All right , so my name is Rachel
Williams . I go by tumble and I'm a
test pilot in the 4/18 .
So I primarily fly C seventeen's which
is this beautiful aircraft ,
affectionately known as the moose . The
C means it's for cargo . So we
transport just about anything you can
imagine in the back , whether that's
people , bananas , packages , rockets ,
like if you can think of it , we can
probably put it in an airplane and we
take it all over the world to whoever
needs it . You can do flight tests in a
lot of ways on the C 17 . Obviously you
can test the aircraft itself and all of
the different upgrades or things you
can do to the aircraft . But we also
have a lot of customers that come to us
because they need our plane because
we're so unique . We do something
called air drop where you drop whatever
you want out the back while you're
flying around and that's pretty special
because of how large our aircraft is
and how much we can fit in it .
We use it all the time . Unfortunately
for the kids , I would say it's a lot
of technical writing . So you don't
really expect that necessarily when you
go into aviation and test , but a lot
of writing and editing . Um , And then
as I was thinking about this earlier
today there's a lot of geometry . So I
had to fly around in a had to learn
this word decade gone , which is a 12
sided polygon for like five hours the
other day . So you have to figure out
what that means and how to fly it also ,
you know , basic math . We do a lot of
fuel planning , a lot of range planning
data analysis . It can get really
complicated really quickly , but a lot
of times it's the basics that are going
to get you where you need to go and
flight test . We had to fly in a decade
gone because we were doing
communications testing on a specific
radio and they wanted to see the
antenna from a 360° aspect . But in
order to do this test , you have to be
not turning . So you have to do a test
in a straight line . And the
Dodecahedron was a compromise for 360°
aspect while not turning
Exciting thing I've ever done is
airdrop a missile out of a C17 that
then went to space and came back . You
can't really beat that . You're looking
at something in your carving apartment
that is no longer there and is flying
to space . That's really cool . But I
would say the most rewarding thing is
working on these projects from start to
finish being part of that planning , I
really enjoy seeing something that I've
flown in the data and getting to do
analysis on it . That's really
satisfying . And then at the end of the
day , if you can give a good product
back to the user , the guys that are ,
you know , flying these plants all over
the world . Like I used to , if you can
give them a good product to know you
had a hand in it . It's really
rewarding .
A lot of work . I wanted to do this
probably since I was about in the fifth
grade . And so I knew I wanted to be a
pilot and kind of struck out with that
goal in mind and got an engineering
degree and just kept at it . It's a
long road . But yeah , you have a goal
and you go for it .
Yeah , that's probably it . Um , you
can have a goal when you're in fifth
grade and it can be really what you end
up doing in life and Just go for it .
Don't be ashamed of that . You can also
change your mind 20 times . That's okay
too . But just fight for what you want
and work hard .