Back in 1903, human existence was transformed beyond what anyone could have imagined when Orville and Wilbur Wright made their first flight in a powered aircraft. Since that first 12–second flight, aircraft technology has evolved rapidly, giving more people access to the power of flight than ever before. Today, the biggest technological advances are in the realm of drones or UAVs – small unmanned aircraft that can be operated from the ground via a remote control.
We still can’t imagine all of the advances drones will bring to our society, but so far they’re already being used by farmers to improve our food supply, and Saskatoon RCMP officers even credited a drone with saving a man’s life in May of last year. Perhaps we’ll look back in a few years and point to the first drone flight as our second Wright brothers moment – a moment when a single piece of human innovation changed the world as we know it forever.
Drones for Everyone?
A few years ago, drone technology was limited to an elite group of researchers, developers, and perhaps a few military operators. Today, however, anyone with a bit of money to spend can take part in this major aeronautic advancement. And now, thanks to new companies specializing in the sale of UAVs and UAV parts, drones are becoming much simpler to acquire than they were in years past as well.
“Anyone can now fly a GoPro camera in the sky to film their activity, residence, vacation, sport…”. Drones are also becoming more affordable these days. Newbie could be fully equipped with a small drone and camera for a little over 1,000€
Safety First
The fact that drones are so accessible does create some drawbacks, however, chief among them the issue of safety. There´s still have been several incidents this past year of drones flying too close for comfort to airports. For us, someone who deals with many new drone operators,”there’s a huge need for education in this field as common sense sometimes is not enough. We´ve been told our customers to always think what would happen if the UAV was to fall? If the answer means bad things, then don’t fly it there – simple enough.
Yes, we would love to fly a drone over crowd or some soccer game to record their best moments, but it’s irresponsible. Crowds are to be avoided at all costs until a very safe device is invented that will protect from a crash. The technology, that makes these drones so easy to operate can also act as a danger at the same time. For more about safety, u can read from here.
Flying our octocopter in Flat configuration
Most drones these days are able to fly in GPS mode, which is so simple that “an 80-year old grandma could pick a mulitcopter up and in minutes be able to fly it. On the other hand, without those systems that are in place, to fly the drone is very dangerous and very difficult. When a GPS signal is not available, those who are not skilled at flying the drone could easily lose control.
So You Want to Buy a Drone?
If you’d like to become a drone pilot yourself, you have several options to consider. The biggest decision with drones usually lies with the number of rotors. As the smaller four-rotor quadcopters can be easier to fly and cheaper to purchase, but this affordability comes with some other potentially dangerous costs. The quads are cheaply made; there are only four rotors, and they’re really easily accessible, but the issue is that there’s no redundancy.
Hexacopters and octocoptors, on the other hand, have built-in redundancies, so if one of the rotors fails, the drone can still fly using the other rotors. While more rotors won’t guarantee that your drone stays in the air, the larger copters can be easier to control when you run into trouble – as long as you know what you’re doing.
However, you need to really understand everything to do with the drone and all its flight characteristics and operations and how to get out of a situation, and that’s where people get in trouble. Most people only learn to fly in GPS mode. In order to have real control over your drone, you also need to be able to fly in altitude hold mode and manual mode, which means controlling the UAV yourself without relying on the autopilot controls.
More motors also create more thrust, which means that larger drones can carry more weight and have longer flight times. But bigger doesn’t necessarily mean better when it comes to drones: The more weight you’re lifting, the more inherent danger there is as well.
Learning to Fly
If learning to safely operate a UAV is something you’d like to learn, there are plenty of resources to help you along the way. We recommend you to start with Hubsan X4 toycopter wich is very similar to bigger multirotors and you can fly it indoor our outdoor and it will be stable even in some stronger wind. Hubsan X4 helps you to build your skills better in aerdynamics than some virtual PC simulator.
Also, don’t be fooled by the “hobby” aspect, though, as even flying a drone for fun is serious business. People think it’s a toy, but you’re dealing with lithium batteries which are very high-powered explosives and will combust into a giant fireball and/or a smoke ball, so eventually, it’s not a toy.
When learning to fly a drone, just like learning anything else in life, simply taking your time and having fun while you’re at it. But be warned: “It is addictive, especially when you put a camera on it.
Our multicopter at the scene
The Future of the UAV:
At the rate the technology is progressing, there’s no telling what the UAV industry will look like in years to come. We’re still in 1982 compared to the computer era. So, let´s give us another 5 years and you’ll see things that you never thought possible. Technologies like: object avoidance, inter-vehicular communication, swarming logic, vision processing and many more innovations are just around the corner.
An object avoidance as one of the big innovations that will be coming in the next few years, and drones capable of flying fully autonomously are something else we’ll be seeing in the near future. Drones are much more than just remote-controlled flying cameras. Drones are simply advanced data collection machines. Every industry you could ever imagine will collect data in some way, it’s just a matter of how drones work within that environment. This could mean anything from collecting data for mining sites to delivering packages.
Ultimately, we think, that there’s going to be stuff five years down the road, that no one’s even thought of yet.
If you´d intrested in drones, multicopters, filming -/ photography – as sooner you would start to learn it, better are your skills on a day you would lift a multicopter with bigger camera for better results. Also, you would come along with this quickly growing technology.
Author of this article: Richard Silver (torontoism.com)
Article is edited by:
Henry Tombak
CEO-/ Pilot, Founder of Aerial-Cinematography EU
and Professional Multirtotors Web Store
