The end is in sight. We figure we have about 12 hrs of flying left, two 3.5 hr flights on separate blocks, and then a long 5 hour flight to finish off the block we're currently working on.
We did a 5.1 hr flight yesterday, our longest flight yet, and man was my butt sore! I think that may actually pass as the longest time I've ever spent sitting in one place, let alone flying, lol. We're trying to push the flights as long as possible, because we're in a bit of a race against time to finish because our 100 hr inspection is coming up due, and its gonna be REALLY close whether we run out of air time or not. So the long flights cut down on unproductive ferry flying to and from the blocks. The one block we're currently working on is almost a 20 minute flight out, so if we can fly longer flights and reduce the number of times we have to fly out there, we might be able to pull off finishing the whole project before inspection. It looks like we'll make it so long as nothing drastic happens. It'd be a bummer to have an hour or so of flying left to do but having to fly the airplane south and wait around for two days of maintenance.
From what I hear my boss is really happy with my work. So far we've only had to re-fly one line due to not flying accurately enough, which is apparently pretty good for even seasoned survey flyers, and as far as quantity goes we're going to finish 20 days ahead of the time originally alotted for the project. My operator and I broke the company record a couple weeks ago for number of line kilometers flown in a single day, which was due in combination to long grid lines which mean less time-wasting turns, and flying our butts off. I heard through the grape vine that my boss mentioned he'd never seen somebody catch on so fast. So thats something I'm proud of, it looks like I may have found my niche.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Friday, June 18, 2010
Speed-bumps
We're once again sitting on the ground waiting for the weather to clear up. This is not ideal, because the client has for a third time added more work onto the project. The good thing is we've been flying more kilometers than the office anticipated we would, so it still may be possible to get out on our planned exit date of the end of June. But not if we keep sitting around waiting on weather.
Another speed-bump is that they're going to be doing maintenance work on the runway on Saturday and Sunday, so we're going to be limited to the times we can go flying. Saturday the runway will be closed from 0700 to 1200, but we're going to bite the bullet and try to be airborne before 7 AM and do a 5 hour survey flight - our longest yet. The longest we've managed so far is 4.8 hrs, but I'm fairly certain I can hold my concentration together for a full five hours before I start to go off the deep end. And hopefully we can hold our bladders as well.
I've also got word where we'll be going next - Northern Saskatchewan, right on the border of NWT. That one's just a short job, probably no longer than a week and a half. It'll be cool to go that far north, and also cool to not have to stay there for very long. That probably won't be until mid-August however. We should be finished this job by early July, and then I'll have the rest of my time off until we head up there. I'm happy with that, it should work out pretty good, cause that'll give me some time off for fun summer things which I didn't get to do much of last summer.
So far though the goal is to be out of here and home by July 7th, cause I have a camping trip on the 9th with some friends which I'd very much like to be a part of. Come on sunshine and light winds!
Another speed-bump is that they're going to be doing maintenance work on the runway on Saturday and Sunday, so we're going to be limited to the times we can go flying. Saturday the runway will be closed from 0700 to 1200, but we're going to bite the bullet and try to be airborne before 7 AM and do a 5 hour survey flight - our longest yet. The longest we've managed so far is 4.8 hrs, but I'm fairly certain I can hold my concentration together for a full five hours before I start to go off the deep end. And hopefully we can hold our bladders as well.
I've also got word where we'll be going next - Northern Saskatchewan, right on the border of NWT. That one's just a short job, probably no longer than a week and a half. It'll be cool to go that far north, and also cool to not have to stay there for very long. That probably won't be until mid-August however. We should be finished this job by early July, and then I'll have the rest of my time off until we head up there. I'm happy with that, it should work out pretty good, cause that'll give me some time off for fun summer things which I didn't get to do much of last summer.
So far though the goal is to be out of here and home by July 7th, cause I have a camping trip on the 9th with some friends which I'd very much like to be a part of. Come on sunshine and light winds!
