Author: Melissa Gray

I’m very excited about the upcoming SAWE TECH Fair and Training. It’s only a week away! It’s the first time we’ve been able to offer an event with such affordable pricing and easy attendance. I’m hoping that if you haven’t signed up already, you will within this coming week. For details and registration go to sawe.org.

The TECH Fair has most all of the elements of our conferences without actually traveling to be together. We have special speakers, technical presentations, a forum discussion, vendor presentations, 5 training courses, 6 industry committee workshops, presentations of special awards, announcement of scholarship winners, and more. But the essential element is YOU! So please be sure to join us.

I want to thank the TECH Fair and Training planning committee for pulling this unprecedented event together so quickly and efficiently. Engineers are known for getting the job done, whatever it takes. And this is yet another example how talented, resilient, and resourceful our organization can be. The goal of the TECH Fair and Training is meet SAWE’s mission of providing technical exchange to the mass properties community. Please join us in completing
this goal with your attendance and participation.

Thanks – see you at the TECH Fair!
John Hargrave
SAWE President

Mass Properties Community,
I hope you’ve already heard the news, but if you haven’t, SAWE is holding a TECH Fair and Training Conference online starting June 22 that will run for 3 weeks!
Checkout SAWE.org/techfair for general information and registration.

We’ve designed the schedule to accommodate both US and European time zones. Also, we’ve spread the activities such that attendees can both attend the conference part of the day and take care of work the rest of the day.

This is a great opportunity to experience an SAWE International Conference without traveling, without extended time away from work, and at very affordable costs. The entire Technical Sessions, Forum discussion, Standards and Practices joint sessions, and Industry Committee Workshops (the first 2 weeks) are available at one low price of $199.
Five training courses are offered at all time low prices:
• AWBS $350
• Designing the Aircraft of the Future $600
• Structural Weight Optimization for Mass Properties Engineers $300
• Developing Basic Parametric Models $300
• Marine Vehicle Weight Estimating $300

This virtual conference is a first for SAWE. We’ll be using the Zoom tools to connect us all.
I want to invite everyone to join me in a pre-conference Zoom meeting to discuss details of the conference and answer any questions you may have.

Please join me and the TECH Fair and Training team this Wednesday, June 3rd, at 7am Pacific by using the link below. We’re looking forward to your participation.

SAWE Tech Fair and Training Q&A Zoom Meeting

John Hargrave
SAWE President

---

Download an Outlook Calendar meeting file (.ics) to add the SAWE Tech Fair and Training Q&A Zoom Meeting to your calendar:

We are excited to announce the SAWE Tech Fair, a three week virtual event! See the attached flyer for more information. Please share and save the dates! More information to come as everything becomes finalized.

The first ever SAWE TECH Fair and Training will start June 22^nd and run over a three-week period.  The first week will focus on Technical Presentations.  The second week will focus on Standards & Practices with two joint sessions and the Industry Committee workshops.  There will be five training courses filling out the schedule.  Also, we’ll have presentations from our SAWE exhibitor and sponsor community to update us on their latest products.

The detailed schedule and pricing will be finalized soon.  But we want to share that the TECH Fair will be a great opportunity at very good price.  In addition, we’re working the schedule to have a minimal impact on workdays.  The SAWE TECH Fair and Training will be a good value for your training budget.

I urge you to make plans to participate and please spread the word.

Here’s a preliminary line up of what’s coming at the online SAWE TECH Fair and Training.

Live, Online SAWE Training Courses to be offered

• Automated Weight and Balance System (AWBS)
• Designing the Aircraft of the Future
• Marine Vehicle Weight Estimating Methodology
• Structural Weight Optimization for Mass Properties Engineers
• Developing Basic Parametric Methods

