FLY SMART, FLY SAFE
UK SMEs Flare Bright and Zenotech have produced groundbreaking wind measurement results which will be presented today [6 September 2022] at the prestigious 33rd Congress of the International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences (ICAS) in Stockholm. ICAS is the premier stage to bring together a global array of topics and participants as the only true international forum that covers the world of aeronautics.
Wind modelling of urban, airport and industrial sites is a crucial element in the new landscape of UAV operation and data systems. Accurate validation of highly localised wind models are critical to their adoption, as are the wind measurement tools necessary to validate such models. UK SMEs Flare Bright and Zenotech are publishing a comparison between Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) model results, static anemometer data and live flight trials of the SnapShot wind measurement nano-glider close to large buildings at Cardiff International Airport.
The results indicate striking correlation between the CFD results and the experimental flight test data, demonstrating a route to accurate validation of localised flow models to aid future UAV operation, as the airport buildings mirror the type of environments in urban areas. This will also be invaluable to other areas where only sparse wind data is available, such as landing on ships and platforms, and for new Vertiports for air taxis.
The SnapShot nanodrone developed by Flare Bright accurately measures wind vectors at exceptionally high update rates and high fidelity. SnapShot can reach areas where anemometers cannot and is significantly cheaper and provides more accurate data than LIDAR. This complements and validates Zenotech’s CFD-models and its AIRSIGHT service – an integrated online service delivering large airspace model datasets on-demand
Live flight trials using SnapShot at Cardiff Airport were used to validate the aerodynamic data service, including the detection and quantification of detailed aerodynamic features such as vortices in addition to other features like airflow around the buildings, using the SnapShot flight controller as a mobile anemometer.
The world-first results come off the back of SafeZone, an 18-month Future Flight Challenge project funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). Following its success in phase two the project has received a third round of funding to enable the delivery of a new live data service to provide real-time information about aerodynamic hazards in urbanised environments.
Flare Bright’s Engineering Manager and Aerodynamics Specialist, Carl Sequeira will be publishing the results as an academic paper, with detail of the data collected and analysis of the results presented at the ICAS conference in Stockholm this week. He will be presenting alongside members of the Zenotech team.
Carl Sequeira says, “The results we saw were simply stunning – to see the tiniest wind features and vortices in SnapShot’s wind measurement drone match what Zenotech predicted is incredibly exciting. Given how critical the knowledge of safe wind limits is to drone flight, I believe this technology will open up entirely new markets and enable drones to fly safely in the tricky and variable winds that exist in urban environments. I’m really proud to have been part of this unique project.”
Cranfield University, Flare Bright and Zenotech are all ARPAS-UK members.
6 September 2022
How breaking free of Word document templates and Excel spreadsheets will transform your drone operations management and flight planning admin.
Overview:
Whether you’re a solo operator just starting out or a large Enterprise business with a either a dedicated drone team or a dispersed group of part-time operators – or any size business in-between – getting a grip on drone operations record keeping and safe flight planning can be a very real challenge.
Dorian will provide an overview of how migrating from a paper-based or multi-system solution to a dedicated drone operations management platform will transform your admin nightmare into a dreamscape of simple, efficient admin where you’ll have an instant view of assets, maintenance schedules, flight plans, team certifications, flight logs and much more.
Ditching the spreadsheets may be a daunting prospect but managing your drone operations in the cloud will not only make life simpler for you and your drone operators but, it will help you save time and money, drive compliance and improve accountability – no more living in fear of a CAA audit!
Key Learnings:
Speakers:
Dorian Ellis, Founder & Director Dronedesk.
Dorian is a former analytics geek at BT/Openreach, left and retrained as a drone operator in 2018, had an allergic reaction to the admin involved, built a web app from scratch to solve the problem.
DroneX takes place this year on September 7-8th at Excel, London.
ARPAS-UK is proud to be the headline partner of the show, alongside Air Ambulances UK. The show is co-located with Helitech. There will be over 300 exhibitors and 150 seminars.
