More Headline News.. RPSS aircraft locates missing boy

[Myron]

For those that havnt seen it.. Gene and his wife Angel went on this search and the first set of pics from the RPSS digital still equipped Flying Wing netted results

Although the outcome was very sad, the Aircraft did exactly what is was supposed to do.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/04/01...#ixzz1qlNzGLrY

Myron

[aeryck]

It's sad the boy didn't make it, but it's definitely a positive thing for FPV/sUAS. Good job with the search efforts. And I'm glad that the news gave credit where credit was due.

[Myron]

Yeah, Usually all the cred goes to the Law enforcement agency in charge or Texas Equusearch who actually called RPSS out. Either way, it definately shows the capabilities of a sUAS.. or in this case, A model airplane with a digital camera

Myron

[Scotttu]

Good job on the effort, definitely sad.

[airtruksrus]

Atleast the mention of a drone used was astonishing, hope to see more of this in SAR cases.

[CaliDave]

Very sad to hear, and of course bittersweet AP technology had to find what it did. I thank Gene and his wife Angel, and all out there to take part in such a meaningful search. It can't be easy to have an ending like this but it was a job that needed to happen and hopefully it helped the family in some way.

Edit: FPV changed to AP.

[Myron]

@ Calidave,

Actually this bird didnt have any FPV gear installed.. she was straight up ariel photography and flown LOS only.. Just a Panasonic Lumix LX2 and COTS RC gear.
Incidently, the same aircraft located a missing Llama yesterday in the thick brush.. Unfortunatley, she is a bit hard to wrangle in the brush!

Myron

[aeryck]

Just a thought on the subject of AP in general... For closer range flights, such as the LOS flight here, have you considered using an Eye-Fi card in the camera? Normally the range on those things is mediocre at best (we're talking Bluetooth ranges), but maybe with some high gain RX antennas on the receiving wifi access point you could extend that. If nothing else it'd allow pictures to be downloaded on the fly (pun intended) to speed up the analysis process.

Not sure how well a high gain antenna would affect the overall range of the system, but in cases where every second counts it might be beneficial if you can transmit the photos during your flight instead of reviewing them after landing.

[chanyote66]

Based on the common tech used for VLOS flying, a Eye-Fi card will not even work at all when the plane is on. Using 2.4ghz remotes will knock down the little card with ease. No matter what gain you have on a receiver, you are not going to get more than a few feet. If you are using Dragon link, Chainlink or other LRS systems, you would be fine, but if you own those you probably have a full FPV setup already.

maybe use a polaroid instant developing camera, then it can drop pictures to you every few min... Just kidding, Eye-Fi would be a good idea if it was wireless n where it can use dual band.

[aeryck]

Based on the common tech used for VLOS flying, a Eye-Fi card will not even work at all when the plane is on. Using 2.4ghz remotes will knock down the little card with ease. No matter what gain you have on a receiver, you are not going to get more than a few feet. If you are using Dragon link, Chainlink or other LRS systems, you would be fine, but if you own those you probably have a full FPV setup already.

Well, yeah, I was making the assumption that someone using eyefi would understand the frequency conflict and be using either 72 or UHF for control. Was just offering a suggestion to get an edge on aerial photography analysis, that's all. I know those eye-fi cards have very weak radios.