Technical Presentations Planned

• Keynote Address:  Dr. Dan Raymer of Conceptual Research Corporation “Why Weight Engineers are So Dang Important, and Why Weights Engineers Get All the Blame”
• Weight and Balance Challenges for Hybrid Electric Propulsion System
• Hydrogen Fuel Cell Power System Weight Challenges in VTOL Aircraft
• Folding Wings – Benefits in Aircraft Design Despite Local Mass Increase
• Use of Mass Growth Allowance to Dynamically Manage Mass Risk
• Rotorcraft Mass Assessment in an Integrated Design Framework
• Development of the Mass Properties Certification Program
• A Portable Device for Measuring the CoG: Design, Error Analysis and Calibration
• Investigation of an On-board Weight and Balance System for a Helicopter Equipped with Skid Landing Gear
• Theoretical and Experimental Evaluation of the Flexibility of the Test Rig on Inertia Property Measurement
• Aft Perpendicular… an Afterthought
• Finding the Balance Between Accuracy and Practicality In Deadweight Audits
• Dynamic Computer Simulation of Aircraft Buoyancy
• Class II & 1/2 Mass Estimation of Light Aircraft Composite Wings
• CFRP Density Uncertainties and its Overall Mass Impact
• Strategies for the Composite Stiffened Panel Topology Optimization for Minimum Weight
• One fits all? A Comparison of Weight Estimation Methods for Preliminary Aircraft Design
• Evaluation and analysis of applying a MBSE Approach for optimizing Mass Properties Parameters in Commercial Aircraft Design
• Advanced Weight Forecasting Based on Physical/Mechanical Similarity of Components During Early Development of Land Vehicles, Aircraft and Spacecrafts
• Forum discussion topic:  The Role of Statistics in Mass Properties Engineering

Standards & Practices

• Status of Recommended Practices
• Overview of Recommended Practice development process
• Certification Development Participation and Review
• Discussion of development of a standard passenger weight guideline for the FAA as a standard practice for airline usage
• Review of RP’s A-7 and A-8
• Military Aircraft Workshop (agenda pending)
• Marine Workshop (agenda pending)
• Missiles & Space Workshop (agenda pending)
• Offshore Workshop (agenda pending)
• Ground Vehicle Workshop (agenda pending)
• Airline Affairs Workshop (agenda pending)

The world pandemic is presenting us all with new challenges in our daily lives.  It’s such a simple set of instructions to just stay home, practice social distancing, and wash your hands thoroughly and frequently.  By now we’ve all caught on to the items being hoarded and hopefully have found a way to cope with that.  Also, we’ve either found suitable face masks or learned how to make them ourselves.  I’m sure that we’re all watching “the numbers” as COVID-19 spreads around the world.  But these aren’t merely numbers – they are people, families, and friends.  The saying “it’s a small world” reminds us how connected we are in the world community.  We must become physically disconnected to combat the spread of this dangerous virus.

New phrases such as “Together, Apart” have emerged.  In other times this phrase would represent a riddle, but these days there’s no explanation needed.  Fortunately we have the ability to stay connected with family, friends, and work via many internet tools.

I want to give you an advance notice that your SAWE is currently working on what we’re calling SAWE Tech Fair.  It will be a series of online events beginning in late June.  The Tech Fair will include technical presentations, keynote speakers, forum discussions, Standard and Practice presentations, industry committee workshops, and several training courses.  This is an exciting opportunity to experience many of the usual conference activities without having to travel.  We are in the early stages of putting together the Tech Fair agenda and details.  But I want everyone to alert their management and co-workers of this upcoming event.  Online attendance will be both convenient and cost effective. 

Please keep in mind the many technical resources available to you through our website and that members get 10 free downloads per year.  Perhaps it’s a good time for you to download and read a few SAWE technical papers.  SAWE committees continue to meet via Zoom video telecoms (Executive, Technical, Standards and Practices, and Certification Development).  In fact our Board of Director’s meeting will be held online this May.  I encourage SAWE Chapters to stay connected by having meetings online as well.

Recently our Executive VP, Clint Stephenson, began our annual membership drive.  As you renew or sign up for SAWE membership, I hope you realize the value and opportunities available to you through participation and take full advantage. The SAWE worldwide community remains connected through our website and online tools.  These are stressful and difficult times for us all.  We’ll do our best to meet the challenge of being “Together, Apart” through the strength of our membership and Corporate Partners. 

Best regards to all,

John Hargrave

SAWE President

SAWE is an International Society and currently there is an international health crises worldwide due to the COVID-19 pandemic. First and foremost our concern is for health and safety of our families and loved ones. Although we’re a technical society, nothing is more important to our society than your fundamental health and wellness.

The health crisis worldwide has the attention of all of us. SAWE’s mission to provide you with training, resources, technical references, standards guidance, and other technical support remains our primary focus. However, this mission will definitely be impacted in these difficult times. We are a society that relies on the dedicated service of volunteers and a few paid positions. That doesn’t change, but we certainly expect the health and safety of our membership to come first. And we respect and understand policies of our membership’s employers regarding travel restrictions to be in the best interest of all involved. We acknowledge and honor these preventive restrictions and accept them wholeheartedly.

I have created a COVID-19 task force to gather information, provide guidance, and modify this year’s activities to best provide SAWE’s mission to our membership and the mass properties community. This is a fluid situation that relies on your understanding. The task force will create some contingencies that address these trying times.

