Travelling Engineer

Logan's 2009 in Pictures

2010-02-16T14:03:00.002-08:00

Here it is. My slideshow for the year 2009. Thanks to everyone who made it such a wicked year!

And for some reason, it loads much quicker if you view it directly on the Animoto site:

http://animoto.com/play/omhNRBsCC8k43tGrbObvlA

2009 - The Year of Stability

2010-01-31T09:29:00.004-08:00

I struggled a bit with what to call this year. We had:

2006 - The Year of Adventure - As I set out from Canada on my Eurotrip, culminating with my 5 months internship in Denmark.
2007 - The Year of Knowledge - As I started my amazing 8 month job for Soloy in Seattle and then moved to France to start my Masters.
2008 - The Year of Commitment - Not only were more and more of my friends back home making the commitment of marriage, I made the commitment to stay here in France at least three more years for this PhD.

So that brings us to 2009; what could I call the year 2009? Finally the word hit me, stability. Why stability? Well because 2009 was, for the first time in a long time, a stable year.

For starters, 2009 brought me a stable full time job for the entire year! I started at Airbus with my job/PhD in Feburary of 2009. And with this brought money, finally money! After 7 years of being a poor student, I finally am bringing home "l'argent", how sweet it is.

2009 also was a year without moving. After leaving Canada in 2006 i've been all over the map. Traveling, then 4 months in Denmark, then back to Canada for a month, then to Olympia for 8 months then to France to the student dorms, then to my apartment here in Toulouse. Then back to Canada again for 2 months while I waited on the work contracts to get finalized. But now, I'm stable. I'm in Toulouse. I have an incredible apartment. I got incredible lucky to find a great roommate on the first try at the beginning of 2009 and most of all...I'm just really comfortable in Toulouse. It has truly become my home. I love the city, I love the job, I have a great group of friends here, 2009 was the year that Toulouse, France became home.

So, that's where the Year of Stability label came from. So...what actually happened in 2009.

I came back to Toulouse in early January, eager to finally start my new job with Airbus. I also had to find a new roommate after my old roommate Vladimir got a job back in Barcelona. I was a little apprehensive, because finding a roommate just seems it can be really hit and miss. You just never know what your going to get. But I got lucky and Ignacio was one of the first guys to respond to my roommate request, and right upon meeting him, it seemed things were good. So he moved in at the end of January.

February came and the paperwork was finally finalized and work started. So what is my work. As many know I'm doing a PhD, but not really a PhD in the traditional sense because I'm doing the PhD with Airbus. That is, with the company, it's an industrial PhD. The best part is, I'm just like any other employee, meaning I receive my salary, benefits, vacation exactly like any other worker..so in that sense it's a job. But the work I'm doing for Airbus is in the research department, and as such I'll be writing a PhD thesis in two more years time... so in that sense it's a PhD.

Starting a PhD is never easy. Basically the first three months my job entailed "read all of this" in order to get a fundamental foothold into the subject. I did have some distractions, in helping trouble shoot another project that was going on, but the majority of the time was spent reading. Unfortunately the middle part of the year, had me feeling a bit frustrated at work. I felt I had done enough reading and was ready to move on, unfortunately there was just too many other things going on at Airbus. As such, my tutor at Airbus was simply swamped trying to finish off another project, as well as his wife having their second baby, in addition with the usual slowdown at Airbus during summer due to everyone in France being on vacation. So here comes September, and I really felt that 8 months of my PhD had slipped away without any real forward movement.

But Jerome my tutor is really a great guy. So we had a great conversation in September, finally he was a bit less swamped at work and we had some planning meetings along with my other tutors from the laboratory and university. And since then it has really taken off. There is a focus in my work, and a real plan forward. I guess what excites me the most about this job is the potential impact of my research. I really am excited about working on something that can make a difference in the safety of all aircraft. I can't get into details on the blog, but I'm working on aircraft take-off and landings on contaminated runways (i.e. snow, ice, standing water etc..) and this is the leading type of aircraft accident. 25% of aircraft accidents are the airplane running of the end of the runway. So to be working on a real world problem and trying to come up with a solution, it's really what drives me at work.

So that is 2009 from a work prospective, how about outside of work.

Well one of the advantages (and one of the reasons I chose to stay in France) is the vacation time, so that I can continue to travel and explore the world! And that I did! 2009 brought a record number of kilometers flown with over 60,000km's!!

Logan's Flights 2009

In Miles 37,654

In Kilometer 60,598

Earth Circumnavigation 1.51 x

Distance to the Moon 0.158 x

Distance to the Sun 0.0004 x

All 30

Domestic 2

Intra-Continental 17

Intercontinental 6

Other flights 5

Click here for the map

So we had our annual "Go East" trip in May, and this year we chose to go to Romania which was incredible.

Then in June I visited my good buddy Manuel in Brussels, Belgium where he was doing an internship.

I had Paris in July where I met up with my old Hungarian roommate Baly, afterwards he came to Toulouse and we hung out here for a week.

Jasmin came to visit me in August and we took a road trip inside France to Dax for the Feria.

September came my "official" summer vacation. Myself and two friends from work, Antonello and Adrien spent 15 days exploring Oman in the Middle East.

October was my first 'business' trip as I flew from Toulouse to Bristol to present at the Airbus PhD day where I won the prize of "Best Poster Presentation". And October also brought us a random Halloween trip to Dublin simply because Halloween is awesome and France doesn't really celebrate it. Therefore we had to go somewhere!

December was the craziest month of travel with Leslie's wedding in Mexico during the first week. So I crossed the Atlantic, went to the wedding, flew back across the Atlantic, went to work for 12 days, then flew back to Canada for Christmas! Too much time spent in an airplane in December that's for sure.

And voila...2009 simply flew right by!

I'm now officially 1/3 of the way done my PhD. I'm enjoying life in Toulouse, we go skiing on the weekends in the winter, we go out to the bars for a drink during the week, go to quiz night (where we consistently finish in the top 3) or jam-okee night or play poker, or play football (soccer).

I finally found some soccer teams to play on. Since i'm still 'officially' a student I'm playing on the university team. I also found a regular men's league team to play on, in addition the inter-Airbus leagues runs from February to May where "Team Peformance" made it to the quarter finals. Ummm what else. We had a great camping trip that I organized for 12 of us in May. We did some hiking and mountain climbing. Summer brought many a trip to the beach since we are only 150km's from the Mediterranean.

I guess the other big thing in 2009 was my French. I started 2009 still very low in my French level. I could obviously speak a bunch of words but I still wasn't very fluent, and too slow. 2009 was a huge improvement. My daily working life at Airbus is in French, in that the majority of my conversations with c0-workers and meetings and emails are in French. And so my learning came much faster. I wouldn't say i'm 100% fluent at this point (i'm not really comfortable giving presentation in French, and French emails still take me twice as long to write) but i'm conversationally fluent. I don't have to think about what to say the majority of the time. So that makes a huge different in living here, because language was the single biggest frustration I had living here in France.

Overall, I would say it was just a great year. It's great to be stable and comfortable in all aspects of life. It's a good feeling.

So here's hoping 2010 just continues that trend!

Logan's Thanksgiving in France

2009-11-25T14:13:00.002-08:00

For my Canadian readers: I know i'm two months late

For my American readers: I know i'm one week early.

I wanted to celebrate the Canadian Thanksgiving, but it happened just after I returned from Oman (side note: Pictures and a full write-up are coming!! Soon I hope) so it was just too much to organize too soon.

So I figured, being half American, allowed me to celebrate the American Thanksgiving.

Find a Turkey was NOT easy!! They just don't sell whole turkey here in France. So I had to go to the butcher, who looked at me with incredulous eyes as I asked for "une dinde entier" . But finally they said they could "probably" order one from a farm.

I wanted to invite many more people, but was limited both by space in my little apartment and by the size of the turkey. So we were 11 people from all over this world.

One Portugese
One Brazilian
One Vietmanese
One Columbian
One Thailandaise
One Lebanese / Canadian
Two Spanish
Two French
and me

So I split up some of the cooking duties.

Myself with the help of Bruno cooked the Turkey, made the stuffing, gravy and a green bean casserole.

Julien made super Mashed Potatoes

Roy cooked a yam casserole

Gift made Ceasar Salad

Rosa made pumpkin pies

Thien-Phu brought us a special Vietmanese dessert.

Esteban brought the dinner rolls

All in all I'd say the dinner turned out great!!! Not bad for my first hosted Thanksgiving!

Here are the pictures :)

http://picasaweb.google.com/logan.jones/200911Thanksgiving#

Happpy Birthday to me

2009-09-21T01:00:00.000-07:00

I'm not actually writing this from Oman. I wrote it before and chose the post-post option.

September 21st 2005 - Iron Horse Club, Edmonton Alberta

September 21st 2006 - Student House, Aalborg, Denmark

September 21st 2007 - Toulouse, France

September 21st 2008 - Oktoberfest, Munich Germany

September 21st 2009 - Somewhere in Oman!

