Operation Lifeline
Find them fast. Bring everyone home. · Operation LIFELINE · 3 days suggested (1–7)
A storm has passed through a rural training yard. Three people are unaccounted for. Search and rescue teams use small drones to cover ground faster than people on foot and to look into places that are dangerous to enter. Your crew will plan a search pattern, fly it precisely, and guide the ground team to every person you find.
- ◆ I can take off, hover at a steady height, and land on a target.
- ◆ I can plan and fly a systematic search pattern (parallel sweep).
- ◆ I can explain how search crews use drones and what a CoDrone EDU can and cannot sense.
- ◆ I can perform my crew role and communicate clear call-outs during a flight.
- Pilot: Flies the drone and calls out every takeoff, turn and landing before doing it.
- Mission Commander: Holds the search plan, calls the next sweep line, and decides when a signal is confirmed.
- Engineer / Safety Observer: Runs the preflight checklist, watches the battery and flight area, and can call STOP at any time.
Simulator challenges
Take off, hold a steady 1 m hover over the debris field for 3 seconds, then land on the medic pad.
Fly it →Sweep the debris field, hold over each heat signature until the scan completes, then land at the medic station. Mid-flight radio calls may change the plan.
Fly it →Thread the gates through the collapsed corridor in order, then land at the far pad. Race your ghost — but clean beats fast.
Fly it →Write a program that flies a two-lane sweep, hovers 3 seconds over each signal, and lands on the medic pad. Then export it for your classroom flight.
Fly it →Crisis Mode: low battery, rising wind and a new hazard zone. Find the two highest-priority signals and get back to the medic pad before the battery runs out.
Fly it →Every crew member flies a takeoff, a 3-second hover, and a landing on the pad while the crew runs real call-outs.
- ☐ Preflight checklist completed out loud
- ☐ Clear call-outs before takeoff and landing
- ☐ Steady 3-second hover
- ☐ Landed on the pad
- ☐ Every crew member flew and rotated roles
The crew flies a planned sweep over hidden color cards. The color cards stand in for survivors; the Commander confirms each find.
- ☐ Search pattern drawn before flight
- ☐ All cards found and logged correctly
- ☐ Held position over each card
- ☐ Stayed inside the area with no crashes
- ☐ Commander and Pilot communicated each lane change
Thermal imaging camera (simulated): In the simulation, holding steady over a survivor signal completes a thermal scan. Real CoDrone EDU: CoDrone EDU has no camera or thermal sensor. In the classroom, crews use the bottom color sensors to detect colored cards that stand in for survivors.
Rescue beacon receiver (simulated): Mid-mission radio calls reveal new signals. Real CoDrone EDU: Not a CoDrone EDU feature. Your mission commander plays this role by revealing card locations.
Your crew planned a search, flew it precisely, and kept the flight safe under pressure. Real search teams train exactly these habits: systematic patterns, steady hovers, clear call-outs and respect for battery limits.