Anybody care to give some testimonials or experience with the wingtra1? ?ÿLooking into purchasing as we??ve recently been requested to start doing some much bigger areas than our DJI arsenal should probably handle. Not completely set on wingtra but that is the direction we??re leaning at this point. ?ÿThanks in advance!
I made some calls, and was told that the wingtra goes too fast. I did not persue it, but I'd think you could fly it slow, and get just what we'd need. I'm curious about this too. Watching this thread. Thanks for bringing it up.
Nate
I made some calls, and was told that the wingtra goes too fast. I did not persue it, but I'd think you could fly it slow, and get just what we'd need. I'm curious about this too. Watching this thread. Thanks for bringing it up.
Nate
And planes that are used for photogrammetry don't, that's a head scratcher. Normally the software determines how often to trigger the camera based upon the flight planning, please correct me if I have misspoken.
The Wingtra seems like a decent mapping tool, it is fast, has the ability to cover large areas and is VOTL. It would be difficult to obtain oblique photos so it might not be useful for inspection projects.
Also, with the Fed's restricting DJI products in certain airspaces, US or European products might be the only solution.
My 2 cents.?ÿ
And planes that are used for photogrammetry don't, that's a head scratcher.
I think that the issue here is that the drone will be limited to 400 feet AGL while the manned plane can fly well above that and carry a bulkier, but more capable, camera . At the Wingtra's cruising speed of 34 mph (50 feet/second) an AGL of 400 ft and a?ÿ photo overlap of 60% you would need to be snapping photos every 3-4 seconds. That might be a bit challenging for the storage media to keep up with, but probably do-able. Maybe even at 200 feet. Below that I think that you are going to have problems. Meanwhile a manned plane flying at triple that speed and an altitude of 2000 feet?ÿ would need to snap photos only every 6 or 7 seconds.?ÿ?ÿ
To fly a drone legally you need to keep it within visual range at all times. That all but negates the ground covering capacity of the winged model.?ÿ And you need some space to launch and recover a winged drone.?ÿ Quad copters rule this segment.?ÿ
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I often capture 20MP photos at two second interevals with DJI Phantom 4 RTK. No problem, but I fly at between 6 to 11 mph. I don't know about the Wingtra, but older fixed wing Drones fly along a parabolic vertical curve where the propellers stop and the photo taken at bottom of curve to eliminate shaking. They did not have a gimble?ÿ
Using a 24mp Sony A6000 a 2 second intervals causes no problems with data transfer - 1.6 seconds is our standard and 1.4 or below is when occasional frames start to be dropped. For appropriate areas the fixed wing format is much faster, only a few minutes for each flight. The area covered is somewhat longer than the 500 ft. each way permitted as the turn at the end of each run gives quite an appreciable extension of view - the turn tends to be beyond the gimbal's maximum adjustment so you get something like 10-15 degrees on those end frames. I've not used a Wingtra, although I've watched one and in normal flight it appears to perform like any other fixed wing and the VTOL is a significant plus.
600 hectares a day shouldn't be a problem if you have reasonable access for moving the flight crew around the site (we have done a 900 hectare moorland site, but that was for a bit rough-and-ready outline survey).
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With those air travel speeds, combined with max 400-foot altitude, and limited max speed of the shutter, distance traveled by the drone during the time the shutter is open, may be enough to cause motion blur problems.
I've owned a Wingtra for two years. It's an amazing aircraft that excels with large area surveying and mapping. At 400ft agl, with the 42mp Sony RX1RII camera, you can easily achieve 0.10' horizontal and 0.15' vertical accuracy, without ground control targets. I usually get better accuracy than that. With fast storage media you can obtain 85% foreword overlap at 400' agl. Wingtra also offers an oblique payload if you're trying to capture building facades. But for surveying, the RX1RII camera is the one to get. I fly a 400ac USACE construction project weekly for topos and volume calcs. Wingtra is perfect for this application.?ÿ
1,500 acres in one day is easily obtained with good planning.?ÿ
Timely topic, I was just researching this as a mapping solution. Boss is leaning more toward a DJI 300, BUT if not doing inspections or needing to hover, it seems the Wingtra is a much more suitable tool, better resolution, faster, longer air time, etc. I am also not convinced that a DJI or any Chinese UAV isn't going to end up blacklisted from any government work, DoD is already there with DJI, I believe Florida followed suit and Wisconsin just introduced legislation to do the same. Our local county law enforcement ditched all their DJI platforms and are now using Autel UAV's and we have a couple in the SAR unit which I will be learning. I think there is enough uncertainty with Chinese UAV's that it might be foolish to drop $30K on the DJI 300 with accessories when the Wingtera is going to be in the same ballpark with much better camera and lower cost of operation both for man hours of acquisition and lower parts costs than a multi copter of any type or brand.
Trade offs with everything I suppose, BUT in the plus column is the Wingterra seems to be well thought out for mapping.
SHG
I agree 100% about DJI.?ÿ Good products, but will never be on the DOD approved list.?ÿ The Wingtra is on the Blue sUAS list:
Fyi, here is my Master's Report that I did using the Wingtra.?ÿ Horizontal accuracy of 0.05' and vertical accuracy of 0.15' with no ground control.?ÿ However, my test site was not optimum for vertical accuracy.?ÿ On most of my projects I get <0.10' vertical accuracy.
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Too fast- that is a good one.?ÿ There are two RGB payload variants- the top of the line is the Sony RX1R II (42 mp) and the a6100 (24mp).?ÿ PPK is an option on the GEN2 wing.?ÿ The resolution is outstanding and the productivity is fantastic.?ÿ Full disclosure- we are a Wingtra dealer and we also sell DJI.?ÿ the P4RTK or even the M300 is good for smaller projects.?ÿ Once you get past one battery projects the Wingtra is superior.?ÿ Flight time is about an hour.?ÿ You can use KMLs for mission planning and it even has a corridor function in planning besides the typical area.?ÿ You can have multiple areas inside of one flight plan.?ÿ If you'd like a data set let me know.
@nate-the-surveyor would you like to see a project data set flown with a Wingtra One GenII??ÿ 394 feet AGL 35mph GSD 1.6cm 35 acres about 9 minutes of flight time.
@norman-oklahoma The Wingtra is a VTOL and its shape makes it easy to see at quite some distance - I've flown 100 acres projects in 20 minutes and been able to see the drone at all times.?ÿ?ÿ?ÿ
Yes! I would!
I imagine that in another 10 yrs all active and progressive surveyors will be involved in it... On way or another.?ÿ
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Nate
I was/am a fan of Wingtra (from all I have read, not an owner, yet), BUT no LiDAR payload and seemingly no interest is probably a deal breaker for us, at least as a solo UAV solution. For photogrammetry they appear to be a very good option, especially if you are covering any size area at all.
SHG
For the poster that said it flew too fast - I flew a 120 acres fairground in Maine and these two harness teams were working out this was a full speed- 35 mph and at 395 ft AGL.?ÿ This is of course a screen snap of the original from the orthomosiac.
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35mph. That's probably the weak point on the Wingtra. It's OK for the photography, but it does limit you when the wind starts to pick up and you need to get it back to base.
Some fixed wings can handle higher wind speeds if they are constant (and at 400 ft. the gusting tends to be a lot less than at ground level) although I must admit that boosting the speed up to 50 kts. is a little hairy (that gives a cross wind tracking speed of about 35kts in the same strength wind) and you then need 60kts. to get back from the far end of the site.
I imagine that getting a Wingtra down onto the ground in that sort of wind would be interesting.