Flying UAVs

The flying of the UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) is becoming somewhat commonplace for us. We have flown the UAVs at Pegasus on four of the last five days. One of the basic principles in Antarctic field work is the significance of doing field work when the weather and logistics allows. The temperatures continue to be cool in and near McMurdo Station but overall the weather has been good. As long as the weather remains good we will do our best to continue to collect observations with the SUMO (Small Unmanned Meteorological Observer) UAVs.

The passenger terminal at Pegasus Airfield. This building is being used as our base of operations for the UAV flights at Pegasus Airfield.

John in the back of the van preparing the UAV for flight and ready to launch the UAV.

John ready to throw the UAV in the air for the launch.

A successful launch of the UAV. At this point the UAV is being operated by John using the remote control. The control of the UAV is about to be transferred to the programmed flight plan and auto pilot control.

The routine of preparing for the flight, launching, monitoring the flight profile, and landing has become very routine. We have completed a total of 16 flights thus far. The procedure starts by loading the laptop, which has the ground control software, and the SUMO UAV into a full-size van. We are using the van as a “hanger”, or base, for the SUMO operations. We drive the van to/from the runway and it serves as a nice warm location from where we can monitor the flights. We don’t actually need a runway for the SUMO UAVs as they can take-off and land in a very small area but the runway provides a virtually unlimited space for the flights to be completed. I have been driving the van and John is typically in the back of the van with the SUMO. I drive to the same spot on the runway for each flight so that we can have uniformity in the observations. We go through a checklist verifying the settings and operation of both the ground control software and the SUMO. After the checklist is completed John gets out of the van with the SUMO and the remote control. He then increases the throttle, using the remote control, throws the SUMO, and the SUMO takes off. After the SUMO’s flight is stabilized, he activates the autopilot software and the SUMO then goes into a holding pattern with a circular flight path. Once the SUMO reaches the holding pattern, we activate the flight plan, which has the SUMO spiral up into the atmosphere, while briefly maintaining altitude at specified levels. The top of the profile is at approximately 1600 feet and then the SUMO spirals back to the holding pattern at about 160 feet above the surface. Throughout the journey, the SUMO is recording a collection of observations including temperature, relative humidity, pressure, and GPS position with ground speed. When the profile is completed, John takes control of the SUMO with the remote control and lands the plane, preferably as close to the van as possible. The entire flight lasts approximately 25-30 minutes. After the flight is completed, we drive back to the passenger terminal, which is serving as our base of operations at Pegasus. (The passenger terminal is a small portable building with a number of seats used for passengers to wait to board northbound flights to Christchurch. Since there are no intercontinental flights during WinFly the passenger terminal is not currently being used.) John downloads the data with the SUMO observations, starts re-charging the SUMO battery, and does a preliminary analysis of the data. Approximately an hour later, we repeat the process by launching the SUMO to capture another profile. The goal of the observations is to assess how the lowest part of the atmosphere evolves over time. Our early experiences have us completing four to five flights in a day lasting 8-10 hours. We also have the commute between McMurdo and Pegasus, which takes about 40 minutes each way. Over the last two days we have shifted to overnight flights to better understand the changes in the lowest part of the atmosphere with no influence from the sun. I’ll write another post about the nighttime flights in the near future.

Monitoring the flight on the laptop using the Ground Control Software. The UAV flies is a continuous circular pattern is it flies to the vertical profile to take meteorological observations of the atmosphere. 

John getting ready to take control of the UAV with the remote control and bring it in for a landing.

The UAV coming in for a land with Mount Discovery in the background.

The UAV immediately after landing on the runway at Pegasus Field.

Me holding the UAV to provide some context for the size of the plane.

There is not too much else to report from McMurdo. The temperatures remain cool with lows around -30F and highs around -20F. Sunday (yesterday) was the “weekend” for most all of the contract workers. Scientists generally work our own hours and for us it included another day of flying the UAVs at Pegasus.