The Death of Sparkle Motion photo 2369 213 300 right Sparkle Motion after I painted the flag of New Zealand on her photo If you are not already familiar Sparkle Motion is the name given to our mighty Kiwi flag bearing Subaru Rather than bore you with details we will get right down to her last voyage strong From Dunedin to Queenstown strong a href tags Sean Peterson Sean a a href tags Tisa Peterson Tisa a and myself left Dunedin on Wednesday afternoon amazingly enough right on schedule of 3 00pm Before taking to the road we aired up the tires tyres in N Z properly and filled the pipes with oil to ensure a safe trip to Queenstown about 4 hours to the southwest of Dunedin Within about 20 minutes of passing Mosgiel just outside of Dunedin the car started smoking from the right part of the hood We continued on for a short while longer with small bursts of white smoke every so often until eventually pulling over to find out that the radiator had sprung a leak and was steaming hot smoke onto the battery We were not concerned with the battery but knew without a proper cooling system the car would overheat After trying to go a few more kilometers the temperature began rising and we were forced to turn back with the intent of heading back to Dunedin About 10km back towards Dunedin we stopped in at a B P and had a look Not only was the radiator pressure not holding but there was no coolant left in it Worse off is that they seem not to use anti freeze in this country and so the radiator has small rust deposits here and there from water erosion Much to our surprise we were able to pick up a small bottle of radiator solder We added this magic potion into the radiator pipe as instructed by the package and the serviceman and within minutes the hole had disappeared and the radiator was fixed or at least holding for the time being We drove to Queenstown monitoring the area and car temperature all the way without any problems Upon our two days in Queenstown and Wanaka much hilarity and shenanigans ensued but thats a different story strong From Lake Wanaka to Ranfurly strong After an afternoon of fishing in Lake Wanaka we reeled in 1 salmon and 1 trout we began heading back for Dunedin at about 5 00pm Sparkle Motion was running quite well as we passed through Cromwell Upon getting to Alexandra we decided that we would take the scenic route between there and Dunedin so we could see more of the country This took us down Route 85 Upon traveling down Route 85 for an hour or so we noticed that the car had begun smoking again The problem was the radiator leaking once more and so steam was shooting out from the right side of the car the drivers side in NZ We continued driving but kept a close eye on the temperature We finally came upon a town called Ranfurly which is about 130km from Dunedin We stopped in Ranfurly to check the radiator but also noticed a worse smell As it had happened some oil had begun dripping onto the engine and was being burned off This of course created even more smoke and smelled terribly After checking the oil level and thinking that everything was A OK we took back to Route 85 After about 10km of driving we were noticing heaps of white smoke shooting out the rear exhaust and then a bit more coming out of the front We deduced that we had put in too much oil and it was overspilling and furthermore burning We continued on but with extreme caution but at about 7 00pm and still 110km from Dunedin the car began handling poorly as we had just turned off of Route 85 and onto Route 87 which is the even more scenic route into Dunedin a href tags Sean Peterson Sean a and I got out of the car to investigate the matter but could see nothing more than a small cloud of white smoke coming from the engine block There was white smoke coming from the engine hot steam spraying from the radiator and a small oil leak on the concrete below We decided to start the car with the hood up to get a better idea and as I turned the key a bucket of oil fell onto the concrete below We had located the problem the Exxon Valdez was nothing compared to our car Assuming that the oil would hold we decided to head back to Ranfurly as we obviously needed repairs About halfway there the car became entirely inoperable as clouds of white smoke covered the air and we left a trail of oil behind us We pulled over at the entrance to a farm and began looking to fix the car We realized fairly quickly that the pressure sensor connected into the oil well that reads the oil pressure had blown apart and thus created a large hole for oil to drain Of course as we drove the oil would get pushed by the wind and hit the hot engine block causing it to burn and produce copious amounts of white smoke Add that to the already existing radiator steaming a href tags Sean Peterson Sean a and I tried to fix the car for about 2 hours with my Leatherman but we just could not wedge anything in there with enough force to combat the 60psi of pressure that the well was yielding About 8 cars had asked us if we needed assistance by now and with an huge windstorm coming in and nightfall upon us we had the 9th car take us back to Ranfurly To make this long part of the story short we found a mechanic still available but after several attempts at fixing the car it needed to be towed back to Ranfurly We gave the hotel manager the fish that we had caught and he put the three of us in a room without charge When we got up the next morning the car had already been fixed and went on our way Minus 150 00 kiwi dollars strong Driving From Ranfurly to Dunedin strong If this were an epic drama this is the part where it would all come together at once We made it back to Route 87 and casually drove along for about 20 minutes or so until slowing for a one lane bridge To those not familiar with one lane bridges a common New Zealand site they are simply one lane bridges where one side yields right of way to the other If the bridge is long enough it will typically have midpoint nooks for cars to wait in while another goes by As I slowed for the bridge I proceeded to down shift in the usual fashion The bridge appeared clear and so I began to accelerate and enter it I accelerated past my next gear speed and as I stepped on the clutch to up shift both a href tags Sean Peterson Sean a and I heard a loud pop So now here we were driving down a one lane bridge in the south of New Zealand with a flag bearing twenty year old Subaru which now had no clutch and consequently no way for me to control the car s speed Again we tried to fix the problem but could barely tell what it was All of the springs seemed to be in tact We finally decided to put the car into first gear start it up while pressing the gas and power shift it into the other gears In case you are not familiar with power shifting it is shifting gears without the use of the clutch This worked But I could neither down shift nor start from a stopping position which posed some problems driving through a mountain range We made it back to Mosgiel about 20 minutes south of Dunedin and when we got to the first traffic light I turned off the car put it in first waited for the green and started it up once again Everything was going fine until we got into Dunedin where there is a giant mountain the highway goes up About 5 6 of the way to the top the car would go no more as smoke began pouring out every which way A passerby had a tow rope and pulled us to the top of the mountain through the speeding traffic The problem was now that we could no longer start the car in gear as something had gone wrong in the gearbox apparently photo 4225 385 300 right Sparkle Motion getting towed away photo So for the next two hours a href tags Sean Peterson Sean a and I worked as a diligent and slightly frightened team to get the car back to my house The procedure worked by having me put the car into first gear and turn the key while a href tags Sean Peterson Sean a pushed This would generate enough spark to get the car going but a href tags Sean Peterson Sean a would have to run along and manage to jump into the moving car as there was no way for me to stop Up and down hills and mountains through yield signs technically Give Way signs in New Zealand traffic and stoplights we eventually got the car back to my house where it stunk of a burning transmission The car let off a light smoke for several hours afterwards from the oil we had burned and there was even a small puddle from all of the radiator fluid a k a water that had leaked out of the rusting apparatus Suffice to say this would be the last time Sparkle Motion was ever started

