Monthly Archives: March 2015

UAV087 FAA Streamlines COA Process

Draganflyer X6A new FAA policy streamlines the Certificate of Waiver or Authorization (COA) process, an unmanned aircraft Business Park is born, a Senator proposes a “Commercial UAV Modernization Act,” and drones used at a golf tournament, or not.

News

FAA Streamlines UAS COAs for Section 333

The FAA says they will grant a Certificate of Waiver or Authorization (COA) for “flights at or below 200 feet to any UAS operator with a Section 333 exemption for aircraft that weigh less than 55 pounds, operate during daytime Visual Flight Rules (VFR) conditions, operate within visual line of sight (VLOS) of the pilots, and stay certain distances away from airports or heliports.”

Drones’ buzz to replace roar of Air Force giants in North Dakota

Claimed to be “the first commercial UAS Business and Aviation Park in the nation,” Grand Sky is open and taking applications for build-to-suit site occupancy. Located on Grand Forks AFB, and executed in partnership with Grand Forks County, North Dakota, Grand Sky is looking for tenants and owner occupants who will engage in UAS testing, evaluation, research, development, and operations.

County bans drones during Masters Tournament at Augusta

In an effort to prevent drones from interfering with the Masters Golf Tournament in Augusta, Georgia, commissioners approved a county-wide ban on launching or operating drones between April 2 and April 13. Prior to being amended, the ban originally would have affected all drones at any time in areas with dwellings, congested areas, at sporting events, and in heavily populated parks.

Golf Channel Experiments with a Drone at the Arnold Palmer Invitational

The FAA approved the use of a drone at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the Golf Channel used a drone to capture footage before the event.

What we should not do with drone regulation

The author of this article proposes the use of geo-fencing, detection and tracking systems for high security areas, and interceptor drones with nets to capture invading drones.

Senator Cory Booker To Introduce Commercial Drone Legislation Following FAA’s Amazon Ruling

Senator Booker’s proposed “Commercial UAV Modernization Act” is meant to allow certain commercial operations until the final FAA regulations are issued. These temporary rules would allow sUAS to perform missions such as construction site surveys or crop mapping. The bill also calls for a new “Deputy Associate Administrator for Unmanned Aircraft” to report to the head of the FAA and the Secretary of Transportation.

Video of the Week

You Need to Comment on the #NPRM

Victor Villegas, aka DroneSinger, calls himself the “Weird Al” Yankovic of drones. He creates drone songs to bring attention to drone issues and drone culture. This musical parody song encourages drone fans to comment on the FAA’s NPRM for commercial use of sUAS.

@dronemama says:  Be sure to read and comment on the NPRM.

Mentioned

Drone racing on the rise

FPV drones race at 150 km/hr an empty car park (parking garage) at night.

 

UAV086 Dual and Arclarity Developing Sense and Avoid Solution

Dual Electronics Corporation, a manufacturer of aviation GPS and ADS-B receivers, is working with Arclarity LLC, a developer of 3D augmented reality aviation systems, to develop a sense-and-avoid solution for autonomously flying drones operating in the US airspace.

Guests

Greg Lukins, Vice President, Business Development, Dual Electronics Corp.

An engineer by training and an entrepreneur at heart, Greg pairs technologies with business opportunities, and has a 20-year track record of successfully bringing ideas, technologies and products to market globally. Greg is VP of Business Development at Dual Electronics and also manages Dual’s market leading GPS product line. He holds an MSEE, is a licensed pilot, and lives in Florida where the weather is always perfect for flying Cessnas and drones.

Brian J. Scott, Founder and Principal, Arclarity

Brian is an aviator and an engineer with experience in modeling/simulation and flight simulator projects. He is committed to applying his experience and expertise to bring enhanced situational awareness and navigation to aviation. Brian holds a B.S. and M.S. in Computer Engineering from the University of Central Florida and is an instrument rated private pilot with experience in both piston and turbine aircraft.

Dual Arclarity Sense and Avoid SolutionsDual Electronics Corporation is a subsidiary of the Namsung Corporation, and is based in Heathrow, Florida. Dual offers a wide selection of mobile electronics, marine electronics, and portable GPS and ADS-B receivers for aviation. For more information, visit www.GPS.dualav.com.

Arclarity LLC is based in Orlando, Florida and provides aerial navigation solutions centered on increased situational awareness and collision avoidance.  For further information, visit www.arclarity.com.

News

Amazon Gets Experimental Airworthiness Certificate

The FAA issued an experimental airworthiness certificate to an Amazon Logistics, Inc. unmanned aircraft (UAS) design that the company will use for research and development and crew training. The FAA typically issues experimental certificates to manufacturers and technology developers to operate a UAS that does not have a type certificate.

The FAA Says You Can’t Post Drone Videos on YouTube

An aviation safety inspector in the FAA’s Tampa office seems to believe that posting video from a drone on YouTube constitutes “commercial use” because the popular video site has advertisements. The FAA inspector was responding to a complaint.

Video of the Week

Sheer cliffs, dense jungle and its own climate: Mesmerising drone footage captures haunting beauty of the world’s largest cave

Spectacular video of Vietnam’s Hang Son Doong cave, which is also the subject of some controversy concerning a construction project (Stop the Construction: Save the Son Doong Cave!).

UAV085 NTSB: Putting Some “English” on Drone Investigations

NTSB investigates unmanned aircraft accidents

We speak with Bill English from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) about that agency’s investigations of unmanned aircraft accidents. Bill talks about the scope of their involvement, the data available to investigators, and the similarities to manned aircraft. We also talk about the FAA NPRM and the role of the NTSB when FAA enforcement penalties are appealed.

