About

Gender

Male


Location

RPAS Pilot Instructor - Johannesburg. (ex-Safari Trails Guide)


About Me:

I worked as a Safari Trails Guide (Lead Rifle) and Ranger in the South African Wildlife Tourism Industry for about 20 years. Now I'm a qualified RPAS/Drone Pilot Instructor/Consultant working for the South African National Blood Service. Previously did lots of BVLOS flying, mostly nighttime anti-poaching missions. 340 hours logged and 16428km as of end Mar '16. Did 114km total distance in one flight in 2014, as well as 02h17m duration with a 3kg electric plane.


Please tell us a bit about your UAV interest

Personal: DIY Carbon H-frame QuadCopter with 250+ flights, APM2, 3DR Telemetry, Sunnysky X2212-980 motors, 11x4.7 carbon props, 2200/5000mAh 3S Turnigy Batts, 15 minute flight time, Sony 520TVL camera, 1.2GHz 700mW Video Transmittor + inverted Vee antenna, Video goggles & 9" Dvd monitor. DIY FPV folding carbon Tricopter - XUAV-X2 (AUAV.CO) powered (300mm width, 3DR Telemetry, Sunnysky X2212-980 motors, 10x4.7 carbon props, 2200/5000mAh 3S batts Twin boom FPV 1.75m plane for long distance Nav & FPV. APM2.6, 60+ flying hours. Old: Own design & built twin-boom UAV Plane (R.I.P.) ArduPilot v2.7.1, ArduIMU, MediaTek GPS. Had clocked 70+ hours flying time. Slowstick - ArduPilot Legacy v2.6.2, APM2560 + Thermopiles, was used for FPV and as a stabilized trainer.


Hometown:

Randburg, Johannesburg, South Africa


Activity Feed

Graham Dyer updated their profile
Apr 11, 2021
Graham Dyer commented on sander's blog post The problem with airspeed sensors
"Will, or is this method be available in PX4/Ardupilot or is this just an advert for DeltaQuad?"
Apr 2, 2019
Graham Dyer commented on Tomi Piriyev's blog post DRONEE PLOTTER updates, Multi-Chart, Multi-Scale features
"Well done! It's getting better and better with every version. So good now that it's just completely intuitive with just about everything in the right place. Congrats!"
Oct 29, 2018
Graham Dyer commented on Arnaldo Santos's blog post New personal UAV BlackFly Opener
"No helium, just 8 powerful motors and a nicely designed flight control system. Also only 25 mins on a battery of about 28KW/h."
Jul 20, 2018
Graham Dyer commented on Hugues's blog post Flight endurance test with a Li-ion battery
"Nicely documented Hugues!"
Apr 15, 2018
Graham Dyer commented on Graham Dyer's blog post 450 Wh/kg SolidEnergy batteries, the lightest rechargeable cell in the world?
"3.8V cells, 4.3V fully charged, just like DJI PH3, Mavic, etc. Wonder when these will go into the next commercial drone, DJI must be looking at them very carefully! And perhaps a bit of salivating...
Is a 1 hour Phantom 5 / Pro nearly here?"
Feb 1, 2018
Graham Dyer commented on Graham Dyer's blog post 450 Wh/kg SolidEnergy batteries, the lightest rechargeable cell in the world?
"= 11.4V, 3.4Ah. To get more capacity you'll need to parallel cells."
Feb 1, 2018
Graham Dyer commented on Wade Zhang's blog post ComNav Technology K726 GNSS RTK OEM board for express drone autopilot
"Can you mention the price?"
Jan 30, 2018
Graham Dyer posted a blog post
We've seen the claims before, 10x, 5x, 3x the energy density for some new wondrous cells.Panasonic 18650GA cells have a gravimetric density of 224 Wh/kg allowing some fixed wing drones to achieve 2+ hours of flight, these new SES cells claim 400-500…
Jan 29, 2018
Graham Dyer replied to Rafi Nahmani's discussion Ducted fan motors vs propellers??
Jan 29, 2018
Graham Dyer replied to Rafi Nahmani's discussion Ducted fan motors vs propellers??
"Ducted fans are less efficient, because a smaller mass of air is used for propulsion and additional friction drag and added weight from the shroud and support structure.
The highest propulsion efficiency is a large, slow-spinning prop, not a small…"
Jan 28, 2018
Graham Dyer replied to Alex Maltais's discussion Skywalker X8 wing endurance VS the c-astral wing
"I got 2h17m and 114km with a Super Skysurfer with an un-aerodynamic gimbal and a weight of 3KG. I suspect that with the same battery/motor combo an X8 would have easily gone further/longer as flying wings are quite a bit more efficient with lower…"
Jan 22, 2018
Graham Dyer commented on Emlid's blog post Emlid Edge in stock! Check out flight videos
"Yes, from their webpage: "Edge runs Ardupilot - the most fully-featured and robust autopilot software available. It supports MAVLink protocol, sophisticated flight control algorithms and various flight modes. The autopilot can control any vehicle:…"
Dec 25, 2017
Graham Dyer commented on Ellen Zhu's blog post Skywalker X8 Honeycomb Composited Material on Sale
"Estimated all-up-flying-weight, wing span, wing area and price?

And why do the elevons not go all the way to the tip of the wing?"
Dec 24, 2017
Graham Dyer replied to Max Wolf's discussion Hovering a plane using Pixhawk (ideally) in one position with GPS lock?
"The problem with a pusher wing is that there is then no airflow over the control surfaces when stationary so there is no control to hold the hover. The airflow may only have enough effect if the plane is climbing vertically with some speed thus not…"
Dec 24, 2017
Graham Dyer replied to Gökhan Güler's discussion Listing problem on Pixhawk
"It seems to be under powered. From my experience 700kv motors with 12x5.5 props would need at least a 4S battery not a 3S battery depending on the weight. What is the all up weight of the quad? Have you tried 100% throttle?
Power according to the…"
Dec 4, 2017
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