Sunday, June 13, 2010
New Block
We started surveying a new block today. Its more west from the airport than the other survey blocks are, and you can really notice a change in the terrain. We are right on the edge of where the Hudson Bay lowlands start to end. The other survey blocks are very flat and swampy like typical Hudson/James Bay lowlands, but this new block which is about 60 miles west of the other ones is much more hilly and rocky, with much clearer water and more defined lakes. Beautiful wilderness, very much like the Muskokas, except totally uninhabited.
It made it interesting as it was my first real time flying survey in a hilly area. The hills make it a little more challenging than flatlands because you have to concentrate much more on flying the "drape" (following the contour of the land as best as possible).
I also spotted a Moose and she had 3 small calves with her. It was quite the sight. Our survey lines took us over top of them and past them a number of times, so we got several good looks - it was fantastic! They were out in a clearing by a small lake, presumably to get a drink, and our first pass directly overhead scared the mother, so she started herding her little calves back into the protection of the forest, hurredly nudging them from behind. You could tell the calves weren't quite sure what was going on. Quite the sight. They didn't go too far though, as by the time we made our next pass on the next line over they were still there just at the edge of the forest.
I have a cool job.
It made it interesting as it was my first real time flying survey in a hilly area. The hills make it a little more challenging than flatlands because you have to concentrate much more on flying the "drape" (following the contour of the land as best as possible).
I also spotted a Moose and she had 3 small calves with her. It was quite the sight. Our survey lines took us over top of them and past them a number of times, so we got several good looks - it was fantastic! They were out in a clearing by a small lake, presumably to get a drink, and our first pass directly overhead scared the mother, so she started herding her little calves back into the protection of the forest, hurredly nudging them from behind. You could tell the calves weren't quite sure what was going on. Quite the sight. They didn't go too far though, as by the time we made our next pass on the next line over they were still there just at the edge of the forest.
I have a cool job.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Cat and Mouse with the Weather
The weather has been teasing us the last two days. Yesterday it was a little on the windy side, but we decided to go and try anyways. Survey flying can't be done in winds that cause the aircraft to fly with too much crab angle, or produce too much pitch or yaw motions from the turbulence because it disturbs the sensors, nor can we fly survey through rain, because the noise created from the impact of the rain drops on the sensor pods also interfere with proper data collection. On our flight yesterday we went out to the block, flew 4 lines (about 30 minutes), and decided we had to call it quits. The winds were just too strong and producing too much crab angle.
Today we were expecting a storm to blow through by early morning, but when we got up it still wasn't looking too bad, so we thought we'd give it another try and take advantage of the calm winds before the storm came. We took off and headed out to the block, hoping the the scattered showers in the area wouldn't be over the block we wanted to fly. They were. My operator suggested we head north to another of our survey blocks that has all the regular lines completed but still needs the tie-lines done. Tie lines run 90 degrees to the regular lines, and are spaced much further apart. Judging by the name you can deduce that they're needed to "tie" the whole grid image together - they allow the processors to properly compile the map image out of the linear data the airplane collects. Or something like that. What do I know, I'm just the driver. Tie lines are spaced much further apart so it only took us about an hour of flying to get those all done before we were out of work. We at least managed to get SOMETHING done to show for our day though. Still moving forward at least.
Hopefully we'll have a semi-good day of flying tomorrow, and then I head south for the airplane's inspection, which we're both waiting for. Due to all the weather days we had at the start we've gone longer than we expected, and we're running out of groceries. We try to buy as much as we can down south where the prices are normal and there's more selection, but the last couple days we've been forced to duck into the Northern Store and bite the bullet on some groceries that cost over double the price of what it costs down south. Nine dollars for a small block of cheese, $4 for eggs, $4 for a bag of potato chips, $1.75 for a can of pop. Craziness. We get a per diem from the company, but whatever we don't spend goes straight into our pocket, so we do like to be frugal.
