microdrone issue
Never go shopping without a list!
In our small area within the world of equipment and support, we meet many interesting individuals and teams. All are enthusiastically involved in technology, equipment and capability delivery for many applications. These teams are procuring systems selected based on a wide variety of reasons, often including: brand preference, politics, trends and even the level of technology packed into it; often sadly not based on a logical procurement strategy. Quite probably the current technology considered for development of a commercial domestic use has previously been developed as a variant and used in Defence.
We get asked to recommend or rate a suggested product in a range of technology that the client’s representative has seen. Once engaged, we have sometimes identified that the capability being saught can more effectively be met with a very different solution; often much simpler and more cost effective. In reality, if the original purchase had been made, the equipment would soon be gathering dust, replaced by a more suitable solution as budget allows.
ADVICE
Have you ever heard of these pieces of advice?
1. Never go shopping without a list!
2. Never go food shopping on an empty stomach!
Why is this advice given? Because if we do not follow this advice:
1. We over spend against our budget.
2. We come back with purchased items or services that were not essential.
3. We purchase items or services that we will never use.
In our opinion this advice is just as relevant to equipment capability procurement, as it is to domestic procurement.
More recently, and noticeably more frequently, we are being asked to recommend and provide advice and guidance on unmanned air systems for commercial or security use. This includes clients wishing to purchase a system that they have seen and that they feel that they have a perceived use for. We have to admire the sales and marketing machine that is focused on the potential client’s attraction for new technology and gadgets. At A J S we can of course provide technical advice and guidance on a case by case basis for a specific equipment solution.
Our recommended “best practice” is not to focus on a solution before you know your requirement. Our advice is develop a shopping list first, before you go shopping, or before you engage with a salesperson.
OUR SERVICE
We offer professional and independent equipment and support consultancy services with no affiliation or preference for any particular technology, product or manufacturer. We use proven effective approaches to assist teams or individuals involved in equipment based capability procurement or upgrade. Our methods and approaches implemented have been used by ourselves for many years and are based on the experience of industry and defence “best practice”.
Our support approach can be tailored to suit the scope and complexity required by any client, from a single item £25K capability to a £ Multi Billion solution. We can start to assist you from the very early stage of concept analysis and requirements gathering, through to sucessful introduction into service.
There are many individuals and teams out there making costly mistakes as they procure expensive technological systems. Let us minimise those mistakes by providing advice and guidance based on many years of procuring, operating and supporting major high tech capabilities; and save you and your business time and money.
Call us today to see how we may cost effectively support you and your equipment capability procurement project.
Aerial Survey Support – Summer 2011 Update
I was at a flying site earlier this week, the wind was blowing golden leaves off the trees. It was looking like the start of Autumn. This prompted me write a summer summary update for this blog.
In terms of pilot/operator experience, I have now clocked up 130 hours actual flight time (600 flights) with an average of 20 hours per month through summer. This has been supported by many more hours spent on a tailored simulator.
The company has a draft pilot development program which once proven, will form the basis for training all sub contracted pilots; and I have been the guinea pig following it. Our pilot training plan develops pilot experience and service quality, by undertaking a full range of task scenarios, including task planning/risk analysis for various combinations of: weather, site locations, height, distance and payload. In parallel, we have underpinned this experience with professional structured instruction on both basic helicopter and system specific systems. For the basic training I found Paul Heckles of Swindon to be above all, the most professional, and delivered an efficient and effective value for money service. We continue to use this service and I always leave Paul Heckles site having learnt and experienced a great deal and have new techniques for continuous development.
The increased flying activity during the summer months has placed additional pressure on the current sUAS and training systems. We are pleased to report that we have seen a high degree of availability, including flights in high winds and drizzle. It is noteworthy that our current sUAS has yet to fail on start. This is a breath of fresh air when we think back to our trials with the MD4-200 over a year ago. With the MD4-200 system it was always a lottery as to whether it would take off and if it did, how long over 3 mins would it remain airborne.
In summary – It has been a great summer for this service and our small UAS trial, with many hours spent operational in the air. We are now more than ready to deliver this service. The next stage is for us to schedule a service launch.
