Home                                           Your notes are welcome: Editor@UpperWindpower.com
 
  AWECS   Joy                                     January 19, 2011
Anonymous: "What does it take for us to focus on the best and forget the rest?"

Good question with some challenges! I wrestle with that nearly daily. Thank you for the question.

Some talking points on that opening:

1. Sometimes I funk into worry that my tendency to savor a method just in itself without power-curve comparisons might be slowing things for others; and the despairing thought of "get off the scene" comes to mind. Saving me a bit from that low is the belief that "they are big boys and will press toward their own decided objectives."

2. The momentum for utility-scale AWECS is beyond me and the AWE forum. There will be flyoffs and careful measures on significant AWECS no matter what I write.

3. There are nine other scales for AWECS that as end activities could be developed.

4. The school that holds that there will be just one winning direction for AWECS is not attended by me; I find myself hopelessly treasuring the winningness of nearly any AWECS' direction or embodiment. I do not want to forget any known method; rather, I ache that someone will advance and mature each method and combination; that results in thousands of end products proposed. If I find cheerleaders for a method, then I say to myself: well that direction is receiving care, then what next? That I keep finding slants not thought before tells me that I am still at the entry door to a wonderful garden of wonders; and standing there at the door, I would consider myself unfit for my way if I thought I saw a "winner." Somewhat like the saying, "If you find God, kill Him." as what you kill will not be the true God, one can be sure. Bests will be idiosyncratic.

5. "Best" for specific well-defined purpose at particularized situation will be carved out by competitors in that named arena. Such process will be a maturing process for a particular direction; such will be a joy to watch; however, such won't win my passionate investments, except for finding how the best is not yet really the best.

6. My way does not want to forget any method. So, it is time for the utility-scale AWE community to get a professional publishing effort going; a sincere applicant may have the choice, if good for them, for Upper WindPower and other trademarks, and several specific domains. By the end of the first quarter of 2011, I will begin to work just one hour, not 10, on publishing AWECS text; hopefully someone will step forward.

So, it may be time for me to step aside; I ache for some other publisher to show spunk to relieve me, so I can get on to crafting thousands of AWECS, each with some difference from the others. I have been keeping my eyes and mind open to any movements by others who might take a productive position to serve RAD AWE. I offered to AWEIA http://www.aweia.org  to copy and paste all my works for forwarding. I offered NASA the same. Allister Furey had a start, but seems to be faltering. The artistic engineer doing the work for the page http://www.awec2011.com/  in coordination with the AWEC http://www.aweconsortium.org / might have the energy to do the job intended for Upper WindPower publishing: Paelinck, Reinhart  K.U. Leuven Kite Power; he would be my choice. My funds and time and health have run their course for the role of seed-hub publisher; someone will take the helm and advance the cause; my role will be changing to craft explorer without the publisher hat. I will be publishing the over-400-person AWE Founders' Circle and hopefully someone will then grab the publishing helm and do a great job at such as I step aside.

I have proposed scenarios of staying and they do not fit; money does not buy my next steps; my head and body and time will be freed to an AWECS crafting role that aims to gift finished AWECS with plans to people as a seeding mode of operating. McDonnell Douglas carefully considered my proposals (circa 1969) for ultralight aviation; the spark occurred upon their non-acceptance and my driving forward without them; I paused some to wonder if NASA wanted to hire me for a new AWECS Directorship, but I see that we have already going the movement for Tethered Aviation, and NASA will be having such a directorship soon enough, and so I can retire that strand of synergy. Getting crafted AWECS of many designs in all corners of earth at toy, sport, and village scale looms as interesting to play toward the eventual AWE Era.

Lift to you and yours,
Joe Faust
  • ShaneSoaring noted: "So, now you wait......"
     
  • JohnO notes with a quote:
            "Help will come.
              Slow it may seem.
              But surely it comes and
             it will not be late.     ~JohnO"
     
  • Doug Selsam   notes that replacement won't occur; new things will occur.
     
  • PJ looks forward to the many AWECS to be.
     
  • BobK offers to be asked for specific helpful actions. 
     
  • Lynn of Airbine sends good luck.
     
  • Douglas Amick sends thanks for the diligence and efforts over the years.
     
  • ShaneSoaring asked pointedly: "What does it take?"   
    • Answer:  'Nothing. Nothing will help "us" ( "Anonymous" and myself) to focus on "what is best and forget the rest."   Anonymous believes there is a "best" and that we should forget the "rest." That tack is a no-go for me, but might be just what is needed for some key sectors of AWE.

      Anonymous question was loaded. My part will not focus on what is "best"; and for my part, I will not "forget the rest."  The "rest" is too important to me; discerning "best" for me is impossible.

      Thanks for the retract, Shane.
       
  • Good counterpoints by DaveS: 

                You may be unique in the AWE community in proposing all topics to be treated equally without a relentless regard to functional power. To focus on the best way to use kites: we have to discern.  I see it as a fun puzzle or maze, with many false choices or dead-ends, or like seeking a needle in pile of hay. Sadly, people may suffer, if we fail to take the need to spot the "best" as quickly as humanly possible. The real AWE Joy might be to hit a bullseye.                    

         If one wants a dead-end or piece of straw, they do not need to discern. I would like to find the "best" bit, but focus seems needed. We are also likely to lose talented contributors, if we bore them with endless rehashing of, say, Magnus Effect as a serious AWE topic. You are not the problem; all of us (Doug, Alex, me, etc) stuck-thinking in circles-are a drag on learning new things.

         Joe, you don't want  predictably to burn out by following every AWE idea equally; instead, by choosing the best physics and avoiding the worst, there is plenty of time saved for the fun stuff.   Focus is also most likely to lead to paid work, which would be nice.

         You cannot be replaced yet, but NASA's effort is the logical hand-off for you as things continue to grow.
    ~DaveS
     
  • Hi Joe, Glad to hear you are still going to be about.  
       Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex...
       It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.
         ~~ Albert Einstein
       ~ Dan'l    [Ed:  Daniel, can you see SpiralAirfoil in the setting:             M2941 
               Torque cable driving ground generator video by Italy-based company SkyMill?
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_altitude_wind_power#Timeline_for_HAWP
     
  • v


     

The virtue of courage is a prerequisite for the practice of all other virtues,
because otherwise one is virtuous only when virtue has no cost.
There are times when something needs to be done,
and yet we know that if we step up and do this needful thing,
we will pay a heavy personal price. -C.S. Lewis