First BVLoS Power Line Inspection Flight in New Zealand

2017-03-21

A Taranaki drone company has made history by flying an unmanned aircraft ”beyond line of sight” to inspect power transmission lines in the Rimutaka Ranges.

Drone Technologies Ltd used an unmanned aerial vehicle controlled remotely by a team on the ground, to survey a 30 kilometre section of transmission lines and towers in the Rimutaka ranges for Transpower. It was New Zealand’s first ”beyond line of sight” flight and could see drones being used more by industry and agriculture, and for delivering goods in difficult situations, Drone Technologies ceo Ben Plummer said.

“This opens up the door for other uses, such as delivering parcels and medical supplies to remote locations or communities in crisis,” he said.

Sophisticated technology enabled the UAV aircraft to fly low over difficult terrain and in risky conditions where a human pilot would not be able to go.

“It is cost-comparable solution to manned aircraft and eliminates a risk because it doesn’t require someone to physically be there to navigate.”

The February 24 flight was made possible by the New Zealand Civil Aviation Authority’s new “beyond line of sight framework”, which opened NZ airspace to the unmanned air vehicles under strict conditions.

The drone flight was carried out with the same procedures, safety checks and planning as a manned flight. It required a flight plan, getting permission to operate in that airspace at that time, and intensive training for the pilots.

“It’s classed as an aircraft. The ground crew effectively become the pilots,” Plummer said.

During the 54 minute flight they flew a rotary craft along the line as well to collect a different data set. The rotary craft was able to hover close to the structures and get close-up footage of towers and lines. The event was comparable to the introduction of GPS technology, which was developed for military uses and was initially very expensive, but just a few years later was commonplace in smartphones, cars and other devices. Transpower would study the data collected on the flight and decide if it would begin using UAVs on a larger scale to monitor transmission lines and equipment. Transpower’s general manager of grid development, Stephen Jay, said the company had been working with the Civil Aviation Authority to trial drone flights near its transmission lines and towers since 2013.

“These trials have shown us that a combination of drone and helicopter flights can help us achieve considerable efficiencies in how we inspect and maintain the National Grid,” he said in a media statement.

The aircraft used for the survey was an Aerosonde fixed wing UAV, which has a wingspan of 3.5m and weighed 25kg. It travelled at 100kmh during flight. It could gather photos, video, infra red, Lidar (using radar and light) and near infra-red data.

“It captures a multitude of information in a single pass instead of having to fly multiple passes,” Plummer said.

​Using drones had less impact on land owners than helicopters and aircraft, he added, as they were less intrusive on people and animals.

Australia’s Department of Defence has established “revised operating procedures” for small unmanned aircraft, an action that follows a U.S. Army directive to its units in August to stop using drones manufactured by China’s DJI because of “cyber vulnerabilities.”

Chinese company Tengoen unveiled a series of armed reconnaissance unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) at the 14th China–ASEAN Expo in Nanning from 12 to 15 September, including two fixed-wing and two vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) UAVs.

The newly announced Intel Insight Platform is a cloud-based data processing, analytics and reporting service that allows customers to store, share, and manage the rich data that commercial drone systems provide.

The AUDS counter-UAS defence system has been enhanced for deployment on military and commercial security and surveillance vehicles and with new technology to more effectively defeat swarm attacks by malicious unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), including long-range winged drones.

Wildlife management is getting a little more scientific. Saxon Remote Systems, a manufacturer of unmanned aerial systems in McPherson, is flying into the market with technology to make current wildlife management methods easier and more precise.

Microsoft is already thinking about self-flying airplanes. The tech giant tested such technology in Hawthorne, 130 miles south of Reno, last week with the help of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development and the Nevada Institute for Autonomous Systems.

RADA Electronic Industries Ltd. has announced it had received a strategic first order for dozens of Multi-Mission Hemispheric Radars (MHR) from the US Military. Totalling over $8 million, this order will be delivered during 2017.

The Peruvian Air Force’s (FAP, per its Spanish acronym) Project Research and Investigation Center (CIDEP, per its Spanish acronym) was created in 1993 to develop flight simulators for Cessna A-37 aircraft.

Reports

A host of new users is changing the world of commercial aviation thanks in large part to the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) small unmanned aircraft rule, Part 107 (PDF), which has now been in place for a year.