Civvie Science Flight 36

the Atmospheric Fluid Spectro-Variometer has been removed from Civvie #2 and is being shipped to Kravass to be installed on a Civvie borrowed from the flight school so scientists can still get their regular bi-monthly pollen readings

Flight Officer Aldeny will be heading out to the aircraft in about an hour, getting suited up now before FD Lanalye details his mission. We have a room here in Umbarg HQ that has been re-purposed into a Mission Control with comms link to Kravass so he can be briefed remotely

it's a little later in the day cycle as Aldeny preflights the Civvie but Kravass is further west so the sun rises later and also there's a rather tall mountain that blocks most of the light until it gets higher in the sky. Fog tends to persist until then

Civvie is ready for departure, although KGA is a lot busier than KSC with all the general aviation flyers - Fridays into the weekends are pretty crowded most times. Aldeny's only waiting for an aircraft that just took off to get clear so he can taxi down to the end of Rwy19

good departure and after climbing to 2.5km ASL to clear terrain Aldy will level off and slowly descend down to 500m AGL by the time he reaches bit.ly/Sector_LQC-J8, which is 243km from Kravass. He will then sample the air from 500, 1500, 2500 and 3500m AGL

Aldy has signed off with us through Kravass as he drops below the horizon and out of contact until he returns. He's ~23 minutes out from the target area. Although it's mostly flat, he'll still have a nice challenge staying within 100m of his target altitude each pass

we are once again in contact with Aldy as he heads back for KGA, reports no issues during the flight. He's cruising up at 4km ASL where the air is thin but still breathable. Cold tho - it's about 35°F right now up there but the Civvie does have some cabin heat

this aircraft doesn't have onboard cameras like ours do but Aldy sent us a picture taken from the cockpit as he skimmed the deck approaching the target area. Note also the more basic training instrument panel with only the vital gauges to keep students focused

less than 40km out now Aldy has begun to descend for landing, calling out on the general frequency his location and intentions so any other pilots in the area can stay out of his way and he out of theirs. Air traffic is still light enough that pilots can manage their own airspace

after a smooth landing the Civvie is taxiing back over to the tarmac. We thank the KGA flight school for lending us their aircraft and are glad we were at least able to make a little income this month with a successful mission