By Lisbeth
During the first half of class we talked about the homework readings. We brushed on the different uses of drones before going in depth about the regulations and safety procedures drones pilots have to follow. Some of the most important points in the FAA 107 Summary were:
- The drone must stay in the range of the visual observer
- The pilot must do a pre-flight check of the drone to assure that it is safe for operation
- The drone must not exceed 100 mph or 400 ft above ground
We then received our guest speaker, Dan Carter, who works on the FAA’s Safety Team. He talked to us a little bit about the fast growing industry involving drones. He spoke to us about the regulations and about his own experiences on the job. He has recently acquired his certificate and told us that the FAA’s regulations are constantly changing because they’re trying to adjust to this new technology. The FAA doesn’t regulate military aircrafts, only civilian ones.
We ended our morning session with a fun game of Jeopardy.
By Lizeth
The next half of the class was used to have a discussion about invasive species among Mill river with Gaby Immerman. Immerman identifies herself as a gardener rather than a botanist, her job is to look after the plants within the botanic garden. Which is essentially the entire Smith Campus, since we are located directly in the middle of the garden. Recently smith’s native species of plants have been pushed out by invasive species along the river bed. Immerman and her team continuously battle these nuisance but recently relied on drones to identify these species. Immerman took the entire class towards Mill River, before crossing the river, she identified ⅝ invasive species without moving her position.
After this adventure, our professor took us out to Smith softball field to exercise our piloting skills. We all gotten the chance to learn the controls and key components of the Ipad, such as
- The battery percentage of drone (announce every 10 % depletion)
- Altitude (measured in meters)
- Warnings of dysfunctions within the drone (such as an issue with the camera or gimbal)
We also practice to steer clear of other aerial vehicles or curious birds. We had to lower the altitude in order to prevent any accidents, our observers continued to point out aircrafts in the distance, which communicated to the pilot that they must lower altitude. We practiced our maneuvers, such as roll, pitch,yaw, these controls allowed us to move the drone in a certain way. We concluded our first drone flight class with allowing the drone to find its way home manually, by hitting the “Home” button, this allows the drone to fly back to its inital take off point after flying 30 meters up.
The weather let up briefly for the class to get in their first flights!