Simon123 Posted January 23, 2019 Posted January 23, 2019 Yet strangely most of the aerial footage of WRC is all drone. Go figure.
SwissVan Posted January 23, 2019 Posted January 23, 2019 Talk about an atmosphere killer... I’d much rather hear the klap klap of a helicopter ???? following me around than the sound of angry bees ????
Captain Fastbastard Mayhem Posted January 23, 2019 Posted January 23, 2019 Yet strangely most of the aerial footage of WRC is all drone. Go figure.Shorter courses. FAR shorter courses... Therefore easier to scale it to the WRC than, say, a 100km course. Also, there's nowhere near the same time pressure in terms of getting highlights / media out, apart from a few teasers which are easily picked. Horses for courses, as they say.
stefmeister Posted January 23, 2019 Posted January 23, 2019 Judging by my GoPro videos, 90% of the recording would be boring and discarded so I think that option wouldn't be viable. Mind you, I suppose the same is true of footage from a chopper. This is my first thought when I hear someone wants to get a drone. So you want to waste your money, record useless videos literally no one wants to see, and piss off everyone else with it flying around.
DieselnDust Posted January 23, 2019 Posted January 23, 2019 This is my first thought when I hear someone wants to get a drone. So you want to waste your money, record useless videos literally no one wants to see, and piss off everyone else with it flying around. LOL Ya that about sums up 90% of the drone market. My neighbour has a Phantom, Probably the most impulsive R20k he's dropped on something he doesn't know what to do with.
ajnkzn Posted January 23, 2019 Author Posted January 23, 2019 Thanks for all the input guys. Believe me, I'm the biggest fan of helicopters on earth. They are the most epic machines and that adrenaline rush you get when one flies close by is insane!
JohanDiv Posted January 23, 2019 Posted January 23, 2019 When will solar powered drones become a commercial thing? I think that will solve the battery life issue somewhat.
DieselnDust Posted January 23, 2019 Posted January 23, 2019 https://www.airbus.com/defence/uav/zephyr.html look at the size of this monster!all this for a payload of 25Kg. but it exists
Captain Fastbastard Mayhem Posted January 23, 2019 Posted January 23, 2019 When will solar powered drones become a commercial thing? I think that will solve the battery life issue somewhat.One word. Nope. 3 words. Not Enough Power. 4: Efficiency is not sufficient
bertusras Posted January 23, 2019 Posted January 23, 2019 One word. Nope. 3 words. Not Enough Power. 4: Efficiency is not sufficient Quite right, on both accounts. A typical roof mounted solar panel of 1650mm x 1000mm produces 260W, and weighs about 19kg. Which by all accounts is actually quite incredible considering it's "free" energy, but solar panel efficiency is currently only at around 12-18%. Add in the weight of the regulator required to constantly modify the resistance in the circuit based on the generation fluctuations to supply a constant DC voltage, then it becomes a bulky setup. And you'll probably STILL need a battery in any case. My Mavic Pro has a 43Wh battery or something, with a max charge rate of 100W, which would get it loaded in about 90 minutes I would say. So you'd need at least a 50W source to keep your battery at a constant level I would say. And that's for a tiny little drone. Gravity is quite a significant force to overcome it turns out.
DieselnDust Posted January 24, 2019 Posted January 24, 2019 https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-01-23/boeing-s-flying-car-takes-off-to-show-a-glimpse-of-the-future 8-12years away from commercialisation
ChrisF Posted January 24, 2019 Posted January 24, 2019 ...Same as the drones. Surely if the race is in moerlandspan, getting authorization to fly below 150 meters can not be that difficult? We do a fair bit of work for the farmers in that pan .... MOST of those farmers use small planes, VERY regularly. Doing a quick hop to attend a meeting that would be a 4 hour return trip by bakkie .... Due to the short distance involved they often dont fly that high. And with landing strips scattered all over (three on one farm!) you never know where a plane will by flying low and coming in for a landing .... Ironically, these are the very farmers that can, and do, benefit from the use of proper drones for surveys .... The technicalities is one discussion. But the safety of these things will most certainly still become an issue as more and more drones get into the air .....
dave303e Posted January 24, 2019 Posted January 24, 2019 Plenty of reasons: I used to do work with drones- 3d modelling of surface using photogrammetry, but not a lot because as soon as you go over a certain size it is easier and cheaper to get a plane with a lidar sensor to do the job. Reasons for not using drones:Illegal to fly over the public or a crowd- technically a mtb race is a crowd or the public. RC licence is easy to get- the commercial permit to be allowed to fly for a reason is not easy to get whereas it is easier to get the helicopter or airplane flight plans approved etc Safety- a drone cant medivac anyone, unless it is a kid under 45kg and they have a swissdrone The issue with the farmers not using drones as mentioned above- You need ground truth/ground control data, a plane at elevation can take 1 photo with a fancier camera or sensor and have 4 points to reference in a few images. A drone will need 20 ground truth points set out by a surveyor, which will cost more than you think, then it will take 50 photos which need to be put together one by one before processing which can take a lot of time and money. Drones can't fly in high winds where a helicopter can still fly- You can also get better cameras on board and better control of the camera for videography- with a drone usually 1 person controlling camera and flight, Helicopter you have 2 specialists doing focused work and the quality is better.
Butterbean Posted January 24, 2019 Posted January 24, 2019 Not particularly cycling related, but the level of detail and communication required to get the desired shots is clearly a bit beyond a drone... And this on the smallest course size in this discussion
fabs Posted January 24, 2019 Posted January 24, 2019 Can someone who is in the know explain to me why you still see 1 - 3 helicopters doing the filming at big races like Epic, Tankwa Trek etc? Surely it's a) cheaperb) more environmentally friendly in terms of fuel and noise and servicing etcc) safer to have drones and pilots deployed along the route at key points that warrant filming? I am obviously wrong but it seems like a bit of a "look at me" thing for race directors et al to zoom around in choppers. I am obviously not suggesting that no helis be involved, one has to have heli Medivacs available. Where does this perception come from ? Just about every Tom, Dick and Harry can fly a drone, compared to a highly specialised helicopter pilot.
dave303e Posted January 24, 2019 Posted January 24, 2019 Where does this perception come from ? Just about every Tom, Dick and Harry can fly a drone, compared to a highly specialised helicopter pilot. Ya every tom dick and harry also crashes their drone, pilots are highly trained not to crash their helicopters...
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