Best aircraft choice for duration

[jlbpropilot]

I have come to the experts on HeliFreak for some suggestions. I have been a mild rc enthusiast for nearly 20 years and finally my hobby and occupation are starting to converge. I am a row crop farmer and want to utilize rc aircraft to scout fields and take video for our agronomist to review. I have a few copters and two multirotors. My problem is in order to be efficient I need to be able to cover lots of acres without needing to refuel or recharge. An airplane would be difficult as there is not always a suitable landing site close by. Would a gasser helicopter be the best solution? My only concern is the vibration degrading the video quality. Please help steer me in the right direction. Thanks

[Thalios]

A proper multirotor with proper batteries will last a long time (30 minutes+).

[cbergen]

Depends on what you mean by duration...

How about 3 hours? Our Twin Observer can be outfitted with additional external tanks for 3+ hours of time in the air.

Testing Long Range Twin (6 min 27 sec)

This is our Industrial Twin, the Twin Observer has a built in Camera mount on the nose.

[Thalios]

Originally Posted by cbergen

Depends on what you mean by duration...

How about 3 hours? Our Twin Observer can be outfitted with additional external tanks for 3+ hours of time in the air.

Testing Long Range Twin - YouTube

This is our Industrial Twin, the Twin Observer has a built in Camera mount on the nose.

Nothing comes even close to Bergen Helis when you want flight time for AV purpose.

Big thumbs up for that.

(Sadly though, i'm a ALL electric fanboy! hehe)

[R_Lefebvre]

Originally Posted by Thalios

A proper multirotor with proper batteries will last a long time (30 minutes+).

Not sure I really agree with that. I have seen some multi-rotors configured to hover for very long periods of time, but from what I've seen, or not seen rather, they tend to be one-trick-ponies. These are specialist machines, designed very specifically to get a long flight time.

I have not seen any multirotor which can can actually fly for a long time, while carrying a useful payload, travelling long distances, in actual real weather conditions (ie: not a dead calm night at -30 degrees at sea level).

One thing you could consider is something like:

http://www.falcon-uav.com/

He does a bungy launch, and then lands by deploying a drogue chute. This guy is the real deal, his platforms actually work.

A helicopter can also satisfy probably satisfy your needs, and is VTOL. You'd have to supply more info on budget, and actual operational requirements for a complete answer though. If you want to fly many miles, for less than a couple grand, I don't see how you can do that with a helicopter.

[Thalios]

Well, to scout crop fields as he wants, a Quad, on 6S, with 2x 8000MAh batteries, a Gopro, FPV gear and you should be in line for at least 30 minutes of flying. My guess is it will be more in line with 40mins.

[R_Lefebvre]

Not saying it's impossible, but I've just never seen that type of thing demonstrated. I would like to know if it is possible, and what the "recipe" is.

[xfc3dcd]

If you have any questions about the Twin Observer send me a PM. We have been flying them for a little over 10 years now with great success carrying very heavy payloads. I have never flown a more stable helicopter, ever.

[jlbpropilot]

Thanks for all of the information. As for a budget Im not really sure where the line needs to be drawn on cost just yet. The largest field I would need to scout is 1 mile by 1 mile or 640 acres. The endurance need comes into play not because of overall range but more the necessity to travel back and forth getting footage of the entire field. The arducopter looks like the ticket for autonomous flight if I could figure out how to program it. I like the Bergen gasser copter as well but whew thats a lot of machine to be in my hands.

[Thalios]

I would go more with a Wookong-M than Arducopter for a beginner. Arducopter is really nice, but can be very challenging to configure for non initiates.

1 mile is fairly easy to do especially when in a field with no obstructions.

[R_Lefebvre]

But the Wookong-M doesn't do waypoints. You'd be looking at the DJI Ace One Waypoint, or Arducopter.

Assuming you wanted it to fly an automatic pattern, which I think you do.

Realistically though, I think for your application, an airplane would be better suited. If it has to be a heli, you'll need a gasser to cover 1 square mile.

[Thalios]

Originally Posted by R_Lefebvre

But the Wookong-M doesn't do waypoints. You'd be looking at the DJI Ace One Waypoint, or Arducopter.

Assuming you wanted it to fly an automatic pattern, which I think you do.

Realistically though, I think for your application, an airplane would be better suited. If it has to be a heli, you'll need a gasser to cover 1 square mile.

Wookong-m does waypoint with the ground station. 1 free, 5 and 50 are upgrades.

[jlbpropilot]

I am under the impression that the Wookong M is only for multi rotors. Is this the case? The Ace with all the waypoint capability is around $11k if I am not mistaken.

[Thalios]

Wookong-M for multis, Wookong-H for Helis.

[Wesley888]

OK. Not counting the 95 mins hover time that this guy did, how about his other quad with FPV gear for 57 minutes?

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showp...6&postcount=35

Or a 6.5 km distance flight?

Quadrocopter Distanceflight 6,5km (tour-retour) (4 min 28 sec)

[R_Lefebvre]

Originally Posted by Thalios

Wookong-m does waypoint with the ground station. 1 free, 5 and 50 are upgrades.

Sorry, had Wookong-H on the brain.

OK. Not counting the 95 mins hover time that this guy did, how about his other quad with FPV gear for 57 minutes?

Well, this actually kind of confirms what I'm talking about. First of all, this is an extremely light weight quad, fragile, doesn't even have landing gear. Does this look like the sort of machine that a farmer could rely on day-in day-out? This is almost as if you were to stretch a 500 size heli to 700. Yes, you can get it to fly, and it will be efficient, but is it really a good commercial/industrial solution? No.

Second, that 57 minute flight is with a tiny tiny camera, poor quality. You can't do aerial mapping with this. Again, this is a "long duration specialist" setup. He does show the quad flying with a CX250 camcorder on a gimbal which is not bad. But flight time goes down to 40 minutes. And that is starting to push the limits of the batteries C-rating. They are only rated at 2C, so flight time of less than 30 minutes will mean you are drawing too much.

And all of this is in dead calm wind conditions. The quad flies very gently. It is already pushing the limits of what those special batteries can do. Put that camera on it, and then try flying in a 20 km/h wind, and you'd be in trouble.

Don't get me wrong, this is a very interesting development. Especially since he is sharing his "recipe" with everybody. But this is not a solution for a farmer's needs.

[Weithy]

I went to an agricultural show yesterday, and there where several "drones" for farming on show.
Such as a rail launch flying wing
http://www.synergypositioning.co.nz/...ing+Drone.html
and their multicopter
http://www.synergypositioning.co.nz/...ing+Drone.html

Also www.droidworx.co.nz
www.aeronavics.com
who had a big octocopter with crop spraying equipment, and many camera ships.

I asked them about the laws for flying these, and they said none yet in New Zealand....
They seem to be showing the puplic the positive uses of these flying things as much as possible, to try and counter the negative attitude the american press is giving them.
It will be a shame if laws are introduced here because of american paranoia.

[R_Lefebvre]

I'm quite sure there are laws governing the use of UAV's in NZ. Not outlawed like the US, but controlled.