Table of contents for Issue 5, 2017 in Drone

IF you came across a Phantom 4 and a 4 Pro side by side you would be hard pressed to know straight away which was which. You may notice the additional collision sensors on the side, and a slightly different camera, but the real differences are under the hood. Under close examination, you would discover some serious upgrades, especially significant for the video and photography buffs. If you are in the market for a small take-anywhere drone to capture epic shots on your adventures or even semi-pro drone work, then you have a few options now. The Phantom 4 Pro (P4P) obviously trumps the Phantom 4, but when deciding between the P4P and the Mavic, you really need to weigh up the differences and work out which is for you.…

THE Spark is aimed squarely at the selfie market. Literally fitting in the palm of your hand, it is smaller than the Mavic Pro, but it does pack a bunch of cool new features, far more than any other drone in the market. As demonstrated at the launch event, Spark can take off from your hand, get into position, change position and take photos of you with no controller whatsoever, not even a phone. All you need to do is turn Spark on with a push of a button. Once it recognises your face it takes off from your hand and obediently waits for your next command. You can control it simply with gestures. Raise your hand and, once recognised, a move of your hand left or right will control…

CURRENTLY the drone industry is estimated to be worth $2 billion globally with predictions for it to grow to as much as $20 billion by 2020. It’s an industry that really should be considered for any flying enthusiast or budding entrepreneur. If you’ve ever considered getting into drones professionally, now might be the right time as their applications continue to evolve, covering a wide variety of tasks across multiple industries. Let’s take a closer look at some of the fastest-growing professional categories. CASA certifications RePL : Remote Pilot License All commercial drone pilots flying drones that weigh 2kg or more require an RePL. Once licensed you can work for a CASA Remote Operator or ReOC holder. If you are flying a drone that weighs less than 2kg you can fly…

THE Avoca Beach Picture Theatre hosted the 2017 blue2blue Drone Film Festival in March, showcasing all the finalists and announcing the winners in 8 categories. With submissions open to entries from overseas, the winners list is a mixture of local and international work: The 2017 judges were Tropfest host and maths tragic Adam Spencer, writer/ director Claudia Pickering, Drone Magazine tech editor Andy Willmott, and Surf Lifesaving Central Coast director Brett Beswick. “In our second year, we were again so privileged to receive beautiful, amazing and inspirational films from around the globe,” said the festival’s organiser and founder, Martin Jones. “There were some very close scores with the winning films in 5 categories only nudging out their competitor by the smallest of margins. “I’d like to thank the filmmakers for…

WHILE the US invents drones carrying chainsaws or guns, or flamethrowers for barbecuing, China has come up with something more practical. Useful, even. A video appeared recently of a flame-throwing drone being used successfully to burn off debris that had accumulated on power lines, affecting their operation. The conventional way to clear power lines is to send someone up in a cherry-picker to knock the rubbish off with a pole – a cumbersome process with safety and access issues. The video shows maintenance workers from the Xiangyang Branch of State Grid Corporation of China using a drone to clear high-voltage power lines in Hubei province. They are using a DJI S1000 octocopter, which has a 11kg payload capacity. This one is fitted with a fuel tank and metre-long wand and…

AS drones get more reliable, smarter and with longer flight times, we are starting to see them being used in more creative ways. Not all that long ago we were afraid of flying drones over water as we were worried they would fail or if we would be able to land before the battery ran out. But drones have been following whales around for a while now. We’ve seen some incredible footage of whales breaching in the wild that were unprecedented not long ago. You simply cannot get intimate with a whale in a boat or helicopter without them being aware, but with drones if you wanted to, you can literally hover over them and catch loads of snot from their blowhole if you so wished. One such man is…

LIKE most professional drone pilots, I’ve been flying the Inspire 1 and Inspire Pro since release a couple of years ago. It really was a game changer – it simplified and unified so many systems and made working on the simpler jobs so much easier. One case replaced several cases, heavy batteries, chargers and generators to support the previous much larger solution. In the last 2 years drone tech has advanced somewhat, and early this year the Inspire 2 was unveiled. Since then we have added a couple of these bad boys to our fleet. Let’s take a look at the upgrades and what makes this evolution so amazing. So what’s new? The list of features the Inspire 2 boasts is now quite broad. It packs all the standard features…

Make sure you use Loctite or a similar thread-lock to ensure screws do not work loose under vibration SOME of our readers asked us if we could do a story on building your own FPV racer. I do enjoy a project so I did some research. I was keen to feature a pro-level quad that could give anything out there a run for its money. It didn’t take long to come across The Helix, built and sold only in parts by a local company called ImpulseRC. Delving further into the story of The Helix revealed that within days of its launch, it took first place in both Freestyle and Racing events at the AU Drone Nationals 2016 on the Gold Coast. I watched a few YouTube videos of this crazy…

FLYUAS runs courses online in all mainland states of Australia, assisting students to attain their Remote Pilot License (RePL) and Aeronautical Radio Operator Certificate (AROC) and assisting with preparations to apply for a Remotely Piloted Aircraft Operator Certificate (ReOC) with the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA). All courses are CASA-approved, ensuring quality of instruction and conformance to industry requirements and standards. The course instructors all have backgrounds in both manned aviation as well as experience in unmanned aviation operations, which means as a student you receive relevant information on how to conduct flights safely, whilst capturing relevant data. Whether you’re an experienced RPA pilot seeking certification for commercial activities or a complete beginner wanting to learn how to fly a drone, the instructors are trained to identify individual student needs…

