The Next Flight Regime
Stardate: 96451.1
Hopefully, by now, you have started reading my latest Amazon KDP published book Along the River Road and are finding it to be an enjoyable read. I have been writing part time since I first learned to write and rhyme words! Through the encouragement of my spouse, in 2014, I began writing what would turn out to be the book Along the River Road. Writing part time for the next few years, it still was not finished. That’s when my spouse let me know that she thought the story needed to be completed and put out to the world as there were lots of girls and women from adolescents to young adults to mid-life adults who would relish a story about a young female coder wrestling with some family trauma and overcoming it with the support of friends and family. So, I went to work part-time and finished the story. In test reads, many of the young adult readers commented on how it was refreshing to have a story in which the female lead character does not “fall in love” and have the guy help her out of her life predicaments. I wanted a female lead who could stand on her own and Cassie does.
I am still settling into working part-time and writing. I consider this period of my life as living in the transonic flight regime. The transonic flight regime is that in-between flight regime that supersonic aircraft fly through when increasing their speed from subsonic flight to supersonic flight. The transonic flight range is reached when the aircraft flies between the speeds of Mach 0.75 (the onset of compressibility effects) and Mach 1.2. So, for clarification Mach 1 is the speed of sound which at sea level is approximately 761 miles per hour or 1,225 kilometers per hour. Scientifically, what occurs during this flight regime is that even though the entire aircraft itself is flying slower than the speed of sound (Mach 1.0), air is moving around the aircraft at different speeds. At some locations on the aircraft, the air flow exceeds the speed of sound even though the entire aircraft’s speed is not Mach 1. In these areas, the molecules begin to compress and the air density may vary because small shock waves form under what scientists refer to as compressibility effects, shock waves, expansion fans, and/or flow choking. The fast-moving air is compressing and expanding while it is flowing around the aircraft, specifically at and above the leading edge of each wing and along the surface of each wing. This causes drag to increase faster than thrust which causes the aircraft to experience severe turbulence during flight. This buffeting of the aircraft during transonic flight was referred to as the aircraft having reached the “sound barrier.” Science and supersonic flight testing proved that the sound barrier was really not a barrier after all and that optimal wing, propulsion and fuselage design could easily and safely move the aircraft through that transonic regime into supersonic speeds.
The Bell X-1 was developed to explore transonic flight after fighter pilots began experiencing control problems when they approached the speed of sound during aircraft dives. Photo courtesy NASA.
So, that’s where I feel I am flying right now: transonic regime. My flight feels a little rough and turbulent as I work part-time, then write part-time every day. However, I’ve adjusted to the bumpy ride and see clear, blue skies ahead!
The vapor forming around the aircraft pictured above is referred to as a vapor cone. A vapor cone demonstrates the turbulent air around an aircraft flying in the transonic range. The vapor cone is created by a shockwave that is generated by the aircraft as it approaches the speed of sound at sea level. Within these shockwaves, there is great variability in the air pressure and temperature around and above the aircraft’s fuselage and its wings. This causes the air around the aircraft to lose its ability to hold water. Condensation starts to form, creating a vapor cone. The appearance of a vapor cone indicates the presence of a shockwave. The entire aircraft itself is not travelling faster than the speed of sound, but the air travelling over and around some parts of the aircraft’s fuselage and wing is flowing faster than the speed of sound and that creates the shockwave. Warm, moist air is required for this effect to be visible.
Photo taken 8/19/2007 by Ensign John Gay, USS Constellation, US Navy, courtesy NASA downloaded from https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap070819.html
I split my time between a bungalow in the foothills above San Diego, California, and a small house in a town just outside of Little Rock, Arkansas. I enjoy being out in nature and both of these areas offer great outdoor diversity in which I can take short walks, enjoy a longer day hike, and kayak in fresh or sea water.
Bungalow in the foothills above the city of San Diego. Photo ©2018 by S. C. Ashby.
I am a native Californian who grew up in southern California and taught school in northern California. I have lived in Nebraska, Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi and Illinois. In some of those places, I was either attending college or working as a teacher. After teaching, I worked at NASA Ames Research Center (south bay San Francisco area) as a curriculum specialist and project manager in the Education Division. After falling in love, I started graduate school, and settled down for a life in the South. Had someone asked me when I was a kid where I would be living, I would have said, “Southern California by the beach or northern California by a mountain lake.”
Point Loma Lighthouse during a kayak adventure. Photo ©2018 by S. C. Ashby.
So, yes, life is full of surprises!
I have taken advantage of the opportunities that have manifested themselves around me throughout my life, and have been able to travel the world, and really experience America from small towns to the ‘burbs to urban living. The adventure has been and continues to be awesome, dude!
With a supportive spouse and a cat called Gracie, life is good.
Gracie the cat: Selfie. Photo ©2018 by S. C. Ashby.
For now, I do not mind the transonic regime as turbulence makes for interesting stories.
More l8r,
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