Onwards and Upwards into 2011
2010 was another successful year for A J S Support Limited. Throughout the year we have continued to build on our previous years success, delivering on large Business and Equipment Support Services contracts. We have also begun to recover from our initial slow progress with the planned Survey Support Service.
Business and Equipment Support – In 2010 we were delighted to have the opportunity to support MoD and Industry support teams involved in managing key Defence capabilities. This last year we have delivered Business Management Support to the industry contingent of the Apache UK Team and Equipment Management Support to the MoD contingent of the Chinook Team.
New Support Service – In March the company decided to take its lessons learnt from the previous years Survey Support service development using a Microdrones MD4-200, and continue this work, with a larger more robust and traditional rotary winged sUAS solution from Carvec systems. On paper this appears to match our requirements better.
In Jan 2010 we saw the CAA bring in the rules to control the operation of sUAS for ‘Aerial Work’. We successfully received the CAA permission to operate the new Carvec system, after successful development and submission of our sUAS safe operating procedures based on the CAA guidelines.
The new air vehicle has integrated stabilisation and control systems which include stabilisation of the payload survey sensor mount. This sUAS can be operated in a number of system operating modes which must be fully understood and experienced by all potential pilots. We embarked on a planned period of pilot training to ensure its safe effective operation. Included in this training is basic remote controlled helicopter control skills.
Training started with professional instruction from two commercial training providers and much appreciated support from a Carvec approved System Training provider. We have purchased a simulator system and a 600 sized training radio controlled helicopter system, to enable us to cost effectively build on the foundation instruction. Our Pilot now has 80 hours simulator, 35 hours Carvec and RC Helicopter flying hours. This on top of the 16 hours microdrone flight time brings our pilot experience up to over 50 hours.
In 2011 our aim is to continue to build on our recent Business and Equipment Support Service successes and to prioritise our limited resource in an effort to achieve a limited launch of our new Survey Support Service in April 2011. This will achieve our planned 3 support service portfolio by the end of 2011.
We wish all our customers and suppliers a successful and prosperous 2011 and look forward to having the opportunity to work with you this year.
DANISH SUPPORT FOR UK MICRODRONE OPERATORS
PROVIDING IMPROVEMENTS TO BATTERIES, BASE STATION AND MORE …
Recently we at AJS have had a number of very useful discussions with a customer focussed company from Denmark. Its approach shows signs of maximising the return on current and future microdrone operators investments.
This company is DAS Danish Aviation Systems. They are approachable and keen to work with any new or current UK operators who would like to develop microdrone solutions tailored to their service delivery requirements.
THEIR UPGRADED PRODUCTS
- MD4-200SQ
- MD4-1000SQ
KEY AREAS OF MICRODRONE DEVELOPMENT AND OPTIONAL UPGRADES
- Battery Reliability
- Mobile Base Station
- Camera mounts
- IR Camera Control
- Insurance cover
BATTERY RELIABILITY
The Battery improvement is achieved using a Chinese company “AIR CAM technology”. They are claiming an average/cruise flight time with Pentax as 21 minutes; with improved voltage levels at the end of the battery capacity, for emergency landing.
MOBILE BASE STATION
Their developing base station is still in its beta testing phase but it boasts – controlling system build in, their new downlink transmitter/receiver, and the reliability is said to be good. The video downlink has also been tested in use with 50km range.
CAMERA MOUNT AND IR CONTROL
They have developed a camera mount that makes it possible to mount most camera types using normal screw in the buttom of the camera.
DAS have a newly developed “gimek” for the drones, making the IR control signal into 2 functions. Using a small board with a receiver IR and 2 buttons, this uses the drone IR control to a small universal remote control for all IR controlled cameras. You store the IR signal by pointing at the drone, and pushing the button on the board. This makes the drone easier to use more functions on cameras.
Also the use of dual camera sensors. So an operator can use both infrared and video by chancing the picture onboard. e.g with Canon Eos 550D you can start/stop full HD video while flying, and at the same time take still pictures.