1 Take it out of Auto First up, you are going to have to get used to adjusting your exposure manually. If you are doing anything even semi-professional, you need to lock your exposure for each shot. You may think it is the easy way out to switch to auto when you have a high contrast from the start to finish of your shot, but a camera changing aperture and shutter speed mid shot will ruin it. Not to mention make you look like a rookie. Get up to speed and practice adjusting and measuring your exposure. If you are not sure, shoot a few takes at different exposures. It is better to have those options later than to have to re-shoot when you realise you are over or under…

SUPPORTED by Westpac, the Little Ripper Group has continued in its rigorous research and development trials and built world’s best practice operations and technologies for UAV search and rescue (SAR) services. This has seen them grow in credibility and become the recognised authority in this space in Australia and beyond. They are now the ‘go to’ organisation for bodies seeking global best practice in UAV SAR. In March this year, The Ripper Group shared the stage with Telstra in making a presentation to the Senate Inquiry into Regulatory Requirements that Impact on the Safe Use of Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems, Unmanned Aerial Systems and Associated Systems. The inquiry discussed the safe integration of drones into the national airspace and the importance of drones for the future prosperity of Australia. Beyond…

THE Breeze is a small mid-priced drone aimed squarely at the selfie camera market and casual family fun. It is sleek, friendly and simple to fly controlled by your smart device or optional RC controller. If you are looking for a first drone that won’t send you broke and still has some important safety features to ensure you don’t lose it in flight or crash too easily, whilst making you look like a boss as you post wicked selfies with ease to social media, then the Breeze is worth a closer look. Flight Controls Using the Breeze Cam app on any smart device and connected via Wifi you can access all the manual and autonomous flight controls. Flying with the virtual sticks on your screen is intuitive and you can’t…

FIRST Person View flight, simply known as FPV, is a unique niche indeed. Not quite RPAS yet not exactly conventional RC either, FPV flying falls somewhere in between. Exploding in popularity over the past few years, entire ecosystems have developed to satisfy the ever-expanding number of inductees to this unusual combination of hobby, culture and art form. Development in some areas has been rapid, while others have lagged behind. Video headsets have evolved relatively slowly and are yet to really deliver what the market desires. While the ultimate objective of a fully integrated small goggle set with full HD resolution and a large, clear, properly immersive field of view is still some distance away, there are still some fantastic options available. Obvious considerations like aesthetics, portability, functionality, resolution and price…

AS the name suggests, National Drones operates in every state. It is Australia’s largest CASA-certified aerial data solutions provider, offering a comprehensive range of RPAS services that goes beyond simple aerial photography and videography. “We have highly skilled operators and apparatus located throughout Australia,” says Kevin. “Our cost-effective solutions deliver meaningful, actionable data designed to streamline informed decision-making. We do this by leveraging the best available technologies to save time and reduce risk whilst improving the quality and quantity of data collected. Simply speaking, we do things safer, faster, smarter.” National Drones’ growing list of services includes: Aerial Photography & Videography Agricultural Surveys Asset Inspection & Facility Management Thermal Imaging Power & Utilities Inspection Oil & Gas Inspection Telecommunication Tower Inspection Building & Construction Surveying & Monitoring Emergency Services Insurance…

SPEAKING at the World Government Summit in Dubai, Matter al-Tayer, the head of Dubai’s Roads & Transportation Agency said “I am glad to inform you that hopefully we will be able to have these drones available starting from July 2017”. The Prime Minister of the UAE wants 25% of all passenger trips to be made in driverless vehicles by 2030. I love drones and I have been a witness to astonishing advances in the relatively short time since they have come into existence, but I had not imagined the general public being able to hitch a ride on one in the very near future. We are still struggling to integrate autonomous drones in our cities to deliver pizzas whilst navigating flight zones and safely avoiding other aircraft and obstacles. To…

THERE have been some crazy attempts in recent years to get humans airborne using battery-powered drones. Of the few that succeeded, most only got a few feet off the ground, looking highly unstable, and staying up for no more than a couple of minutes. Typically the drone looked like a Hills Hoist with a few dozen drones strapped to the frame, and a chair fixed at the centre for the passenger. Underneath the chair was a cushioning device such as a large balloon for softening the impact of landing. See https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=W0jzFCUhppM for last year’s video entitled Top 5 Human Transport Drones. Since then there’s been the announcement of the Ehang 184 taxi drone, which looks like the most professional ground-breaker, so to speak, in this category (see separate story…

T THE Drone Prix AR App runs in place of your DJI GO App, and can be downloaded from the app store of any Apple or Android smart device. You don’t need loads of room – it’s designed to be played with limited space, and as you might be a little distracted from your surrounds by trying to fly through virtual rings, that’s probably a good thing. You will need a clear space of around 14m x 14m x 8m, so best to head to the park and high enough that any nearby trees are not going to get in the way. There is a whole bunch of courses to try, over 30 in fact. You will start out with a simple track having to follow a course to the…