Flying drones in Kyrgyzstan

CROMO-ADAPT colleague Sultan Belekov from Kyrgyz Hydromet ready for take-off! (Photo: Yves Bühler / SLF) SLF-scientists Joel Caduff and Yves Bühler trained scientists and practitioners in drone-based snow depth mapping in the Kyrgyz mountains. After packing a lot of equipment including ski touring sets and an eBee-X drone, we boarded the plane to Istanbul on March 29 and then to Biskek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan. There our project partner Sultan Bekelov from the Kyrgyz Hydrometeorologcal Agency ( Kyrgyz Hydromet ) picked us up and drove us to a hotel for a good sleep after the 14 hours trip. The next morning, we visited the Kyrgyz Hydromet Headquarters and the Central Asian Institute of Applied Geosciences. After a lot of tea with the directors of the institutes we demonstrated the eBee X drone, originally developed by a spin-off company from ETH Lausanne, to the staff. We could see their excitement for flying this new toy immediately, and they were very eager to assemble it. At Too-Ashuu pass road - Joel is ready to go up to the station.