I jumped out of bed, quickly took a shower, ate my breakfast and finally the best part --- kisses from my kittens. My three kittens Rosabella, Sugar, and Cupid were all waiting in line to give me goodbye kisses, as I ventured off for my day long field trip!
When we finally arrived at the Paul Hall Center for Maritime Training and Education it was almost 10:30 am. The training center was established in 1967 for seaman training, but we were there to meet the marine drone team.
I saw several drones, but one tiny mechanical piece in front of a big fixed wing drone really interested me. It was the speed sensor. The speed sensor on the front of a fixed wing drone is used to sense the amount of speed the drone is flying at. If you know the speed you are flying at you can slow down or speed up for take off or landing.
Let's do an example about how speed is important. If you must get from point A to B in 15 minutes and the distance between A and B is 30 miles, at what speed do you have to travel to get there in 15 minutes? So let's write an equation to figure out how fast you must travel: 30 miles/15 minutes = 2 miles per minute, but it's always a good idea to plan for just in case time.
I also learned about how you can use gasoline or batteries for drones. An electric drone uses a battery pack for energy and gasoline drone uses liquid fuel for power. Liquid fuel drones can fly longer than a battery powered drone, but electric drones are rechargeable and battery research is improving the power packed in a battery. But keep in mind gasoline is more explosive.
We finally walked to the merchant ship. I learned how marine spy drones are tested in the ocean. There is a gigantic landing pad for the drone to take off and land on the ship. The seaman and the ship can stay in the ocean up to 24 days with 24 people. That's a lot of 24s!
I even had a chance to sit in the captain's seat and look out into the Atlantic ocean.
My mom and I climbed up more than 100 training stairs that are used to train how to board boats safely. It was scary when we got to the top because it was so high up!
Lunch Break
On our way back we stopped to have lunch at the Front Porch restaurant in Leonardtown. I had crabcakes for the first time in my life. I loved them! My mom said it had been a very long time since she had a really good crab cake. After that we drove to the Chocolate store for dessert. There were so many chocolates, I couldn't make up my mind what I wanted to eat. So my parents let me choose a medley of chocolates, I wish I had picked a bigger box because they were so delicious. Not to mention, I shared most of them with my family.
Serendipity Playdate
It turned out when we went to the Leonardtown Wharf Park there was a playground. I saw girl my age so I quickly introduced myself and asked if we could play. We played for a while and became good friends. We exchanged email addresses at the end of the playdate and told her my motto, "A playdate fun is..................... Infinite!"
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