Airforce MBARI / Nature Channel

 

With morale a little low and almost gone with the rov, the weather gods gave us a break in the winds.  We had no wind.  This means that our GPS tags can be launched via RC plane.  The proposal asked for a helicopter, but NSF thought it was a little too costly and nixed that from our budget.  So to do it on the cheap, the engineers decided to use RC airplanes and drop the GPS units on the berg itself.  The weather was beautiful, sunny, and windless.  The RC plane (aka the Palmer Bomber) is a go.  (side note:  I think we're the first to fly a RC plane over an iceberg…it was enough excitement to gather the entire boat population, including those who weren't on watch) to watch.  Lots of cameras were on hand.  Not only were there the humans, but two sourthern wright whales were also on hand to watch.  Actually, I don't know if they were curious or we just happened to show up at their chill out spot.  We saw a bunch of penguins jumping out of the water along the edge of the iceberg while the pilots were running their final checks.

With the final checklist completely, the flight of the Palmer Bomber began.  It was a sight to see the plane take of and soar over the iceberg.  The excitement was in the air.  the shouts and cheers of excitement filled the air.  however, after a few minutes of circling, the pilots were trying to switch controllers (there where two of them) and coms were lost to the plane.  The plane began to spiral out of control and crashed into the sea.  Too bad.  

The footage that the plane took were spectacular!  The top of the berg was flat as a pancake.  The color in the sky was amazing.  There is always the second plane. 

What can you say about discovery science…..we're here to push the limits at the bottom of the world.  Who else can say they've flown a RC plane here.