The Engine Failure The plan was for a solo XC from AUS gt AQO gt LZZ gt BMQ gt AUS Total time planned was 3 5 hrs including FSTB gassing up and eating lunch I think the flight was about 160nm round robin Preflight was completely normal oil was just a tick below 5qt gas looked fine instruments were okay and the mags checked out The left one dropped just slightly below normal so I leaned out the plane for about a minute per our procedure and rechecked it It tested within the norm the second time I departed Austin at 17 51Z a bit behind schedule but I was okay with this Very smooth departure and climb I even got routed over my property and then Mueller so I was really enjoying my views I probably reached my planned altitude of 6 500 just after the towers on Hwy 360 I leaned the mixture out as always waited for the brief drop in RPM and then a few ticks back to the right Around this time I was switched over to Houston Center for flight following on 134 20 photo 21130 521 520 left Climbing past 5 000 feet on my way to a planned 6 500 photo Around 18 35Z just getting over the intersection of HWY 281 in Marble Falls and still at 6 500 feet I noticed the engine was starting to lose power I couldn t hear it or feel it but I saw it on the tach It was dropping about 100 RPM for 1 2 second every 15 20 seconds or so I just began monitoring it and after a minute or so alerted Houston Center to my finding They asked if I wanted to declare any emergency and I said no I just wanted to say it in case the problem got worse and I needed more attention They asked me to keep them updated and business was as usual The problem persisted About 2 5 minutes later the problem got worse and I started noticing the engine dropping about 300 RPM for 1 2 seconds every 15 20 seconds with the 100 RPM drops interspersed between those I immediately alerted Houston Center to the problem with something to the effect of Houston Center Cessna 67796 My engine is definitely having problems now probably going to have to land They quickly started giving me very close attention and asking if I had power and such I replied yes but that the engine was suffering power losses At this time we established that I was a student pilot on a solo XC I had already located a bunch of fields by this time and as HC noted Horseshoe Bay was just a few miles off to my west about my 10 o clock according to Houston Though I tried to remain calm I m sure they could sense some panic in my voice by this time Still I kept doing things as needed and now treated the situation as an emergency assuming that the engine would die at any moment I went through the emergency checklist though it didn t seem to fix the 300 RPM drops I was still communicating with Houston treating the situation as an emergency and the problem was still persisting I definitely had Horseshoe Bay in my sights just a few miles off to the west and was just a little below my previous altitude I informed them that the problem was still continuing and that I would be heading for Horseshoe Bay Though I had them handy I requested the runway configuration airport elevation and the CTAF All three were given to me Just as I started my left turn and about 1 second before my heart would momentarily stop the engine lost almost compete power I can t be sure but it dropped down to about 1000 1200 RPM basically just above idle and held there for a moment before jumping back up At this point I told Houston that I had a more severe problem and that the engine was probably about to die They passed me over to Horseshoe Bay and those guys started bringing me in They cleared out all other traffic and told me either runway was mine for the taking I was still around 5 800 feet at this time PA is 2 100 about 3 miles west of the field and more or less on a perfect left line for a left downwind to runway 35 the preferred runway was for 17 but surface wind was only about 3 kts so I stuck with 35 I told Horseshoe Bay that I would be making a long extension of my downwind in order to lose my excess altitude I probably went about twice as far as normal before turning base doing the best I could to calculate all of the differences quickly in my head The engine seemed to be working with me at this point but I was also making a lot of adjustments to it so hard to know for sure I turned base still a bit too high but plenty far out On final I quickly got down to a good altitude slowed enough for flaps and added a notch The other two notches came in at my discretion as I basically was landing by feeling it out I put it down on 35 and it was actually a really nice smooth and otherwise uneventful landing Taxiing didn t seem to be much of an issue either The guy waved me to a spot and was happy to see me We called Houston Center immediately to let them know and also Flight Service to alter and close my flight plan photo 21110 521 520 left N47796 on the ground at Horseshoe Bay after my failed engine photo

