Quote:
Originally Posted by greglepore
Paul-heard an NPR story today that the regs in 2015 are behind schedule and require line of sight...can you amplify? The LOS thing seems to rule out what Bezos has in mind.
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Currently, all UAS flights in the 55lb and below must be flow with an observer and stay LOS, which is frankly impossible since the UAS I use weight 10lbs, are electric powered and disappear shortly after launch.
The key is that the auto pilots in these things are so accurate (you don't actually "fly" these UAS in the traditional sense: They will fly a pre programmed route exactly or you control them from a GCS with a mouse...point and click where you want the UAS to go, the auto pilot figures out the rest).
We could easily fly BLOS since there is currently no need for a data link for most of our commercial work. We store the data on board for post processing.
The LOS limitation will prevent a lot of what we call "linear" work (pipeline inspections, power line work, etc.) but it is inevitable that at 400agl and below outside of a tower controlled airport BLOS will become reality.
As avionics continue to shrink and power sources become ever more efficient, sat comms with the small UAS will be possible for the linear jobs.
In terms of coming to your house? We do all our flight planning with Digital Elevation Models from the USGS, which we overlay onto google maps or any other mapping programs.
I can select a specific point around your house for the UAS to transit to, land and relaunch, all done automatically. That is the easy part.