Lisboa, June 30, 2011
:)
T-minus 3, 2, 1, 0. It's a pass!
Lisboa, February 2011
Winter Term is over... and I did it!
While flying all over Europe I kept my mind busy over astrodynamics and satellite attitude control subjects. I had to miss the midterm exam about astrodynamics due to lack of time to study and I was afraid of having wasted an opportunity to pass this course. In January I did the 2nd exam about the Restricted 3-body problem, Space Environment, Interplanetary Trajectories and Attitude Dynamics and Control of Satellites and I was only able to get a 8.7/20 grade since Rigid Body Dynamics it's not my favorite subject and once again lack of time to study (work, work, work...) prevented me from reaching a higher grade.
In the beginning of February we had the opportunity to repeat the two exams. Since minimum grade in each one was 7.0/20 and since "repeating" the midterm Exam was mandatory for me, I had two choices:
- study for the two exams trying to pass Exam1 and get a higher grade in the second one;
- assume the 8.7 grade in the second one (without repeating it) and study to get a nice grade in the first exam.
The choice was obvious... Time available was not that much and Astrodynamics is a fascinating subject for me. I was confident enough I could easily pass Exam1 while having an average >9.4 in the two exams, even though I missed all classes about the 2-body problem and my colleagues' marks in the midterm exam were quite bad. How could a subject which only involves the knowledge of the ellipse geometry, one trajectory equation and two laws of conservation (Energy and Angular Momentum) be that hard? Of course there are many other details/definitions and many ways of doing the same orbital maneuver.
This choice was a win since I had a 14.4 in Exam1 and a final grade of 12 in Satellites.
Rendez-vous was one of the maneuvers studied and it also the name of one of Jean Michel Jarre's greatest hits which inspired me during my study.
Now I'm only two courses away from finishing my Degree (BSc) in Aerospace Engineering! This term I will fall again bellow Kármán line and return to the winged craft theme. I will have Aerodynamics and Flight Testing to do. While Aerodynamics is the continuation of Fluid Mechanics - which I had last year - Flight Testing is a complete new subject to me.
Finally, I take this opportunity to show our "morning star" - Venus - and the rise of the most beautiful star we know as seen from 38000 ft above Earth's surface.
And don't forget next Thursday (if weather permits) we will have the final launch of Space Shuttle Discovery as STS-133 mission will take place.
Happy New Year!
Inflight, December 2010
Bye bye 2010!
...and one last picture of my last flight this year.
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| BCN-LIS / CS-TTO / "Antero de Quental" |
6 degrees ºC below zero @ Frankfurt
Frankfurt, December 2010
Walking through the streets of Frankfurt under light snowfall; everything is white; you need to stop at Starbucks and drink some coffee to get warmer; while at Starbucks you start listening "and since we've no place to go... let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!":
You realise it's almost Winter and Christmas Time! And it's so beautiful to see...
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| Airbus A320-214 CS-TNV "Grão Vasco" Frankfurt Airport |
euroAtlantic @ Brussels Airport
Brussels Airport, October 2010
euroAtlantic's Boeing 767 flying for Brussels Airlines,
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| Boeing 767-300ER CS-TLO |
It departed some 20 minutes later operating flight BEL203 to Banjul via Dakar.
Returning from Budapest
Budapest Airport, September 2010
Adding a new destination to the blog... Last September:
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| Control Tower @ Budapest Airport (Ferihegy) |
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| MALEV Boeing 737 |
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| HA-LOE |
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| CS-TTD "Amadeo de Souza Cardoso" #1 engine |
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| PSU - Passenger Service Unit |
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| Reaching Spain? |
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| Business Class |
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| Nice view over Madrid - Barajas Airport |
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| Madrid |
Tervetuloa!