The Nike Cluster On May 16th 2000 Dave Guezuraga and I launched a new type of model rocket that we had never used before Dave was the engineer behind this particular rocket and it would seem in hindsight that he crafted the machine rather well The launch site was set at Zilker park and though the sunset made for some scenic views it was only the result of us getting there late As a note it s usually not a good idea to launch model rockets at night if you expect to find them again We had a rather large crew audience for this particular launch which consisted of Eric Zavesky Klaus Wagner Annie Van Zandt and Dayna McKay The schedule called for at least one test launch of the Nike Cluster but time permitting two would ultimately ensue To give a peek into the power of this rocket this particular rocket flew on D engines specifically D12 3 engines but it happened to fly on 3 of them at once It was roughly equivalent to 24 class A engines strong The Nike Cluster Launch Number I strong photo 35954 739 300 right A bottom view showing off its 3 class D engine mounts photo Launch Number I Launch Date May 16th 2000 Launch Time 20 18 Launch Location Zilker Park Approx Landing Distance 200 meters strong How did we capture this footage strong If you happen to notice the glass looking thing sitting in the middle of the above bottom right picture it is actually a 10 gallon aquarium The purpose of having it was so that we could capture the footage that we did Generally speaking we would put it directly next to the launch pad with a video camera inside of it For this particular shoot the video camera was a Sony Digital 8mm The aquarium simply helped to protect the camera from being destroyed strong The Nike Cluster Launch Number II strong photo 35981 739 300 right The ignitor hits all three D12 3 engines at once photo Launch Number II Launch Date May 16th 2000 Launch Time 20 48 Launch Location Zilker Park Approx Landing Distance 200 meters Notes Rocket barely recovered Sustained damage from landing in a tree lost parachute and nosecone In the interest of science and exploration why stop at one launch when you can do two Truthfully it was probably not a good idea for us to have gone ahead and launched the Nike Cluster a second time The sun was almost down and it was apparent that recovering it may be somewhat of a problem The video camera we used to capture the images happened to have nightvision on it and I suppose we figured we had some sort of an advantage over the night sky We weren t entirely wrong It took about 30 minutes to recover the Nike Cluster from the first launch and have it prepped for launch II It just so happens there would not be a launch number III

