is in Tecumseh.
PPPS: If you wanna go for glider rides, reply here and we’ll see if we can drag you up to Gregory. Conditions look good for Sunday.
"NoahthePorscheGuy" (porsche)
05/09/2017 at 03:46, STARS: 0
Damn, only going to Lincoln this year, but i’ll take you up on the glider ride next year...
"jimz" (jimz)
05/09/2017 at 07:22, STARS: 0
heh, when I did FSAE it was held in the parking lot of the Silverdome.
"StndIbnz, Drives a MSRT8" (stndibnz1)
05/09/2017 at 08:06, STARS: 4
This is all very good advice. I’ll also add:
If you engine blows up the night before competition, and you do a motor swap at 2am, don’t finish the motor swap in the trailer on the way down to comp. And don’t pull over in a parking lot before you get there to get everyone out of said trailer so no one knows what was going on.......
"DrJohannVegas" (drjohannvegas)
05/09/2017 at 09:19, STARS: 0
Pepperidge Farm remembers... sleeping in the trailer in the parking lot.
"TheTurbochargedSquirrel" (thatsquirrel)
05/09/2017 at 10:24, STARS: 1
Formula Hybrid got fed up with our antics (in combination with the FSAE team in Germany burning down their hotel working on their accumulator) and this year we were all kicked out of NHMS at 12am and our cars and accumulators were locked in the garages until 6am. Teams were to be excluded from the competition if they were found on the property during closed hours. Lots of reminders this year about how dangerous batteries can be and to always make sure you are awake and aware of what you are doing.
"DrJohannVegas" (drjohannvegas)
05/09/2017 at 10:29, STARS: 0
Yep. It can be hard to express to an exasperated student running on 2 hours of sleep that you’re looking out for their safety when you tell them not to grind next to a gas tank. They need to make the fix fast so they can put in a time in dynamic events. But, I’ve seen tons of marginal shit (both equipment and procedures) in my time, and they haven’t.
PS: Sounds like NHMS has much longer hours than MIS does, which I guess is nice.
"TheTurbochargedSquirrel" (thatsquirrel)
05/09/2017 at 10:30, STARS: 1
Also don’t mix up University of Michigan and Michigan State. The GM guy at Formula Hybrid went to give U Mich an award and accidentally said Michigan State (worth noting that Michigan State does not compete at Formula Hybrid). The backlash was swift and it was violent.
"DrJohannVegas" (drjohannvegas)
05/09/2017 at 10:33, STARS: 0
Haha. I can assure you I will never mix them up.
"TheTurbochargedSquirrel" (thatsquirrel)
05/09/2017 at 10:42, STARS: 0
NHMS actually donates the entire facility to Formula Hybrid for the 4 days we are there. They set up safety crews familiar with the facility but for the most part everything is run by Formula Hybrid staff and volunteers. The Mechanical Tech inspectors tend to hold strictly to the set schedules but the electrical tech inspectors tend to have a lot of flexibility. This year they were operating a skeleton crew from 6am to about 7:30. At 8 the main team was in and the two tech stations opened. Mechanical tech was open until 4pm but the electrical guys were great and took cars in until around 11:30pm. At that time our assigned electrical tech (each team gets assigned an electrical tech who is their lead inspector and a reference through the year) would stop being Formula Hybrid staff and take a walk through the paddock and provide input and ideas to the teams who were working on issues. It is worth noting that at Formula Hybrid Mechanical Tech is run by a Husband-Wife team and is usually a rather simple 20-30 min process while Electrical Tech is a huge process worked by 11 inspectors and a bunch of assistants (usually one inspector and an assistant working on a car) which starts with a basic (still 90+ check points) pre tech safety check which has to be completed before you can go to any of the other checks followed by the main electrical tech which is a 2+ hour process featuring a 27 page checklist and numerous demonstrations.
"DrJohannVegas" (drjohannvegas)
05/09/2017 at 11:10, STARS: 0
Yea, that sounds similar to the way FSAE is run. These events are definitely volunteer-dependent, and I love it. The people are a big part of the reason I come back to work the event every year.
Hope y’all had a good time this year. Last weekend, right?
"TheTurbochargedSquirrel" (thatsquirrel)
05/09/2017 at 11:29, STARS: 0
We were there Mon-Thurs last week. Had fun but this years car really kicked our butt. Lots of little things fought us and when we were finally ready to roll through tech we discovered we had a ground fault which kept us from running in the end.
"uofime-2" (uofime-2)
05/09/2017 at 11:34, STARS: 0
this happens waaaaaay to much
Of course the upside of having blown the motor is that you’ve got a running car that has at least tested a little bit....
"uofime-2" (uofime-2)
05/09/2017 at 11:40, STARS: 1
Sad I’m not going to be able to go support my alma mater this year, should be poised to do reasonably well if they can hold it together, though they did loose the star driver.
Gotta go drive a stock car instead....
"StndIbnz, Drives a MSRT8" (stndibnz1)
05/09/2017 at 12:19, STARS: 0
Very true.
"jimz" (jimz)
05/09/2017 at 16:01, STARS: 1
I went to Larry Tech so I didn’t have to sleep on site.
"DrJohannVegas" (drjohannvegas)
05/09/2017 at 20:54, STARS: 0
For a second I read that as, “I chose my university so I didn’t have to sleep on site,” but I don’t imagine that’s what you meant.
"jimz" (jimz)
05/09/2017 at 21:39, STARS: 0
you are correct.
"NoahthePorscheGuy" (porsche)
05/10/2017 at 17:54, STARS: 0
did anyone finish endurance?
"TheTurbochargedSquirrel" (thatsquirrel)
05/10/2017 at 18:01, STARS: 0
We did last year and this year MSOE became the first hybrid class vehicle to finish.
"DrJohannVegas" (drjohannvegas)
05/12/2017 at 01:04, STARS: 0
Wanted to follow up on this with the benefit of some competition hindsight. In addition to obvious car color differences, one has a turbo while the other does not. This is an important difference.