Gail,

I dream big all the time. It is more fun to plan the complicated activities, including all of the details for each part. That was something that I picked up in flight school, then expanded on as the Installation Aviation Safety Officer at Ft. Knox, Ky, and from there to the Space Center at NASA-JSC. Details were where the devil caught me.

I enjoyed planning shuttle flights, (STS-7, STS-9, and STS-21) as flight planner scheduling and coordinating activities with and for the crew, preparing the scheduling constraints document (payload constraints information) to assist the other planners with the requirements for each of the payloads during the mission. Also limiting and controlling the shuttles activities for times
when the payload workers were working with their experiments. I also worked on all of the first nine shuttle missions in some capacity as a flight controller, preparing data and working to support the flight while it was on orbit.

Working, and playing, with the astronauts on a daily basis was also a lot of fun. Later after I changed jobs, I worked with the astronauts flying the SAIL (Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory) testing the flight software, details, details, details, but also a lot of fun (and work) flying the simulator with the astronauts. I did enjoy my work and the associated activities. (I was the racqetball challenge to all of the astronauts, played regularly with eight or nine. One of the toughest and most aggressive players was Kathleen Sullivan (the first woman to perform a space walk). She said that I sharpened her "edge" for dealing with the other astronauts (I think that means aggression for her).

Returning to the farm is just another method of returning to my youth. The planning and working out all of the details gives me the feeling of worth and freedom that I need to keep me going.

Take Care,
Dave