It seems I'm developing a habit of being somewhere new on my birthday :)

Ohhhhh man Logan is off to OMAN

2009-09-17T22:56:00.002-07:00

Well the "big" vacation of the year has arrived. Myself and two friends are off to Oman!!! (don't worry if you just said "where!?!?" I did too when it was first proposed.

It's on the Arabian Peninsula along with the United Arab Emirates aka Dubai, Yeman, Saudi Arabia.

I'm going with two friends. Antonello who is Italian and Adrien who is French. The country is supposed to be really beautiful. With beaches, mountains, ancient cities, and of course desert.

It's a very very safe, secure country. No worries there. Very modern and tourist friendly, but one of the reasons we chose to go there is it's still hasn't become "overblown" with tourists. So we should still be able to get a real feel for the country, people, culture.

Anyways I have to run to work now. Hopefully my bag is packed.

I don't know the internet access I'll have over there. But I signed up for twitter which will allow me to add posts from my cell phone. So just follow the little box that is on the top of this page.

Back in two weeks!

Jasmin's Visit and the Feria de Dax

2009-08-21T11:22:00.002-07:00

About one month I was exchanging emails with Jasmin and she asked if I was going to attend Oktoberfest in Munich again this year. Unfortunately the answer was no....as I will be taking 2 weeks of vacation somewhere else (secret haha) during the same time. However, I told her that I had already visited her 3 times here in Europe and she had yet to come and visit me. Well that settled it. Within a week she had bought her ticket to come and visit me for 4 days between Thurs and Sunday.

So she arrived on Thursday and after picking her up at the Airport I had to go back to work. So I circled all the things to see in Toulouse on the map and let her wander :)

Friday I decided it would be a good night to have dinner at my house. So I invited a bunch of friends and finally we were 14 people all eating Mexican fajitas, tacos and enchiladas. And Jasmin got to meet my posse here in Toulouse haha.

Saturday!!!! And the start of our crazy weekend. In all we were 7 people, two Canadians (yep, I met another Canadian here in Toulouse), one German (Jasmin of course), two Italians, one French and one Columbian. We got up nice and early to take to the road with our two cars (I rented a car for the weekend). Luckily for us we were going in the opposite of direction then the rest of Toulouse. The radio kept informing us of the huge traffic jams going between Toulouse and the Mediterranean coast whereas we were heading to the Atlantic coast. Around 11am we arrived in the beautiful city of Biarritz in the Basque Country of France. We spent all the day, swimming, lounging and sleeping on the beach. The water was gorgeous and calm.

View Larger Map

Around 8pm we started the short drive to the town of Dax. The first 50km to Dax only took the normal 40mins....however the last 5km into Dax took nearly one hour!!. Why you ask? Well first I have to explain why were going to Dax in the first place......

This weekend was the Feria de Dax/Fête de Dax. Many of you have probably heard of Pampalona and the running of the bulls non? Well in fact many many of the cities here in the South West of France and North West of Spain doing something similar (just not on the same scale as Pampalona). Basically each city sets aside a week or so (in the case of Dax it was Wed-Sun) and they celebrate the city. Parties, Theatres, Bands, Concerts, no running of the bulls but a similar thing called Course Landaise. And as well they did the Corrida (Bull Fight) on Friday. But we missed all this, we simply went for the Saturday night party.

So back to why it took us one hour to go the last 5km.....because the normally quaint town of 5000 people swells to over 100,000 or more for the Feria de Dax. So there was a mass of cars entering the city trying to find somewhere/anywhere to park. And park anywhere they did. On both sides of the road, on meridians, on sidewalks, on bridges, in ditches. Unbelievable!!!

Finally...after parking the car and re-finding the other carload of friends we started the celebration. And well....other than try to explain it to you...i'll let the pictures do the talking. Suffice to say it was a ton of fun. One big street party!!! (more commentary after the pictures...so keep on scrolling)

We danced and partied until around 6am the re-found our car and slept in the car.....for all of 3.5hr...or until the sun baked us out of the car. At that point we cleaned up, and started the drive back to Toulouse to finish the weekend.

Overall it was just one big awesome time!! But for me the most incredible part was just that...everyone was having fun. Everyone was nice and friendly, dancing in groups. I didn't see fights, didn't see broken windows or cars tipped over. Just good friendly fun.

I was back at work on Monday re-telling the stories of the weekend to my co-workers. And of course they laughing that "I actually went to the Feria" As for them...it's nothing new..and if anything they avoid the big crazy party. But I was explaining to them how cool it was that it was so friendly and calm.

Of course..that's not to say there is never any trouble. And as the one pictures suggests there is definitely some clean up to be done. But overall, obviously if they continue it every year it means that what little trouble there is, doesn't outweigh the positive.

And I was explaining to my co-workers how this just doesn't exist in Canada....or more to the point...it can't exist. We just need to look at recent examples like the Oilers Stanley Cup playoffs, Calgary Stanley Cup Playoffs, Canada Day riot etc... It just seems that you can't get massive amounts of people drinking and partying together in the streets without significant damage being done. And i've been trying to figure out why. Obviously, like anything it's not that everyone goes crazy...it's that a small number go crazy and ruin it for everyone. But the fact remains that these "small number" are there and that large concentrations of people, alcohol and city streets simply aren't allowed in Canada. Of course my co-workers joked with me that this must mean the the French are just 'more civilized' than us Canadians haha

But I wonder if it's just because it not a habit it Canada. Here in Europe things like this are common, they happen all the time. These big street parties and paryting in the streets. And because it's so normal...nobody takes exception. It's just another occurrence. It's happening now, it will happen again, probably next week if you want to look for it. Whereas in Canada these events are not the norm..in fact they are the opposite. They are rare. And so the times that they do seem to pass, it's something new and crazy and exciting and you better take advantage of it (and unfortunately for that 'small number' of people, taking advantage of it means drinking yourself silly and then 'breaking shit').

Ok..i'm not going to rant any more...people probably stopped reading when they saw the perty pictures. But it's a shame that these kind of events can't happen in Canada. They really are a lot of fun. Either way, it was a great great weekend with my Big Little German sister.

2009-06-30T10:23:00.002-07:00

Btw...I haven´t got around to writing a trip report about my trips to Millau France, and then my 5 day excursion to Romania. But I have uploaded the pictures.

And as the saying goes...a picture is worth a thousand words.

http://picasaweb.google.com/logan.jones

A couple of hi-light photos

From 2009-05 Weekend in Aveyron

From Romania Part 1 - Bucharest Baby

From Romania Part 2 - Transylvania muhahaha

Three Years Can Change a Man

2009-06-30T10:17:00.002-07:00

Three years seems like a long time. I know there are still days when it's hard to believe I committed to stay here three years. Three Years!!! But then... there are other times when you realize just how fast three years can past.

May 25th 2006 - The day I left Canada to start this big worldly adventure.

And the time has flown... and yet at the same time. So much has happened since then, so many changes in my life. So I thought I'd share a couple of them.

Three Years ago:

Well to start off with, three years ago the only continent I knew was North America. Now I know nearly all of Europe and Scandinavia and have touched the tip of Africa (and Asia too if you count the other half of Istanbul) And yet I still have an unquenchable desire to see more of the world.

Three years ago I had a lot of Canadian friends. Now I have friends from all around the world. In every single country in Europe, in China, Japan, Australia, Singapore, Vietnam, India, Brazil, Columbia, Mexico and the list could go on. I've learned so much from these people, different cultures, different languages, traditions, foods....The world is spectacular!

Three years ago I spoke one language, albeit a very useful language, English. Now...well I can almost say I'm bilingual, as I'm getting more and more comfortable in French...finally. Of course over here that isn't saying much as everyone here speaks no less than 3 languages. But for me... coming from the stubborn boy back in Junior High who declared he'd never need a stupid language like French and promptly transferred out of the course... it's an accomplishment. Plus I can swear in like 5 different languages haha

Three Years ago I could make bacon and eggs. Amazing what living on your own will do for you. Of course, my saving grace is the wonderful world of the internet with it's plethora of recipes. But I've since made all kinds of things French Onion soup, Spanish Omelette, Beef Stroganoff, Shepherds Pie etc... I'm no chef... but we eat pretty well chez nous (our house).

Three Years ago I had a car.....*sigh* It's been a bit hard adjusting. I grew up in/with a car. I got my learners at 14. Bought my car at 15. Got my drivers license the day I turned 16 and since then have driven well over 200,000km in over 10 different countries and 20 different states. And now...I'm a bike man. I go everywhere I need on bike/metro/bus and we rent a car if needed for a weekend excursion. Still not easy to get used to....

My internal clock has switched to France/Spanish time. I now eat dinner around 9-10pm, go to bed a little after midnight. When we go out to the bars, we don't even meet up until 11pm-midnight and the finishing hour...well that depends ;) I'm usually at work by 8am, but the work hours are flexible which is nice.

Three Years ago I wouldn´t touch a glass of wine....but when in France...

