Kyle Sheehan's Flight Deck

UAS Platform Development for Crash Scene Investigations By: Ryan Ferguson and Kyle Sheehan In aircraft crash investigations, one of the most time consuming parts of the operation is the search for evidence to be used in accident recreation.  The aim of this project is to build a large multirotor and integrate a thermal camera and lidar sensor for future projects which can explore methods of using the platform in aviation crash scene investigations.  Safety procedures, checklists, and a maintenance manual will be produced as written deliverables for this project. Platform building and sensor integration will primarily be the responsibility of Ryan Ferguson with help from Kyle Sheehan.  Kyle will be responsible for creation of the maintenance manual and checklists. The safety procedures document which outlines the proper procedures for emergencies both in flight and on the ground will be a joint effort between Kyle and Ryan.  All flig...

After using the DJI Inspire over the summer, it was fun to go out with my classmates and practice going through our self-made checklists. Attached below are some pictures taken during the operation where you can see my classmates and I completing pre and post-flight checklists, operating the aircraft, and practicing safe habits around an operation. The checklists are located under the "Figures" page. Attaching power cables to the payload Using hex keys to attach a payload atop the aircraft Two students Evan Hockridge (Left) and Krysta Rolle (Right) complete pre-flight checklists DJI Inspire 1 aircraft during checklist completion

There are over 76,000 railroad bridges spanning across the continental United States. These bridges cross over dangerous environments such as valleys, rivers, and large drop-offs. The current most accepted practice for inspecting bridges is to send a person down on a boom lift to inspect the underneath and sides of the bridge. However, this practice presents a great safety danger to the crew as equipment may defect and it oftentimes causes train delays/reroutes costing the company thousands of dollars. Using UAS for bridge inspections gets the person off the heavy machinery and on to solid ground where he/she can safely fly the aircraft capturing images at 20.8MP. Also, this allows trains to continue operations as the tracks do not get temporarily shut down.    The DJI Inspire 2 was chosen for this use due to its gimbal ability. The Inspire 2, designed for cinematography, can perform railroad bridge inspections as well. The Inspire 2 has great GPS accuracy, 0.33 feet wit...

Attached below are two UAS DACUMs. DACUM stands for Development of at Curriculum Model. The first DACUM in this post was constructed by me and my classmates during lab time. We were given a template with the categories listed below to fill out what we knew about UAS from what we had learned in class and field work. The first category "Current and Future UAS Industry Trends" was filled out the quickest among us. With 8 classmates gathered around the table, we shot out ideas from previous experience, news articles we had seen, previous classroom discussions, and any other future cases we may see UAS being implemented into. There are many more possibilities for the future of UAS, and that is what we hope to learn more about in the future, while continuously adding to the figure. Next we moved on to the "UAS Critical Skills and Knowledge" portion. This is where we were able to share the specific skills we have learned in previous classes, as well as skills that we hav...