DJI

I enjoyed reading DJI’s propose steps to better the drone industry and make people accountable for their actions. I believe there are a lot of great minds at DJI and I think they are on to something when it comes to holding people accountable. I believe we need airspaces for drones both controlled and uncontrolled. It would be very interesting to see how we could make a ATC for UAS. I think if there was a ATC for UAS it would make the FAA more willing to let them in the national airspace because it wouldn’t just be people free lancing. The traffic would have enough order to where the possibilities of accidents would be greatly reduced. I don’t believe that DJI is over reaching or that there is too much control with there proposed idea. I think it is the right amount of control and I would be happy to comply with it.

National Airspace

I stumbled across a very interesting article about how we have become a step closer to drones in the national airspace. The week of June 12^th the FAA granted NASA permission to fly Ikhana in the national airspace. Ikhana is a modified predator drone. The drone flew a test mission at 20,000ft in the national airspace where commercial jet lines fly. This is an amazing sign for the drone community. This shows that the FAA has enough confidence in NASA’s technology to let it fly in the national airspace. This technology could become available to the general aviation as well not just the private sector or the government. This could mean within the next 10 year we have cargo and passenger planes that are fully autonomous. This article is the type of stuff I dream about and I hope one day I could take part in helping develop or test this technology.

Source: https://www.newsweek.com/ikhana-nasa-has-just-flown-unmanned-aircraft-public-airspace-976094

Breaking of Regulations

In my opinion people breaking FAA regulations for UAS platforms is a slippery slope. The FAA does a lot of good in the US with creating regulations that keep us safe in the air. However, the FAA did not keep up with drone regulations and there for are pumping out strict regulations so they can try to catch up to make more moderate ones. The regulations put in place greatly limit the drone’s capability and does not allow the drone to showcase its full protentional. I found an Instagram page by a user named @Kodak_digital. This person has some stunning photos of the Chicago skyline on the page but some of the pictures you can clearly tell broke FAA regulations when it comes to line of sight, altitude above the   ground, and altitude while under Bravo airspace. Some of the people breaking the regulations I believe are trying to be pioneers in showing what the drone is capable of if the regulations were loosened. However, the way it is being done is not safe and makes it a lot harder for all the people who are trying to do things the proper and safe way within the current regulations. I think the FAA needs a better reporting system for UAS violations along with strong fines for repeat offenders. Since these violations are being posted on social media by either video or photos the FAA should have a social media account, on all the major platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and twitter, that is dedicated to just investigating drone violations. It should be as simple as just tagging the FAA drone media account so they can begin to investigate the possible broken regulations. I think we need to report the violators to the FAA no matter how amazing what they are doing might be. I know it stinks when regulations are strict but having safe skies and the preservation of human life should be our top priority.

Source: @Kodak_digital (Instagram)

New Operators

The biggest challenge I believe new UAS operators are facing in the industry are a lack of understanding of the platforms and their complexities. Many people tend to over simplify to where it sounds like anybody can fly them. This generalization does hold some water in the sense that companies don’t tend to over complicate the controls of the UAS. People need to understand the whole scope of UAS in order to be a safe and efficient pilot. A UAS platform is just like any other mechanical object that you own, it is going to need maintenance. Many people believe that you don’t need to do maintenance on the platforms unless they are broken and that is completely false. You need to inspect the moving parts of your aircraft to make sure it is safe to fly and will not danger others. Without having a background in UAS it becomes harder to troubleshoot in the field. For example, I have taken a UAS electricity class so I understand how the electrical system works and what to look for when I run into a problem with the platform. This allows me to possibly fix my problem in the field and resume the task I doing before I ran into the error. Many of the weekend warriors of drones do not know how to do this stuff and their platforms become unsafe to fly. These are the people that give drone pilots a bad reputation of being reckless and not knowing what they are doing. In my opinion this is why the FAA currently has strict regulations for drones and their pilots. If people want to fly drones for a living, I believe they need to be educated first just like how I am currently. That is what I believe the biggest problem currently is for new UAS operators.

