Navigating helicopters

I didn't really write about the SSI (Séminaire Sport and Innovation), but the result of it all was that I got to go to the Thales site in Valence for a visit. So today we left INSA at 7am, with those from the second semester.

Note: This is not going to be a detailed description.

We arrived at Thales nice and early (the bus journey took about one and a half hours), so we had plenty of time for the coffee (or tea) and pastries that they had prepared for us. Then they presented us some of their equipment, one for measuring acceleration (and so the speed and position as well) and another for measuring altitude and speed (like for aircrafts)

After that we had a presentation of their salles blanches (Wikipedia tells me that it's called cleanroom in English), their "quality control rules", etc. Then there was a sensor for drilling for petrol (and some other sensors)...and a headgear for army pilots.

The headgear was pretty interesting...it controls the aim of the aircraft's gun, so that it is aiming where the person wearing it is looking at. So each piece of headgear has to be custom-made to fit the person's head snugly and take into account the position of his eyes. (Cool, huh? I want one...it's like "Hey, I'm looking at you, so don't make me angry or else I'll hit the button and shoot you! lol)

We had lunch at the company canteen (they paid for us, of course), and in the afternoon we had a demonstration of Thales' TopDeck, a new helicopter control panel. They had a simulator with the scenery projected on 3 walls (you know, where the walls are slightly angled so that they're like "enclosing" you somehow) An ex-pilot came to show us how the control panel works, and after that we each had a go at navigating :D Like he warned us, it looked much easier when he was doing it. I am sorry to say that even though my take-off went quite well, later the (virtual) helicopter started spinning round and round 'cos I had completely forgotten about the foot pedal and was too occupied with keeping it horizontal (there are 3 different controls, one for each hand and the foot pedals). I didn't attempt landing...the helicopter was already spinning out of my control!

Actually we didn't all do take-off and landing, some people took off where the previous person left off, and some did the take-off and we reset the simulator because the helicopter crashed (which was actually what I did right after Marvin passed me the controls with the helicopter in a perfectly stationary position in the sky, so I got to try taking off instead :P ) or was out of control.

We got brochures and a Thales cap each, and we took group photos (one of which with everyone wearing the cap) They said they would send us the photos...so I hope to put them here when they (finally) do!

I initially had reservations about this visit; I wasn't quite sure whether I would enjoy it. But I really did (despite the very small number of people I knew on this visit), and that was a pleasant surprise! ^_^