Marine Debris UAS Survey

"Bridge, my feet are wet!"

"And that was just the toilet bowl!"

"I know, we could have snap off winglets!"

Three memorable lines from the cruise that keep getting repeated and bring laughter every time.  They all three have a common denominator; high wind and seas.  Those are now a thing of the past.  We woke up this morning and the wind was still blowing.  As the day progressed, the wind and sea started to lay down.  The sun came out, the skies were blue and the day was perfect for flying, spotting debris or small boat operations.  Only, we were done with all that work and just cruising home.  The FAA would not allow us to perform UAS flight operations below 27 degrees N and we are now far below that.  Kauai could be seen off our starboard as the sun was setting.   The day was spent packing bags, dismantling the aircraft, cleaning floors and finishing reports. 

In the afternoon, the first fish of the cruise, a Mahi Mahi, was caught on a line that trailed out behind the stern.  We were spoiled at supper time to steak and crab legs.  A Red Footed Boobie (that's a bird) came by at sunset and flew the thermal off the bow, showing off his superior flying skills and unique design.  The final day at sea ended as the sun sunk into the water and we were treated to something we had never witnessed; the green flash.

The cruise is over.  Tomorrow morning, we arrive back in Pearl Harbor.  Thanks for following our blog.  If any of you have any questions or comments, please feel free to post them here or leave a message.  We will try and respond once we are back home. 

Check out our home page for more information about the UAS and what else Airborne Technologies, Inc. does.  Also, while you are here, check out the TrekMe site.  It is free and a cool way to share your adventures.  Look for improvements soon and give feedback on the web site.  Thanks,

Tim, Mike and Curt

The Pacific Ocean is HUGE.  Covering roughly 65.3 million square miles, it is a formidable untameable environment.  An OceanTrek Research GhostNet buoy is 18 inches in diameter or roughly 250 sq in.  Curt says that 1 what ever comes after trillion of our buoys could fit in the Pacific Ocean.  We found one yesterday that had been out there for over 2 years drifting around on an old fishing net.  We had help of course.

The GhostNet buoys transmit their GPS position twice a day to a satellite which then relays it to a ground station where it is sent through the Internet to ATI's server.  Our server parses the data and stores it in a database.  All buoy data can then be queried online on an interactive map.  If you go to the map and select from the drop down menu, buoy # 1007368, you will see the buoy we found floating by itself in the middle of the North Pacific.  We got an update position from the buoy when we were approx. 6 miles away.  By the time we got close, an hour had passed and we knew it was drifting southeast.  Curt, ran down from the flying bridge (I thought he was not feeling well) and in a few minutes appeared back on top and said we needed to turn a bit to the right to 240 degrees and we should see the buoy in about 1/3 of a mile.  (His math skills are incredible, I thought.  I praised him later and he laughed and said had Googled "how far" and put in the buoys last two position reports to figure out the drift speed and direction... still, genius)

Calling down to the helm on the radio, we asked them to make the slight turn west.  The Big Eye team was on station along with the UAS team and a few others who were wondering if we could locate it.  Shortly after making the turn, with numerous pairs of binoculars and eyeballs and Big Eye binoculars looking, Curt suddenly pointed to the starboard and said, "What's that?"  He had found it!  You must realize the difficulty in seeing much of anything on a day like yesterday.  Wind was blowing up to 25 kts, the sun was creating sun glints in the direction we were looking and the sea state was confused with swell, waves, foam and breaking waves.  A needle in a haystack is an easier find.

We maneuvered the ship near the buoy and discovered that the buoy was no longer attached to a net.  There was a line hanging down and the hull was covered with barnacles.  The decision was made to leave it drift and continue to provide valuable drift data for researchers.  Curt won himself a GhostNet teeshirt for his discovery.

We are heading back to Honolulu now.  The winds were blowing up to 30 kts this morning and the seas were still high, too risky for UAS or small boat operations.  The decision was made to head back.  We will be traveling through the night, all day tomorrow and should arrive early Wed. morning.

This is the weekend report from sea.  Days sort of seem to run together when you are doing field work and this cruise was no exception.  It is hard to believe that tomorrow we will start our trek back to Honolulu.  We plan on arriving Wed at noon.

