On January 9th, Team Kraken ended the 2015 Long Duration Mission by beating the other four squadrons and winning Round 8. With Kraken's victory, the LDM ends; all that remains is a bit of math and then I'll announce the winner of the Top Squadron Award for the 2015 Long Duration Mission.
Collin led his squadron to victory as captain of the round. Orion was his first officer.
The two of them made a great team. Collin had his notebook with their strategies well thought out and read for execution.
Kevin and Dakota were hands down the best dynamic duo ever to occupy the Damage Control and Engineering stations.
What is even more impressive is how Kraken took the round's best team award with only seven of their team on the bridge. It was two stations for everyone. I quickly learned to get out of the way as they darted from station to station doing their best to keep the Magellan operational in very difficult circumstances.
Much of the round was spent at red alert. Their strategy was similar to the other four teams once they stopped and considered all available information on RA and the alien ship's powers.
Here are the seven starfleet samurai, poised for their final team picture on the Magellan bridge.
Orion, Scott, Collin L., Collin E., Dakota, Savannah, and Kevin.
After the team debriefing, we found Kraken's coach Christine running a private Galileo mission. She was unable to be on hand for their mission due to her Galileo responsibility. Christine was excited and proud of her squad.
Sadly, the Kraken Squadron is no more. The name is being retired along with Nautilus and Prometheus. The Lion, Tiger, and Cobra Squadrons will take their places in the 2016 Long Duration Mission roster. The teams are listed here. If you're interested in joining us for this year's challenge, become a member of the Voyager Club. We are sixty five cadets strong and always looking for outstanding students to compliment our ranks.
Congratulations Kraken! You've done yourselves proud.
Mr. Williamson
Dream Flight Adventures' December Community of Practice Meeting
All the holiday festivities have made us a bit tardy in sharing an update about our latest Community of Practice meeting, which took place on the 15th. This was a historic event, as it was the first Community of Practice meeting where all five Dream Flight simulators in the continental U.S. were represented! That’s right, we had flight directors, educators, and admins from the IKS Titan, Highlander, Buccaneer, Dreamcatcher, and Horizon in attendance!
The meeting kicked off bright and early at J.E. Harrison Middle School in the Baldwin-Whitehall School District where the flight directors toured the IKS Highlander and its accompanying Mission Ops STEAM lab.
Mike Kaleta had the morning very nicely organized and he invited Dr. Lutz, Dr. Peretin, Denice Sedlacek and Andrea Hoffman (most of their upper administration) and Scott Ross to attend. We also had Brian Colgan and a Phys Ed teacher from Burrell who is training to be a Flight Director, Jamie Harris from Penn Hills, Heather and Mike from Shaler Area, and Heather and Rachel from Washington D.C.
We met in the “Mission Ops” room for juice and cookies for about 30 minutes and then we toured the Highlander simulator. Mike Kaleta showed everyone several of the cinematic trailers that he’s recently made of his students running missions, and then we had a nice long discussion about our successes and challenges. Everyone was extremely positive and energized!
We’re all looking forward to at least three more Community of Practice meetings in 2016 and we’ve tentatively arranged to meet at Penn Hills in February-March.
We then came to Shaler Area Elementary School where Mike Penn ran a 4th grade Pandemic mission in the Titan. Everyone stayed until about 2pm. Some of the SASD administration were able to attend and meet everyone, including Bryan O’Black, Assistant Superintendent.
Heather and Rachel from D.C. were the last two to leave. It was great having them meet with full Pittsburgh Flight Director cohort, and we’re so glad they were able to make the trip!
Admiral Starblayze
Troubadour Note:
Dream Flight Adventures builds experiential simulators similar to those located here in Utah. The company's simulators are found in several schools in the eastern United States and Venezuela. Gary Gardiner, founder of Dream Flight Adventures, credits the Space Center's USS Voyager simulator as his inspiration for starting the company. He wanted the wonder and adventure he experienced as a child (Gary was one of our regular campers back in the 1990's) available for children worldwide. Visit Dream Flight Adventure's website for more information.
The Imaginarium
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