One of the most important ones. Three years ago I had no aeronautical experience whatsoever...only a dream to find my way into the aeronautical industry. Now...I've got a Masters Degree in Aeronautics, am currently pursuing a Doctorate in Aeronautics and I work for the biggest aircraft manufacturer in the world. Not bad...

But don't worry everyone. I'm still Logan. Some things never change:

I'm still a goof. I'll admit it. I'm hardly ever serious. I make jokes, I make funny bird sounds, and I still like to pick wrestling fights (most notably with my mom).

I'm still Mr Event Organizer. It hasn't changed. I'm often the guy who wants to organize camping weekends, trips, bbq's. I like doing this stuff.

I'm still playing as much sports as possible. In addition to my daily wii tennis battle with my roommate Bruno (it's actually quite intense, don't laugh), I play soccer and volleyball on my department's team for the Airbus inter-departmental league. And I play soccer quite often with the guys from work. And it seems contagious but I've gotten the nickname speedy Gonzales now in three different countries.

I'm still no closer to being married than I was three years ago. But that's ok. If I were living back in Canada I might feel the pressure since nearly EVERY one of my friends is married. But luckily for me, it's the opposite here because NONE of my friends here are married... and none plan to be in the near future. People here get married in their 30's. So it's a good place for me to be :-)

And lastly my best friends are still my best friends. No matter how far away I live.

I Love MAY!

2009-05-07T14:11:00.002-07:00

You have got to love the month of May in France. Long weekends all around.

Friday May 1st - Workers Day Fête du Travail

Friday May 8th - Victory Day WWII

Thursday May 21st - Ascension

Monday June 1st - Pentecote

4 Long Weekends!!! And I'm taking advantage of it.

Last weekend myself and 12 friends spend the weekend in a region of France called Aveyron. It's about 2hrs from here.
http://www.tourisme-aveyron.com/uk/

Pictures from this amazing weekend will come soon

Tomorrow morning I leave for Romania!! We'll spend two days in Bucharest then rent a car and head into Transylvania

The other weekends are still up in the air, regardless May is a great month!!

Stay Tuned!

Logan

HP Sells Defective Computers and Refuses to Replace Them

2009-04-25T03:11:00.002-07:00

Hey Everyone. Just a short note because I no longer have a laptop anymore. As such my internet time comes from borrowing my roommates computers.

Long story short... my $2000 laptop, an HP DV9000t has had a complete failure after only 2 years of use.

In fact the computer was defective from the factory with a NVIDIA GO 7600 Graphics card that is defective in it's thermal management and is prone to overheating. NVIDIA has acknowledged this and HP knows the Graphics cards are defective but is refusing to fix the computer. It will cost $400 to replace the motherboard in my computer. $400 I will not pay, because my computer failed through no fault of my own, it was sold to me in Feb 2007 with a defective part. I am currently running the gauntlet of HP support trying to speak to someone important enough to explain (read Argue) my situation. Either way, even if I am successfull in garnerning my free repair, it will be months without a computer.....

So just know, that all is well. Work is good, Life in France is good :)

If you have an HP laptop bought in 2007-2008 and it's experiencing any of the problems listed below! Beware!! The best resource is
www.HPLies.com
So far over 400 people have posted their part and serial numbers of computers that have major problems and that HP refuses to fix. If your computer is like this, join the cause to get HP to acknowledge this problem.

TOP 10 SYMPTOMS OF A DEFECTIVE HP LAPTOP:

1. Date of Purchase
This is one of the most tell-tale signs of a defect. HP shipped out these laptops mostly from January 2007-June 2007 (when they discovered the defect and neglected to tell customers).

2. BIOS Update
This is the reason nVidia got sued by their shareholders, because THIS is the evidence that HP knew about the problem far before they began to give enhanced warranties. Go to the following site:

http://welcome.hp.com/country/us/en/support.html

Search your laptop model (ie. DV9000t), choose your OS, and look at the listings. If you have "WinFlash for HP Notebook System BIOS (for Notebooks with IntelProcessors) - Microsoft Windows/Vista-Based" listed in your drivers (from 11-2007), then you almost definitely are going to suffer from this defect. The entire purpose of this BIOS update is to keep the fans constantly running; it did not work, computers continued to overheat. All it did was make battery life worse

3. Overheating
Probably the most common symptom of the defective laptop... overheating. Some of us don't even game or watch videos and our laptops still become so hot that they cannot sit on our laps. This is a defect, HP has warm laptops, but not hot laptops. If your computer is always overheating, then the epoxy that cools your GPU is probably starting to go.

4. Wireless Errors
Many people have been experiencing total loss of wireless connectivity. If you ever have to reboot to get your computer to recognize your wireless card, you are in trouble. This is all integrated into the same defective board.

5. Screen Discoloration/Lines
If you notice that in Windows, or especially in the BIOS/POST screens, that there are lines and discolored things all over the screen (like dashes and hazed colors over everything), you almost certainly are a victim of the defect.

6. Random Reboots
Your computer might just shut off all on its own; this could happen when you're sleeping or while you're in the middle of writing a paper. It is the beginning of the end, you need to take action fast because your data is at risk of being lost.

7. Screen Goes Black
Similar to the random reboots, the blackscreens occur sporadically and often times recover or result in a Blue Screen of Death. Do not let HP support fool you, this isn't an LCD problem. Your graphics card is about to go.

8. System Beeps
Some people claim to experience beeps on loading that indicate almost certain failure. I will trust that some people who have had this problem can elaborate below.

9. nvlddm**.sys Errors
You don't want to see any error with the letters nvlddm in them.

10. Computer is Unusable
Like most of us that have ended up on this forum, your computer eventually just decides it is all done. You can turn it on, but all you will get is a black screen or a half OS boot with a black screen. Most of us give up at this point and just let our laptop be a door stopper for a while, but when you get ready... Fire up a storm and get that thing fixed! You paid for it, you have the right to not be sent parts that already weren't working out of the box.

Parties and Skiing Pictures

2009-03-09T15:32:00.002-07:00

Some posts about how life is going in France are coming soon, I promise. In the meantime, a couple new photo albums about what's been going on the last little bit. Parties and Skiing!

Housewarming/Birthday/Staring work Party at Our House

Spring Skiing in France

Happy Anniversary Concorde

2009-03-05T12:02:00.002-08:00

Monday March 2nd was the 40th Anniversary since the first flight of the Concorde in 1969. What a beautiful bird. It's a shame I never got to see her fly on her..or for that matter even see her fly.

You know.... it's such a shame that in this day and age....we are not limited by technology...we are limited by money. The technology is already there! In the 60's we were going to the moon, flying at supersonic speed, developing planes like the Concorde and the 747.

Imagine what we could do now...image the advances we would make.....if money wasn't the limiter. It's a sad world that we have the knowledge, we have the power...but we are held back by such a trivial thing like as money.

A tribute to the Concorde.

Logan's 2008 in Pictures

2009-01-19T10:51:00.000-08:00

The video - This took a whole lot of remixing. I started with over 200 pictures but it's only a 4 minute song...so it would only use the first 70/200 pictures. So i tried to cut down the pictures...but there was just too many amazing pictures and people involved. There was no way I could cut it down from 200 to 70. So eventually I doubled the speed at which it displayed the pictures allowing me to get 140 pictures in. So i'm sorry some of the pictures go by so quickly you can hardly see them. But it was a compromise I had to make. It's not easy to find an 8 minute song :P And this song and it's lyrics was the perfect fit for this year, I couldn't choose another song. Enjoy!

Logan

2008 - The Year of Commitment

2009-01-19T09:05:00.005-08:00

*Note: If you don't want to read my long drawn out recollection of 2008. Simply go to this post and check out the video slideshow "Logan's 2008 in Pictures"

2009! Wow...

I've had some time on my hands the last week (since I am back in France but my job still hasn't started - February 2nd is THE date)

So I was wasting time on Facebook and thought I'd browse through, Ardrossan Grad 2001 to see if any new people had signed on to Facebook that I didn't have. It was a very reflective experience. That was 8 years ago!! I look at the people on that page, I browse through their profiles....exotic travels, jobs, colleges, marriages, babies, business managers, engineers, firefighters, cops.....it's amazing how far we have come since then. And I look at myself, from what I was back then to where I am now. I'll be honest...I'm proud of myself.

So 2008. Well first off, I spent 2008 living in only one country which is a change from the last couple of years. Actually it feels good to be 'somewhat' settled. To be here in Toulouse with a great group of friends, to really 'know' the city, to have a favorite bar, a favorite restaurant, to actually collect some personal belongings (instead of living with the least amount of 'stuff' possible in case of another move). I'm really happy to be here.

The year started of in Hungary where I got to visit my Hungarian friends I met in Denmark. When I left Denmark, I had no idea if/when I'd get to see a lot of those people again. So to see Baly and Melinda and Bea again, and in their home towns, was really special for me.

The next couple months passed by rather quickly as we were swamped with homework as the Masters classes came to an end in March. Luckily Vladimir, Manuel and later Bruno all had internships here in Toulouse. Vladimir, Monica and I, after numerous visits, eventually found an incredible apartment. Near to the centre of Toulouse, furnished, spacious, bright, two balconies, I love it!

