The students were surveying a great columnar site west of Clarkston, WA.
Typical shot of the surveying.
Sallie (left) is a Co-I on the RSESTEP program that builds these remote-controlled aircraft with cameras for science education purposes.
Looking at the equipment.
Our airplane pilots, Don and Mike (back). And the Student PI's, Josh and Neil, kneeling.
Looking at the live data downlink from the airplane.
In flight.
After the first landing.
Changing out the battery for the second flight.
Here's the hexacopter, a sweet 6-pound UAV with a camera on it, high-speed downlink, and radio control.
The hexacopter up in the sky -- Sun at bottom.
Way up at the top of the outcrop.
Casey (center) guides the hexacopter to a soft landing while Josh (left) and Brian (right) look on.
Dr. Schulz describes the igneous petrology of basalts.