usbwine, a good one!

looking for a chrismas gift for very good friends? just check:

http://www.mensup.fr/usbwine/?act=insc&mp=USBWINE&o=92&p=61

enjoy

too fast too furious! the crazy sparrow of the avenue des Fauvettes (=hedge sparrow avenue)

After 2 weeks setting the instrumentation within the brand new plane, i was ready to make a test and make it fly. The first flight of a little plane is really crutial since it is the moment when you have to detect what are the things that require to be finely tuned.

Beautiful isn't it?

It appeared to me quite soon that there was indeed a problem somewhere....

Sniff :S

*fortunately i have some good glu !

i noticed that this model is no longer available.... (pictures here and a video of capabilities when well piloted: video here)
i have an exceptionnal plane! ...and i destroyed it!

look at what intensive gluing can do: (soon)

David in Belgium

It was a surprise apparently that i found cool for him to come in Belgium ;) actually i used to say to my friends that they are welcome but apparently i forgot to tell to that one ... uups sorry David :D

First: lets find some ice cream hummmmm

Second: Brussels (Bruxelles)

place du Cinquantenaire, Grand Place, the theather where belgian revolution begun (in red)

(i have no idea what is behind him)


The park in front of the government's buildings (or castel?). It was full of policemen and journalists around since that day an important vote happened deciding the split of the surroundings of Bruxelles-Halle-Vilvoorde between flemish and french speaking parts (this is politics, i won't go further).

third: trains... you like it? guess what, there are museums around!
Since David is found of trains and so am i, we decided to go to available train-related expositions. i discovered placed i had no idea of, which is good :)

in "gare centrale", there is a little museum with lots of train models and on top there was a little train exposition, i learned how alternative powered models are changing direction (25V pulse apparently).

The next day, Mariembourg and the museum of Tignes: this time with real old steam engines

Close to these huge impressive machines, even when you are 191 cm tall, you relativise, and realise you are not that big after all...

We made a challenge, the aim was to start the steam engine

David insisted to begin...

the machine and some cleaning first!

then he realised there was no charcoal in the furnace so he wanted me to enter in the furnace of the steam boiler generator to see what was wrong (and probably see if i am hot enaugh to produce steam... i would suggest to take a hot girl for it ;) ... fortunately i ate too much at lunch and my belly was too big for me to enter it ...ouff!

David thinks i did not enter the furnace because i was afraid he would close the door lol :) not because i ate too much !!!

After a while, we got steam and could both give it a try :)

after so many efforts, we wanted to take a shower with the water tank fillers but we could not manage to get it working... apart from it we have enaugh water in belgium....yeye another good story ;)

Some nice little circuits with : guess which one is mine?

Another stupid crash

It already happened to one of my planes a few years ago... the wings become fragile and break during a flight at a good altitude (= far from the ground). I bought this yellow plane almost 6 years ago. This is a good lifetime for a piece of light expanded plastic.

For those who like to see pictures:

I could glu the wings again together and fix the wood support puzzle inside but the wings would break again after some time.... micro fissure occur within plastic materials... anyway, i ll try to fix it ;)

A trip to Portugal to present the Thesis work

The aim of the long adventure started some years ago is almost there. i left all the friends in Grenoble and i brought all the stuff home in belgium. I moved to portugal 4 days before the final exam (D-4).

On the saturday (D-2), Célia drove Stephanie and i to Belem in a resto and then i had the opportunity to taste the Pasteis de Belèm, it is different than what i expected, actually it is even good! In belgium we have some kind of pudding cake that tastes the same but that you eat cold...

The Morning of the 24 th september 2007 i made the presentation in the main auditorium of the ITQB. It was followed by 1h30 of discussions and questions. At a moment during the questions, we heard a huge blast noise! and fumes came suddenly from the projector, i have to admit that the sentense i was pronouncing was a bit interrupted, i could not believe this was happening! If it had happened just 1 h before, i would have been screwed up without projector to show the presentation.... :S It took me 10 seconds to remember what i was going to say to answer to the last question.
finally, the 4 referees and my 5 supervisors had a meeting in another room and decided that i graduated!
Believe me the sensation is strange when you are called Doctor but that you are not a medecin... :)

I will soon have a link to the presentation movie in here...
but like a friend wrote to me :" if the projector decided to commit
suicide instead of continue listening to you, maybe I don't want to see
the presentation... "


I spent the afternoon collecting the correction comments from the referees, indeed, i need to provide a corrected final version before 24 th october in order to get a chance to have the diploma in one year.

The day of the presentation was actually a nicer day than i ever though :) exhausted at the end but after a special moment!

The evening, almost the entire group of supervisors with a part of the collegues and friends from portugal made a resto in Cais do Sodré.
While waiting for the others to joins, we were just discussing in front of the resto "portugalia" when some people near us began to move strangefully with cameras in the hand. doing this all around a girl. My friends were telling that the women is a famous Brasilian actress. Seing this scene was funny and a first ! we were so close that maybe we will appear on some of the pictures to be published in some magazine... :) so i graduated and was seen close to (ok, 4 m at least heheh) an international actress the same day... UAU!

The resto was nice and i tasted an "açorda" of shrimps.
It was funny to see the waiter come with a pan, put it on the table, open the cover to show us how well the shrimps were aligned together in circle with the white and yellow of an egg in the middle over powder of bread mixed with some kind of vegetable cream. Suddenly he mixed it all thoroughly in such a funny way that everybody was telling that now it did not look tasty anymore :D
bon appetit! :)

---------------------------------------
Resting Time the following day (D+1)

Since i was not going to stay too much in the country of the sun, I went for a little sightseing tour with some friends from belgium.
We saw Belem very fast and some gardens in Cascais

The park:






I never saw such a strange alignment of ducks in a small lake :D




Cuidad petanquus virus is also present in portugal!!

i finally went back home from Carcavelos to oeiras by feet but with a beautiful view :)

I noticed that the location of the trash bins is very unusual in that beach....

The 26th i went back to belgium (D+2). i am absolutely needed in there for the following week end for the wedding of my sister....

Not yet the end of the adventure :D