Gender
Male
About
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
"Will, or is this method be available in PX4/Ardupilot or is this just an advert for DeltaQuad?"
"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!"
"No helium, just 8 powerful motors and a nicely designed flight control system. Also only 25 mins on a battery of about 28KW/h."
"Nicely documented Hugues!"
"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?"
Is a 1 hour Phantom 5 / Pro nearly here?"
"= 11.4V, 3.4Ah. To get more capacity you'll need to parallel cells."
"Can you mention the price?"
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…
"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…"
The highest propulsion efficiency is a large, slow-spinning prop, not a small…"
"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…"
"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:…"
"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?"
And why do the elevons not go all the way to the tip of the wing?"
"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…"
"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…"
Power according to the…"