Today we were expecting a storm to blow through by early morning, but when we got up it still wasn't looking too bad, so we thought we'd give it another try and take advantage of the calm winds before the storm came. We took off and headed out to the block, hoping the the scattered showers in the area wouldn't be over the block we wanted to fly. They were. My operator suggested we head north to another of our survey blocks that has all the regular lines completed but still needs the tie-lines done. Tie lines run 90 degrees to the regular lines, and are spaced much further apart. Judging by the name you can deduce that they're needed to "tie" the whole grid image together - they allow the processors to properly compile the map image out of the linear data the airplane collects. Or something like that. What do I know, I'm just the driver. Tie lines are spaced much further apart so it only took us about an hour of flying to get those all done before we were out of work. We at least managed to get SOMETHING done to show for our day though. Still moving forward at least.
Hopefully we'll have a semi-good day of flying tomorrow, and then I head south for the airplane's inspection, which we're both waiting for. Due to all the weather days we had at the start we've gone longer than we expected, and we're running out of groceries. We try to buy as much as we can down south where the prices are normal and there's more selection, but the last couple days we've been forced to duck into the Northern Store and bite the bullet on some groceries that cost over double the price of what it costs down south. Nine dollars for a small block of cheese, $4 for eggs, $4 for a bag of potato chips, $1.75 for a can of pop. Craziness. We get a per diem from the company, but whatever we don't spend goes straight into our pocket, so we do like to be frugal.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
10 Minutes in the Life of a Survey Pilot
I exit the survey grid. The music playing through the ear-buds tucked inside my headset is rock'in away. I'm in a groove. My operator hits a button on his nav-tracker unit to select the next line over to fly. Immediately I start a climbing turn 45 degrees to the left up to 400 ft agl - away from the next line. Wait for 1000 metres lateral displacement from the new line. This is my time for a quick breather to relax my concentration, check the engine gauges, maybe make a quick radio call to advise other traffic in the area of our presence, or switch fuel tanks if needed. I have maybe 10 seconds before I have to start my turn back in. Radio calls have to be done outside the survey block where it doesn't matter that our transmissions affect the sensor data collection.
I start into my banking right turn all the way back around, trying to keep the bank angle close to 35 degrees - any less and I won't complete the turn in time. I could give myself more space, and take more time turning, but the turns burn up enough valuable time as it is. I watch as the readout for my lateral displacement starts quickly winding down - 900 metres, 800 metres, 700 metres... I've now got another 90 degrees to go to intercept the new line. Six hundred metres, 500 metres. By now I know if I'm going to overshoot or undershoot the line and can adjust my turn rate as needed. I try not to pull too steeply of a turn however; steep turns at 400 ft agl are risky business, and the high G's don't contribute to keeping my operator happy and feeling well. Smooth flying does wonders to stave off fatigue on long 4 hr flights.
Three hundred... 200... 100 metres. I start rolling out level as I approach my intercept. Eighty metres, 60, 40, 20. I roll the airplane level and start a descent back down to 200 ft agl as I fine tune my intercept of the next grid line.
Now I'm pretty close to wings level, flying on-line, and pretty close to the 200 ft I need to be above the ground. Its just a matter now of watching the distance display count-down to entering the grid as I try to perfect my altitude and line intercept. We cross the grid boundary. Time elapsed since exiting the grid on our last line - 2 minutes.
Now its a matter of staying as close to the survey line as possible, +/- 15 metres at the greatest as I count down the distance to exiting the grid on the far side. If I wander more than 15 metres off the line, we have to re-fly it. Today is not too turbulent and I challenge myself to stay within +/- 4 metres. This particular line is 12 miles long so it'll take roughly 6 minutes to get to the other side and start another turn. Once again I'm counting down the distance to exiting the grid again on the far side. I exit the survey grid. Repeat process.
I start into my banking right turn all the way back around, trying to keep the bank angle close to 35 degrees - any less and I won't complete the turn in time. I could give myself more space, and take more time turning, but the turns burn up enough valuable time as it is. I watch as the readout for my lateral displacement starts quickly winding down - 900 metres, 800 metres, 700 metres... I've now got another 90 degrees to go to intercept the new line. Six hundred metres, 500 metres. By now I know if I'm going to overshoot or undershoot the line and can adjust my turn rate as needed. I try not to pull too steeply of a turn however; steep turns at 400 ft agl are risky business, and the high G's don't contribute to keeping my operator happy and feeling well. Smooth flying does wonders to stave off fatigue on long 4 hr flights.