Guest

Bill English - NTSBBill English is an Investigator-in-Charge in the Major Investigations Division of the Office of Aviation Safety.  He has been with the NTSB since 1999 as an investigator on major air carrier events such as Asiana Boeing 777 in San Francisco and the B747 cargo fire in Dubai.

Bill is also the NTSB’s resource for unmanned aircraft investigations. He has built and flown his own small multi-rotor system, and trained on numerous platforms up to the MQ-9.  He was also responsible for developing the NTSB’s civil unmanned aircraft accident regulations, investigations manual, and training programs.

In addition to his NTSB responsibilities, Bill is a certified instrument flight instructor and commercial pilot in single and multi-engine airplanes; has flown aerial observation, corporate, and electronics test aircraft; and has extensive experience in flight inspection and advanced navigation technology.  He holds degrees in Aeronautical Science from Embry-Riddle University, in Geospatial Intelligence from Penn State, and also graduated from the USAF Mishap Investigation Course.

The National Transportation Safety Board is an independent Federal agency charged by Congress with investigating every civil aviation accident the United States and significant accidents in other modes of transportation – railroad, highway, marine and pipeline. The NTSB determines the probable cause of the accidents and issues safety recommendations aimed at preventing future accidents. In addition, the NTSB carries out special studies concerning transportation safety and coordinates the resources of the Federal Government and other organizations to provide assistance to victims and their family members impacted by major transportation disasters.

Mentioned

Aviation Gateway Park Brings Innovation, Education and UAVs AirVenture

The latest innovations, unmanned drone demonstrations, and a world of possibilities for young aviation enthusiasts are part of the new Aviation Gateway Park that makes its debut at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2015.

One of the highlights of Aviation Gateway Park will be a new “Drone Cage,” where unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) will be demonstrated each day during AirVenture. Manufacturer demos, educational presentations, obstacle course contests, and free flight can be viewed from all sides of the cage, including from bleachers inside the Park’s Innovations Center. Companies interested in exhibiting and demonstrating should contact EAA’s exhibits office at exhibits@eaa.org.

 

UAV084 Talk to the Drone

Piaggio P.1HH HammerHead

NPRM update, a drone at a baseball spring training camp, researching the effects of drones on birds, rooftop inspections by UAVs, the Piaggio P.1HH HammerHead prototype maiden flight, Europeans work to harmonize UAV guidelines, and drones that communicate with ATC by voice.

FAA sUAS NPRM

The Operation and Certification of Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems NPRM was released February 15, 2015 and published in the Federal Register February 23, 2015, starting the 60 day clock for public comments. Comments must be received by April 25, 2015.

Use the shortcut theUAVdigest.com/nprm to visit the regulations.gov webpage which provides links to the NPRM document and the comment submission page.

News

MLB sucks fun out of Indians’ camp, grounds pitcher’s homemade drone

A player on the Cleveland Indians baseball team brought a drone to the team’s spring training camp and took some aerial photos. The MLB shut him down, probably because the ball field is next to Phoenix Goodyear Airport

French Researchers Bother Birds with Drones, for Science

To study the effects of drones on wildlife, researchers flew a quadcopter near eating or resting birds more than 200 times. They tried different speeds and angles of attack and looked for signs of stress.

They found that if you stayed 15 feet away, the birds didn’t much care about the quadcopter. Frequency of approach didn’t matter and color of the drone didn’t matter. However, approaches from directly above did upset the birds.

Ideas for future study include rotary vs. fixed wing drones, drone size, and sound of the drone. Also, stress indicators for other species may not be visual.

Somerville using drones to survey snowy building roofs

Outside of Boston, the town of Somerville has hired an aerial cinematography and multimedia company to fly drones over municipal buildings to inspect for excessive snow.

Above Summit is providing an alternative to sending workers up to look for dangerous snow accumulations. They inspected 10 buildings in one day alone.

HammerHead UAV prototype makes maiden flight

Piaggio Aerospace conducted the maiden flight of the P.1HH HammerHead prototype. The medium-altitude, long-endurance (MALE) HammerHead is derived from the Avanti II twin-pusher turboprop.

Piaggio Aerospace chief executive Carlo Logli said, “Today we have compelling reasons to believe that P.1HH will become the first European state-of-the-art MALE UAS, uniquely suited to perform a wide range of surveillance and security missions at the highest technological level.”

The vehicle management control system, sensors, data link, and ground control station come from Selex ES. Missions include border control, wide area and targeted surveillance, and humanitarian assistance.

European regulators target harmonised UAV guidelines

The European Commission and ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) believe that current air traffic management systems will not adapt to UAVs. Instead, unmanned systems will have to feed the air traffic control we already have today. If that’s going to work, then unmanned air vehicle regulations need to be more globally aligned.

The Single European Sky ATM Research (SESAR) Joint Undertaking (SJU) initiative includes a strategy to modernise and harmonise UAV operations. An upcoming RPAS element in SESAR’s strategy will facilitate this further.

New system allows air traffic controllers to converse with drones

Researchers at RMIT University in Australia have developed a system that lets drones communicate with air traffic controllers using a synthesized voice. This is being conducted with Thales’ Centre for Advanced Studies in Air Traffic Management (CASIA), and UFA Inc., a software engineering firm.

The system uses UFA’s ATVoice® Automated Voice Recognition and Response software. With it, drones can verbally respond to spoken information requests over the radio, and even act on clearances from air traffic controllers.

ATVoice is used in flight simulators which allow “the user to control the simulation exercise through voice commands using standard FAA or ICAO air traffic control phraseology,” according to UFA.

Video of the Week

The Dronesis Audi’s new commercial which re-creates Hitchcock’s The Birds using flocks of multicopters as the evil intimidators.

Mentioned

NPRM…Now What? Start or Accelerate Your Commercial Drone Company by Ryan Morton of SkySpecs.