Page 36: of Marine Technology Magazine (May 2024)

FEATURE DRONE SURVEY

Associate Professor Hans-Peter Marshall of Boise State

University, left, follows the Boise State drone, which is carrying a radar. His snowmachine is mounted with a ground-penetrating radar. UAF Research Professor Andy Mahoney is at right. ing the aircraft and instrument to their performance limit. The team knew from forecasts predicting 20 to 30 mph winds that they would have only a short time to ? y.

Capelli was nevertheless satis? ed with the results.

“That’s good because it tells us what our limit is in the wind,”

Capelli said. “I have to go back and look at the data, but what

I have seen now looks good.” “Hopefully we can have a few more ? ights this week and get to test all the possible combinations of settings,” he said.

The forecast was on everyone’s mind. High winds were expected Thursday. Wednesday, away from town and on the

Beaufort Sea, was looking to be their best shot for another instrument test.

Capelli’s science device won’t get anywhere without a pilot.

On these testing missions in and near Utqiagvik, that pilot is

Matthew Westhoff, a UAF drone pilot veteran.

He’s also a veteran of piloting over Arctic sea ice.

“Even though I’ve been out here doing similar missions, it’s not exactly the same location and same type of ? ying,” he said while entering some drone prepositioning data in a laptop sit- ting on a black collapsible shipping container.

“Even though the end goal of measuring snow depths or ice depths might be the same, ? ying-wise it’s always a bit differ- ent,” he said.

The aircraft was operating Tuesday at the edge of its capabil- ity in the wind, Westhoff said. It’s the occasional gusts of 5 to 10 miles per hour higher than the constant wind speed that are the challenge.

“Our main concern being where we are is the wind and the fact that I have a payload swinging around in signi? cant

A drone carries the Lightweight Airborne Snow wind,” he said.

and Sea Ice Thickness Observing System.

Photo by Bryan Whitten Photo by Bryan Whitten

On Wednesday, out on the Beaufort Sea ice two-thirds of a 36 May/June 2024

MTR #4 (34-47).indd 36 6/2/2024 11:44:08 AM