Day one at Palmerston North - Skycam training centre.

Today the team woke bright and early and headed out to Skycam where we were met by our trainer and Systems Integrator, Dr Tim Brooks. After a look around the warehouse and a quick glimpse at the new Kahu, Tim commenced the training with a safety induction and provided us with a thorough list of safety checks for flight planning (eg. Don't put your fingers into the whirly bit in the front). We then focussed on the structure of the airframe and learned how to assemble and disassemble the aircraft. We learned how the airframe was constructed and the navigation system and autopilot installed. We were taken through each step in the assembly of the system prior to flying.  Believe it or not, that took most of the day! It's a very complex system with some amazing feats of engineering.  We also learned how to assemble the base station and ran through several basic simulation flights. The most exciting part of the day was running through the check list, testing the autopilot, and testing the throttle and seeing our new video camera sending signal to the base station screen! We finished the day learning how to repackage our parachutes, some of us were better at it than others!