The past two days have continued to be windy with higher seas.  We have only been able to fly twice this weekend.  Both flights were performed in winds that were 20 kts or so and neither one of them proved very productive.  We were recording flight data on both flights though and we are able to reply the data in the flight simulator for review.  The first flight was made using the launcher and the second was hand launched.  With winds blowing that hard, a lot of turbulence is created near the bow of the ship.  This turbulence first creates a tail wind, then a swirling wind, followed by a strong updraft and finally about 8 ft from the ship at rail height, the air becomes a cleaner headwind.  The most critical time of flight is during takeoff and this proved to be true on both flights.  We have defined the upper limit for safe flight operations off the ships bow.

On the first flight, Curt decided to make a quick return for landing after a launch takeoff where the wind almost pushed the UAS into the water.  Despite the rough seas, Curt landed Malolo 2 safely but before the small boat was able to retrieve it, a combination of swell and wind caused the aircraft to flip upside down.  This was not an issue for the aircraft since it is waterproof but with the winglets now upside down in the water, the recovery of the UAS was much more delicate. At some point both winglets were damaged.  Also in these sea conditions it begins to get difficult to safely launch small boats.  So the risk factor was up for both the UAS and the safe boat crew.  We repaired the damage to the winglets but further operations were shut down due to the increasing wind speed.

This morning, the winds were still around 20 kts when we attempted another flight.  Malolo 2 was hand launched this time and had the shortest flight (if you can even call it that) of its history.  Just after clearing the rail of the ship, the wind caught the starboard wing and rolled the aircraft upside down and it augered in.  It landed on its feet but was pretty close to the ship which was making way at a few knots.  Curt, always resourceful, added power and we watched Malolo 2 live up to it's name.  Just like the "flying fish" Malolo 2 was able to fly and to swim.  With a smile on his face, Curt "water-taxied" a few feet and was clear of the ship.  The aircraft was undamaged but when being handed off from the safe boat to the ship, a winglet was once again dinged and it came loose.  Bringing the safe boat back to the ship and tying up along side in 20 plus kt winds and rolling swell with waves on top is not an easy task.  Once along side, the ship and safe boat are not always going up and down at the same rate.  During this maneuver, the crew on both boats must carefully time the hand-off of the UAS.   The winglet was once again repaired within the hour, but the winds had come up even higher. The Sette's commander cancelled small boat and UAS operations for the remainder of the day.

Tomorrow morning is our last chanced to fly.  The winds are not expected to lay down much but we are hoping for one last sucessful flight to end this cruise.

Defining 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:

1. Test launcher operations from a ship.

2. 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.

Heading south finally!  During the night, we had made our way back to the 158 Longitude line that we had traveled north on from Hawaii.  At 0800 we intersected the line at 36 degrees N latitude and started taking CTD readings again every 15 miles as we headed south to 35 N.  Every minute of latitude is 1 NM.  There are minutes in one degree so that would make 4 CTD drops for every degree.  Ship speed is roughly 10 kts per hour in nice weather which means it should take about 6 hrs to travel 1 degree of latitude. Add in the time it takes to stop and do the CTD drops and having to slow down for a bit of bad weather and you soon have taken up most the daylight hours to travel 1 degree.

The Big Eye team was on watch again today. This afternoon, they spotted a buoy with a couple of red flags flying from a pole or antenna. A safe boat was launched to investigate. There was no net attached, the marker buoy was the kind used for long-line fishing. They decided to attach a GhostNet buoy to the buoy so we can track it's movement over the next months or years. That makes the second GhostNet buoy that was attached. You can follow their GPS track here. The buoy numbers to search for are; 15FXZ (Hawser line), 10017329 (longline buoy). You can also see our ships track if you select, 10017325. The TrekMe site you are now on is using the satellite relayed position messages that are being sent from a GhostNet buoy we have tied down on deck.

We are currently headed southwest towards another GhostNet buoy (10007368 ) that has been in the water for almost 4 years, attached to piece of derelict fishing net. We are presently 450 miles northeast of it's position. The current plan is to check the buoy on the way back to Honolulu and possibly replace it with a fresh buoy or retrieve the piece of net. Watching the buoy track, it is evident that it is been in a gyre for a number of weeks. It is possible that we will find other debris in the same area.

Check out this video of the Malolo 2 landing in the Pacific Ocean next to the OSCAR SETTEE.  The video was from a couple days ago when we last flew.

The weather looks promising for UAS flights tomorrow.