Three hundred... 200... 100 metres. I start rolling out level as I approach my intercept. Eighty metres, 60, 40, 20. I roll the airplane level and start a descent back down to 200 ft agl as I fine tune my intercept of the next grid line.
Now I'm pretty close to wings level, flying on-line, and pretty close to the 200 ft I need to be above the ground. Its just a matter now of watching the distance display count-down to entering the grid as I try to perfect my altitude and line intercept. We cross the grid boundary. Time elapsed since exiting the grid on our last line - 2 minutes.
Now its a matter of staying as close to the survey line as possible, +/- 15 metres at the greatest as I count down the distance to exiting the grid on the far side. If I wander more than 15 metres off the line, we have to re-fly it. Today is not too turbulent and I challenge myself to stay within +/- 4 metres. This particular line is 12 miles long so it'll take roughly 6 minutes to get to the other side and start another turn. Once again I'm counting down the distance to exiting the grid again on the far side. I exit the survey grid. Repeat process.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Weather Waiting
The last few days have been a lot of sitting around waiting for weather. A couple days ago we managed to get up in the morning to do our calibration flight at 10,000 ft, which involves flying a box pattern with a number of pitches, rolls, and then yaws on each cardinal heading. Don't ask me what this does. Something along the lines of allowing the computer system to compensate for the movement of the sensor along the 3 axis of flight. But anyways we got that done, and then we had to send that data back to our processor at the office before we got the okay to start the actual survey flying.
Well it turned out my flying wasn't quite good enough (not uncommon apparently for new survey pilots on their first try), because the result data wasn't quite as precise as it had to be, so we had to go up and do it again. Unfortunately some bad weather had moved in, so we spent two days sitting and waiting for it to clear up. In the meantime we got kicked out of our hotel rooms for a night. There's only 6 rooms in the motel, and for last night it had been booked before we got up here, so we ended up sleeping in the common kitchen area.
There's a group of Caribou surveyors who came up here last night. Today they've headed out into the bush for a week to check up on the Caribou they've tagged. One guy we ended up chatting to and he was explaining to us what they were studying and stuff - he showed us a map of Northern Ontario with all the Caribou movements on it - pretty fascinating.
Anyways today we get our rooms back - hopefully. Its not a very well managed motel. Anybody who has spent time up in the north will know what I mean. Some of the rooms were even triple booked but it worked out because some of the Caribou team didn't make it up last night cause the weather was so bad. Its beautiful today though. We managed to get our second try for the calibration flight done, and it went much better this time. We just got the call from the office as I write this that our calibration flight was acceptable. Finally things are looking up. Calibration flight was a pass, weather is blue skies, and we can finally start survey flying.
Well it turned out my flying wasn't quite good enough (not uncommon apparently for new survey pilots on their first try), because the result data wasn't quite as precise as it had to be, so we had to go up and do it again. Unfortunately some bad weather had moved in, so we spent two days sitting and waiting for it to clear up. In the meantime we got kicked out of our hotel rooms for a night. There's only 6 rooms in the motel, and for last night it had been booked before we got up here, so we ended up sleeping in the common kitchen area.
There's a group of Caribou surveyors who came up here last night. Today they've headed out into the bush for a week to check up on the Caribou they've tagged. One guy we ended up chatting to and he was explaining to us what they were studying and stuff - he showed us a map of Northern Ontario with all the Caribou movements on it - pretty fascinating.
Anyways today we get our rooms back - hopefully. Its not a very well managed motel. Anybody who has spent time up in the north will know what I mean. Some of the rooms were even triple booked but it worked out because some of the Caribou team didn't make it up last night cause the weather was so bad. Its beautiful today though. We managed to get our second try for the calibration flight done, and it went much better this time. We just got the call from the office as I write this that our calibration flight was acceptable. Finally things are looking up. Calibration flight was a pass, weather is blue skies, and we can finally start survey flying.
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