It needs an accurate measurement of “vertical”.
How accurate do you want to be? GPS+WAAS is good for 1m in practice, and you can have an accurate terrain map.
@LeSving the type of surveillance I was referring to often involves 2 twin engine aircraft 1 at 600ft and the other at approx 1200ft AGL/AMSL carrying out a grid pattern over a selected area with extremely high definition cameras takimg around 8 frames/images per second. I met a couple of Danish CPLs flying a Danish reg Partenavia P68. Although they work for a Danish company they are based in North West England by agreement with the UK CAA. They were telling me they have a numbernof crews working all over the place, basically non stop. I met them at Le Havre, they were doing a survey at Aberdeen the following day, then Ireland, the Greece.
However, IIRC they do use SEPs of the coasts of Brittany, Normandy and the Channel Islands on Fisheries patrol. I think the pilots need CPLs but I couldn’t swear to that as planes are often rented from clubs and ATOs.
How accurate do you want to be? GPS+WAAS is good for 1m in practice, and you can have an accurate terrain map.
To get the location of the spot at a slant range from the drone, the drone needs accurate angle measurement, relative to vertical.
The terrain database is needed to get the actual target elevation and thus it’s real location but does not need to be in the drone.
the drone needs accurate angle measurement, relative to vertical.
Hmm. It knows where it is to within a couple of metres. It knows how high it is. Surely it’s just a simple trig problem (made more complicated by curvature of the earth etc, but solvable).
gallois wrote:
the type of surveillance I was referring to often involves 2 twin engine aircraft 1 at 600ft and the other at approx 1200ft AGL/AMSL carrying out a grid pattern over a selected area with extremely high definition cameras takimg around 8 frames/images per second
You mean terrain mapping? I met a couple of dudes a few years ago, they flew a Caravan. I think they used laser flying in a specific pattern all day.
Hmm. It knows where it is to within a couple of metres. It knows how high it is. Surely it’s just a simple trig problem (made more complicated by curvature of the earth etc, but solvable).
Yes, but this is why I think the drone needs a vertical reference, so it can measure the slant angle to the target
The terrain database is needed to work out the location corresponding to the intercept of the drone’s camera view. The drone elevation is needed and you can get that from GPS. Elevation A is irrelevant; only the drone elevation is relevant at A.
As I said, this has been solved but not with anything cheap.
There most be a huge market for agricultural crop surveys and spot pesticide application by drone.
I’ve not heard of fishing boats using them this side of the Atlantic but they are mentioned for fish finding in the US. A sonar probe?
Commercial / air transport under IFR requires multi engine or SPA SET IMC. Until 2017, it was legal to use a legacy „death trap“ twin at an airline, however, not a PC12. Ironic and has since been changed.
There are VFR AOC operators however it’s a very rare occurrence and mostly for sightseeing A-A flights.
A CPL isn’t useless as it allows flying as PIC under CAT AOC ops, for instance a high performance complex aeroplane certified under CS23 (commuter).
Which twins are you calling “legacy death traps”?
Or is this back to the old SET is safer than a twin debate?
