Ray Bradbury

“If teachers and grammar school editors find my jawbreaker sentences shatter their mushmilk teeth, let them eat stale cake dunked in weak tea of their own ungodly manufacture.”

-- Ray Bradbury

Convergent Evolution diagram

The fascinating phenomenon of convergent evolution is depicted in this diagram for my students and eventual readers in a forthcoming book. For more see McGhee, G. 2011. Convergent Evolution: Limited Forms Most Beautiful. Cambridge, MIT Press.

Recent Pressure Suit Work

After a good first test flight, integrating suit with balloon, I've been working on modifications, often assisted by Pacific Spaceflight team members, to make adjustments and revisions based on what we've learned. I've shaped a new helmet / suit neck ring junction so we can start on another suit (always need severa; a main flying suit, a backup flying suit, and at least one 'test suit' for trying out new ideas, installed glove fingertip lights (red to preserve night vision during predawn suitup in balloon operations), and we have started training new team members in the many suitup, maintenance and flight operations. We're on our way UP!

Flying in the Alvord Desert!

Getting in another solo flight before final "check flight" a little later this year; the site is the stunning Alvord Desert of SE Oregon, flying my RX-7 in one photo and a post-test cold cold drink of ice water, so nice on the blazing desert floor!

Solo Flight Approved!

More flying, good landings in central Oregon alfalfa fields, horse paddocks and so on...All good landings, all safe flights, and now certificated for solo flight! What a beautiful way to fly, directly using Archimedes Principle: "bouyant force is equal to the mass of the displaced medium"!

More Flying!

Logged another six hours and about 14 landings recently; good flying and good procedures being worked out! It is very satisfying to build my own system, at long last, customizing all aspects of the balloon and its sub-systems to exactly the kind of flying I want to do.

Flying!

Completing flight training for private, hot air balloon pilot certificate!

Beautiful weather in Central Oregon, where I also visited my buddy Alexander Knapton at his own flight training facility.