UAS Consultant

I will be the first person to admit when I am wrong. I thought choosing a fixed wing UAS platform for the Chicago Fire Department (CFD) was going to be a cake walk. After a lot of research, I was able to settle on a platform. The platform is from the company UASUSA and can be flown completely autonomous, but does not have to be. The platform is called the Tempest. The Tempest has stabilized cameras that sends a live video back to the user. The camera also has infrared capabilities. The Tempest has 127in (10ft) wing span and can carry 7+ pounds of payload. The platform is launched by hand and does not require a mechanical launching system. The cruising speed of the aircraft is 50mph and has a max speed of 110mph. The aircraft only weighs 10lbs but can fly in up to 60mph winds. The Tempest can fly up to 15,000ft however the Chicago Fire Department would not be flying it at that high of an altitude. With a standard battery in the aircraft and it being in fully autonomous mode it can fly for 1.5hrs. Flying at 400ft the tempest is able to cover 3.6 square miles with a standard battery. This platform is extremely stable which makes it great for cameras or sensitive payloads such as sensors. According to UASUSA the Tempest has more COA’s issued in the US then any other commercially available platform. With a modular radio system equipped on the aircraft it has a range of 7-50 miles of range. These specs are what made me choose this platform. This aircraft could easily be launched anywhere in the city and quickly get to the scene of an emergency. CFD could also equip this UAS with sensors used for hazmat’s and fly them over Lollapalooza, spring awakening, or sporting events instead of just having ground-based sensors. This platform could fulfill all of CFD’s needs such as search and rescue in the lake, monitoring large open-air events, or even evaluating buildings on fire. This is why I chose the Tempest as the fixed wing platform for the Chicago Fire Department.

Source: https://www.uasusa.com/products-services/aircraft/the-tempest.html

Odysseus

UAS platforms are constantly evolving day to day, year to year. The platform’s roles have gone from just hobby items to multimillion-dollar industries. The demand for UAS platforms is growing as the technology for the platforms improve. The Odysseus is a new fixed wing platform by the company Aurora, a Boeing owned company. The Odysseus is unlike any other platform that I have heard about before. Ill admit I had to reread the article a second time because it seemed so unlikely that it could be real. Odysseus is a large fixed wing platform that could fly indefinitely capable of months long missions. This platform is solar powered and flies at very high altitudes. The UAS will charge its solar panels during the day when it is flying and will retain enough power from the sun to continue to fly during the night until the sun rises the next day to recharge the UAS. There are many possible mission roles the Odysseus could fill. Some of the mission roles that Aurora have listed for the platform include communication, connectivity, and intelligence. However, the primary role that the Odysseus will be filling and focusing on gathering data for climate research. The Odysseus could be an instrumental tool in the global community getting a better scientific understanding on our planet’s climate. The Odysseus will be a much more cost effective, efficient, and fast tool at the hands of our scientists rather than the current tool of satellites. This UAS platform could mold the future of our planet’s climate for all of the future generations to come. Reading articles like this make me very excited for the future. I am in a new constantly evolving field and I can not wait to be able to contribute to this field.

Source: https://www.aviationtoday.com/2018/11/15/aurora/

UAS Regulations

The FAA  is making a lot of regulations for UAS platforms. The FAA thought UAS platforms were just going to be a fad that died out after a couple of years but they were wrong. UAS platforms are currently booming filling so many different types of jobs for search and rescue, to pipeline inspections, to videography, and many other things. Some of the regulations made by the FAA limit what is able to be done by the platforms. A two of the regulations that I believe need to be changed are being able to fly over people, and only being able to fly by line of sight unless you have special permission. I believe you should be able to fly over small groups especially if it is being used for filming purpose. I believe the regulation should be closer to that of a aircraft. Aircraft are not able to fly over football games, baseball games, and music festivals. Aircraft are not allowed to fly over large open air gatherings of people. I believe UAS regulations should be more closely modeled to that of aircraft. This would allow for more film footage projects and better shots of what ever was being filmed. The second regulation that should be changed is only being able to fly by line of sight unless you have special permission. I believe that if the UAS platform has GPS tracking, a return to home, and a gimbal camera the platform should be able to fly out of the line of sight. These features keep the platform safe allowing the platform to see its surrounds and know where its located on the map. The return to home feature will return the platform to its launch point if it loses GPS connection or if the battery charge gets to low. If this regulation was changed it would make the UAS operators job easier to inspect buildings, pipe lines, etc if the platform could leave the operators line of sight. Changing these two regulations would make the UAS business boom more then what it already is and would make the quality of the jobs preformed so much better.