bodminman Posted July 2, 2015 Posted July 2, 2015 Hi there, the school want to buy a quadcopter in order to use it as a tool for marketing and recording sports days etc. We have been given a budget of £500 and have been recommended the following spec: Tarion 2 Axis CNC Gimbal Camera Mount DJ1 Phantom 1 UAV Aerial Quadcopter Drone GoPro Hero 3 .....all for a few quid under £500 Is this decent kit for the money? Cheers
mowgli82 Posted July 2, 2015 Posted July 2, 2015 Looks like a nice piece of kit, I would be wary about using something like this at a sportsday. What would happen if it crashed in to someone at a sports day? Nightmare! 1
bodminman Posted July 2, 2015 Author Posted July 2, 2015 Looks like a nice piece of kit, I would be wary about using something like this at a sportsday. What would happen if it crashed in to someone at a sports day? Nightmare! It would be used at a distance as this was raised at a health and safety briefing.
mikeprice Posted July 2, 2015 Posted July 2, 2015 Better check out the regulations - lot of people are using these without any qualifications etc and the potential for problems is huge Apparently a few have dropped out of teh sky - in at least 2 cases hitting someone on the way down - and you are not allowed to use them over populated areas - or within xxxx meters of a residential area - and that is only if qualified BUT most people ignore this 1
pcstru Posted July 2, 2015 Posted July 2, 2015 (edited) If you want to use a quad for what is essentially commercial purposes (this almost certainly falls under the definition used by the CAA) then you will have to get an operators licence and be covered by appropriate liability insurance. See : here for some more info (also incluides a link to the CAA site Here.) Edited July 2, 2015 by pcstru
bodminman Posted July 2, 2015 Author Posted July 2, 2015 Better check out the regulations - lot of people are using these without any qualifications etc and the potential for problems is huge Apparently a few have dropped out of teh sky - in at least 2 cases hitting someone on the way down - and you are not allowed to use them over populated areas - or within xxxx meters of a residential area - and that is only if qualified BUT most people ignore this Thanks @mikeprice - The powers that are currently looking in to the rules and regs before this things gets going properly.
kennysarmy Posted July 2, 2015 Posted July 2, 2015 Hi there, the school want to buy a quadcopter in order to use it as a tool for marketing and recording sports days etc. We have been given a budget of £500 and have been recommended the following spec: Tarion 2 Axis CNC Gimbal Camera Mount DJ1 Phantom 1 UAV Aerial Quadcopter Drone GoPro Hero 3 .....all for a few quid under £500 Is this decent kit for the money? Cheers and I thought schools were strapped for cash! 1
Oaktech Posted July 2, 2015 Posted July 2, 2015 That phantom is an excellent thing for the money - one of my friends has 4 of them that he uses for roof survey's on churches. He's registered and insured and qualified. Ridiculous thing about it is that he had to go on a course to get qualified, despite him already having private and comercial fixed wing and helicopter pilots licences and he's an airline pilot in real life!
bodminman Posted July 2, 2015 Author Posted July 2, 2015 and I thought schools were strapped for cash! Private school - - - Updated - - - That phantom is an excellent thing for the money - one of my friends has 4 of them that he uses for roof survey's on churches. He's registered and insured and qualified. Ridiculous thing about it is that he had to go on a course to get qualified, despite him already having private and comercial fixed wing and helicopter pilots licences and he's an airline pilot in real life! Wow! Different beasts those quadcopters! 1
pcstru Posted July 2, 2015 Posted July 2, 2015 Ridiculous thing about it is that he had to go on a course to get qualified, despite him already having private and comercial fixed wing and helicopter pilots licences and he's an airline pilot in real life! Why is that ridiculous? Flying gliders didn't help me to fly a quad and I hope the next time I fly commercial the pilot is rated on the exact type of aircraft they are actually flying - not just something vaguely similar!
hallb15 Posted July 13, 2015 Posted July 13, 2015 On a vaguely similar note: How cool does this look? https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2017062404/b-unstoppable
mikeprice Posted July 13, 2015 Posted July 13, 2015 Looks cool - but if you can fly over things why do you need to be able to drive over it ??
plexer Posted July 13, 2015 Posted July 13, 2015 As in the examples given you could land near to the edge of somewhere you wanted to film and then drive closer to the edge more precision, option for different filming perspectives with the same vehicle. Ben
hallb15 Posted July 13, 2015 Posted July 13, 2015 It can also drive further on one charge than it can fly. From experience with my X4, there's less chance of it completely trashing itself when the battery dies if its already on the ground at the time!
Garacesh Posted July 14, 2015 Posted July 14, 2015 (edited) Just be careful Drone pilot accidentally knocks himself out with his own quadcopter [Video] Edit: I'm also fairly certain that using a drone to record sports day is not allowed - in fact, I believe sports day is specifically the example we came across Edited July 14, 2015 by Garacesh
nikaso Posted July 14, 2015 Posted July 14, 2015 Edit: I'm also fairly certain that using a drone to record sports day is not allowed - in fact, I believe sports day is specifically the example we came across Have you got a source for this? I thought you could use drones in fairly close proximity to people as long as they are aware of you filming and have had some sort of briefing about it. I think the licence costs are obscene anyway, £1200-£1300 for one person, you go from £500 ish and anyone can fly the drone to nearly £2000 and only the person that has done the course can touch it.