SkiLudlow 2011 For the past 6 years my good friend Jason Kujda has put together a marvelous ski trip to Breckenridge Colorado for he and all of his friends He handles every component of it and even lets people pay in installments Since he has been busy this year building up his career namely saving money so that he can finally get married he decided that he was no longer going to do the ski trip After some discussion I finally decided that I would go ahead and take it over and last October announced to everyone that I would be handling it this year The following is the text that I sent out to everyone em The rumors that you have no doubt heard by now are true The annual SkiKujda trip has been successfully hijacked in a carefully planned and executed coup d etat 2011 promises to be bigger and better than all other years combined photo 35934 740 300 right Front of the skiludlow card everyone was given photo But let us not forget the many years of wonderful rule by Jason Kujda From overseeing the great fight of 2006 to his blessing laid upon the conception in 2007 Perhaps the introduction of Catchphrase in 2008 or the engagement that would soon follow And let us not forget the Banana Man Skier of 2009 the diplomatic relations with Tyler Canon of Missouri and of course SkiKujda the Movie which premiered in 2010 Only time will dictate this man s place in history The Basic Plan photo 35943 740 300 right Back of the skiludlow card everyone was given photo Most everything has already been explained to people individually but for anyone still on the fence here are the details and a breakdown of what is included We will fly into Denver on Wednesday March 23rd 2011 Depending on the flights available we will try to arrive between 10am and 1pm MST We will pick up our rental cars head into the mountains and get settled into our condos at Sawmill Creek Thursday morning we will pick up our ski rentals and then plan to ski all day Thursday Friday and Saturday Per our previous few years we ll likely try to organize a group trip to Vail on Friday for anyone who is interested in going our lift tickets will include this in the price Each day after skiing is usually met with some relaxation a social hour in the hot tub with plenty of beverages and a dinner on the town For the super human Keystone also offers night skiing As per our custom we will be planning a large group outing at The Dive Bar on Saturday night On Sunday morning we will check out drive back to Denver and fly back home What the trip includes For about 650 probably less you will be getting 4 nights in a condo basic ski rentals for 3 days upgraded skis and snowboards will be more a 3 day lift ticket also good for one day at A Basin Vail Beaver Creek and Keystone and a rental car with gas included to get you to and from the mountain There is a good chance of a few additional surprises too As always any excess money will be refunded appropriately There is no attempt to make any money off of this trip em And since there has always been a t shirt for the occasion this is the outlined version that I sent off to the printer of the first skiludlow shirt photo 35939 740 520 left The periodic table of elements with some slight modifications photo

