Today was our third day at TRANSDEC and the last day before qualifiers begin!

Our day started by arriving early at TRANSDEC and getting 7:00am time slot on the practice side. Upon arriving, we learned that practice runs from now on, due to the sheer number of teams competing, will be 20 minutes. We were feeling pretty confident with the first half of the course, so we started the run right after the first wire. The run was rather shaky from the start, as we began by dropping markers in the wrong bins due to bad lighting conditions (the extremely low sun angle). We also attempted the emperor, but due to badly placed knots on the mission element, our vehicle was getting caught on them and unable to knock of the grapes. These knots were moved later on in the day.

At 8:30 after our first run, we had our static judging. Our leader, Tom Jackson, did a great job speaking about the vehicle, the team, and CUAUV as a whole!

After static judging, we were able to get our second run of the day in. For this run, once again we skipped the first half of the course and started after the first wire. This time, after making some changes after the last run, we were able drop two markers in the correct bins, shoot two torpedoes through the small holes, and knock one grape off of the emperor task. After the emperor, we attempted the hydrophone task and received mixed results. It wasn't a complete success, but we did quite well at them.

The third run ended up being troublesome due to several problems. The goal for the run was to complete the first complete mission run at TRANSDEC. The first problem came after successfully completely the buoys. As the vehicle searched for the pipe after the buoys with the downward camera, we noticed this there was a slight fog in the lens. This was easily fixed later by added desiccants to the cameras and the hull, but unfortunately it prevented us from using the downward camera during that run. Afterwards, we attempted to do the hydrophone task, but we had a few problems completing it perfectly.

For the fourth and final run of the day, we again attempted a full mission run. This time, though, the run went much more smoothly. We successfully completed the validation gate, buoys, and wire. On the bins, we were able to drop one marker into an incorrect bin, but the other marker was dropped on the edge of the same one. Both torpedoes went through the small hole on the torpedo task, and we were able to knock one grape off of the emperor. Finally, on the hydrophone task we were able to locate the pinger, grab the object, and surface in the octagon before time ran out. Unfortunately, some time was lost due to a DVL calibration error which made us think the second wire was actually beyond the octagon rather than before it. All in all though, we consider this run a great success!

That brings an end to our third day at TRANSDEC. Tomorrow: the qualifier rounds! We'll be going at 4pm!

Our team leader, Tom Jackson, talking to the Navy Diver before putting Killick in for a run.



Killick surfacing in the octagon during a hydrophone task.



Our team and fellow competitors team Sonia.



"Hold on, let me give you my good side." - Killick



Team member Mike Mahoney being interviewed by Fox 5 News.



Killick doing the bins task during a mission run.