Garacesh Posted July 14, 2015 Posted July 14, 2015 I have not, but I can guarantee that was the example we found. I'll try and dig it up again. Wasn't me but the IT Manager that found it and mentioned it. Bummer, really, as he was rather fond of the idea of spending a day on the roof filming sports day instead of doing timetabling
nikaso Posted July 14, 2015 Posted July 14, 2015 I have not, but I can guarantee that was the example we found. I'll try and dig it up again. Wasn't me but the IT Manager that found it and mentioned it. Bummer, really, as he was rather fond of the idea of spending a day on the roof filming sports day instead of doing timetabling I'm with him on that!
chilbs Posted July 14, 2015 Posted July 14, 2015 The CAA guidelines are here Unmanned Aircraft and Aircraft Systems | Aircraft | Operations and Safety
pcstru Posted July 14, 2015 Posted July 14, 2015 Have you got a source for this? I thought you could use drones in fairly close proximity to people as long as they are aware of you filming and have had some sort of briefing about it. I think the licence costs are obscene anyway, £1200-£1300 for one person, you go from £500 ish and anyone can fly the drone to nearly £2000 and only the person that has done the course can touch it. I posted a couple of links earlier which explain the rules. A safe interpretation is that you need an operators licence for anything other than recreational use and even for recreational use , you need to observe certain operating rules and procedures or you risk prosecution. A school should not allow recreational use of a UAV on sports day (the public liability insurance would not cover it) and if they undertook to capture footage for their own purposes, it would be deemed 'work' and require the operator to have a licence.
nikaso Posted July 14, 2015 Posted July 14, 2015 I posted a couple of links earlier which explain the rules. A safe interpretation is that you need an operators licence for anything other than recreational use and even for recreational use , you need to observe certain operating rules and procedures or you risk prosecution. A school should not allow recreational use of a UAV on sports day (the public liability insurance would not cover it) and if they undertook to capture footage for their own purposes, it would be deemed 'work' and require the operator to have a licence. Oh I can see the legal reasons why a school should have the licence I'm just protesting about the addition level of bureaucracy and cost.
Oaktech Posted July 14, 2015 Posted July 14, 2015 Oh I can see the legal reasons why a school should have the licence I'm just protesting about the addition level of bureaucracy and cost. Aren't we all... but y'know, because Government/Insurance/SoSueMe...
mowgli82 Posted July 14, 2015 Posted July 14, 2015 What about a Lily drone? you just wear a tracker and it follows you so technically you're not flying it. I imagine though it makes things even more complicated as you don't actually have control over it :/
pcstru Posted July 14, 2015 Posted July 14, 2015 What about a Lily drone? you just wear a tracker and it follows you so technically you're not flying it. I imagine though it makes things even more complicated as you don't actually have control over it :/ The key with any UAV is that you are the operator. As the operator, you are responsible for the safe operation of the UAV and you are the responsible party when something goes wrong. If you fly anything long enough, you will realise that eventually something will go wrong. There is a feeling that you get when it happens that is quite unique. Sometimes, like when the cable breaks on a glider while winch launching, it largely is fear for one's own well being. Sometimes, when your robot starts behaving in unexpected ways and veers off at speed towards a group of kids, it is panic for the well-being of others and is usually accompanied by "why the hell did I ever think this was a good idea". Having been struck by small helicopters with a single rotor with folding blades spinning at a few 1000 rpm, I'd say any quad bigger than a husban X4 would likely be quite an unpleasant impact. I guess people think they are "toys" and perhaps don't really consider the damage they could do.
mowgli82 Posted July 14, 2015 Posted July 14, 2015 The key with any UAV is that you are the operator. As the operator, you are responsible for the safe operation of the UAV and you are the responsible party when something goes wrong. If you fly anything long enough, you will realise that eventually something will go wrong. There is a feeling that you get when it happens that is quite unique. Sometimes, like when the cable breaks on a glider while winch launching, it largely is fear for one's own well being. Sometimes, when your robot starts behaving in unexpected ways and veers off at speed towards a group of kids, it is panic for the well-being of others and is usually accompanied by "why the hell did I ever think this was a good idea". Having been struck by small helicopters with a single rotor with folding blades spinning at a few 1000 rpm, I'd say any quad bigger than a husban X4 would likely be quite an unpleasant impact. I guess people think they are "toys" and perhaps don't really consider the damage they could do. I personally would only use one in a large field, I can't think of anything worse than seeing one fly across out of control to a group on unsuspecting adults/children. I've just got one of these: Syma 2.4GHza X5C Quadcopter with HD Camera: Amazon.co.uk: Toys & Games not used it yet though as the wife won't let me have it until my birthday.
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