OFFSHORE LANDING SYSTEMS (OLS)
As a result of a customer requesting a solution to operating their MD from the back of boats, they have developed and are testing their OLS, for landing on boats like RIBs.
This uses a landing net, making it more safe to land over choppie water, and provides a larger landing area.
EMERGENCY PONTOON LANDING SYSTEM (EPLS)
With the risk of something unwanted happening over water, DAS are developing EPLS for inflating small pontoons under the MD4-1000 in an emergency landing mode. This is expected to save the drone from water damage and total loss.
HD DOWNLINK
DAS explained that with faster computers and technology moving as fast as it is, it will in the future see cheaper components and a drop in price.
INSURANCE
DAS are also able to provide a solution for European coverage for insurance of their systems. They have liability insurance available already, and soon will be able to provide full cover for company use of UAV’s.
MORE INFORMATION
MD4-200 Experience Queries Response
Introduction
Since our commercial decision to drop the use of the microdrones MD4-200 from the development of our Remote Aerial Imagery support service, we have had a steady stream of queries about our experiences and findings. This interest may be because the UK Distributor continues to have a link to our website. We have put the losses in capital and resource down to useful but costly experience.
The aim of this entry is really to save our time responding individually to these queries and also to help out those requiring our view point of our experiences by summarising our journey with the MD4-200. More detail is contained within the individual entries of the blog. You will find specifics of some of the issues in there. Please also feel free to contact us for clarification or other specifics of this type of service delivery.
Initial System Requirements
We are looking to take our engineering and defence background, and provide a security cleared Aerial Survey support service to government agencies, commercial businesses and domestic customers. This is purely a commercial decision which is required to provide a return and profit on our investment.
Key Requirements (KR)
KR1 – For all of the potential services, reliability is key to seeing a return on our investment. It needs to be in the air providing a stable platform for the onboard imagery equipment to supply acceptable images for a client.
KR2 – This leads neatly on to the requirement to deliver clear reliable live images from each flight , but also a workable image at a client viewed ground station. This is particularly important for security but equally important in all other situations.
KR3 – Types and quality of imagery. The system is required to be able to deliver a range of image types from still, HD video through to specialist FLIR etc that a client would pay for.
Features with the MD4-200 we liked
Overall the equipment and support was no where near close to our expectations. and our expectations were wholly based on the UK Distributors sales pitch. We did like a number of features of the MD4-200 :-
Operation – The systems and control is easy to pick up basic operation in 2 days. A business can have one of these in the air very soon after purchase with the necessary approvals.
Ground software – The ground station GUI is user friendly.
Rain Tolerant – It can operate in the rain with care.
Stability – It is a stable platform for very low wind conditions.
The MD4-200 challenges to it being commercially successful to us.
After Sales Support – A number of issues made us cut our losses after 6 months of attempting to operate it commercially. The first and possibly the most significant was the attitude of the UK Distributor and German Manufacturer towards helping once we had handed over the money.
Very expensive – When ultimately the system was there to provide a stable platform for imagery equipment, the cost per lb pay load is very poor compared to other platforms. It became very difficult to see how the system would pay for itself before it became obsolete and unsupportable.
Wind tolerance – The systems wind tolerance is poor with the SW average annual wind speed of 6-7 m/s the 3 m/s limit on the MD4-200 means it spend more time on the ground.
Power Packs – Batteries poor quality and unreliable. Made them more sensetive to temperature change. At £250 each, high failure rates and limited by number of cycles, these consumables are a considerable through life operation factor for the system.
Image quality – Limited payload limits the image quality. The MD4-200 had a limited range of manufacturer agreed cameras.
Payload mounting – Cameras are held on by 2 sided sticky tape. On a number of occasions the camera became detached and hanging by the cable.
Downlink – The downlink can only be described as flakey. Poor quality signal meant intermittent viewing of the onboard images at the ground station.
Software crashing – The ground station software crashed regularly both in flight and before flight. This meant terminating the flight task.
Economical with he truth – During our technical problems with the system the UK distributor lead us to believe is was only our company with eacjh of the issues. Once we made contact with what was at the time all of the UK operators that I could find of the MD4-200, we soon found out we were all in the same situation with the same issues.
