It was the 1st day of the 5th month that three warriors met on a fateful day in a place know to some as Pinckney, land of the Pirates. These warriors completed feats unheard of nor attempted by mankind. These Chivarlous Knights of Michigan took upon themselves the duty to do as no one had done before them. They prepared for their glorious return to the skies to prove why man is greater than beast and endowed with abundant amounts of freetime. They knew that with their unique blend of mighty skills, that only they could complete the ardous task set before them. As they huddled around a contraption of ancient lumber, forged metals and materials imbued with the magnetic force of the earth, they chanted, Non Compos Mentis, Non Compos Mentis, Non Compos Mentis! Once for each warrior, once for each ball of furry that the device they had created would unleash upon the Marshes of Normandy. Beneath is a likely futile attemp to put these legendary tasks to mere words.
We were able to finish the launcher on the first night which consisted mainly of attaching the magenet and the battery. Now the launcher is actually releasing when we push the big red button. Its pretty awesome.
Dry Run - Saturday Morning
In the morning we did two passes over Normandy and enabled the recording in
the B3C2 software. It worked like a champ. Check out the specatular reflection photo of Kludge and sweet ground track from the recorded data. In the middle is the target location and in the top left is the airport we landed at to complete the ground testing. We also came up with a preliminary checklist:
On back-leg:
1) Ready door for drop
2) Secure Safety
3) Activate magnet
4) Load Balls
Lead up to release:
1) Turn in on 5-mile final
approach
2) Radio ground (Kermit) for
clearance to proceed
3) At 1:30 before release, turn on camera and secure in ball
4) When software indicates
SAFE, remove launcher safety
5) At approximately 7 seconds, activate SSP (THIS WILL
HAPPEN!)
6) Release
Ground Testing
The focus here was getting a good estimate of how long the middle bomb would take to exit the plane after the button was pushed. The results of our last set of tests were:
1.0s, 1.0s, 0.97s, 1.0s, and 1.04s
So we feel very confident using 1.0s for a delay in the software. We also measured the distance from where the gps is located to where the bomb is actually dropped from. All this will help us hone in on the target.
Drilling Holes...in Bowling Balls
Ever try to drill a hole, at and angle, in a bowling ball...Not exactly easy. We were in my Grandpa's
shop and my Uncle walks up and asks, "What the hell are you guys doing?". So I explained in the logical order:
1) We are drilling a hole in a bowling ball.
2) So we can put a video camera in it.
3) So we can drop it out of an airplane and see what happens.
Either way it was tough to keep the ball in place and it took the help of my cousin.
Target
Later in the day we attempted to create a target out of an old tarp and Kludge got a hold of the paint brush. I painted the circle in the middle and for some reason he need to add random splashes every where. He claimed it looked too much like a flag.