April also brought the start of my internship at Airbus. My subject:

The Loads department of Airbus designed a new method that determined the flexibility and hence change of shape of the airplane wings due to the flight loads. My job was to take this new calculation method and integrat it into the Flight Simulator program that Airbus uses. I then compared flight simulations against real flight test data to determine the level of improvement that this new "flexibility method" made.

It was a great experience. Not only in the work, but to get a glimpse of how the largest airplane manufacturer in the world operates. It's amazing to coordinate 10's of thousands of people to research/design/build/maintain/test these amazingly complicated machines. To see that the flight dynamic equations for the A380 is contained in a 200 page document. 200 pages of equations to describe ever detail of how the airplane pitches and rolls and yaws. Incredible!

2008 also brought the landing of a little piece of Logan on the planet Mars. The Phoenix Mars Lander, a project I got to work on with Dr. Carlos Lange at the University of Alberta, made a successfull descent into the northern plains of Mars. Over the next months it proceeded to astonish the science world with it's images, soil analysis and the detection of water on Mars. Truly amazing! (A little piece of Logan on Mars)

Of course we took advantage of living in Europe to continue traveling. In May, Manuel, Arturo and I took a 5 day weekend to see Finland and Estonia. I won't recount it other then to say it was AWESOME! More info here: Spring Turns to Summer in the South of France

You might be wondering why I called it 2008 - The Year of Commitment. Well it's because a lot of commitments were made this year and not just by me.

July brought some of the biggest commitments you can make, weddings! Namely my best friend Damien and Lisa and my little sister Kendra and Marc. I was really lucky in that Kendra and Marc planned the date of their wedding to be close to D&L so that I only had to make one expensive flight back to Canada :) Both weddings were amazing. I had the honor of being in the bridal party for both: as best man for Damien and as a groomsmen for Marc. Damien and Lisa's reception was so much fun; to be back in Canada and party the night away with all my friends i've grown up with. And Kendra and Marc's wedding brought the majority of the family together. Seeing as our family is spread through the United States and Canada...it isn't often we can get everyone in one place :)

July and August had my pondering my future. Soon I was to be done school. Done done! Which meant it was time to make a decision and find a job. And it had me pondering whether to return to work in North America or continue my stay here in Europe. Both sides made compelling arguements within my psychie (see - Europe or North America)

At the same time I had been applying for the open recruitement of the Canadian Space Agency for Canada's next astronauts. I knew at this point in my career, my young age and general lack of experience made it a long shot. And September 19th confirmed this as I was rejected during Phase II of the campaign. But however much it sucked to be rejected it really helped confirm the biggest commitment I would go on to make.

And that commitment was to take a permanent job here in France. The job is actually an 'Industrial PhD' meaning that I will be working at Airbus as a normal employee, but my work is on a special research project. It comes with a three year commitment and at the end of three years I can make a thesis defence and receive a PhD for my work. I won't go in to all the details, suffice to say it is an incredible opportunity to gain fantastic work experience on a subject I'm really excited about. The subject being:

Takeoff and Landing Performance on Contaminated Runways (ice, rain, snow, standing water)

Once again more info here: I'm staying in France a bit longer

September started with my year in France coming full circle. When I arrived in France the previous years Masters treated us to the 'Integration Weekend' where we partied, surfed and got to know everyone in Mimizan, France. Well now we had come full circle as it was our job to integrate the new students. 28 of us partied in the rain in the beautiful basque country at Bidart, France.

September brought graduation and my family to Toulouse. Graduation was fairly low key, but a great accomplishment nonetheless. This was it, 6 years of school and now done forever!! (yes i'm technically doing a PhD, but in reality it's just work).

Upon visting Toulouse, my family took of on our tour of Europe and the Mediterranean Cruise. I won't recap all other then to say it was amazing. We viewed the history of civiliazation with stops in Rome, Greece, Turkey and Egypt. To see all these places that I've read about in history books since grade school. I'll never forget it! (All the best pictures posted on Logan's Picasa)

It was also on this trip I met a very special lady named Darcie. When you talk about random meetings, this was it. Darcie loved meeting new people and as such would try and sit with new random people at meal times. Well she happened to sit down with my parents one lunch time. It turns out she lives out on Vancouver Island but was born in Edmonton and her mom and some family still live there. How about that...to meet a beautiful Edmonton born girl in the middle of the Mediterranean. It was also lucky that we were both staying on the same side of the ship, so we often ran into each other in the stairwell over the next couple days. Eventually (the second last day of the cruise) we met up in the "Skywalker Nightclub" and danced the night away and then proceeded to spend the entire last day of the cruise together before we had to say our goodbyes (it was not the end of Darice though, she'll reappear at the end of the story :P)

I'll skip the rest of October and November as it had me doing literally nothing. The 'PhD' requires extensive French administrative paperwork and an 'approval' of the research. I was told this process would take two months or more. Needless to say I played a lot of online poker haha

With the paperwork done but the approval still waiting. I decided I might as well return to Canada for a long Christmas Holiday. Thus I spent the last half of November and all of December back in Canada. It was really great just to be at home in Canada. Get out and meet not only my close friends I see everytime i'm home, but a lot of college friends that I often don't get to see on my short visits home.

Christmas came and so did Darcie. Since her mom and mom's side of the family is from Edmonton she booked time off to come to Edmonton from Dec 24th - January 9th. It was 'purely coincidence' that I was going to be home in Edmonton at that time too ;) We spent a lot of time together and had an amazing Christmas and New Years. I know many people and relatives are wondering where this is going with Darcie and that is a good question. One we've asked each other many times. Obviously the current situation isn't the most desirable with me just starting a 3 yr term in France and her settled on Vancouver Island with her own dog training business to run. But we're just taking things as they come and following where the roads lead us :) I'll leave it at that for now.

It was wonderful to be home with family for Christmas. Grandma and Grandpa flew up on Dec 26th to spend Christmas with us. The weather was a balmy -25'C or colder the entire Christmas holiday.

And before you know it, 2008 came to an end. We had a New Years party at Megan's new apartment. I said goodbye to 2008 with my closest friends at hand, what more can one ask for.

So goodbye 2008.

Hello 2009

Logan

If at first you don't succeed

2008-11-15T19:47:00.002-08:00

So....as many of you know, and as I posted on my blog a couple months ago. I applied for the open astronaut position offered by the Canadian Space Agency.

So it's been a busy couple of months, what with the finish of the masters and the family vacation. But I know a lot of you were keeping me in your thoughts for this opportunity so I wanted to update you.

Well...on the 19th day of September 2008, I received the news:

We would like to underscore the fact that the Pre-Selection Board has studied your candidacy with great interest. The information you provided us revealed impressive credentials and experience, especially in your field of expertise. However, we have arrived at the conclusion that 200 candidates possessed qualifications and experience more diversified as well as achievements better tailored to the profession of astronaut

So.... obviously this was a bit devestating. I knew it was a longshot. I'm not gonna lie, I'm young, I'm inexperienced. But...for this recruitment phase my goal was to make it to Phase III. Phase III being the 200 people that they were going to invite to an additional question phase and interviews. I knew I was young, but I was hoping that the experience I had garnered at such age would be enough to get an interview. So that the agency would know who I was, to see see who I could become, to see the drive and determination that I have. I just wanted to get on their radar. So that the next time.....when I am older, when I have more experience, that they already know me.

But that didn't happen. I didn't have enough.

You know it's interesting.... Every decision I've had to make so far has been easy.

Take an internship in Denmark (what a great way to experience a new culture)

Take a job, that popped up from nowhere in Washington (my FIRST Aernautic job, what great experience)

Go to school at SUPAERO. (The most well known Aeronautic school in Europe. How can I say No).

This was the first decision I really had to contemplate. What job do i take? Where do I go after this Masters?

So here I was asking myself. What do I do? Do I take this PhD? What is best for my future? And I really didn't know. And I was asking myself, why can't this decision be easy like all the others.

I was never interested in the PhD. I didn't feel it was necessary. Not for this industry. If anything it could make me overqualified for "industral" positions. I had too much schooling and thus would command too much salary. So.....was this the right position for me?

I had already decided that this PhD seemed like the best opportunity for me to gain experience. But this news.....this news that I received on the 19 day of September, it confirmed my decision. It took away all doubt.

The work experience at Airbus was always the motivation. The PhD was just extra. But the rejection from the Canadian Space Agency, I realized that I had been given an opportunity. This PhD would not help me with a career in Aeronautics. But having the PhD would help me for the next time I apply for an astronaut position.

And believe me, this was not my last kick at the can. This is what i want to do. This is what I want to become. And I believe I can do it. There is no doubt in my mind.

But at the same time....this is not the time to become complacent. I got rejected for a reason. Because I do not have the experience. I do not have the skills. I do not have what it takes to be an astronaut. YET. So I have to improve. I have to take this time I have.... between now and the next recruitment.... to improve myself. To challenge myself to improve. To become better.

And maybe that is the hardest part. The self-improvement. To motivate myself towards a goal that is uncertain. How can I do this? What exactly do I have to do?

