First Flight with C-Astral

C-Astral Flight

The first flight with the C-Astral went very well! The entire group was there for the mission. Early Wednesday Morning on 3/27/18 we met at the airport and folded the parachute 

 (Figure 45: The per-planned mission flight we used for our mission.)

 (Figure 46: The checklist we used to pack our equipment.)

(Figure 47: Fresh parachute folding by Ian and Todd.)

Once the planning and parachute packing was done we headed out to the Amphitheater. 

(Figure 48: Setting up the C-Astral for it's first flight.)

 (Figure 49: Checking the propeller and the free movement of the ailerons and flaps.) 

(Figure 50: C-Astral ready for take off.) 

As you can see from the picture above, we took off in an open field to give the C-Astral plenty of room to climb. The take off went perfectly and our mission was a success! 

 (Figure 51: The C-Astral in flight.)

 (Figure 52: The C-Astral Returning to home)

(Field Notes 2: The notes taken before, during, and after the flight.) 

There were a few things I wrote down in my notes that we needed to improve before the next flights. The camera settings were weird because we dont have a checklist for our actually camera, just one that is close to ours. We need to make a new checklist for our specific camera. The REACH system we wanted to use does not work. We did set up GCP's around the initial takeoff area to set up an initial fixed base. We also forgot lenses cleaner which we would need for multiple flights because the lenses becomes dirty on landing.  We also need to adjust the rally point and the parachute popping point because we did not account for drift.