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Pastimes : Susie's and Tiffany's Hot Stock Tips -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: SusieQ who wrote (4262)	7/31/1999 1:06:00 AM
From: SusieQ	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5803

AQCI Info, To all aqci'ers on SI....a great post and some envious info from a reliable long on the RB board........enjoy...... Didn't phone Gary, went to see him. First let me warn you that I am just going to ramble here so don't come down on me for spelling, grammar, or proper paragraphing. I appologize in advance but an english major I am not!! This is going to tick some of you off, lol. I was on the harvestor today out in the water. I already knew lots about it but had never been on it and let me tell you.......WOW!! This is some piece of equipment they have developed. It far exceeded my expectations. This thing is kind of an ugly duckling but when you are on it, anyone with any mechanical aptitude very quickly gains an appreciation for what is there. The robotics are simply amazing. Each articulating joint has a sensor that feeds back to the on board computor which graphically displays an animated harvestor and its position and movment. Four video screens are in the operators shack each relaying info to the operator. Big cushy chairs on a swivel with joy sticks on the end of each arm rest. Want to talk about a grown mans ultimate video game!!! On the deck is another joystick for certain controls and used when ferrying basically. Good on board fully stocked tool crib. Reflecting back on a previous basher that wanted us to believe that this machine was not adequate for Brazil, he was right and wrong. Gary knows who it is supplying that info but what the guy didn't know were the mods Gary had made to make it adequate. Detatchable outriggers have been added to help take the weight. Not just the weight of the trees but of a tower that has been added to the fore of the harvestor. Tower is not a good term as it is upside down in the water. Gary calls it a fork lift, lol. Briefly, it is hydraulically actuated and can be swung down into the water from a standing position to upside down. On the end is more visioning equipment and another grapple. Tree is picked, this grapple clamps the tree and then the tower puts about 2000 lbs of lift on the tree. This has the effect of sucking the front of the harvestor down a cpl of inches in the water. The robotic arm, then comes in and clamps the tree just above the firt grapple and the saw blade then slices thru the tree. The lift from the tower causes the front of the boat to bob up when the saw is done. Now you have the tree grappled by the tower and the head still clamped tp the underwater stump. the tower lifts the tree to the surface for buoyancy tube and release. The arm in the mean time can be swinging to another tree or using the stump as an anchor, moving the entire harvestor close enought to grab another. Is this making sense to you? What a slick set up!!! These alterations accomplished two things really. First it allows the smaller harvestor to tackle these big trees and second (and related) it takes all the stress off of the arm which is now just doing the sawing. The weight of the saw head by the way is neutral underwater as everything has been designed to also act as buoyancy chambers. The visioning control systems are amazing. In my log harvest example above, tower grappled on, the operator is watching the screen with the animated arm. An "X" on the screen shows the operator the exact location of the head both from a side view and also from a vantage of looking straight down on the harvestor. Like hovering over top of the harvestor in a helicopter and being able to see right thru the harvestor. The operator guides the "X" to the tower grapple. I made the smart remark that they needed software where you push a button and the head automatically moves to the tower grapple and cuts the tree. Response was that they just developed that and it will be on the next harvestor. Other robotic enhancements too where just pushing a button will automaically return the arm to its previous position etc etc etc. Bottom line, it is truely an amazing piece of equipment that I wish you could all see. Gary came right out and said he wants ten of the bigger ATH 120's to follow this one to Brazil. Can you say CA CHING!! Met the boys too. Dan the operator, Sean (Gary's son) and operator as well, Sheridon the engineering robotics man and one other fellow (sorry don't recall your name). All young guys (late 20's, 30 ish). All very hard working and the big one for me was their absolute and unconditional commitment and enthusiasm for what they are doing. They are literally buzzing with anticipation and excitment. They are young bucks that like to work and Gary once again was ahead of the game in picking these guys in that they have no baggage. Specifically, they are all single guys willing to go to remote part of the globe and will be thinking with the correct head when there and not about the babe they have at home. One fellow I did not meet was the mechanic/welder/fabricator that will be joining the team. I was very pleased to learn of this fellow. All will be multi facited players but this one guy will also be working the night shift, lol, doing the nesseccary maintenance and repairs as required. Big stock of parts and supplies also going as ya can't run to the local NAPA or Schwabb store. With regards to the "E" appendage. When I first arrived at the office, the KPMG crew where still there. Now I'm not one to pass on an opportunity to do some grilling so I fired away. The financials were complete and signed by Gary. The lawyer will be finished with his end of the filing Saturday, tomrrow, and the package then gets forarded to KPMG in Denver. It has to go to Denver as the application has to come from a firm in the host country of the board. This is simply a pass thru and docs will not spend any time in Denver. We will be filed imediatly. We will be "E" appended come Monday but the KPMG boys said they anticipate no problems whatsoever in the approval. The question of the SEC backlog was answered with, "once you have submitted your application, you can find out who's desk it is on. If it is getting close to D-day and there are no problems, you can phone them and ask them for an extention of 30 days. The extention is denoted by a little "plus" sign after he "E". I have never seen one myself but given the number of apps going in I think a few are likely to pop up. Personally, afer what I saw today, I could care less if we got pinked for awhile....no one is getting my shares. On to projects. Received a detailed overview of all three Brazil sites. The first we are all quite familiar with and the second is the rest of the resevoir. The third is mind boggling. I have forgotten the name of the resevoir but saw its location on the "infamous map on the wall". We have had a team evaluate this site and I viewed many photos of it. Gary had described it to me as so loaded with wood that it looked like hair on a dogs back. When I saw the airial photos of it, yes, hair alright. There are literally millions of tree tops poking out of the water. Looks like you are looking at a magnified picture of a crewcut at closeup. Folks, we got wood coming out of our ying yang if we want it. Gary told me he was meeting the fellow from south east Asia on Monday and he had to cover up another map on the wall so I could not see the location. I appreciate his awareness of the need to watch what info is released from the "insider" standpoint. Tells me he can be trusted to be operating by all the rules. All he could say was that it looked very promising and very lucrative but we already knew that. What is encouraging is this guy is flying in to see Gary. They are coming to us now as the recognized world leaders in this field. Panama is still there but taking a back seat right now. I queried the Gatineau project and much to my surprise, Gary kinda shrugged it as "later". I pressed him a bit on it and he said that there are so many other good things going on. He said the project would be a good one but not nesseccary for success. He also stated that while the alliance with syro would be good for the industry as a whole and to AQCI, it is not nesseccary for AQCI. They need us a whole lot more than we need them. Gary explained how he hepled them improve their salvaging operation (still divers and winches) but also said somehting that surprised me. He pointed out that Syro is not some huge established underwater logging outfit, nor is the other one (name eludes me now but the ones in the syro press release). Did you know syro is basically a two man show with diver technology?? Now don't get me wrong...Gary did not bash them and did speak well of them, its just we here on the boards seemed to think they were quite large. The 10 logs a minute is a pipe dream error. Well I have rambled long enough here. This visit told me lots. I have always believed in this company and was regularily updated by Gary on the phone. The difference now is with all the hard questions, I stared him right in the face. Much can be gleened from a persons actions that are not evident over the phone. This company is going to be absoluetly huge and I will continue to add to my position with even more vigour now. It will be really nice if they are able to set up the video link from Brazil so we can all watch they logs being pulled. Watch the website. There are some new pics up now but they do not do justice to the harvestor. What to watch for is the streaming video they are putting on showing the cutting head in action. Whipped thru a four foot log in 14 seconds. Hopefully up in the near future. I am sure I have forgotten lots and will post at a later time. Cheers for now. Susie