And that is the million dollar question. What do I have to do? But it's exciting. I have three years ahead of my for this PhD. And I intend to use them.

Some people my remember, how I talked about a 5 year plan. I posted it in my year end tribute 2006 What a Year it Was. That was the end of my first 5 year plan, my 5 years of Mechanical Engineering, and it was the start of my next 5 years.

Well here it is. One year great experience in Washington, One Year of Masters degree in France and now......add on three years of a PhD here in France at AIRBUS. That is the second 5 yr plan of my life.

I'm really looking forward to starting.

Let the adventure begin

Logan

Crusing through the history of Civilization

2008-11-02T16:56:00.004-08:00

Well I'm finally getting around to writing about the cruise. First of all, pictures are UP!!!
They can all be seen here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/logan.jones

Obviously there was a ton of pictures when you combine mine, my parents and Kendra and Marc's pictures. So I tried to post the best.

So first of all. The trip all started here in Toulouse. My parents and K&M met here at my home in Toulouse. We had a full house for a day, as there was the 5 of us, along with my roommate Vladimir, his mom and his brother. So 8 of in all. The graduation ceremony was fine. Nearly all in French so not so interesting for the family and we sat and watched as 150 names were individually called up. But most of all my family got to see where I'm living, meet some of my friends here, see the apartment here, and just generally get to know my life here in France.

From here we rented a car and made a pit stop in the town of Carcassonne, made famous by the beautiful castle. After we followed the GPS as it took us on a cross country adventure as we wanted to take the 'scenic' route on the way to Barcelona. It was definitely scenic, I have no idea where we took it. But we managed to make a 3hr trip to Barcelona in....7hrs.
	From Carcassonne

Barcelona is a beautiful city I know fairly well. Even before I had met my Barcelonan roommate I had spent a lot of time there. And since then I've been back several times with Vladimir (my roommate). So it was my chance to show my family the sights of Barcelona and the beach of Barcelona :)

From there we took a nice cheap flight to Rome (Man I love Europe, Rome to Barcelona for 35 Euro's). It was my first time in Rome!! And it was amazing. Really, this whole trip was a trip through the birth of civilization. From the Great Pyramids of Egypt, to the ancient city of Ephesus, to the renowned Acropolis in Athens and the 'Eternal City' of Rome. It is what made this trip amazing!
	From Roma

The Trip route looked like this. The ports of call were as follows:
Rome
Naples (where you could go to Pompei or Capri or the Amalfi Coast)
Athens, Greece
Ephesus, Turkey
Istanbul, Turkey
Mykonos, Greece (skipped due to bad weather)
Port Said, Egypt (with bus trip to Cairo)
Alexandria, Egypt
back to Rome

I'll let the pictures mainly speak for themselves. But in short the trip was amazing!!! This itinerary could not have been more perfect. I've been lucky enough to see a lot of Europe so far, but every single place on this trip I had never been. And of course the places! Athens!! Istanbul!! and probably the hi-light for most people on this trip, the Great Pyramids of Egypt.

The ship was a lot of fun too. The food was unbelieveable. In addition to the all you can eat buffet 24hr buffet (nothing like filling that 3am craving), and the burger bar, and the pizza bar. The formal dining was unreal. It was like eating at a 5 star hotel every night. And being a student....lets just say I don't get to eat like that very often...much less every single night. I ate steaks and lobster and king crab and prime rib and frog legs and escargot and halibut and....man....unbelievable.

The ship was huge, 951 feet long. 2.5 times walking around it was one mile. There were times it was a bit lonely. As with many cruises, the majority is older people (I was told the average age on the ship was 70yrs old) and if they are young they are usually newly weds (i.e. Kendra and Marc). So I became friends with a lot of the staff, as well there were my 'drinking' buddies who I could find up in the 'not so lively' nightclub each night. We spent most of the evenings 'shootin the shit' and showing of magic tricks. Finally on the second last night, the nightclub was a little more lively and I found my dance partner :) Darcie and I danced the night away, her teaching me to salsa and me showing her the two-step. Kendra and Marc were there all night too, dancing the night away. Pictures are all in the 'Grand Princess' album. As you can see, it was formal night so we had the James Bond tuxes going on, along with the Martini's in hand.

From The Grand Princess

The next day (and last day on the boat) I got to experience what it was like to spend your time on the boat with someone. Darcie and I spent the day laying in the sun, watching movies on the deck, playing mini-tennis, mini-golf and ping pong. And then follwed by yet another 5 star dinner. It was a wonderful day. One I won't soon forget.

And then....seemingly as soon as it began. We were back at Rome. The cruise was over. Back to reality....back to having to cook for yourself....sigh

But what's left over is the memories made and the pictures taken. And as you can see by the pictures...it really was the trip of a lifetime. The thing we saw, the history we witnessed, the people we met, the things we learned. I crossed a lot of things off of my list to do. The Great Pyramids, the Coliseum of Rome, Athens!! We will be telling and sharing stories from this trip for a long time.
	From Cairo and the Great Pyramids

I'm staying in France a bit longer

2008-10-20T07:16:00.002-07:00

Well the suspense and stress of finding what to do next is finally over. I have found something.

I have accepted a position here at Airbus France in Toulouse. In fact, it's not a normal position it's an Industrial PhD for three years.

In the end it came down to this. I need experience. Over the months of July and August and September I applied to every job I could find all over the world. And in fact I was a bit surprised at the lack of response I got. There were responses of course, but most of the jobs I was really interested in....they were looking for people with experience 3-5 years, and my resume with it's lack of experience just was not catching eyes.

So what was the best experience I can get. I had a lot of offers to stay here in France. 2-3 positions from Airbus itself and numerous positions from subcontractors. But I wanted a really multi-disciplinary job, a job where I could work with as many parts of the plane as possible. Now...that's not easy at a company like Airbus. The company is so huge....it's not like back when I was working at Soloy with 6 engineers in total. There is a department of 45 people in France, another 40 in Germany and more in UK just in the Loads Department. So they really specialize people in Airbus.

I actually received this offer back in June, but turned it down because I wasn't really sure what I wanted. But I reconsidered throughout September and decided it really is the best move for me right now.

So..what exactly is it?

First off, It is a PhD. At the end of the three years I will present a Thesis on my work, and assuming all goes well I will recieve a Doctorate. That's right, there will be a new Dr. Jones in the house. However, I did not choose it for the PhD. I chose it for the work experience, and hey, if at the end of three years a get a PhD (and was paid for three years to get that PhD) then that's just a great bonus.

So basically it is an 'Industrial PhD'. What this means is that I work at Airbus, I get paid just like a regular engineer, I have all the benefits of a regular engineer, but I am working on a subject of specific interest to Airbus and the public, and as such the French Government will pay part of my salarie.

So what was it about this post that interested me?

The subject is Takeoff and Landing Performance on Contaminated Runways. Contaminated means ice, slush, snow and/or standing water. Conditions us Canadians know well!!! I mentioned above it's hard to find something at Airbus "multi-disciplinary. " Well this is about as multi as it gets. I will be working in the Engineering Performance department, but I will be working a lot with Flight Testing, Safety and Certification, FAA/JAA Rules and Regulations, Flight Management and Flight Systems. Experience in a lot of areas!!!

The goal is this. To more correctly model the performance of the plane under these adverse conditions. The idea being, that if we can correctly model how the plane will react, how it's performance is affected by these conditions, we can develop new flight management and control systems. Systems that can take into account the current conditions of the runway and then calculate the optimal braking conditions to prevent the airplane from having a problem.

I read and follow a lot of aviation related news. And I know how often that mishaps/accidents are due to takeoff and landing in bad weather conditions. We have often seen pictures of planes having slid of the end of runways. Sometimes this is just a minor mis-convenience (from a passenger point of view) and other times it can be fatal.

So to be involved in developing a system that can model these conditions and brake the plane to safety....that is a really cool project to be a part of. You could sorta say I'm developing complicated ABS brakes for an Airplane.

So i'm really excited to part of such a great project, a project that will hopefully reduce accidents and save lives.

So when do I start?

That's the unknown right now. I didn't accept (and be accepted) for the post until the end of September. Because it is the PhD and the French government is paying part of my wages, there is some paperwork. All I know now is that the paperwork can take up to two months or more. So that could mean starting in December. Perhaps it can be fastracked to start in November. Or perhaps it might not be until January. We will see. Now that I'm back from vacation, I should know within the next week or so what the timeline is.

So yeah. I really thing this is the best move for me. I'm confident I made the right choice. I'll be getting great work experience. I'll be getting that work experience at the biggest Airplane manufacturer in the world and after three years I'll have a PhD, which can't hurt either.

What does this mean for all of you?

It means you have three more years to come and visit me!!! And I know Toulouse isn't the hot tourist spot of Europe. But don't worry, just come to Europe and I'll meet you. Paris, London, Barcelona, Berlin wherever.

Europe or North America

2008-08-31T03:19:00.002-07:00

So obviously this has been one of the biggest questions I've been trying to ask myself over the last months. And it's also the question I am asked the most.

