Tech Visits and Return Trip

Monday June 28
Visited Messier-Dowty and Turbomeca today. Both companies are part of a giant corporation called SAFRAN Group. Kind of a brutal experience because I'm getting the illness that's running around our program and I felt like I was going to puke for both two hour bus rides and part of one of the visits. We ate tomatoes, cherries, sandwiches and chips in a nice park for lunch which surprisingly made me feel better for a couple hours.
Messier-Dowty produces landing gear for the A320 and helicopters from a lot of different countries. It seemed like the bulk of their interest was in materials processing. Shocks are apparently pretty simple and really landing gear just needs to be made out of the lightest material that can support an airplane during landing. Turbomeca was really interesting. Their plant produces engines primarily for helicopters but also for some airplanes. They took us around the facility and gave us an awesome behind the scenes look at a lot of the stuff they produce.
I got really worried when they were showing us a titanium gear for a compressor worth $45,000 because it's so difficult to manufacture. I don't know if dropping something that's designed to power a helicopter would damage it, but the fact that the lady was holding over a year's wages in her hands was kind of crazy. We also got to see their engine validation center where they spend 14 hours hooking up an engine for testing and 8 hours running tests for one engine. They actually took us in the room and showed us the engine a couple minutes after their tests finished. Super cool acoustically and thermally shielded room.
Drove back, took a Sudafed (which made me feel much better), ate pizza outside and then went to a local casino. I spent pretty much the whole time watching and learning roulette and blackjack. Lost three Euros on the slot machines which was a lot less than most of the other people.

Tuesday June 29
Four hour bus ride back from the beach and then lunch followed by three hours of class. By the way I felt a lot better today. Apparently my immune system owns because some people have been sick for over a week (though not nauseous). Tried to take a rock wall climbing class but it's closed for the summer. I decided to go for a run instead. The weather was great and it felt good to stretch my legs. Kind of a long day so I went to bed after watching a few episodes of Arrested Development.