Shiok ah!
7.5.09 18:57
We're supposed to be(come) engineers.
In today's last lecture, on Aeronautical Engineering Science (AES), Mr. Liew narrated a story between a Boeing personnel and an SIA engineer and this was how it went ...
After carrying out maintenance and slight adjustments in the cockpit of a Boeing 777, the SIA engineer, with hands akimbo, stood adjacent to the pilot's seat admiring his work well done. Just then, a Boeing personnel came knocking about in the cockpit. With a slight tip of his nose, "Why do you think there are two seats in the cockpit of the 777?", the Boeing personnel asked the SIA engineer.
"One for the pilot and one for the co-pilot, of course", stated the engineer with a 'Well, duh!' in his head. He didn't pay much attention to the question as the answer's proverbial enough.
"Nope", snapped the Boeing personnel. "One seat is for the pilot and the other is for a dog."
Now, the engineer's thrown back. "Bu... But why a dog?"
In the Sir Stamford Raffles' stance, "The pilot is there to make sure everything in the cockpit works fine and the dog is there to prevent the pilot from touching the works".
I've no idea whether this story was fictional or not, but I know that the Boeing personnel is depicted to be proud, and arrogant, of the fully automatic flight the Boeing 777 can execute. So the pilot's just there to make sure the controls are in working conditions in flight and the dog - you know.
The lecture continued afterwards with Bernoulli's equation, error corrections and boundary layers. I got to understand the assumption and rejection of turbulent flow. In short, turbulence is both good and bad for flight.
I WILL SURVIVE THE 5 PAGES OF WORKINGS FOR THE SOLUTION (, somehow)!
Before the lesson ended, as usual, Mr. Liew showed us some videos on aviation. And then, someone exclaimed, "Plane crash, plane crash! Shiok ah!"
The reply the joker got was "Eh! You all are supposed to be engineers. Keep wanting to watch plane crashes .... What shiok!", from Mr. Liew. Then, we viewed two videos of crashing planes.
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I skipped this event (above).