"So are you staying in Europe forever?"
"When will you be coming back to Canada?"

Well I don't have an answer yet, as I'm still waiting on job responses but I know more what I want.

You see...In my heart, I believe I will be coming back to North America eventually. It's my home, it's where my family is, it's where I am used to. There are a lot of things I miss about the North American culture and life. It's who I am. But the keyword is eventually.

I feel as though when I come back to North America it will be for good. Obviously nothing is ever set in stone. But it just feels as though when I come back, I will be more or less settling down, becoming a bit more grounded then I currently am. And I can see that; the chances are quite small that if I was back living and working in North America to suddenly decided to re-come back to Europe, apply to jobs over here, pack everything up and move back over the ocean. And even to re-find a job over here and go through all the visa procedures and find a company to sponsor me and wade through all the red-tape and hurdles. Unless I'm a real specialist, companies aren't going to go through that trouble if they can just hire someone from here.

So there's that. But it's also...I just don't feel quite ready to settle. I'm 25 years old (ok....almost 25). And of course that means different things for different people. But for me, I'm still young and there is so many things I want to do, and experience, and see. And it's much much easier to do these things from here. For one: It's a helluva lot cheaper to travel places from a European hub. It's a lot less time. I can take "weekend" trips to pretty much anywhere: Africa, Russia, Scandanavia, Balkans etc... And two:

You need two things in order to travel/adventure: Time and Money. But the more important of the two is Time. You can have all the money in the world, but if you don't have the time, the days off...it's doesn't help. But on the other hand if you have the time...you can make the money work. You just might have to be a bit more thrifty on the vacation :)

And that is one of the biggest attractions to staying here. To take advantage of the working system and the amount of vacation. And to make use of this vacation to adventure.

I've grown so much in these last couple years. To look at where I was two years ago and to see where I am now. I like what I see. I mean... I'm celebrating new holidays, I'm eating all these foods that I never new existed (some I like some not..but that's the fun thing), I'm making friends from every corner of the globe, I'm visiting wondrous new locations and I'm learning another language. Who ever thought, this junior high kid who hated French and thought it was completely useless to learn, would now be living in France and trying his hardest to learn French. And if I leave now...it's all going to go to waste. Unless I go to Montreal the French will quickly fade and it will all have been for not...

And it's not like every day in my life is some incredible European adventure. I've had a lot of hard days. I have days where I hate the language barrier; when I sit and eat lunch with my colleagues and just sit there quiet like a mute, because I can't understand and contribute to the conversation. Days when I avoid getting a haircut not because I don't need one (which I desperately did) but because the thought of having to go to the hairdresser and make a semi-fool of myself as I struggle to say "Do I need a reservation to get my haircut here?". Days when all I want to do is watch the Oilers play hockey, or a mouth watering Red Robins burger, or when I look at the boring winter here and crave for snow and -10'C temperatures. Days when I think of all the things I'm missing in my friends and family's life back in Canada. The growing up of new babies, moving into a new house, building a garage, helping to put together a chain link fence. Even things I took for granted before like chasing the dog around the yard for hours, taking the quad out, even going for a horse ride. Just writing all these things, makes me start to rethink.....

But even though it's not all easy. It's making me a stronger person, a more knowledgable person. And even when it's been a bad day or a bad week, there comes an incredible day or an incredible week that reminds me why I'm here. To be walking down the street and have someone ask (in French) hey do you know anything about cars, and even though I wasn't able to fix the problem...I had a conversation...in French and we understood each other. It's such a boost. Or to go to Barcelona for the weekend and watch a Football match in Europe's largest stadium. Or just to go out on the weekend with my friends and drink beers along the river. I like it.

So to sum it up: The thing is I can come back to North America anytime. 6 months from now, one year from now. I have citizenship in Canada and the USA and it should not be problem to find a job.

But now is my chance to stay in Europe. I have the residence visa here in France, I've done my schooling at one of the most wellknown schools around, and I'm just finishing an internship at the world's largest commercial Aircraft manufacturer. Everything is in place for me to continue here....And I want to take advantage of that if I can.

Decisions Decisions Decisions

2008-08-19T14:32:00.002-07:00

So, the time is coming to make some decisions. I have a couple different offers, many still waiting and some big decisions to make. Most notably….what do I want? Do I want to work for a big company or a small company? Do a little bit of everything or become really good at one thing? Big airplanes or small airplanes?

Well, first lets examine what options I have thus far.

AIRBUS – Flight Dynamics and Simulations

This is the department I currently am doing my internship in. Basically, it involves coming up with the model of how the airplane flies. So they use this model in the design phase to characterize and know how the plane will react before it ever takes first flight. Then, once flight testing starts, they adjust and analyze the model to understand why there is a different between how the aircraft actually flies and how it was predicted to fly. And finally, after the aircraft is certified they work with other companies to develop pilot flight training simulators. So it is a very interesting department. And it deals a lot with flight dynamics, which is one of my favourite subjects. So this job would be to work on the Aerodynamic model of the new airplane Airbus is developing, the A350. First flight should be 2011 with certification coming in 2013 (if all goes according to plan of course).

Pros

It’s Airbus!!!! There are only two companies in the entire world that develop the big commercial airplanes (more than 150 seats) Airbus and Boeing. So, to be able to put on your resume you work/have worked at Airbus trumps all other things. Even if perhaps I gained more experience during my time at Soloy then here at Airbus, the first thing a potential employer will see when he takes that 10 second glance over my resume is AIRBUS.
Airbus pays very well (including a nice year end bonus), has great benefits and of course just the general ‘French’ benefits of 7 weeks of holiday each year.
I already know the department, the people, what exactly I would be doing. And I like the department and the people here.
I would become very good in the Flight Dynamics realm of Aeronautics.
Once your in Airbus it is very easy to move around. So after the A350 is finished I could more easily switch departments to Flight Performance or Loads or Flight Testing or many many others.

Cons

Doing only one thing! This is definitely the biggest thing for me. I like doing a lot of things. I like learning as much about as many topics as possible. I like being very multi-disciplinary. This job is not that. And overall this is not Airbus. Airbus is such a huge company that they have their own departments for everything and everyone has their specific area. Now the good thing is, that as I said before you can easily change departments and do something different. But while your doing your job, you’ll be working in one area. So if you want to work in another area you must change your job. Where as I would rather have one job, where I can work in many different areas.
The job would be for 4-5 years ish. Now, it is not a fixed contract, I could leave at anytime, however the moral obligation of taking the job would be that I would see through the A350 airplane program which will be at least 4+ years. It’s not the number of years in France that worries me, it’s looking at the job, what ‘experience’ will I have after these 4 years. It goes with the point above. I will have 4+ years of Flight Dynamics experience and some Flight Testing. But I will have limited experience in: Design and Modeling, Catia, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Certification, Performance, Loads etc… All areas that I’m interested in. This isn’t much of a problem if I just move to another department within Airbus as they are good about this sort of thing, but if I want to move on, apply elsewhere in the world…there’s not much there in my opinion.

AIRBUS – PhD Engineering Performance

I initially turned this offer down 2 months ago. But as far as I know they still haven’t found anyone and I’ve met the man responsible a couple of times since and he’s joked with me about whether I’ve changed my mind.

Basically, it’s an ‘Industrial PhD’ which means I would work at Airbus for three years on one specific subject of particular interest. I would work just like a regular engineer, get paid like a regular engineer, have all the ‘French’ benefits and at the end of the three years, present a thesis and voila Doctor Logan J The subject is quite interesting as it involves the safety and braking performance of aircraft on contaminated runways i.e. Ice, slush, snow, water. And to hopefully develop an automated braking assist system for controlling the aircraft on said runways. It’s of particular interest because the majority of the accidents stem from these conditions, aircraft sliding off runways in bad conditions.

Pros

Biggest pro is getting a PhD AND getting PAID to do it. That doesn’t come around very often.
And this work is about as multi-disciplinary as one can ask for as it will involve aircraft modeling, safety, certification, performance etc…
And all the associated pros mentioned above about working at Airbus. Added that this one is already in the Performance department which is a very cool department. So a job after the PhD would be almost a given.
PhD might make me more attractive to the astronaut program???
Making all my friends call me Dr Jones or Dr Logan

Cons

Biggest con is the subject. Although very interesting, it’s the aircraft on the ground during braking. Not in flight, which is where my interest is.
I don’t know how much the ‘PhD’ will help my career and in some cases might hinder it. Especially for industrial companies in the US, they will see this PhD and ‘stereotype’ me as one of these ‘research’ type people, not an industrial type engineer. Plus the ‘feeling’ that since I am a PhD I could command a higher salary. All of which would be untrue from my point of view, but would automatically come across on a resume. (Or I just don’t mention the PhD on my resume and simply put 3 years of experience at Airbus)
The confusion at family reunions when someone yells “Hey Dr Jones”, and both my and my dad turn and say “YES?”

