Safety notice from the CAA for UK operators.


Steel100

Member
Interesting bit about employing a spectrum analyser to check on RF usage in the vicinity. How many people would know how to use one?
 

Benjamin Kenobi

Easy? You call that easy?
I use one. I was told to by ResourceUAS. It's quite easy, you just look for saturation of the control frequency.

There doesn't seem to be any changes for sub 7Kg. The things it covers are what we do anyway.
 

Bowley

Member
Had my hopes up there, thought we might have some relaxation in the minima for 'congested area' which, lets face, it covers just about any and all urban areas. its such a broad, catch all definition, so open to interpretation, and one all too easy to fall foul of.
 


ZAxis

Member
A pragmatic document outlining the status quo. Should be included in everyone's ops manual. Seems to hold out some hope for those operating regularly in built up areas to get permanent exemptions if found fit to do so, fly inspected aircraft and pay the fee.
Still the model for all other countries to follow.

andy
 
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Flubbs

Member
all Seemed Pretty fair, just not so good when you have your ops manual sitting waiting approval for the last 30 days, have given up tackling the postie every time she walks past!! lol!
 

deluge2

Member
Does this mean that the wt of Lipo batteries doesn't count towards the 7 kg wt limit?

Steve

"The person in charge of a SUA which has a mass of more than 7 kg excluding its fuel but including any articles or equipment..."
 

Bowley

Member
Does this mean that the wt of Lipo batteries doesn't count towards the 7 kg wt limit?

Steve

"The person in charge of a SUA which has a mass of more than 7 kg excluding its fuel but including any articles or equipment..."

No Steve, Lipos are not classed as fuel for purposes of definition, since they weigh the same charged as they do discharged.

Steve
 

Carapau

Tek care, lambs ont road, MRF Moderator
Use of a spectrum analyzer? I know of more commercial pilots that use them than those that don't. Not too expensive, easy to use and definitely a good bit of kit to have. I use a wispy which is excellent.
 

Flubbs

Member
The RF explorer isn't bad either.

Yep Fuel is the charge contained within the lipo battery which is the container.
 

ZAxis

Member
Is a spectrum analyser really that much use? It can only give you a picture of the environment in the immediate vicinity of the receiver. You're potentially flying 500 m away and 120m up in an environment you cannot directly sample. You need to be able to identify and recover from bad situations as part of your basic piloting skills. This is based on personal experiences.
 

deluge2

Member
Thanks, just wondered. It will be interesting to see what the FAA comes up with to address commercial UAV use in the US.

Steve

No Steve, Lipos are not classed as fuel for purposes of definition, since they weigh the same charged as they do discharged.

Steve
 

Quinton

Active Member
Is a spectrum analyser really that much use? It can only give you a picture of the environment in the immediate vicinity of the receiver. You're potentially flying 500 m away and 120m up in an environment you cannot directly sample. You need to be able to identify and recover from bad situations as part of your basic piloting skills. This is based on personal experiences.

Was just thinking the same thing, what use would an Analyser really be, and how exactly can it help you, or is it just more extra expense being brought into the equation to make it look like your doing a "professional" job.
 

I use the RF Explorer.
You can scan your take off and landing area for 2.4Ghz activity before flight, I agree with ZAxis about the distance issue but not all jobs need you to fly 500m away.
 

ZAxis

Member
I use the RF Explorer.
You can scan your take off and landing area for 2.4Ghz activity before flight, I agree with ZAxis about the distance issue but not all jobs need you to fly 500m away.
Our experience with RF interference was not caused by 2.4GHz/5+GHz transmissions, it was probably one of the mobile frequencies. Monitoring a single frequency band is really not that much use.
Also remember interference works both ways, we've accidentally wiped out an events wifi net with a 5.8GHz video transmission. It was fixed very quickly with a simple channel change, something you cannot do with frequency hopping RC links.

andy
 

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