Day 7 was a lot of fun. I had the opportunity to work with the students on their drone a bit more, before my press conference with major media outlets in Nepal. These outlets included, Republica (New York Times affiliate), The Himalayan (the major English language newspaper in Nepal), and Avenue TV. See one report here. During the press conference, I gave a brief presentation on my project, to provide the context for the work I was doing. I also received great news that I would be able to fly my drone at Kala Patthar! The rest of the evening was spent preparing the drone.

Day 8 was an early start, and due to scheduling, was sadly my last day in Nepal. I woke up around 6 am to go to the airport, where I, my father, Kapil Regmi, Samjhana Kharel, and Prem Thapa, took a helicopter to Kala Patthar. Our first stop on the flight was Lukla airport, our second was Namche Bazzaar, and finally, we reached Kala Patthar. Due to the thin air and risk of mountain sickness I had only a little more than 30 minutes to get my testing done. There was a lot of wind, which was a technical challenge for the drone. Luckily, it was enough time, and there was not too much wind, to allow me to get my drone flying, but just barely. The craft seemed to be struggling, due to issues with the electronic speed controller, but I only needed to see if it could fly, which it did, and to get data for resolving challenges, which I got.

Although the flying time was brief, I got all of the info I needed. Once we returned from Kala Patthar, my father and I left back for the US in the evening. Thirty hours later, we were back in DC.