ALTRAN – Consulting in Flight Performance

Yesterday I had an interview at Altran which is a subcontractor for Airbus. And they had a couple of positions that could be of interest to me. The first is that Altran is bidding on being the consulting firm for the Performance department at Airbus. And if successful will form an Engineering team to do so.

Pros

It’s working with Engineering Flight Performance, which is one of the most interesting departments at Airbus.
The subcontractors are a much smaller team and as such the jobs are much more multi-disciplinary then at Airbus. This is the most attractive thing, as this is the thing I search for the most. I want to be able to do many different things and they offer that.

Cons

The pay of a subcontractor is obviously less then at Airbus. Not by a gross amount but probably 2000Euro’s per year less. Give or take. Benefits are practically the same. Performance bonus is a bit less I think.
Once you’re at a subcontractor it will be basically impossible to get a job at Airbus. Airbus has made it a policy not to hire from subcontractors now. In the past subcontractors would hire new people, they would gain experience and then Airbus would ‘poach’ them. Now Airbus is trying to build a stronger network with their subcontracts and give the subcontractors a better chance at retaining their premier talent.

Altran – Consulting

I don’t know what I’m allowed to say of this…but I wasn’t told anything confidential I think, but either way I’ll leave the company name out. But basically Altran is going to do some consulting with a company making a space plane. That is all the details I know.

Pros

The job would be very multi-disciplinary as well. With modeling and CFD and structures and everything. The company is very small and would be working on a small design team for this plane.
I am REALLY interested in the space plane concepts. I’ve been looking for jobs with Virgin Galactic/Scaled Composites or one of the other companies that is working on this. However all of these companies are very small right now with small engineering teams so it’s virtually impossible to get on.
Thus the experience from a contract like this would be really helpful.

Cons

One BIG con. It’s not in Toulouse….it’s in a very small town about 150km south. I don’t know. Part of me does not want to move again, especially to some small town where I know no one and still don’t speak the local language well. That aspect doesn’t sound very appealing to me. It’s one thing to move to a new big city where the are tons of things to do, groups to join, sports to play, places to meet new friends new people. It’s another to move to a small town with not a lot to do. This is the biggest thing on my mind. Although it should be noted the town is quite close to the mountains, so it’s be great for skiing and not THAT far from Toulouse to come back on weekends….

Soloy

I haven’t contacted them or anything, and perhaps they are full and wouldn’t even take me back. But I’d be lying if the thought wasn’t in my head about contacting them again.

Pros

Exactly what I liked was the multi-disciplinary work there. Doing many different things in the course of one day, one week, one month. Small engineering team where I knew everyone and could quickly gain the confidence of those around me and be given more and more responsibility.
Just one non-stop Seattle –Edmonton flight home and 3 hours away from Portland where I have lots of relatives. And close to the Grandparents, thus I get to spend more time doing stuff with them.

Cons

The only thing Soloy lacked was much ‘Aerodynamic’ or ‘Aircraft Design’ Which is what I really like to do. Since they just modify existing aircraft, there isn’t much in the way of the aircraft design. To be honest: work wise that is the only thing it’s missing that I want.
I didn’t like the town of Olympia that much. It is possible I could live up in Seattle and commute which would give me much more ‘things’ to do/join. Luckily I would be going in the opposite direction of the dreaded Seattle traffic. But it’s still a bit of a commute each day….something like 40 miles + depending on where I lived.

6. Sit and wait some more. I’ve sent a ton of applications all over the place. USA, Canada, France, Belgium, Germany, etc….With some very interesting jobs with UAV’s or the US Space Program etc…So hopefully I will hear back from some of these and perhaps I get an offer I can’t refuse and that makes my life simple

I would say right now I'm leaning towards number 6. I've still got some time. It's a shame that I may have to close some of the above doors as they will not want to wait while I wait for something 'better' to come along......

Weddings and My Trip Home

2008-08-10T13:43:00.003-07:00

Let me start this off by saying....holy crap everyone's getting married!! I think I have to stay in Europe now...because at my age, going back to Canada, there will be no unmarried girls left.

So on the 3rd of July I headed home! It had been the longest I had every been away. Over 10 months. I left to France on August the 25th, and returned back to Canada on the 3rd of July. 10 months is too long. I know, as the month of June wore on, I was getting increasingly...homesick. Just missing friends, family and everything Canadian. So it was a much needed two weeks home. And what a busy two weeks it was...

I got in Thursday afternoon. Robbie and Damien picked me up from the Calgary Airport and we drove back to Edmonton. Friday came and the rehearsal for Damien and Lisa's wedding and then decorating of the hall.

Saturday was the big day. Damien, my best friend for 24 years and counting, the friend that is always there, was getting married. It was really a beautiful ceremony! The weather might not have been perfect while taking pictures but it wasn't bad. Just the occasional mini-rain. The reception came and my first trial at being the MC of a wedding..and I think it went alright. A little errors here and there, but everything went pretty smooth. Then the party began...and it was just...fun. Really there is no other word to describe it. To be with my friends, all of whom I've known for so long, to just be with them, be dancing, be having fun. It was really special.

I don't have many pictures from my Camera so I have to try and get pics from the other people, but here is what I got.
http://picasaweb.google.com/logan.jones/200807DamienLisasWedding

And from then on the week only got busier. Monday the relatives started arriving. Grandma and Grandpa, Sherrie and Sam, Lorraine and Armand. Later in the week Dyrk and Kathy arrived and then Wyatt, Ann and Danny. It's been quite a long time since we've had this much family gathered. And why were they gathering....

Well of course it was my little sister Kendra's wedding. That's right. My little sister (see what I mean about everybody getting married). She and Marc Sywenky were tying the knot. Once again, an absolutely beautiful ceremony. Of course tears were shed at the joyous occasion. Afterwards we went for pictures and the weather was terrific. The ceremony went great with a lot of great speeches. I got to give a small speech to the "bestest sister in the world" And then we had a great 'welcome to the family' from my parents to Marc. Which included a couple of scare tactic pictures of all the guns our family owns ;)

Then I got to unveil my weeks project. From the idea of my dad, I put together a little slideshow. I had to search through ..."a couple" hours of old VHS tapes to get the clips I wanted. And my dad had the song that he wanted, Turn Around. It turned out pretty well. I think we got a couple more tears on that one. If you want to see the video, send me an email or a comment and I'll forward you a copy.

The dance was also a ton of fun. With the Schlingman family pulling out all kinds of crazy dance moves. We kept the dance floor going all night. Grandma and Grandpa were out there busting out some moves as well. It is an inspiration to watch those two dance, with I'm sure the same joy and loving looks in their eyes as they had over 50 years ago at their wedding.

Once again, I don't have a ton of pictures, I need to do some collecting from other people. But here is what I have.

http://picasaweb.google.com/logan.jones/20080712KendraAndMarcSWedding

It always so special to attend these weddings. And these two were especially special. My best friend and then my little sisters. It doesn't get any closer then that.

To both couples I wish all the happiness in the world.

And voila...two weeks gone like a flash. I didn't have much time to meet some of my other friends from University and such. I managed to get a dinner in with Di and Cole and Gary. And then a lunch in with Darren. But overall...the time just went far too quick. Such is vacance...and such is vacance with two weddings in two weekends :)

And on a sad note. I sold my car. My beautiful yellow Cavalier. I bought the car on July 19th 2002 and now it was sold on July 15th 2008. Too many memories with that car, we put on a lot of miles and visited a lot of places. But it wasn't doing much good just sitting in the garage collecting dust.

Then back on an airplane and back to France. Hopefully more blogs to come on my work here in France and what the future may hold!

Spring Turns to Summer in the South of France

2008-07-02T12:56:00.005-07:00

Ok, quick update as I'm RETURNING HOME tomorrow and should be packing...

Summer Solstice Parties are AWESOME

Some of you may remember two years ago...I was in Barcelona for "Verbena de Sant Joan" during the longest day of the year. And it was spectacular.

Well now I have experienced the Shortest day of the Year French style. Fête de la Musique (read about it at wikipedia).

It's like....Whyte Ave during a the Oilers Playoffs..meets..Stage 13..

Basically all the streets are closed to cars, and are packed with people. And on every corner bands are playing music. Every kind of music, every kind of band. Local kids, drum only bands, jazz, DJ's. It was really a lot of fun...until 4am..when as with any place..alcohol makes for some fights and the police have to step in. But other then that it was a great time.

It's a Bigger Party when your Team Wins

Here in Toulouse, RUGBY is numero uno. And Stade Toulouse is the team. And after a heartbreaking loss a month ago at the European Heineken Cup they were in the final for the French Top 14 league and this time they did not disappoint. We watched the game in Captial (the main center square) on a huge TV along with..well as many people as they could pack into Capital.

And after the winner celbrations ensued and yet another Saturday of partying was had in Toulouse as we danced the night away.

Follow this up with the very next night when Spain won it's first Euro Cup in something like 40 years. And of course mon amie, Arturo (whom I went to Finland with) is from Spain. So he was more then happy as we watched Spain beat Germany on the sunday.

It was the weekend of Sport.

Cheryl comes to VISIT!

