Terry Fallis - Best Laid Plans

My friend and fellow blogger and podcaster Donna Papacosta has tagged me to reveal eight things about myself that you may not know. I never say no to Donna, so here goes:

1. I have an identical twin brother, Tim, who is eight minutes older than I. In the hustle and bustle of Toronto, where Tim also lives and works, we’re both daily approached by people who have confused one of us for the other. (You get used to it after so many years.) We’re still very close and play and coach hockey together.
2. Despite my 20 years of public affairs/public relations consulting, I actually hold a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. Though I’ve never practiced engineering, I use the methodological approach to problem-solving every day in my work with colleagues and clients.
3. When I was 15, a friend and I designed and built a full-sized hovercraft. This experience helped push me towards engineering in university.
4. I’m an avid hockey fan (Go Leafs Go!) and still play and coach.
5. In my university days, I played guitar in a rock ‘n roll band. The only point worth noting is that our lead singer, Andy Maize went to co-found the still popular Canadian band “The Skydiggers.” I still play guitar and write songs and occasionally perform with my twin brother (piano) and now my older son Calder (bass).
   
6. After graduating from McMaster University, where I was bitten by the political bug, I joined the full-time staff of the 1984 Jean Chretien Leadership Campaign (we lost) and then spent the next four years working on Parliament Hill (federal politics for any non-Canadian readers) and Queen’s Park (Ontario politics) as a political staffer for Liberal cabinet ministers.
7. I’ve been an avid (at times obsessive) chess player for nearly 20 years and still play online as often as time permits.
8. I published my first novel, The Best Laid Plans this past September combining various experiences and passions including politics, engineering, hovercrafts, and chess. I podcasted the entire novel chapter by chapter in 2007 and it’s available on this blog or through iTunes. You can read more about the novel on this blog.

There you have it. Eight things some of you may not have known about me.

I’ve had a number of listeners (well, one is a number!) ask me about Baddeck 1, the hovercraft Angus designs, builds, and ultimately flies in the novel. Regrettably, no such hovercraft yet exists in the real world. I’ve always had an interest in hovercaft. In my misspent youth, a classmate and I designed and built a full-sized hovercraft, dubbed GTH1. The rather official sounding moniker simply stood for Geoff and Terry Hovercraft 1. I know, very clever. Here’s a photo of GTH1 from 1976 on its maiden flight. I’m at the wheel at the tender age of 15 years.

I think my high school hovercraft experience propelled me into engineering at university. While I have no regrets, in the more than 20 years since I somehow persuaded McMaster University to grant me an engineering degree, I’ve never practiced engineering professionally, opting for politics and then communications consulting. The road not taken etc., etc.

Anyway, I like to think that Baddeck 1 is a rather innovative hovercraft design. It came to me and I sketched it out while in first year engineering, when I no doubt should have been taking notes in an Applied Math lecture. Not to get too technical about it, but moving to a single engine design and venting the thrust through the side thrust ports (see below), yields real dividends in weight, height, safety, noise, and control (in my humble opinion). Perhaps one day I’ll take a stab at building it, although I do push back the frontiers of ineptitude whenever tools of any kind are involved.

On paper, Baddeck 1 should work. All of the description and technical details provided in the novel, including those that were left on the cutting room floor through the editing process, are genuine and accurate (at least as far as my technical understanding extends). By the way, I cooked up the graphic above just by dabbling with PowerPoint. Just thought some of you might be interested… then again…