Most of these operators have now bought other systems to satisfy their needs. A couple continue with the equipment to attempt to recoupe their investment.
CAA Considerations (Please ensure you read the CAA website for further detail before you buy an UAS)
Operators need to be aware of current CAA rules which changed in Jan this year and continue to change with regards operator certification for commercial use of systems like the MD4-200.
Just to clarify some misinformation that has been published and voiced by certain manufactures and distributors – As a commercial operator of a microdrone you cannot obtain a generic CAA approval for the equipment. The CAA approval is for the equipment, how it will be used, where it will be used and which operators use it. Difficult to blanket approve unless you are going to use it in the same places for the same reasons etc….
The CAA requires that for autonomous use of these types of UAS, an operator is required to be able to take control at any time from the control system. So if using several, you would need an operator for each.
The microdrone has to be in line of sight at all times and must not be flown on goggles only.
Also, even though the microdrone is small, it cannot be flown over people or populated areas without approval (If at all).
Summary
We have built our current Consultancy support services in the high tech Defence Procurement arena. Based on our experience, when purchasing this type of new high tech system we were not expecting everything to be perfect, but we did expect the manufacturer and distributer to acknowledge that there were issues and work with us to resolve. This cooperation never happened and believe me we tried !
We invested £25K not including service development resource in this equipment, and it left us very disappointed, dropping well short of the sales pitch implied performance and envisaged applications.
We have been involved in development of this type of service for a while now, and one thing is certain, one size does not fit all. You may need different platforms to fulfill your particular service capability. We hope these notes help with your choice of UAS fro low level aerial work. Please feel free to drop us a line or give us a call for you r specific situation.
Please also feel free to comment if this has been useful or indeed have had a more positive experience with the MD4-200 and the suppliers.
CAA Approval
Yesterdays great news was that after 4 weeks nervously wondering if we will be successful, we now have CAA approval to operate our small unmanned air system. We were ‘aiming off’ by learning to fly using a conventional helicopter without auto stab for skills to support the operators in the unlikely event of failures of the systems on the Kestrel. Handy really, as the CAA approval came with the not so good news … that I have 3 months grace to achieve a BMFA Cert A or similar. Luckily I love a challenge!!
I remember when I had the MD4-200, I was of the same opinion, in that I should get a certificate with the BMFA. I remember that when I contacted them they would not entertain supporting me with the MD4-200, since it could not be operated in manual mode. I rapidly lost interest sacked the idea at the time. I know of an MD4-200 owner who has been presented with the same 3 months grace and he contacted the BMFA and they do not seem to have changed their view. Interesting times for all of us.
We knew we were entering a challenging area. 3 months and counting …… lets hope my sausage fingers heal themselves 🙂
A TIMELY TWEET?
As potential commercial drone operators, over the past 6 months we have been closely monitoring the CAA rules with respect to this type of equipment. More recently we have been working towards gaining approval to operate through the CAA.
Recently small drones have been hitting the news sites with one missing in flight in Edinburgh through to Merseyside Police use to catch suspected thieves. After this, came the article that suggested that the Merseyside police may be have been operating a drone illegally without CAA approval.The very next day, on Wed 19 Feb 2010 at 09.00 hrs, Sven Juerss at microdrones GmbH Tweeted (Tweet):
- The certificate has blanked out specific operators – Looks like it is applicable to specific operators.
- The certificate expired 31/12/2008 – Is there a new one? If so why link to an old one?
- The certificate is specifically for the Free State of Saxony
Or maybe we have got it wrong !!!
CONFUSED IN WORDPRESS!
Dear Readers,
This not the usual blog entry we intended to publish but it is very relevant to our continued experience as UAV operators, dealing with the UK microdrone distributor Microdrone (UK) Ltd.
I started to pen a reply to Alistair Fox’s (Microdrone (UK) Ltd) comment when I realised he had brought comments from a different forum into this blog. I thought for clarity I would attempt to summarise it in the one entry here. I consider that the points made are best answered in three parts:
1. Alan – to snipe is to ‘criticise annoymously’… this is certainly not our game and not professional. I merely brought to your attention the comments of others.