AS GasTracker v1 0 Released photo 261541 740 300 right An overview of the basic HTML graphing photo photo 261540 740 300 right A screenshot of the data view photo This script will allow you to keep track of your gas mileage and have the results displayed in an easy to read website None of the data is harvested from anywhere on the web but is rather entered manually by the user and for the user Currently the program only supports the English system of miles and gallons Future versions intend to include the metric system as well as conversions between the figures If the demand seems to exist a future version will allow the user to import a CSV file or something similar This should satisfy any users who have historically kept up with such data with Excel and other spreadsheets Download from Freecode at a href http freecode com projects gastracker http freecode com projects gastracker a Download directly from Tar GZ a href files software packages AS GasTracker_v1_0_0 tar gz AS GasTracker_v1_0_0 tar gz a 43 789 bytes WinZip a href files software packages AS GasTracker_v1_0_0 zip AS GasTracker_v1_0_0 zip a 62 133 bytes

Nelson Taken from Tisa's original journal of our trip: Nelson- (population: 52, 300) Nelson is an artsy town with cute cafes, galleries and art vendors. The streets remind us of a typical town life scene in Colorado (eg; Boulder and Denver). Small independent stores line the streets one after another, a very peaceful and quite atmosphere, cute architecture, no loud signs or advertisements everywhere, no traffic congestion, many trees and nicely paved streets. However, with this beauty comes a price tag. The food was rather expensive as was all the merchandise. It didn’t take us long to realize that this wasn’t a place where we would be residing but I would love to retire here. My favorite part was having trees fill and surround the area. Makes for a great, relaxing morning to stroll down the street, buy a cup of coffee from the corner vendor and sit under a tree and read a book!

National Cathedral of Nelson Taken from Tisa's original journal of our trip: Nelson- (population: 52, 300) Nelson is an artsy town with cute cafes, galleries and art vendors. The streets remind us of a typical town life scene in Colorado (eg; Boulder and Denver). Small independent stores line the streets one after another, a very peaceful and quite atmosphere, cute architecture, no loud signs or advertisements everywhere, no traffic congestion, many trees and nicely paved streets. However, with this beauty comes a price tag. The food was rather expensive as was all the merchandise. It didn’t take us long to realize that this wasn’t a place where we would be residing but I would love to retire here. My favorite part was having trees fill and surround the area. Makes for a great, relaxing morning to stroll down the street, buy a cup of coffee from the corner vendor and sit under a tree and read a book!

Axel Lane Staking Fence Before heading out to the airport for the air traffic control tour that Dustin had invited me on, I headed out to Axel Lane so that I could lay down a 300 ft long string and plant stakes every 10 feet. This pattern would ultimately allow me to come out shortly after and begin digging with the gas auger.

Axel Lane Bulldozing With the final intent being to put up a fence, the first thing I intended to do for the property was to clear out the dead brush along the front of it. It is more than evident that the property had not been maintained over the years and my goal was to correct that however I could. I rented a skid-steer from Rent-Equip on North Burnet at Braker and Preston was gracious enough to come along for the fun (plus I needed his truck to tow the thing). We made an afternoon out of clearing a rectangular path on the front of the property about 50 feet wide and 300 feet long. At the end of the day, and just for kicks, we cleared a walking path around the perimeter of the property.

East Side Boil 2008 So another long year had gone by and as April approached, anticipation of the 7th annual East Side Boil was upon us. This year was bigger and better than ever with over 300 people showing up to the event, and over 600 lbs of crawfish being consumed. Kudos to Mr. Daniel Putt for pulling off another fantastic party and also to Mr. Jeff Smith for cooking all 600 pounds of food. Here is the original eVite sent out by none other than D. Starr Putt himself: It's that time again. After last years event, the bar has been raised, expectations are high, and committees have been organized. Please mark your calendar for April 19, 2008 for an event that can't be missed. www.eastsideboil.com is up. It is a work in progress. Our photography team will be updating the site with Pictures after the event is over. 1 week to go!!! See you all there. DPutt