Moderator Comment by Brian on December 25, 2011 at 12:03pm

Pretty sure if the platform is not water tight that the net on the deck is involved in the recovery.

Comment by Anish on December 25, 2011 at 12:15pm

Would be keen to know a bit more about the platform, how stable it is in winds, maybe folks could use in sea rescue ...

Developer Comment by Ryan Beall on December 25, 2011 at 2:13pm

http://hangar18uav.com/osprey.htm

Comment by Björn Geir Leifsson on December 25, 2011 at 3:14pm

Brian: the net in the picture is to prevent helicopters that land on it slipping off the helipad.
I would guess they rigged a vertical net of some sort to catch the drone. I'm also curious as to how they launch the plane. No way I would want to try hand launching this thing. The picture looks arranged as part of a publicity stunt.

Moderator Comment by Brian on December 25, 2011 at 4:27pm

Looks like the same type that have been suspended to catch small uavs on navy ships in the past, but eitherway a net of some sort must be in the process.

Comment by Dave Wicks on December 25, 2011 at 4:36pm

Judging by the launcher's hair it seems they are in fact launching with the wind so a hand launch could be possible, especially if the ship slows down.

Comment by apocolipse on December 25, 2011 at 11:39pm

With the way nautical winds occur it is very likely that they are hand launching into the wind no problem, they could even land without the net with the ship moving into the wind, groundspeed matching ship's speed isn't too difficult with a good wind and it can hover right down (seemingly)

Moderator Comment by Gary Mortimer on December 26, 2011 at 12:41am

Its an AttoPilot platform last year they successfully turned around the whaling fleet just by saying they were going to launch. (Whoops just realised they are only talking about this years experience....)

Chris Mc Nair is a member he will tell you all about it. The crew untook training with him and Dean.

There are other things but they are under embargo. 

Perhaps you could ask Chris about the 24 hour platform.

I believe I am right in saying that the drop it off the side method is sometimes employed. Again Chris is the man,

Moderator Comment by Gary Mortimer on December 26, 2011 at 1:06am

Don't forget they are having an offer on airframes and APs at the minute $9999 for a complete system. 

Proven throughout the world!

Even the wet bits.

Heres how a high surface wind speed landing might look. Even managed a couple myself

high wind landing with autopilot assistance from Dean Goedde on Vimeo.

Comment by apocolipse on December 26, 2011 at 4:05am

Exactly Gary, that landing just on a boat, very easy.     I'm not sure how many of you have ever been out on a large vessel, a cruise ship perhaps, but you can often see seagulls just floating midair flying into the wind, maintaining relative position to ground things but still "flying", doable and not overly difficult with AP assistance (manual would be a bitch though)

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