Adventure Antarctic

Where Can’t a Drone Go?

- Gavin Garrison

In late 2016, I was driving north through Alaska when I stopped in a quaint town, the not-so-aptly named “North Pole,” which sits at 64°N. Knowing that the Arctic Circle was still several hours north of me, I looked into the town’s coordinates, curious to see how far away I actually was from the North Pole. The town was nowhere near the actual North Pole (90°N) or the North Magnetic Pole (86°N); North Pole, Alaska, was just a place. But this research revealed a chance discovery for me: There are more than just two poles. As we’ll see, the Earth’s magnetic pull has quickly become the biggest thorn in my droning, here in the iceberg-laden waters off the coast of Antarctica. I’m sailing along the continent’s edge with the ocean-conservation group Sea Shepherd Global on a brand-new $12-million-dollar patrol vessel MV Ocean Warrior on the annual campaign to save whales from being poached in the Australian Whale Sanctuary.

SIGNS OF TROUBLE

For years, I’ve flown drones from ships, so I didn’t expect there to be any particular challenge when flying a Phantom from the considerably large deck of this Damen FCS 5009 Sea Axe. When I boarded the ship in Hobart, Tasmania, I was warned by Simon Ager, the first mate, photographer, and drone pilot, that “something” in the ship had caused a loss of control and crash of a Phantom a month earlier. The leading theory was that there was a strong electromagnetic field emitted by the generators onboard. The few people that had had a chance to fly from the ship had also reported other strange instrument behaviors, but nothing was confirmed.