I thought I should give an update on how things are here in Switzerland. I arrived last week to get ready to start working in Zurich for Solar Impulse on Monday March 2nd. The trip over was exciting to say the least. I was hoping to fly Montreal - Toronto and then Toronto -Zurich. Unfourtunately flights to Toronto got cancelled and I ended up on the short en of the stick. I felt very strongly about getting back to Europe and to Aline as soon as possible so I decided, even though I said I wouldnt do it again, to try and fly to Frankfurt and then make the 6 hr train ride to Geneva. Luck finally turned my way and I got a seat on the flight. BACK IN EUROPE, and it felt great.

I spent a few days in Geneva with Aline, we celebrated her birthday with a few drinks in the city with some of her work friends and then Saturday afternoon we hit the slopes in the near by Jura Mountains. Nothing like the alps but none the less it was a sunny day and great to be out skiing together.

Sunday morning we took a train to Zurich where we were to visit her cousine Milena and I was to stay there for the first week while I attempted to find an apartment. Before having arrived in Zurich, I looked for some possible apartments and had taken down some numbers of a few interesting oportunities. By chance we decided to call one of the numbers. A visit 15 minutes later and I had a place to stay for the month of March in the city. It's an apartment with 5 other students my age from different parts of Europe, France, Switzerland, Ireland, and they are all really nice.

Monday morning I was out the door early eager to start my first day at my new job. It was a perfect day! The people were extremely nice and welcoming. I got a tour of the offices and of the work shop which houses the plane...in pieces of course, and then straight to it, my first assignment and some meetings. I was interested to see how the language barrier would be, but it turns out that every one speaks English.

The company is located on the military airport and has a room where the designers and engineers are all located, and then a bike ride on the company supplied bikes 500 m down the side of the run-way and you are at the workshop/airplane hangar. Literally is an airplane hangar. The plane is slowly being built and is in pieces all over the hanger. Tests and being conducted on the plane and its components and new parts are being made everyday and assembled in this hangar. This is where my desk is along with some other engineers responsible for the electrical and solar panel portion of the plane, the other test engineers as well are working here along with the workshop technicians. I am responsible to help design tests, build the necessary set up and then conduct the test...for the airplane. I am currently working on a test of the air brake. This is the panel that comes up to slow the plane down when it lands. We are going to build a mock -up of the air brake, attach it to an aparatus above a car and drive on the runway at flight speeds to see how it reacts. (the plane will only fly at speeds of 40 km/h to 90km/h). Very exciting and interesting but has proven to be difficult because I have not been working in this type of environment for a long time. Great Challenge!

I also had a meeting this week and realized only after that one of the gentlemen in the meeting who is responsible for the flight tests of the plane, is the only ever swiss astronaut. We had a nice chat after and he talked all about his 4 different space missions.....wow.

I have also taken part in several test where we have tested parts of the wing to determine how much load they can withstand before breaking. I also visited a military training facility where the pilots of the plane are going to undergo training in an atmospheric chamber to simulate the oxygen levels at 8000m for the maximum flight altitude.

The more i learn about the ppl I am working with, the more I realize they are some of the best in the world. I sit across from an american who is maybe in his late 40's, he invited me to his house last week for lunch as a welcoming gesture. I did some reading about him and it turns out he was the 1983-84 acrobatic hang glidding world champion, then went on to be one of the first people to fly across the united states in a manned solar plane, he built. (Solar Impulse will be the first manned night and day flight, and around the world)

Very interesting people to say the least.

anyways, that is a quick run down of what the week looked like. Aline came to visit this weekend, we had dinner with a group friends from one of my room mates saturday night, all swiss. And today we went skiing near Interlaken at Lauterbrunen and it was absolutely amazing. Sun all day, 50 cm of powder...couldnt ask for better.

Sorry, no pictures, got forgotten in all the excitement. I promise there will be some next time.