My employer is wanting to purchase an UAV for arial topos and I was wondering if anyone else has priced and tested any to give recommendations on which would be good. I just started researching them today so I don't know much about them and would like advice picking one.
unless something has changed, commercial use of UAV's is prohibited by FAA in the US.
> My employer is wanting to purchase an UAV for arial topos and I was wondering if anyone else has priced and tested any to give recommendations on which would be good. I just started researching them today so I don't know much about them and would like advice picking one.
Shoot me an email.
Ralph
Thanks that helps a lot
If you fly it over my house, does the law allow me to shoot it down?
> My employer is wanting to purchase an UAV for arial topos and I was wondering if anyone else has priced and tested any to give recommendations on which would be good. I just started researching them today so I don't know much about them and would like advice picking one.
BLM were using balloon mounted camera systems on a couple projects last year
While that looks like fun I don't know how useful that would be with a 100' range when we are trying to do a topo survey on a 1,600 acre tract of land.
I don't know. Can you shoot an airplane down if it flies over your house because I believe they follow the same regulations.
Such a proposal sounds bad to me.
I came up in the days of aerial photograpy with aerial cameras, calibration certificates and processing 500' long 9" film by hand.
LIDAR is interesting, but unless you are talking a REALLY BIG UAV, I don't see how you can lift a large enough LIDAR unit to get any accuracy on a topo at all.
Sounds like GPS'ing to 0.05' with a Garmin hand held to me.
> I don't know. Can you shoot an airplane down if it flies over your house because I believe they follow the same regulations.
In the United States in particular, the Federal Aviation Administration calls this concept the Minimum Safe Altitude (MSA), and specifically defines it as follows in § 119 of Part 91 of the Federal Aviation Regulations (FAR):
1.Anywhere: an altitude allowing a safe emergency landing without undue hazard to person or property on the ground;
2.Over Congested Areas: an altitude of 1,000 feet above the highest obstacle within a horizontal distance of less than 2,000 feet;
3.Over Populated Areas: an altitude of 500 feet AGL;
4.Over Open Water or Sparsely Populated Areas: an altitude allowing for a linear distance greater than 500 from any person, vessel, vehicle, or structure;
5.Helicopters: If without hazard to persons or property on the surface, an altitude lower than in definitions 2, 3, and 4 above, provided in compliance with any routes or altitudes specifically prescribed for helicopters by the FAA.
I would suppose you would be fine as long as you are 500 over my house. Get any lower than that and your drone is trespassing and it's open season.
I believe UAV's are not allowed in USA for commercial use.
1600 Ac topo is probably best served anyway by standard aerial mapping aircraft and sensors, probably time to contact a mapping firm.
SHG
Check this out DYS
This article seems to be saying they ARE NOT approved for use in the USA by the FAA.
Even if they were, as I stated before, 1600 Ac seems a bit of a large project for a small UAV.
SHG
Looking to buy a UAV
I may be wrong but I think I heard that you can use them UP TO 500 feet AGL, without any special permit, etc.
Congress has told the FAA that they need to come up with regulations, etc.
Personally, as a pilot, i don't like the idea of miniature remote controlled planes flying in the same airspace that I fly in.
Starting in 2020 or so ADS-B (Automatic dependent surveillance) will be required on all planes. That means that each plane will be transmitting its position on the transponder frequency. This data will be collected by the ATC system, and broadcast back to the planes so that you will be able to see each and every plane around you. Can't happen soon enough for me. Once that is in affect, I will feel a little safer with UAV's flying around.
