2023 was another great year. We enjoyed 3 great outings in the Madison, WI area and 2 outings in support of STEM camps put on by the University of Wisconsin-Madison for kids and young adults on the autism spectrum. Thanks to the participants, their parents/guardians, and our awesome volunteers.
University of Wisconsin-Madison Sky’s The Limit STEM Camp
For the 2nd straight year, TATTS was honored to be part of the University of Wisconsin’s Center for Climatic Research STEM Camp. This camp is supported by an National Science Foundation Grant. TATTS was their featured guest for the June 30th outing at the Welty Environmental Center in Beloit, WI. TATTS brought several of it’s drones and we spent time talking a bit about drones, looking at imagery and video from them, and A LOT of flying.
Here are some fun pictures from our outing with the STEM Camp. Note the guy in the tree… let’s just say that things happen when you’re flying drones near trees. The camp participants did a great job of flying, identifying things and capturing great images and videos.
Every year we try new things – in 2023 it was rigging up a parachute drop from a drone (Barney Ruble and Bullwinkle in pictures above). The idea was to use a parachute and our drones to work on social skills amongst the kids. 1 pilots the drone, a 2nd manages the launch of the parachute, and a 3rd flies another drone to capture video of the process. The group worked together to decide where to drop the parachute from to get it to land in a particular location – that requires judging wind speed, altitude, etc. The kids did a great job working together. The first video below was our 1st attempt – it worked perfectly!
Session 1: Arlington, WI: Farm Flying
Our first official TATTS outing of the year was in early July at a local farm in Arlington, WI just north of Madison. We’ve been flying here for many years and always enjoy coming back. We spent time getting acquainted/re-acquainted, and then a bunch of flying and practicing on the simulator.
And of course we did a bunch of flying too. TATTS members flew their own drones and the ones we provide. They were so good at the scavenger hunt finding certain barns in the distance, pictures of themselves, etc. We loved to see them working together to as the more advanced pilots showed skills to the younger kids.
As part of our first outing with the TATTS team, we once again flew a drone with a parachute and used our drones to work on social skills amongst the kids. 1 piloted the drone, a 2nd managed the launch of the parachute, and a 3rd flew another drone (or 2) to capture video of the process. The kids did a great job working together. Here are videos from the drone carrying the parachute as well as videos from both other drones and the ground. Take careful note of our ability to land the parachute between the trees and the power lines!
Session 2: Fort Atkinson, WI
Our 2nd outing in Fort Atkinson proved to fun in some familiar ways and in some new ones as well. After a group session where we reflected on our last outing, we planned out our day together including talking through some calculations to figure out how big of an area we’d see with a flight at an altitude of 100 yards. From there, we did a lot of group flying snapping pics and videos of ourselves, surrounding farms and the local cat as well as a bunch of time on the simulator and working together in the sandbox. We even had a chance to look at some high end technology like a backpack lidar and imagery data collection unit.
Scroll to the bottom of this session’s content and see a slow motion video of swallows dive bombing our drone. Pretty cool!
Session 3: Forest of Fame Park, Mt Vernon, WI Final Session
Our 3rd and final session for the season was held at a new location – Fame Park in Mt Vernon, Wisconsin. This outing was special for several reasons:
- UW-Madison film student and TATTS alumni Alan Zarzycki joined us to film the outing for his documentary on us titled ‘Flying Through the Spectrum’. Look for more information on that coming soon.
- Our “TATTS veterans” (grey shirts in the pictures) spent time flying their drones and catching up with each other.
- We held a ceremony to honor Alex Paschke that included a speech by his father Sean and a balloon launch that was captured by TATTS drone pilots. We also announced the Alex Memorial Scholarship based on the donations in his name that will support TATTS participants for years to come.
- Several TATTS members had their drones in the air so it was a pretty busy airspace
We also did a variety of parachute drops which proved to be a fun event across all our summer outings.
This final video is our small ceremony honoring Alex. Thank you to Sean & Ann for sharing their son with us. Although he wasn’t a TATTS participant, he truly mirrored all that makes TATTS so great. Sean’s speech clearly touched us all and our TATTS team did a fantastic job of capturing the balloon launch in his honor. We will remember him each year through the Alex Paschke Memorial Scholarship that will financially support the participation of kids and young adults who need the assistance.
University of Wisconsin-Madison Nature’s Navigators STEM Camp
Late in the summer we had one more event that we were proud to support. In addition to the Sky’s The Limit STEM camp that TATTS supported in late June, we were thrilled to be able to support a new camp that the University was holding in the Wisconsin Dells, WI area called Nature’s Navigators. We brought the augmented reality sandbox, got some flight time on the simulator, and of course, did some flying.
