Passing on my droning skills!

Finally my acquired skills in drone flying are really being used to the maximum so far.... Inga Petelski is back with us and this time instead of being a volunteer...I'm thrilled to say she is now my colleague! The Project Leader for the Grand Police Wetland Project.

The upcoming UAV Pilot!

 I have been teaching Inga to fly the Hexacopter and how to plan Auto missions, I must say that we make a good team....my good teaching skills and her wonderful learning skills make a great match! There is still much practice to be done though but I think soon Inga will be able to plan a whole mission and fly the drone without my assistance!

Auto landing after a mission

 Yesterday we managed to map 2/3 of the wetland area, next week with some fully charged batteries we will be back on site to complete the mapping, which is simply sending the drone in autopilot on a pre-planned path and the GoPro takes pictures every 2 secs. The pilot only follows the drone's movement from the computer ensuring it is on the mission and if anything goes wrong the pilot is ready to take over with the radio transmitter. Though the drone's Aotupilot is very precise and if for example there is a low battery issue, the auto pilot terminates the mission and returns to launch at the Home Location, which it where it first took off.
 To complete the map all the pictures are stitched together using a computer software which Inga and I will get to discover soon.

successfully landed!

Cleaning up Anse Grand Police

Wednesday 6th July was a great day with perfect weather and the perfect team for cleaning up Anse Grand Police. MCSS had a very enthusiastic group of volunteers from the International School of Seychelles who did a great job.

Lots of rubbish is washed up on the beach especially this time of the year and as we are still getting Green turtles coming to nest as they nest all year round, so it is important to constantly keep the nesting platform clear and clean.

the volunteers getting ready to start

 The team decided that a picture of their success was needed, it was quite hot but the cool breeze from the sea kept them going....and of course the beautiful surrounding kept them motivated to leave this beach rubbish free...at least for the day.

bags full of rubbish!

 After collecting, the great task at hand was to then carry....or drag everything to the middle of the beach where all the rubbish was sorted and the cans and pet bottles found would be redeemed later on for recycling purposes and the extra cash goes towards the MCSS projects, especially the Rehabilitation and the Turtle Conservation Project.

dragging the heavy bags to the truck

Special thanks to the volunteers and the International School of Seychelles!