2. We have expert knowledge of UAV operation and 5 years of feedback from Commercial and Emergency Services prospective and current users. I was merely trying to give you the benefit of this.
3. Please feel free to remove the Microdrones ‘Tags’ from your site in-line with the concerns raised by Microdrones GmbH.
1. ‘SNIPE’
I must thank Alistair, as always, for his comments and view points. I assume that Alistair is refering to the word ‘snipe’ that was used on a tweet at 8.38am from both @ajssupportltd and @microdrones, to link to the blog post “bad pennies”:
“Do you operate a microdrone MD4-200? Predictably, the UK distributor snipes at alternative equipment – http://bit.ly/bmqspq” (8:38 AM Jan 29th from TweetDeck) – http://twitter.com/AJSSupportLtd/status/8374406659
“Do you operate a microdrone MD4-200? Predictably, the UK distributor snipes at alternative equipment – http://bit.ly/bmqspq” (8:38 AM Jan 29th from TweetDeck) – http://twitter.com/microdrones/status/8374410068
Alistair’s subjective interpretation is noted. I am sure he probably would wish to devote time to the semantics of this, and other statements made, I however have limited time but will indulge Alistair where time allows.
In this instance, my interpretation is taken from the Oxford English Dictionary – “Snipe: (often foll. by at) make a sly critical attack”. That is about right for my use of the term. 
2. “EXPERT”
The second part of the comment is, in our opinion, the usual Microdrone (UK) Ltd sales pitch. I note that Alistair felt it was for my benefit. Alistair, thank you, but remember we rapidly realised the extent and limits of your company’s UAV experience abilities and sold the system back to Microdrone (UK) Ltd.
3. TAGS
On the third point – again the Microdrones GmbH request was based on a Twitter issue. On the 13th Jan 2010 A J S Support Limited received an email from Microdrones GmbH expressing their concerns that the @microdrones Twitter account would lead to confusion among their customers. A J S Support Limited immediately amended the avatar and the bio and posted a tweet from both @microdrones and @ajssupportltd in order to dispel any confusion:
“This twitter site is not run by microdrones GmbH or microdrones (UK). To clarify – AJS do not recommend the companies or their products.” (12:04 PM Jan 13th from TweetDeck“)
http://twitter.com/microdrones/status/7720076731
“This twitter site is not run by microdrones GmbH or microdrones (UK). To clarify – AJS do not recommend the companies or their products.” (12:04 PM Jan 13th from TweetDeck“)
http://twitter.com/AJSSupportLtd/status/7720076741
To clarify, A J S Support Limited have not received any such concerns from Microdrones GmbH about http://microdrones.wordpress.com.
Finally, we do not deliberately assign tags to blog entries to mislead readers. We always make best endeavours to associate relevant tags to the blog posts.
We would be happy to review any specific blog entry tag issues on a case by case basis.
Many thanks,
Al
NEW MD COCKPIT VERSION
We have been experiencing random closure of the md cockpit application for our MD4-200 drone. Because of this we had been keeping an eye on the microdrones GmbH website and updated our mdCockpit application with the latest version (website current – mdCockpit V2.4.4.6) to see if this would help with a number of issues with the system.
We are posting to let other operators know that we found out on Friday that there is a newer version of mdCockpit available and were given a copy of mdCockpit V2.5.8.8 dated 24/09/09 by the UK suppliers MW Power Limited. Operators that have never updated mdCockpit need to be made aware that previous versions have saved flight files in different locations.
We do not know what the new version changes are, but we will post if this has any noticeable effects on the system operation.
DHP FIRMWARE UPGRADE
Today for a fee, our MD4-200 microdrone has had a firmware upgrade to the latest version. This includes the Dynamic Position Hold functionality. We at AJS are looking forward to carrying out our own airtests this weekend. It is hope that this will improve control in windy conditions.
It is however a pity that we will be using the same flakey batteries that recently returned from the supplier. We have taken advice and we are continuing to persevere with these for a few more flights whilst strictly following the guidance by the UK distributor MW Power Limited.
A J S Support Limited Blog 
