Farewell to the
​good old days

​Farewell to the Good Old Days is a lively and intimate tale by David Greatrix, a man who has lived a dynamic professional life, first as an aerospace engineer and then as a professor of the subject. The book, leaning heavily on the actual life experiences of Greatrix and a number of his academic colleagues close and far away, is divided into two discrete parts; the book’s narrator for both parts is nominally a fictional consolidated representation of Greatrix, drawing from various sources in addition to the author. Part One covers the narrator’s childhood and early adulthood, followed by his moving into his years of growth as a professional breaking into the challenging field of aerospace engineering. Part Two tracks the narrator’s subsequent twenty-five-year academic career as a professor of aerospace engineering at a university in a major urban centre.

Prominent in this story are the many challenges the narrator encounters in his navigation of academe in a high-profile setting for engineering education. In an emotional narrative that never strays far from various shades of humour, the narrator shares the details of his teaching and research experience at his institution, frequently bumping up against the pointy bits of an evolving cosmopolitan academic culture.

​In colourful detail, the narrator reveals the small successes, notable failures, unexpected events, and crushing disappointments that describe his tenure at his university. The narrator is especially candid in his revelations about episodes of betrayal. He takes aim at big targets, including the Canadian government, university administrators, and the academic superstructure as a whole. The result is an enlightening view into an individual’s complicated experience in a demanding world that serves as a microcosm of society at large.

POWERED FLIGHT
​THE ENGINEERING OF AEROSPACE PROPULSION

Whilst most contemporary books in the aerospace propulsion field are dedicated primarily to gas turbine engines, there is often little or no coverage of other propulsion systems and devices such as propeller and helicopter rotors or detailed attention to rocket engines. By taking a wider viewpoint, Powered Flight - The Engineering of Aerospace Propulsion aims to provide a broader context, allowing observations and comparisons to be made across systems that are overlooked by focusing on a single aspect alone. The physics and history of aerospace propulsion are built on step-by-step, coupled with the development of an appreciation for the mathematics involved in the science and engineering of propulsion.

Combining the author’s experience as a researcher, an industry professional and a lecturer in graduate and undergraduate aerospace engineering, Powered Flight - The Engineering of Aerospace Propulsion covers its subject matter both theoretically and with an awareness of the practicalities of the industry. To ensure that the content is clear, representative but also interesting the text is complimented by a range of relevant graphs and photographs  including  representative engineering, in addition to several propeller performance charts. These items provide excellent reference and support materials for graduate and undergraduate projects and exercises.
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Students in the field of aerospace engineering will find that Powered Flight - The Engineering of Aerospace Propulsion supports their studies from the introductory stage and throughout more intensive follow-on studies.


 


David Greatrix at left and at right, his uncle, well-known Miramichi author Raymond Fraser, circa 1976
Picture
 
    July 1981, Niagara Falls, New York, outside venue at the 13th Shock Tube & Waves International Symposium

    Dre (Andy) Bressers at forefront, David Greatrix sitting on ground to his right. Hany Sadek appears in photo
    above Dre's head. All are at the time M.A.Sc. (Aerospace) students at UTIAS (Toronto).



Univ. of Manitoba Convocation Ceremony, May 1981,  Mechanical Engineering graduating B.Eng. students. In the Reserved row at the forefront, left to right, David Greatrix, Peter Giese, Craig Forsyth, Gordon Choate, Charles Baumgart, Bryan Clake.   Row behind them, left to right, Ronald Rob, Ralph Pearce (the remaining Mech students in that row are, unfortunately, obscured).  Unfortunately, Craig Forsyth passed away in Jan. of 2010. Below the 1981 photo, more recent photos of three people who appear in the 1981  photo (hint: they all ended up in Calgary, where they are presently).