One of things that daunts me over and over again is the wonderful people one meets in life.  Working on this submarine project has put me in touch with so many folks I would not have otherwise met.  Yesterday I had the privilege of talking to the folks at Sweet Composites.  They were so helpful, spending over an hour on the phone with me.  Davey and Jennifer Hearn, you provide A+ customer service!
Della, Team Secretary

Thank you, Josh Urban, guitar teacher extraordinaire!  We hope you succeed in your mission to overthrow bad music!

For those who don't know Josh, here's a link to his website:
http://www.joshurban.com/

Mr. Ray Rye, president of Fiberglass Fabricators, gave us the samples at left (from L to R: honeycomb core, balsa core, mat cloth and a bi-cloth made of both woven and mat fiberglass) and answered a LOT of questions we had.  Thank you, Mr. Rye!

Pilot #2 (Karl) begins VO2 Max testing while Dr. Hagberg, Kelsey and Rian assist. The tests were conducted using a Stairmaster, as the stepping action most closely mimics the motion our pilots will use with the submarine propulsion system.

Notice the beautiful Tuscan scenery in the Exercise Testing Lab.   (Chi vuole un po di vino?)

Pilot #1 (Sam) gets warmed up for VO2 Max testing at the University of Maryland.  Professor Hagberg and graduate assistants Rian, Kelsey and Lisa were just super!

The results of these tests will help us determine our air tank needs for the competition.  We're hoping we can use smaller tanks so that we can minimize the profile of our sub.

Here we are getting ready to shrink wrap the scale model.  The hull frame is suspended from the rafters and able to rotate freely around the nose and tail centers.  We stapled one edge of the shrink warp to a longitudinal rib.  Sam is adjusting the shrink wrap into place.

Shrink wrap done.  Sam is holding "The Flamethrower", that is, the propane-fired heat gun he used to shrink the plastic to the hull frame.

A festive centerpiece at our team meeting on January 31.