Day 11: Murphy’s Law

At the very beginning of the day we took more GCPs, but then hurried back to watch and collect data from the UAVs from William’s Aerospace. All the UAVs from William’s Aerospace looked sleek and state of the art. One UAV, the smallest of the bunch, took off with little problems and it was quite a sight to see. It banked and turned with a surprising amount of agility. In its landing it lost a propeller though, but a propeller is only 3 or so dollars.

The next UAV, which looked like a bigger version of the first smaller UAV, took a bit of time to set up and calibrate. I’m not sure of all the things that the guys from William’s Aerospace was shouting out, but there was alot of it. However the launch did not go as planned and the UAV ended up crashing into the ground.

The third UAV (yes there were three of them!) was calibrated and ready to go until a tour group came in. So, we had to wait til the group left and in that time the Williams people and the professors checked the camera and realized there was something wrong with the sensor battery. By that time it was getting late and we had to pack up. However there are more flights scheduled tomorrow and next week so I’m definitely looking forward to it and seeing the imagery that is produced.

One good thing from today is that I got to chat with Dr. Lee again about my project. It was good just to be able to talk some ideas through and see were I stand. I still have to clearly define my project idea and refine it.

Goodnight world!