Our society’s strength has a long history of precious personal relationships and close interaction. I expect that to become stronger in these trying circumstances, but it will rely more heavily on our online connections due to health concerns. SAWE remains dedicated to serving you for your technical needs. And we’ll be exploiting flexibility with digital and online capabilities to maintain the best quality support we can within current health constraints.

Good health to all.
John Hargrave
President SAWE

On October 23^rd, the LA chapter met at Don Ramon’s In Huntington Beach to hear Doug Fisher give an encore presentation of his SAWE international talk of paper #3729, Application of SAWE Course “Developing Basic Parametric Methods” To Nacelle Weight Estimating. After enjoying the delicious Mexican food and some business about how great the upcoming conference will be (but, hey, that’s another blog post), Doug started his presentation after some minor technical difficulties.

Doug began by explaining what his approach to weight estimating before he took Andy Walker’s Developing Basic Parametric Methods class. He would plot his variables, he would get his equations, but he would not know how realistic or precise the information is. Andy’s parametric class gave Doug the knowledge to not only find a parametric relationship between variables, but the statistical tools to extract whether a relationship is real or coincidence and the uncertainty in his mass estimates. As Doug explained in his paper, “Providing a weight number is not enough. A justification of the weight estimate, backed up by a sound methodology that created that estimate, is critical in the understanding of risks associated with committing to the weight estimate.” Now Doug has the numbers and backup he can take to management. As Andy Walker remarked about Doug’s experiences, “it (SAWE training classes) means we’re having a direct, measurable, and positive impact on the decision-making process.”

Do you have a SAWE training success story? Tell us in the comments below.

Today is Veterans Day in the US.  Every Veterans Day I call my brother and tell him he’s still my favorite veteran.  He served as a US Navy pilot for many years, flying the Lockheed P-3C Orion all around the world, mostly out over the ocean on long endurance missions.  His interest in aviation is a big reason for my interest in it as well.

On behalf of SAWE, I want to thank all former and current military personnel for serving your country.

This special group of patriots to their country are high end users that push products we support to their limits while putting their lives on the line.  Mass properties engineers’ humble role in ensuring safe, efficient, and reliable operations of these products helps them do their job. Whether military or commercial, this role applies to all products we support throughout industries worldwide.  

SAWE has a continuing responsibility to a worldwide community of end users to ensure mass properties engineering has the best resources available to do their jobs.

John Hargrave

SAWE President

The European Chapter host committee has selected an excellent venue for SAWE’s 79th International Conference. We’re very excited to share the charm, ambiance, and hospitality of the Privathotel Lindtner at the conference next May. It’s a beautiful facility, has great meeting room accommodations, and the food is amazing.

The Executive Committee was represented on site by President-John Hargrave, Executive Director-Bill Boze, and Senior VP-Errol Oguzhan. In addition VP Technical-Robert Zimmerman, VP Internet-Greg Ray, Executive VP-Clint Stephenson, and Financial Chairman-Fred Brown supported via Zoom Telecom.

This meeting was held Saturday, Sep 28th at the conference hotel site. It was a full day of event planning, facilities tour, schedule coordination, and budget planning. It was hard work, but the result is a fantastic SAWE Conference experience for you next May. Make your plans now to attend and follow the announcements on SAWE.org for more details.

On Monday Bill, Errol, and John were invited by Kim Mittler to address the Airbus mass properties group about SAWE.  The meeting was a great opportunity to meet additional mass properties engineers and to discuss benefits and activities of SAWE membership.

RP A-7, Management and Control for Military Aircraft, is in the public draft review stage and is posted in the Standards Public Review page. This document provides the means for establishing a system of mass properties management and control during the development, follow-on development, and throughout the life cycle of military aircraft programs. The Review period for RP A-7 ends November 7, 2019.

RP M-4, Supplier Weight Control for the Marine Industry, is also in the public draft review stage and is posted to the Standards Public Review page. This Recommended Practice (RP) is intended for use by vessel Designers/Builders and the marine supplier community. For the Designer/Builder, it outlines an effective methodology for involving marine industry suppliers in the shipyard’s comprehensive weight control plan. For the supplier of shipboard equipment, it provides a framework of what the shipyard needs in terms of mass properties input to effectively manage the overall mass properties of the vessel. It is hoped that this RP will help establish the foundation for a productive vessel Designer/Builder – marine supplier working relationship. The review period for RP M-4 ends October 26, 2019.

http://sawe.org/technical/rp/publicreview