The Great Journey

AMAT travelled some 3850 miles from California to Fort Worth, Texas and back. 

On the first day, the team picked up the rental car from the Davis fleet services after a frantic race to finish the rental form and gain department approval. The team then packed up the aircraft and tools from the ESDC before making a stop at the local Davis Ace hardware to pick up bubble wrap. The team then headed out onto I-80 towards Sacramento and then hit the 99. From there, AMAT took a couple of rest stops to pick up food at a Subway and get gas. The team eventually made it to Las Vegas before exploring the Strip on our first night.

The next day was spent first exploring the Hoover Dam before then traveling along I-40 through Northern Arizona. The team reached Seligman and Flagstaff which was full of trees. AMAT pressed onwards, reaching Albuquerque after nightfall and continued manufacturing the aircraft. After a long night of mono-koting, the team explored Albuquerque for a short while before continuing the long drive.

Eventually, the team made it all the way to Fort Worth, Texas and unloaded everything at the Hotel. However, the team didn't realize that there was a lot to be finished on the aircraft which included applying stickers, installing the landing gear, testing the electronics, mono-koting the last bits of the fuselage, installing the propeller spinner nuts on the motors, and completing the safety checklists for the upcoming competition. AMAT worked feverishly through the night in the hotel room and finished around 4 am on the day of the competition.

After arriving at competition and setting up the aircraft, AMAT's major issue was finding suitable M5 lock nuts for the two remaining motors as the aircraft would not pass the SAE tech inspection without them. The team asked around and tried ordering nuts but due to a horrific thunderstorm the next day, the nuts were deemed "undeliverable" by amazon. Two AMAT leads came up with the idea of gluing a cap nut to a M5 nut and attaching the assembly to the aircraft. Although AMAT was able to attach the new propeller spinner nuts, the aircraft failed to pass inspection until the very end of the day due to empennage issues. This delayed the flight attempt until the very next day.

Sunday morning:

At 6:45 am on a cold and crisp Sunday morning, AMAT finished the short drive back to the Fort Worth RC field. The site was packed with other teams and spectators, making moving the aircraft and tools difficult. Nevertheless, the team was able to assemble the aircraft and secure the necessary flight tickets and flight log after a couple hours. At 9:20 am, AMAT's aircraft was ready to take off. The SAE volunteer pilot fired up the throttles and Flycatcher began speeding down the runway. Her tail barely glazed the ground as she lifted off. 

And then catastrophe.

Flycatcher stalled to the right and began nosing down. The volunteer pilot applied full up elevator and attempted to correct the dive but it was too late. The poorly reinforced empennage section twisted 90 degrees to starboard and flycatcher slammed nose first into the concrete with a sickening oomph. It was all over for the redeem team in just 5 seconds.

The team would spend the next two and half days backtracking through New Mexico, Arizona, and Las Vegas before finally returning home on Tuesday night. Although disappointed by the crash, the team was still elated that they had passed tech inspection and travelled halfway across the US to compete in Texas which by itself was already a huge accomplishment. The team looks forward to next year's 2026-27 SAE Aero Design West competition which should be a lot closer to Davis and will take the lessons learned from this competition to come back even stronger!