Helsinki, October 2010
I'm again in Helsinki. I arrived yesterday in the early morning after another easy flight. I can only remember the first time I dealed with finnish passengers when I was at Luzair. We were doing flights to Air Finland(*) between Helsinki and Bangkok or Phnom Penh and before those flights I was afraid they would drink alot and give us some hard working hours. But the Finns are in fact one of the most civilized passengers I ever saw. Yesterday, more than 95% of our passengers were Finns.
This time I was assigned to work in Business Class. During boarding I could remember some words in finnish and tried Tervetuloa with some nice looking girls. They smiled and replied kiitos! Other passengers would reply obrigado in portuguese. I really had some fun during boarding.
After a very long sleep I left the hotel and walked through the very same places I was a year ago. But this time alone and with much colder temperatures. However I'm still amazed with the beauty and fascination of this city.
Today I'm going to visit Kiasma and I will leave tomorrow afternoon. The weather forecast indicates a maximum temperature of 4ºC for today! Brrrrr Unfortunately, no snow...
(*) now they have really nice colors on their planes!
Helsinki 2009 - Day 1
Helsinki, September 2009
More than a year has passed since I was in Helsinki, in September 2009, and I promised to tell you about that layover in this blog. It was really a nice 5-night (long) layover with my friend António and also with a very nice crew.
Let me see what I still remember....
We arrived at the hotel in the early, early morning and after check-in the crew dediced to wait for the breakfast that was to be served in less than one hour. After that we were all tired and went to sleep already with daylight.
When we woke-up we were hungry and went out to eat something and get a little glimpse of the city. The weather was far from sunny but at least it was not too cold. The first thing we saw was the Kaisaniemi park nearby our hotel.
Then we found a McDonalds at Helsinki's Forum shopping centre. After "lunch" we continued our way down Mannerheimintie Street on foot until we reached Helsinki Market Square (Kauppatori).
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| Kauppatori |
Near Helsinki Senate Square we found some brazilian guys who talked to us.
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| Helsinki Senate Square |
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| Helsinki Cathedral |
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| Uspenski Cathedral (Eastern Orthodox) |
We had dinner at an italian food restaurant (which in finnish they say ravintola) and returned to our hotel. Before sleeping we were already planning the following day!
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| Crowne Plaza - Helsinki |
Kiitos (for reading this post!)
Copenhagen: take-off @ Kastrup
Kastrup Airport, September 2010
Last month I had two night-stops at Copenhagen. The first one gave no opportunity to get out of the hotel because we arrived late in the night and departed the following morning.
I came back as a passenger so I could take these photos:
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| A319 CS-TTA "Vieira da Silva" @ Kastrup |
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| Nice reflection on the jetway |
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| After take-off |
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| View from seat 3F |
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| Over the clouds... |
And finally I could enjoy a nice hot meal and have a rest until arrival at Lisbon
Copenhagen was the hightlight of last Up Magazine issue (September).
I AMsterdam
Amsterdam, September 2010
I arrived in a rainy Saturday night (in September) but that was not impeditive to have some fun in the streets of Amsterdam and do some bar-hopping. We even found a portuguese guy who recognized our language in one of those bars and we paid him a shot (was it a B52? can't remember).
However it seems Amsterdam night life is not that great anymore... A bar magnate who owned 85 cafes and bars committed suicide due to unpaid bills to Heineken and many of them closed....
Next day we had a nice lunch (for me it was some kind of pancake), we had a walk through the city,
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| Amsterdam is almost all about sex! |
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| Marilyn Monroe @ Sex Museum |
Before everything closed at 6pm I went to Kalverstraat street and Magna Plaza. A sweatshirt from Energie brand caught my eye. But I saw the price and went away. Then I started to think to myself:
"Come on Andre, you know you would never buy such a costly piece of clothing when you lived from your monthly pocket money... but now you earn your own money and you don't even spend it all most of the months"
So I went back to the store and I did buy the sweatshirt.......
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| @ Kalverstraat street |
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| "you are not igual" @ Desigual |
And finally a nice view from my hotel room during sunset. Next day I had a long journey until Copenhagen with a stop in Lisbon!