Ok, I know I shouldn't expect when I live over 7500km away to have visitors. But still, you still start to notice it when your the only student in the Masters who hasn't got to go home, or have friends and family visit. Of course I understand..but it doesn't make it easier.

Well that changed as last weekend Cheryl came to visit me!!! I went to Engineering at the UofA with Cheryl and she was part of the MecE club with me. She was also a cheerleader at the UofA and led our MecE dance troupe (an Engineering week competition) to three years in a row of winning. And taught me a couple sweet cheerleader moves (I hand pressed a girl, it was studly)

So she was in the country visiting her sister in Paris and came down to Toulouse for the weekend. There is not a lot of 'touristy' things to do in Toulouse, most of all it's just a nice city. Nice sites, nice streets, nice river and canal. We went for a bike ride. And luckily she was here for the big Stade Toulouse Rugby win mentioned above. So we had a good night.

And of course my friends will miss her, it's not often (especially in the mostly male town of Toulouse) that we have a cheerleader in the group ;)

FINLAND and ESTONIA

Ok, i know i never posted about this as I just haven't had the time. I'm not going to go into detail other then to say it was an incredible trip.

Why? Because it was just one of those trips where EVERYTHING went perfectly. Every night we had nothing planned, no idea what to do or where to go. and EVERY night we met random people who took us to Random bars and we ended up having Incredible nights. And it just kept happening. Everything fell into place like the most wicked party, sightseeing puzzle imaginable. I'll let the slideshow speak for itself.

Biking in Toulouse

Toulouse is a the perfect size city. It's big enough to have all the amenities. But small enough that I can go anywhere I want on bike in 15 minutes. As such, now that i live in town I go by bike everywhere. And the cars respect the bikes, there are numerous bike paths, many bike/bus only streets. It's incredible, I love it!!

And the Canal du Midi goes through town and it's a beautiful ride (and easy since it's flat). So far i've down one 30km ride by myself and then a 45km ride two weeks ago with Manuel. We are working our way up to the 100km one way trip to the next big town Carcasonne (famouse for the castle, check the link!!) Then we'll take the train back with the bikes.

Pays Cathare

About a month or more ago, we decided to get out of Toulouse for the weekend and go castle hunting in the Pyranese in a region known as Pays Cathare

So we rented a car and off we went. Pictures give the idea.
http://picasaweb.google.com/logan.jones/200805PaysCathare
In the end we visited 5 castles and there is much more...for another weekend.

Ok, that is about it for a spring time update. Less then 6hrs now until my plane leaves!! Ciao

A little piece of Logan on Mars

2008-05-28T14:00:00.003-07:00

As of 8pm, on the 25th day of May, a little piece of me is now on the planet mars.

For those of you who may not have been following the news, the Phoenix Mars Lander, after traveling 680 million kilometeres executed a picture perfect 7 minute descent through the light atmosphere of mars, fired it's rocket boosters and touched softly down in the high latitude arctic plains.

The mission of the Phoenix is such:

The complement of the Phoenix spacecraft and its scientific instruments are ideally suited to uncover clues to the geologic history and biological potential of the Martian arctic. Phoenix will be the first mission to return data from either polar region providing an important contribution to the overall Mars science strategy "Follow the Water" and will be instrumental in achieving the four science goals of NASA's long-term Mars Exploration Program.

What you may not have known, is that for the summer between my 4th and 5th year at the University of Alberta, I worked with Dr. Carlos Lange, researcher at the UofA, on the Phoenix Mars Lander. It was an experience that changed my life, of that I'm sure. For, before that, I was an engineering student without any engineering experience. After two summers of stacking feed bags at Masterfeeds, and one summer selling vacuum cleaners for Rainbow, I was desperate for something to put on my resume. After an unsuccessful campaign applying with companies I decided one May day to drop by the Mechanical Engineering department. And by chance, I passed by Dr Lange's office and noticed he was in.

I had had only one class before with Dr Lange, Mec E 390, computational methods. The teaching of how to write and use computer codes in order to make life easier and let the computer do the labour of thousands of calculations. I also knew, by the large poster on his door, that Dr Lange had become involved in the Phoenix Mars Lander project. So I decided, that there was no harm in trying and approached Dr. Lange to ask if there was anything, any project I could help him with.

And lucky for me Dr Lange saw something in me and gave me a chance. For, at that point there was nothing that stood out. An average student, with average grades. Even in his own class, Mec E 390 I achieved just average grades. But he said that he could use a helping hand designing some experimental setups he was making to test and validate some of the instrumentation on the Phoenix.

And there it started, my first real engineering job, my first crack at research, my chance to be involved in something that was going to space....that was going to MARS. And most importantly of all, engineering experience.

Because without any work experience:

Would I have got the IAESTE work exchange to do research in Denmark
Would I then have gotten a job at Soloy?
Without the aeronautical experience at Soloy..would I have gotten into my masters at Supaero in France?
And now to Airbus?

And will having that mention of Phoenix Mars Lander, on my resume be enough some day to get someone to take that crucial double look at my resume and consider me for an Astronaut? I don't know.

All I do know is that I will be watching and reading with a mixture of pride, excitement and wonder as Phoenix explores the Martian landscape and sends back unprecedented data.

The goal is to make the data and images from the Phoenix quickly and pubicly available to all. To follow this incredible robot try these sites:

http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/main/index.html

To see a great animation of how the Phoenix performed it's landing
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080525.html

Le Nouvel Appartement

2008-05-18T07:08:00.001-07:00

I'm still gathering and organizing the pictures from the Finland/Estonia trip. So until that time, here is some pictures of the new apartment we have.

Some pictures of the new apartment we have in Toulouse. There is three of us living here. Vladimir who was my colleague from the Masters at Supaero and his girlfriend Monica, both of which are from Barcelona.

New Phone # and New Address

2008-04-19T04:17:00.002-07:00

Hey everyone. I just moved into a new apartment!!! Much much nicer then the residence here at school. I've never been so happy to have my own kitchen.

As you can imagine, the very first thing I did this morning was go to the store and buy eggs, bacon, orange juice and milk. Mmmmm Bacon and eggs.

Anyways pictures and everything to come, right now just the following info. I've also changed the info in the sidebar. So it's always there.

- I will be without internet for a while until we get it set up at the new apartment.

- I no longer have the land line phone. So just the cell phone. However, it's not longer cheap for me to call, since I would use cell phone minutes while calling as well as the calling card minutes...and France cell phone plans suck. I get 60 minutes per month...

From North America 011-33-6-1987-3715
From within France 06-1987-3715

Also the new address

Logan Jones
18 Rue Gaston Phoebus
Apt 47
31300 Toulouse
France

Check it out on the map!

View Larger Map

Now's my chance to reach for the stars

2008-04-06T10:15:00.006-07:00

So as some of you may know and other may not, I have always dreamed of being an astronaut. Nearly every night living back in Edmonton, before I would go to bed I would go outside and stare up. Whether it was +25 or -25 it didn't matter. And I wasn't searching for constellations (to tell you the truth I couldn't even name anything after the big dipper and Orion's belt), no, I was just staring, imagining being up there.

As I've advanced through school it's always been in my head. I love aeronautics engineering, I love everything that flies. But the true dream has always been to fly higher.

The first news broke last September as NASA announced they were looking to hire 10-15 astronauts, to replace those that will be retiring over the next years. The deadline to hire will be July 1st with the selection being made by May 2009.

Then just last week the announcement came from the Canadian Space Agency that due to two retirements, they would be holding a recruitment campaign to hire two more astronauts.

Astronauts aren't hired everyday, in fact they aren't hired very often at all. The last time the Canadian Space Agency held a recruitment campaign was 1992.

So the fact that the two agencies that I am able to apply to (dual citizenship Canada and USA for those that don't know) is incredible. It basically means that my chance is NOW. The next time another large scale recruitment like this happens could be another 10-15 years.

And actually the timing kind of sucks. For astronauts they want experience, NASA lists 3 yrs work experience as a pre-req. And I'm right on the cusp. As in, at the time of the submission date I won't have made my 3 years yet (One year work Denmark/Washington, One year Masters/Airbus Internship). But by the time the hiring is finished in May 2009, I will have barely reached 3 years. In an ideal world, this mass hiring of astronauts by both agencies wouldn't have happened for another 2-3 years. But it's happening now, so I just have to hope I can make them see in me, what I already know is there.

For me it comes down to me having a little bit of everything. I have my pilots license although not a lot of hours yet, I have my Scuba diving certificate although not a lot of dives under my belt. I have two years work experience in 4 different countries in research and in design and analysis. I have my Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering and my Masters in Aeronautics Engineering. I'm physically fit with the ability to play pretty much any sport I want. I'm working on knowing more then one language and have shown the ability to adapt to pretty much any situation. I have a ton of volunteer and public speaking experience. And of course the list will have to go on as I prepare the applications for NASA and the CSA.

The question is will it be enough. Will a little bit of everything make up for not having a plethora of experience and not being an expert in one area?

I guess the only answer to that is: we'll see.

I dream of this view:

Logan