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V2 of the Medical express rules posted (and other info)

Posted by Mark Omo on November 18, 2015 at 8:36pm

sample-geofence-smaller.jpg?w=882

The UAV Challenge Technical Committee today announced that the venue for the 2016 UAV Challenge Medical Express competition will be Dalby, Queensland, Australia. The Base for the event will be the Dalby Model Aero Club (DMAC). A rules update was also launched today, with Version 2 of the rules now available on the Medical Express Page. A full list of changes to the rules can be found on page 5 of v2 of the rules document. Finally, it was announced today, that the date of the Medical Express event has been pushed back by one week (to 27 September 2016), along with the due date of the Deliverable 3. Please see the Medical Express page for further details.

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  • Stephen Gloor November 20, 2015 at 5:15am

    Travelling over east at Christmas - might duck up to Dalby and take some piccies and make some contacts with the club.

  • Joshua November 20, 2015 at 4:53am

    Also, for those trying to locate the field on Google Earth / Maps, the proper address of 743 Cecil Plains Road, Dalby, Queensland, Australia will drop you 6.5km north of the actual location. I've submitted a request to Google to have the club labelled as such and searchable on Google Maps, but in the mean time, you can also find it by entering either:

    LOT 177 Dalby-Cecil Plains Rd, Saint Ruth QLD

    or entering the coordinates 27°16'29"S, 151°17'21"E

    Or just use this url: https://goo.gl/maps/9ijcW1N7u1m

    27°16'28.6"S 151°17'20.8"E
    Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.
  • JB November 19, 2015 at 11:59pm

    Agreed Joshua. 

    It's also written on the diagram for folks like me who don't care about reading the rules too much! ;-)

    They can change the route again, but I'm thinking they already organised the landing site with a farmer and simply moved the last leg to make an "example". That gives a fairly small area where the landing will occur in, especially if you look for clutter. Using the image as a reference also gives an indication of the distance, although it is trivial to change using the first return leg. That is of course until they read this, and change it just to prove me wrong... I know I'm being watched as we speak! ;-)

    Regardless, them providing us with the base location helps more than one can see at first glance, and affects everything from imaging, comms, strategy, mission profile and even airframe selection etc. I like to know where I'm going beforehand so I'm fairly comfortable now! It feels like its a bit of a "reboot" of the challenge with the new confirmed options available.

    Regards JB

  • Joshua November 19, 2015 at 10:12pm

    @JB - while you're quite correct, be aware that the diagram of the flight path / geofence is only an example; "Note that this figure is an example and does NOT show the actual Transit Corridor or Remote Landing Site." Not that it'll be much different though; a geofence with a maximum of 18 vertices doesn't give them much opportunity to make a tricky route (nor would there be much practical use behind one).

  • JB November 19, 2015 at 7:04pm

    Hey Gary

    Sometimes its as easy as booking a ticket to Oz!  It would be nice to see you there. ;-)

    -

    Thinking about the location and changes some more I think there's even more benefits to the new location. 

    • The event is NOT at a GA airfield anymore, it's at a model airfield - that relieves some considerable safety pressures and allows for easier event scheduling of flights etc - plus spectators can probably watch teams at play now by the looks of the layout, rather than having to follow it via TV
    • The flight path looks simpler than previously with fairly long straights between a few easy turns - having the UAV return to base before heading out to Joe means there's even a possibility of a "restart" should there be a failure onboard (would have been welcome at the last one!) - plus we get to see some action on the fly by and hear mumblings from the crowd on how well the airframe is tuned for turns etc! (in our case some might be saying that thing can't fly at all, nor get that far...can it?) ;-)
    • We also get to test some comms in flight like this before making the long run to Joe
    • The geofences are now easy to set up squares not circles
    • Letting us do our own geofence inside of the actual geofence means that some teams with long glideslope airframes can hedge against runaways by setting it closer to flight path - soft geo-fence was the other option
    • The base location allows for some analysis of the terrain and potential landing sites - of the potential 15 or so house sites in the area there is only a few that are likely to have enough space for landing  STOL. They all seem a bit cluttered to me and difficult to land in proximity of. In one in particular there seems to be a farm machinery graveyard which might thwart recognition
    • The terrain is virtually flat - from what I can tell from GE there's a variance of about 3-4m across the whole area - terrain following is not required at all
    • There's a larger Mitre10 and a limited Jaycar stockist in town - for those last minute repairs
    • Accommodation looks ok too
    • And there's the usual selection of unhealthy and healthy food options - but sadly no Nandos, the nearest is "only" 83.7km away... :-(

    Regards

    JB

  • Moderator
    Gary Mortimer November 19, 2015 at 11:26am

    I sooooo wish I could come along, one day I will! I hope they have live streaming once more. 

  • JB November 19, 2015 at 5:32am

    Hi Mark

    Thanks for the update! (we just got the email too)

    I just read through the rules now and not much has changed. The most significant change is that there will be a landing strip on the base after all now. That means support aircraft can now easily be fixed wing, which will make it a fair bit simpler to use two aircraft, if one would want to do so.

    The other thing is that they have given us the new location of at least the base. This is actually better news for some than the landing strip. ;-)

    Pushing back the event date a week also means it fits with the kids school holidays better...which means I can take everyone with this time yay! 

    They have however not provided some more clarity on the continuity of comm requirements as we requested some time ago. Maybe they'll update the FAQ next.

    Overall I thinks its just become a bit easier.

    Regards JB

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