Instrument Integration

We left the hotel just after 6:30 am PDT to prepare the instruments for integration starting at 8 am. A picture of the instruments our group is using is above as well as a photo of the P-3 in the hangar. After a full morning which consisted of switching out a plug, lugging around air tanks, weighing everything before putting it in the plane, and watching the ocean and land groups nap on the floor under the plane, we got an early lunch at 11 am and prepared for more work in the afternoon.

Somehow I ended up missing the tour, which ended up being okay because I guess it really wasn't that interesting and I got to help get things put together in the P-3. The plane is a previous bomber used in WWII, so it has pretty much no windows and very little ventilation. Everyone keeps talking about how miserable we will be and how some of us will get sick. I'm praying that taking motion sickness meds will help me along with a handheld fan and ginger ale because I REALLY don't want to get sick! D: It doesn't help that we will be flying at low altitude (around 1,000-2,000 feet for most of each flight) and in the boundary layer, which is where all the air is mixing and it's more turbulent. We will also be doing some spirals while on the flights. Everyone in the air quality group is doing two flights, which is kind of sucky considering the situation. This should be interesting...

Anyway, my new mission is to find a handheld fan (which Target DID end up having, only two of the employees had no idea...grr). I also need to work on not psyching myself out.

Tomorrow is another early and possibly long day. We are doing calibrations in the morning and then in the afternoon, the pilots are taking the P-3 for a "shake, rattle, and roll" flight where they basically do a bunch of maneuvers and make sure none of the instruments will bang around too much or come loose.

Also, we have decided that our group name is "Bad News Barrys"--thanks to our mentor, Nicole--because our PI (principal investigator), Barry, always gives us bad news during lectures. (Except after the safety briefing today, I think NASA has him beat...)