Week 3

Due to extended delay on C-Astral's Bramor, I switched my focus from parachute packing and creating an instructional video for it. Me, Ryan and Ian started to brainstorm a checklist for the M600. We also started to inventory our equipment. The M600 has a total of 18 batteries separated into 3 groups of six. To ensure we use the same six batteries together they are labeled different colors. Yellow, blue, and purple were the colors chosen. While we started to make a list we decided that using QR codes to label the battery would be a good idea. I made QR codes for 6 of the batteries and have them saved.
The class also started using drone log book, which will ultimately help me with creating checklists and inventory lists. The site has its own category for flight, maintenance, inventory, personnel, documents and incidents. Drone logbook will be very useful for in field use of checklists and flight records. Planned for next week is creating a checklist for the M600 on drone log book itself, this will help condense all of the classes resources down to a few sites. If any maintenance is done on any of the platforms we have a section dedicated to jot down any notes or major maintenance done.

Week 2

As the lead flight engineer I was tasked with learning to pack the parachute for the Bramor. For this week me and systems integrator, Ian Wiley practiced packing the parachute. The packing guide consisted over 35 steps. We first started out by hand deploying the parachute, after that we made room on a desk so we could have room to fold it. Step by step, me and Ian followed the procedure taking notes of what would be good to have in an instructional video. We were able to pack it twice during the time of our lab. The first time packing was much more difficult than the second, due to us never packing this parachute before. The most difficult part we agree would be the most important part. The weaving of the cords at the end. If the cords are tangled then the parachute could have a chance of not being deployed, causing the Bramor to potentially take a very hard landing.  This is the step me and Ian are working on the hardest due to the difficulty of it.

Bramor Parachute packed
(the most important aspect is the cords being woven correctly so it deploys)

Bramor Parachute during packing (1st attempt)

During this phase of the packing, we separated the 8 gores into a neat pile. 

419 Capstone Preparation

In our first week of class, the class had discussion on how to classify the data we collect from our flights. Evan, as the data analyst, had two options that were discussed. In the photos below he drew out how the data would be organized. In class we also set up folders for our own use in this class along with mapping a drive.

 Here on the left is the diagram on how data will be collected, stored, and released. There is also the naming convention for the data on the right hand side of the photo. This was the main topic of discussion and took us most of the time.

For my job, I was able to see the parachute and look into the folding of it. We received the Bramor user manual and in it was the guide to packing the parachute. It consisted of 35 steps.