Day 12
04/05/08 12:09 am by Ocean Debris - Posted In : Daily LogDefining the envelope
We flew today. Winds continued to blow 20-25 kts during the morning so we postponed flights until afternoon. Once that decision was made, we decided to assemble the launcher and if winds were under 25 kts in the afternoon, we would fly Malolo 1 off the launcher. We had two objectives:
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Test launcher operations from a ship.
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Push operational weather envelope up a few knotches to determine what the upper limits for normal shipboard flight operations should be. Specifically, we wanted to find wind and sea state limits.
The safe boat generally has a limit of around 25 kts winds. Getting the safe boat off the ship and back on board gets difficult in higher winds and seas so the risk factor of injury or damage occurring goes up significantly. For the Resolution, the risk factor with higher winds comes into play with the take-off stage, landing stage and the recovery stage. Once in flight, the Resolution UAS does not care how hard the winds are blowing as long as they are not extremely gusty. The video data feed coming from the UAS has a diminishing return once the winds get above 15 kts as the sea state starts to hide objects with foam and breaking waves. Other sensors we might use, may not be affected by sea state. We wanted to test for reasonable wind limits and find out what would cause the highest risk towards operations.
The afternoon plan was slightly delayed when the ship called an abandon ship drill right after lunch. Winds had not come down significantly but they remained under 25 kts so we decided lauanch was a go. With the safe boat in the water, we readied Malolo 1 on the launcher. The winds were gusting on the bow as they hit the ship and the bridge behind us and caused an swirling eddy. Once off the end of the launcher though, the UAS would find clean steady air blowing just over 20 kts right on it's nose. All it had to do was make it off the launcher.... which it did just fine. Malolo 1 jumped into the air and climbed out sharply as Curt applied power. Relieved to be flying, the UAS would have been happy to go somewhere but Curt cut power and flying a very fast wind blown downwind, turned base and then final where Malolo 1 once again had it's nose to the wind and relative speed over the water down to just a few knots. Timing the waves and swell, Curt landed it in the ocean like it was another day at the flying field. The safe boat came up from behind to retrieve it. Watching them from the bow of the ship, we would occasionally lose sight if both the Resolution and the safe boat as they disappeared behind a swell. During the recovery, the safe boat's hull came down on a wing and damaged the winglet attachment. Other than that, everything seemed to work fine, even the hand off between the safe boat and the ship.
We took Malolo 1 back up to the bow and did a quick 15 minute repair on the winglet. It was readied for flight on the launcher again and was soon airborne for it's second flight of the day. Happy with the results of the launcher tests and successful take-offs with winds in excess of 20 kts, Curt brought the Resolution around for landing after performing a beautiful loop. Low and slow over the water, with it's head to the wind, the Resolution was once again ready for touchdown when a rouge wave reached up and grabbed the left wing. Malolo 1 did a graceful wing stand and ended upside down in the ocean. The repaired winglet was once again needing some repair but we called it a successful day and wrapped up operations.
Overall, the fights were very successful. We proved the functionality of the launcher, testing it in winds higher than originally planned for. We found that landing with 20-25 kt winds in the ocean has the expected increased risk, although not necessarily a show stopper. The recovery with the safe boat was doable but also has increased risk of possible damage and the hand-off from the safe boat to the ship needs to be thought through a bit more as that exposed but the airframe and the personnel involved to a higher level of damage or injury.
Tomorrow, we plan on continuing flight operations. This time with Malolo 2. In the meantime, we have made repairs to Malolo 1's winglet and will have it ready for flight tomorrow if needed.
06/02/08 4:07 pm
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