New Job!

Wednesday, April 25th, was my last day at Teledyne Microelectronics and on Thursday I started at Aerovironment (AV). This company, located about 5 miles from home (as opposed to 50!) is the leader in small UAVs. This has been a dream of mine to work there for a long time. But they had a policy against hiring family members (Laura's Dad works there). After lots of work, the policy was changed so that I can work there just not report to him. The move is not a huge promotion, but for just about every other reason, is a positive. I'll be doing more design engineering (rather than project management), more mentoring by experienced engineers, a more engineering-focused company along with a more employee-friendly company, younger engineers, shorter commute, etc. I'm working in the Advanced Systems (R&D) group and initially I'll be helping design some printed circuit boards for their Raven SUAV.

Take a look at the SUAV (Unmanned Aircraft Systems) division website and I think you'll be impressed with the technology being used in Iraq and Afhganistan right now. In addition, look at the corporate website for their Energy Technology solutions. Also, if you have seen the documentary "Who Killed The Electric Car?", Aerovironment was a key developer of GM's EV-1.

Air Show, Easter, and Ricky Skaggs

A couple weekends ago, I went with Marshall (in-law) and Pete (Laura’s uncle) to the Air Show at Naval Base Ventura County (formerly Port Hueneme) near Camarillo and Oxnard. This was pretty cool. This was the first real air show I’ve been to. After seeing this, I’ll be back again some day. The show featured the Thunderbirds and also had the first west coast demonstration of the F-22—the newest fighter jet that was just put in service in December. The best pictures are obviously from the Internet. My pictures don’t even come close. So here are a couple pictures from the net.

Last weekend we went up to Fresno to visit family. This was our first trip with Hannah. The trip up was too easy. She slept from 1pm, when we stopped at Carls Jr. for all of us to eat, to after 4pm. We didn’t have to stop once for Hannah to have a snack. We made the rounds amongst grandparents (Grandma Sumner, Grandpa Harley, and Easter at Grandma Star’s). The trip home was a little different. But not too bad.

Kristi was with us all week. We tried to convince her to stay longer but she had some lame excuse about school or something. Kids these days, no commitment.

This weekend, my parents came down. Saturday night, my mom babysat while the rest of us went to see Ricky Skaggs. I don't know how many of you have listened to him or other bluegrass, but it was really good. This was in a small concert hall on CSU, Northridge, it was maybe half full, we were in the 3rd row, dead center. What a great concert. If you were to see these guys play, you can't help but have a huge appreciation for their guitar playing abilities.

I've got some big news coming. I'll have to wait until it is official, but I'm about to save a lot of gas money!