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Arrival | T-minus 36 days

Now that we’re here, it’s crunch time | 36 days until the start of the race |

Written by: Ben Logan

September 1, 2017

Group photo of the race crew at Parafield airport
Race crew group photo at the Parafield Airport, by The Tree of Knowledge, Adelaide, South Australia. Photo: Akhil Kantipuly, U-M Solar Car Team

The 2017 Novum race crew has arrived in Adelaide, Australia. We are excited to get back to work – this time at the nearby Parafield Airport. Neighboring historical fighter-jets, hangar 107 houses our workspace for the next few weeks – a cool substitute for our familiar home in the Wilson Center on North Campus.

Outside image of Hangar 107 building
Hangar 107. Photo: Akhil Kantipuly, U-M Solar Car Team

The first wave of arrivals included crew members from the operations, electrical, and mechanical divisions, who quickly started preparing for the next month in Adelaide.

“We made sure we would have food for when everybody else gets here,” said Will Horner, mechanical engineer. “It was also nice to have some of our electrical engineers here to do some work on the battery as well. It was kind of tricky with not being sure when we would get the car. And there’s always the worry that the air crate won’t clear customs the first time through, so that kind of left things up in the air.”

Image of race crew getting their feet wet at Glenelg beach
Race crew gets their feet wet at Glenelg Beach, Adelaide. Jake Anderson, Hossein Zabihian, Nate Silverman, Will Horner. Photo: Akhil Kantipuly, U-M Solar Car Team

The rest of the crew arrived in waves, and after the jet-lag wore off, people started getting antsy.

“When you’re here and there isn’t a car you kind of wonder what you’re doing,” says Horner. “It almost feels like a vacation. It will be nice to have the car because it’ll feel like we’re back to doing what we’ve been doing. It’s refreshing to be in a new area though – weather is getting nicer everyday. I think we have some really productive days ahead of us.”

Image of Novum crate arrived at the Parafield hangar
The crate has arrived at the Parafield Hangar. Clayton Dailey, Chae Woo Lim. Photo: Akhil Kantipuly, U-M Solar Car Team

It took 12 days for Novum to get to Adelaide. After having been on four trucks and one plane, everything arrived in ship-shape.

“Shipping’s never interesting when everything goes right,” jokes Peter Rohrer, the team’s race operations director.

“Once we unloaded the car, we really started to get to work,” said Jon Cha, project manager. “We’ve been very, very productive. Everyone’s just dived right back into it – like we didn’t skip a beat.”

related links

Shipping Novum

Don’t touch the array

In the wind tunnel


MEDIA CONTACT

Ben Logan

Senior Digital Media Strategist

(734) 763-1652

belogan@umich.edu

Explore: Aerospace Engineering Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering Mechanical Engineering

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