I haven't had much of a reason to write about an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), colloquially known as a drone. Nevertheless, they're becoming more common at outdoor events like ball games, car shows, church picnics, Kermiss and Belgian Days. Photographing large events from a couple hundred feet is easy and still something of a novelty. They also have practical uses in agriculture, wildfire response, search and rescue and such.
So I purchased one; basically for fun.
It's a DJI Neo, a small drone that I will use for photography and scouting that doesn't require a pilot license. Over the weekend the winds died-back enough for me to get some flight time under my belt.
I previously was restricted to flying the dang thing in the house and up and down the staircase. That's OK for figuring out the preflight checklist and the joystick controllers; but it's really an outdoor toy.
The firmware on my little drone automatically limits my altitude to 120 meters: just under 400 feet. Because I’m a rank amateur and don’t have a pilot’s license that’s my limit. Which is fine because the lowest-flying aircraft around here is air ambulance Eagle III which generally comes screaming over the house at about 600 to 1000 feet. The altitude restriction is designed to keep hobbyists out of trouble.
Anyway, this ingenious quadcopter might be the answer to some (certainly not all) photography limitations. One being altitude. As the forest has grown up around the west side of the house it has become more difficult to catch an easy sunset photo.
No longer.
As a trial run I flew my drone up to max altitude and took some photos.
View North
View South - Farm in center is exactly a mile distant
Including my first sunset. If you look carefully there is a little band of blue on the horizon. That is Green Bay.
I have a sliver-sized view of the water at a fraction of the price of the real estate and property taxes!
This mechanical, digital, aerial technology is going to be fun. Wouldn't it be in cool to catch the northern lights at altitude? Or view a shallow coastal shipwreck from above? Falls colors? And outdoor events? I suppose if I really get sucked-into the possibilities I might just jump thru the hoops and get certified for more sophisticated flight opportunities; and naturally, spring for a larger, better-equipped aircraft.
I was puttering in my raised garden beds when a shriek from The Missus pierced the air. This was followed by urgent commands to the dog.
The cause of the ruckus was this...
There was the Mother of all unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) westbound, coming straight for our driveway only to stop at the property line, pirouette and head eastward all the while spraying the neighbor's field. The drift smelled of fertilizer; nevertheless, since the dog decided to chase-down the alien contraption when we finally collected her she got a bath.
I recently took delivery of a UAV of my own; a DJI Neo, a small drone that I could use for photography and scouting that doesn't require a pilot license. The very same company manufactures a heavy-lift agricultural model in the Agras lineup - the DJI Agras T40 and successor DJI Agras T50. They're difficult to tell apart from one another but they're considered the gold standard of drones designed specifically for precision farming.
The basic design includes a four-arm layout featuring coaxial twin rotors - notably two sets of propellers per arm totally eight blades. Brushless motors drive the 54-inch carbon fiber props. There is landing gear and a tank set-up that can be swapped-out in minutes for both spreading dry product (fertilizer, lime and seed) or liquids (fertilizer, herbicide or insecticide).
You'll note from the videos that there are no traditional high pressure nozzles. Instead the drone utilizes spinning discs that atomize the liquid to an adjustable mist producing droplets ranging from 50 to 500 microns in size. Impeller pumps deliver a flow rate of 16 to 24 liters per minute and an application swath can range from 22 to 36 feet depending-upon altitude. Tipping the scales at a paltry 4.8 ounces (including battery) my miniature DJI Neo pales when compared to its farming cousin. The AG version boasts a takeoff weight (aircraft, battery and payload) of up to 227 pounds and can fly at 15-20 mph.
Avionics include a phased array radar, binocular vision and real time kinetic positioning guided by Global Navigational Satellite System (GNSS) ensuring no overlapping or missed crop rows. There is a camera for piloting by First Person View; however, once a field has been flown for mapping purposes control is handed-off to an autonomous system for flight. The T40 and T50 drones can spray 50-52 acres in less than an hour of flight time without breaking a sweat. Power is supplied by a 26 pound battery than can be charged from empty to 100% in 9-12 minutes allowing a two-battery rotation to run continuously all day long.
As a consequence of being well over the weight threshold for a hobbyist like me, operation requires a specialized FAA Part 137 agricultural pilot certificate and a Class 2 medical certificate. Just like barnstorming an old school crop duster; only the pilot never leaves the ground.
Unfolded, and configured for flight, the aircraft measures roughly 9 by 10 feet from blade tip to blade tip; or about the size of a compact car. Watching one of these in flight, up close and personal, is indeed impressive.
Starting price for a T50 heavy-lift, LIDAR-equipped quadcopter is $29,646.
This past weekend I took a half-day to clean-up, vac, fuel-up and charge-up the 1968 Pontiac convertible. The plan was to put it up for sale earlier in the spring but other considerations intervened with other more carefully-laid plans. Nevertheless, Jill mentioned that there was a church picnic and car show at Holy Name of Mary Church in nearby Maplewood.
click on images to enlarge
A good opportunity to show it, put a For Sale sign on it and hang-out.
As far as church picnics go this was nice. The usual array of brats, burgers trippe and booyah.
Hot cars.
64 Mustang in the foreground and a 68 LeMans in the background
40 Ford
Ford Model A
Live music and cold beer.
And an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) - commonly known as a drone - buzzing the crowd and the church.
Community, terrific food, Detroit muscle, great weather, cold beer, religion and aerial technology. It doesn't get any better than this. America is a Great Place.
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