Final Preparations

Final Preparations

The last dry runs have been completed in the last week or so. We are making final preparations to prepare for upcoming flights. The weather is finally looking to be in our favor.

 (Figure 41: The M600, being checked for a final time to prepare for future flight.)

(Figure 42: The gimbal being checked and secured on the M600.)

The final dry run on the M600 has been finished. We will be using this drone to do closer shots and videos of the area. We connected the M600 to Measure for the first time to get use to the interface. We reviewed all the options under Measures platform and started forming a new checklist for Measure as well. 

 (Figure 43: Another dry run on the C-Astral)

(Figure 44: Completing checklists for the dry run on the C-Astral.)

This is the 4th or 5th time we have completed a dry run with the C-Astral. The team is decreasing the overall time it is taking to complete the checklist on the C-Astral. Since the last dry run we have improved greatly on the things we listed under "Needs Improvement". 

Week 10 Project Update

Week 10 Project Update

The group was very productive this week. We did a run through of setting up the C-Astral, and are improving and learning each time we do it. Below is a table that shows who was apart of each run through, the time it took to do the run through, and what we need to focus on improving in the future for setting up the C-Astral.

	Pilot	Co-pilot	Equipment Member 1	Equipment Member 2	Time From Start to Launch	Needs Improvement
Run Through 1	Todd	Kyle	Evan	Ryan	56 Minutes 48 Seconds	Storage of Catapult, Camera Setup, Pitot Checks
Run Through 2	Evan	Thomas	Ryan	Todd	38 Minutes 2 Seconds	Checklist Order, GCS Checklist, Parachute Packing Installation

(Figure 36: Table for Run Through 1 and Run Through 2)

(Figure 37: The time it took for Run Through 1)

(Figure 38: The time it took for Run Through 2)

As you can see from our times, we have improved by about 20 minutes already, and will hopefully continue to improve on time as we practice. 

We also took time to integrate our new payload into the C-Astral.

(Figure 39: The A8000 Payload)

(Figure 40: The A8000 Payload)

Improvement is still needed on our run through for the setup of the C-Astral. I want to be able to fly missions soon and to do so we need to have the set up done correctly and efficiently a few times first. Before that happens we need to practice proper storage of parts, complete the camera setup, practice better checks of the pitot tube, rearrange and add to the checklist that C-Astral has given us, and complete a dry run of the GCS checklist with satellites present for the drone.