Hi all,
I'm looking for an aircraft platform to do some aerial photography from and was hoping that you may have some bright ideas.
I don't mind is it is ready to fly, a kit or just plans (that would actually be better).
Here are the requirements:
- Has to be able to operate at 6,000 ft in warm weather, take off from 5,000 ft
- Has to have endurance of at least an hour (45 mins is worst case scenario)
- Has to be able to deal with wind, once airborne 15-20 knots and 10 knots on the ground.
- Has to be able to carry a small camera (250g sort of weight)
Fuel source can be electric and gas (not nitro!).
Looking forward to see if anyone can come up with something.
Thanks guys
Replies
https://youtu.be/srxLBdIpSyg 150km each flight with sony A7R
T10 uav you may have a look at this one
already test launchig at 3800 meters and flight at 4400 meters with Canon 5D mark II
You're quite right, Macboffin, but you didn't take note of my user name, did you?
Anyhow, yes, I must apologise and downsize the recommended aircraft somewhat.
You would have to be on top of your game to select all the components necessary to fly an electric plane at 6000 ft in 10 -20 knot winds for an hour. I would really like some viewer who has actually done this even at 600ft (where I fly) to chime in and tell us what to start with. So, for now, electric is not an option I can advise on. Mr Sharp rules out nitro based fuels, I suppose because of the difficulty of transporting it. That leaves petrol.
The smallest petrol engine that you can just buy and put in a plane is around 30cc. You will need maybe one to one and a half litres of fuel, and batteries for the radio and FPV gear. For 6000 ft the aircraft needs to be somewhat overpowered.
The aircraft cannot be too light, like a cub, for when it is low on fuel in a 10 - 20 knot wind it would flit around like a leaf. So, intuitively, If I was doing this I would select some shoulder wing trainer in the 80 inch wingspan range with a non-symmetrical air foil, but I don't know the market well enough to recommend any particular one. Nor can I point to any website to show the success of the combination.
Wanabigaplane.
Why..? Well now that you ask, I realise I should have asked for more information before I made my recommendation, and then explained my reasoning.
When I saw that Mr Sharp wants to take off from 5000 ft in a hot climate, where it is difficult to take nitro fuel, I just guessed that he is not in London any more. I imagined a third world country where conditions were not ideal for take off and landing. Manoeuvrability and durability become prime attributes. Because Mr Sharp is asking this question, I guessed that he is not an experienced and expert pilot.
We are flying the Mugin from 2000 ft. With 4.5 kilos on the nose just for balance, all up weight of 16 kilos, it requires a lot of speed for its lift. The slowest comfortable speed is around 100 km/hr, wide open throttle level flight is about 180 km/hr. This thing uses up the field at a great rate, and I have to work hard to keep up with it. Now, I consider myself an experienced, but ordinary weekend hack pilot of a wide range of nitro planes. We have a perfect 90 metre long, 9 metre wide, artificial strip visitors drool over, and it takes all my skill to get the Mugin down on it safely without running off the end. see http://www.cmac.org.au/about.htm The plane is well built, but in a manner that makes field repairs difficult. A few rolls of duct tape will just not do. The aluminium tubes are a close fit, and bending one would be hard to patch around. We cannot source spare tubing anywhere - and we have tried. The nose undercarriage is not all that strong, and has such a long moment that it is very vulnerable to not the best landings, or even running into obstacles at take off speed.
Now consider the Lanyu 100. It is advertised to fly with a 35cc petrol motor - a 50cc motor will give plenty of reserve for flying at altitude. The format is more like a trainer, giving more manoeuvrability and a lower landing speed, which, with a taildragger undercarriage, should be a considerable advantage for durability on third world country landing grounds in tricky conditions
My guess is that this aircraft would be more likely to be within Mr Sharp's capabilities. My apologies if I am mistaken, no offence was intended.
I suggest the Lanyu 100 with a 50cc twin cylinder ( for low vibration) petrol engine would be more suited to your needs than the Mugin.
I found this in the same forum thread - just deeper in.
http://www.diydrones.com/forum/topics/low-cost-hi-performance-airfr....
In warm weather your density altitude will be much higher, I often get 8000' DAs living at 5400'. A bigger problem can actually be standing outside for me, its just too hot for me to be out. Stay away from dark airframes if your in a hot place!
http://www.fpvflying.com/products/Mugin-UAV-Platform.html
Dont know how helpful it will be. but this seems like it will work well for your plans. They are about the same as mine. If you get the new upgraded model, would you mind giving me the internal size/space specs?