Flight Training - May 2022 - 23

CHAD SLATTERY
FIVE QUESTIONS
BY CHAD SLATTERY
HÅVARD FJÆR GRIP
PILOTING THE FIRST AIRCRAFT TO FLY ON ANOTHER PLANET
ONE YEAR AGO, HÅVARD FJÆR GRIP
became Earth's first pilot to fly an aircraft
on another planet. He was sitting in an
office chair. The aircraft was 173 million
miles away. His logbook entry identifies it
as an MH-1-Mars Helicopter One. Named
Ingenuity, the four-pound featherweight
has flown nearly two dozen times, propelled
by twin coaxial rotors sculpted to
generate lift in an atmosphere a hundred
times thinner than Earth's. Grip flies it
not with a stick, but with a laptop: he
encodes individual flight profiles for Ingenuity's
flight control C++ programming
language, then relays them to Ingenuity
through a circuitous process from NASA's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena,
California. Grip was born in Norway and
has a doctorate in engineering cybernetics.
He moved to eastern Washington,
where he bought a Piper Cherokee 140 to
better explore the American West. Ever
the scientist, he soon began adapting it
for flight control research. In 2013 Grip
joined NASA as a robotics technologist.
He was quickly appointed Ingenuity's
aerodynamics and flight control lead. His
hands-on Cherokee experience, plus deep
knowledge both of programming and
flight control law, made him an obvious
choice for chief pilot.
How did you get started in aviation?
I was 29 and living in a rural part of
Washington state. I got my private pilot's
license and then bought a Cherokee 140.
It's a beautiful airplane. Of course, it's also
underpowered, tricycle gear, low-wing-not
exactly a backcountry plane, but there were
some very cool strips I was able to visit
anyway. That was an absolute blast. Then I
realized that these recreational flights could
mesh well with the research I was doing
into navigation algorithms, so I installed a
whole suite of sensors in the plane.
How were you selected to fly the
helicopter on Mars?
I've done deep-level theoretical research in
academia. But I also had practical experience
from flying my Cherokee with sensors
to obtain real-world navigation results. So
being chief pilot seemed a good fit.
Did your pilot certificate and flight
experience help you plan Ingenuity's
missions?
Absolutely. It taught me to use checklists.
There is a flying mindset. You have
tables, you compare performance to the
environment you're facing, and it makes
the flight straightforward and rule based.
Flight planning on Mars is like on Earth.
There is a lot of prep work-weather,
atmospheric density, terrain, waypoints,
navigation, power management, and performance
parameters.
What were your biggest challenges?
By far, it was understanding the physics
of the helicopter flying in Mars's thin
atmosphere and how it would handle.
We did years of modeling and simulation
and experimental work on the ground to
predict that. Now that we're on Mars, our
challenges are a little bit different; a lot
of it has to do with some of the limitations
of the way the helicopter navigates,
for example.
Advice for new pilots?
Find something you have the talent for
and the interest in. Something you don't
mind spending vast amounts of time on.
Don't just do what's required; go beyond
that. Hobbies are a great starting point.
FLIGHT TRAINING MAY 2022
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Flight Training - May 2022

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