"Uncle" Billy

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"Uncle" Billy

Post by CastAway »

This is a thread for those of you who have already gone to camp this year. Has anyone met "Uncle" Billy, the retired rocket scientist who worked on the SSME's? He is a pretty darn nice guy unless you anger him, but when eh becomes angry, he's really angry. Any thoughts on good ole Billy?
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Post by Benji »

Sorry, can't say that I've ever met (or heard of) Uncle Billy before.
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Post by spacecampaddict28 »

I have never heard of them either.......how recent did this guy appear?
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Post by CastAway »

All I know is that he was there last week.
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Post by Benji »

If Sara's never heard of him, he must be pretty new.
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Post by HighSpeed03 »

Billy began working at Space Camp in Feb. Not only did he work on the SSME's but he also has some time working on the Saturn V under his belt. He is above all a "stealy eyed missle man"!
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Post by spacecampaddict28 »

How depressing. I was there in March and I heard nothing of Billy. Now I must meet him.
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Post by spaceaddict »

"Uncle" Billy is awesome. I enjoyed the talks he gave us through the week. Well, most of the team disliked him but that is because they didnt care about doing anything. I could rant about that but won't right now.
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Post by LaRsOnAtRiXkIx »

omg! i know billy! dude he was crazy..and a lil boring but he knew what he was talking about. but he was cool. we met him our first night and he gave us a breifing on..rocketry i think with some other lady that was always with him. and he did the aero engineering thing with us too, when we made the planes. and we froze our butts off listening to the radio telescope with him. actually it seemed like he was everywhere but he wasnt.
you were only there like 2 weeks before i was sara, weird that you didnt meet him.
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Post by CastAway »

Those of you who are yet to go to ASA will have the privilege of hearing his "SSME's: an insider's perspective" presentation. Umm... basically he goes into deep detail about them. Last week, my team was the very first team to hear it... uhh... I wish I could have paid attention... I really kept nodding off and snapping back, but I was never at 100%... I don't blame that on him at all, but on the fact that we're not allowed Coke in the mornings... I didn't have my caffeine! I hope he did not notice me nodding off despite being in the front row (I don't think he did because when he gets angry he gets really angry, and he didn't yell at me or anything...). I really don't want to hurt his feelings. He's a really nice man.
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Boring lecture, cool guy...

Post by Repeat »

We had SSME insights, and practically my whole team (Oberth, week 42) fell asleep through some or all of it... It had been really hot out, we were all exhuasted, and it was boring as all heck... We had him for a couple other lectures too, and he wasn't as bad then, but for some reason, SSME was just way too many useless details that we didn't care about, with pictures that didn't make sense, and explanations that didn't clarify! Nice man, though.
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Post by spacecampaddict28 »

I didn't get an SSME lecture by Billy. I know at least the guys on my team would have loved just to be in his presence....His rocketry thing was good though mainly because he really really knew what he was talking about...and he let me play with the blow torch.
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Post by Repeat »

We had Tigger for our rocketry thing - she was awesome - she gave me a dry-erase board and told me to be creative... and boy did everyone crack up from my drawings... They were funny (some were just words, but it was still funny...) We had some problems with the hypergolic fuels, though... Eventually, Tigger got it - and we all started choking on the fumes!
Sara with a torch (of any kind) is scary as hell, and I'm glad I wasn't there to witness it...
Finally, I saw a picture posted of Billy, and it looked slightly different than the guy we had for SSME insights, but I'm pretty sure his name was Billy... He was a retired aerospace engineer is all I remember... And we had him for hydroponics 2 or 3... and he wasn't so boring in that lecture.... Anyone from Oberth 42 know whether it's the same guy?? Or anyone else who could help??
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Post by spacecampaddict28 »

There is only one billy and I am pretty sure we are talking about the same retired aerospace engineer. Oh and Billy offered me the blow torch.....I didn't ask for it. All the people on my team that were sitting on the hill just backed up and the two people that were helping ran away.
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Post by Benji »

spacecampaddict28 wrote:All the people on my team that were sitting on the hill just backed up and the two people that were helping ran away.
I would have, too. :wink:
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Post by monkeynautt »

I never had him for anything. Melissa did my rocketry and hydroponics lectures as well as one of my payload things.
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Post by spacecampaddict28 »

Our team had Melissa for hydroponics, and it definately was Hydroponics that changed our team. The pilots got there early and put panty hose for the alien head things over their heads and did an FBI Sting and tried to arrest our counselor. Then we dragged Bill into the room and had him watch our cheers and our song and stuff. During part of hydroponics, we were so crazy that Melissa was hiding under a desk!
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Post by ethlar04 »

You guys must have been really crazy cause she can usually put up with quite a lot. Some people in our group actually tried to steal the acetone from the Hydroponics lab, and she didnt seem fazed at all.
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Post by spacecampaddict28 »

Oh well I have known her for a while now, and she isn't suprised at anything I do! She was laughing really hard and hiding under the desk. It was really funny. It took Jeremy forever to get us to calm down....two grey shirts walked by and they just thought we were funny....
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Post by stargazer0105 »

Ok, so this is a little late, but I didn't get an SSME lecture when I was there. Billy did a couple of other briefings though.
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