McCormick Park Field Outing

         

         For this field outing, the main focus was to think about crew resource management. The purpose for going out was to map a part of McCormick woods using the Yuneec platform. We were positioned on the Ackerman-Allen Golf course which butted up against the woods we were mapping. Approval was needed and granted since we were a little less than two miles away from the Purdue University Airport to ensure safe integration and coordination with manned traffic. The Purdue University Department of Forestry and Natural Resources needed to monitor the woods and our operation assisted them. In doing this mapping mission, the gathered data should be able to analyze the treetop structure and identify different species within the woods. This data was collected using RGB imagery that was well suited for the mission.

         The class was split up into three groups during this outing. The first group was the flight control group and they were responsible for the control of the aircraft as well as making initial radio calls and provided mission organization. The other two groups were for visual observation and were given a handheld radio to report when they had visual contact with the unmanned aerial vehicle. Personally, I was involved with one of the visual observation groups and our objective was to radio out when we had gained sight of the unmanned aerial vehicle and to radio call again when we had lost sight of the aircraft. This created a daisy chain that allowed this flight to remain compliant Part 107’s visual line of sight rules. Not only did this assure that we weren’t breaking the visual line of sight rule but it also allowed the flight control group to have an understanding of the positioning of the aircraft and any other traffic at all times. The mission was successful being that we did everything in our power to ensure safety procedures were being met.

          

         The image at the beginning of this post shows the Yunnec Platform. The two images at the bottom of this post display the view point of the furthest visual observation group. The image on the left side of the page displays the unmanned aerial vehicle over the section of McCormick Park that we were surveying with the Yuneec platform shown inside the red circle. The image on the right gives a look into the crucial communication element of this mission following Part 107 visual line of sight guidelines by maintaining radio contact with the flight control group. Kyle Sheehan is shown on the right side of the picture as well as myself making a radio call on the left side of the image.