Graham Brown, ARPAS-UK CEO, and Gordon Baker, of the Department of Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy
Wednesday 7th September at 1.15pm & Thursday 8th September at 2pm: Keynote Theatre
Robert Courts, Aviation Minister at the Department for Transport
Wednesday 7th September at 4pm: Keynote Theatre, Helitech (co-located with DroneX)
Other presentations of particular note to keep an eye out for:
Wednesday 7th September
Thursday 8th September 2022
The ARPAS-UK stand is D60. Please do come by and say hello. We would be delighted to meet you.
uAvionix today announced its participation in a Civil Aviation Authority endorsed large-scale trial using ground-based ADS-B obstruction beacons operating on 978MHz Universal Access Transceiver (UAT) in the UK. A first-ever trial to use ADS-B to enhance safety of glider, hang gliding, paragliding, and model flying operations, the trials will commence in the autumn of 2022 at various sites throughout the UK, supported by the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) Airspace Modernisation Strategy (AMS).
Collision risks associated with hazardous overflight of winch launch gliding sites are well known to operators, yet frequent incidents continue to be reported. As part of the AMS, the CAA is seeking to implement measures to mitigate this and similar risk utilizing underutilized 978Mhz spectrum, commonly used in the USA as a secondary ADS-B frequency and for Traffic Information System Broadcast (TIS-B) and Flight Information System – Broadcast (FIS-B).
As the global market leader in UAT ADS-B devices, uAvionix is supporting the trials by providing purpose-built powered obstruction beacons that will be placed at 13 club sites throughout the UK, enabling the sites to be visualized when operational on any Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) utilizing ADS-B IN devices such as the uAvionix skyEcho2 and ForeFlight Sentry. The obstruction beacons will be switched on and broadcast only when flying activities are underway at the participating club sites.
The project will trial new airspace safety functionality built upon ground-based ADS-B obstruction beacons broadcasting on 978MHz UAT ADS-B protocols. Approved by the CAA, the project will be undertaken between September 1st and October 31st, 2022. The trials are a collaboration between uAvionix, the CAA, Association Head Office and member clubs of the British Gliding Association (BGA), British Hang Gliding & Paragliding Association (BHPA), and the British Model Flying Association & Large Model Association (BMFA & LMA).
“The trial of functionality such as ADS-B Obstruction Beacons helps us understand and evaluate the benefits of deploying digital Flight Information Services as part of the Airspace Modernisation Strategy” said Stuart Lindsey, Head of Airspace Modernisation Strategy at Civil Aviation Authority, “We are pleased to fund this trial via the Airspace Modernisation Strategy Support Fund (AMSSF) and that uAvionix have chosen to work with some of our key General Aviation stakeholders to improve the promulgation and awareness of their activities at the trial locations, to deliver a safety benefit.”
“The BGA has for several years recorded and raised awareness of hazardous overflights of glider winch launch sites by aeroplanes and helicopters” said Pete Stratten, CEO of the BGA, “These sites are depicted on ½ mil charts and described within the AIP. Participating in the obstruction beacon trial will contribute to an understanding of the effectiveness of using technology to highlight a fixed airspace hazard during flight and in doing so reduce mid-air conflict risk. It is important too that the equipment is reliable and affordable. We’re pleased to be working with others to identify the wider benefits of voluntary equipage of electronic conspicuity”.
Suitably equipped General Aviation pilots flying within the vicinity of these Beacons will be alerted in real-time to these aerial activities to enhance their situational awareness and safety. Other airspace users and interested parties may also benefit. The project will be seeking feedback from all relevant stakeholders through the uAvionix website, where future updates will be posted. Please see here: https://uavionix.com/projects/UKObsBeacon
About uAvionix Corporation
uAvionix was founded in 2015 with the mission of bringing safety solutions to the unmanned aviation industry to aid in the integration of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS). A fundamental principle of that mission is to provide solutions that allow all airspace users a common situational awareness of the airspace. Through the evolution of our company, we pioneered and now offer low SWaP, TSO-certified and uncertified ADS-B and GPS solutions for General Aviation (GA), Airport Surface Vehicles, and the UAS markets. uAvionix consists of an unparalleled engineering and management team with a unique combination of experience encompassing avionics, surveillance, airport services, UAS aircraft development, radio frequency (RF), and semiconductor industries. To learn more about uAvionix manned and unmanned products, please visit: www.uavionix.com
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1 September 2022