Preprogrammed plane to fly fence surveillance.

Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone and also referred to as an unpiloted aerial vehicle and a remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), is an aircraft without a human pilot aboard.

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Preprogrammed plane to fly fence surveillance.

Unread post by Ugly Duckling »

I will be moving to a game farm in the Rooiberg area next year and would like to have some eyes in the sky at dawn and dusk for poachers breaching the fence or any other nasties who may want to cause us harm.
My brother has built and flown model RC gliders and planes for many years so we can put an aircraft together with the required flight characteristics.
1. Is there a module that we can add to a RC model to fly the lodge fence of 2 km and the perimeter fence of 10 km?
2. Is real time video possible via a video link over 2,3 km?
3. If operating over our property are the RPL regulations applicable?
4. What camera would give reasonable resolution from 150' AGL?
We will have a 600 m firebreak to takeoff and land on. I have a high site which gives a view of all remote corners.
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Re: Preprogrammed plane to fly fence surveillance.

Unread post by V5 - LEO »

....UD, on all your questions the answers is YES!. Try and source a youngster that can do the set-up for you and teach you the maintenance - and as for an aerie no, go for a drone / hex copter, much more stable in the air. There is farmers in Texas, you know how small their farms are :D , they do reccies each morning by hex copter and send out the ground forces to the areas where manpower is needed, works like a charm. Sorry I cannot help more, I am just glad for the positives that this technology can bring to the "new thinking" farmer.
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Re: Preprogrammed plane to fly fence surveillance.

Unread post by Eddie Haynes-Smart »

FWIW have been looking at drones (in theory only) as part of another thread (cropspray feasibility study). If they can be programmed to cover a field (backwards and forwards) once launched without any further control inputs I can't see why it can't do what you want.

Two possible complications I can think of: you're probably talking out-of-line-of-sight ops (need to check regs in that regard, maybe not even allowed yet) and the duration (they really don't stay up for long).

But quite exciting and different things that drones can be used for. Think the ops possibilities are going to expand rapidly.
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Re: Preprogrammed plane to fly fence surveillance.

Unread post by Ugly Duckling »

Thanks for the feedback
I would prefer to use a fixed wing as the power requirements are less because the wing generates the lift leaving more battery power to get the circuit flown. The lower noise profile will also be a bonus to not disturb/alert the baddies :twisted:

Something like this makes sense https://newatlas.com/spy-hawk-rc-plane/23323/#gallery
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Re: Preprogrammed plane to fly fence surveillance.

Unread post by Eddie Haynes-Smart »

Ugly Duckling wrote:Something like this makes sense https://newatlas.com/spy-hawk-rc-plane/23323/#gallery
Would 15-20 mins in the air, 600 metre range, vid stream 400 metres work for your game farm?

RPAS regs Part 101
2. Remotely Piloted Aircraft or toy aircraft should remain within the visual line of sight at all times.
Would this work for you?
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Re: Preprogrammed plane to fly fence surveillance.

Unread post by 747TDR »

Paul, I think you should have a chat with Vaughan Drew on my FB friends list. I know he has/had an aerie that is capable of beyond visual range work, and might have some pointers for you. Not sure of price or specs or anything, but might be of some help.

I think the only headache would be the regs with regards to BVR or BLS flying. I'm not up to scratch with the SA UAV regs, but over here in Europe they are very particular about spotters, two-way comms etc. before even considering it. I suppose if the UAV is big enough, you may be able to maintain line of sight control of it, but that's when the actual distance stipulations in the regs will come into force.

To be honest, from 150' AGL, most drones (DJI, from personal experience) would be silent enough to go unnoticed, and with the likes of the Mavic and later Phantoms 3 or 4 + Pro versions etc., would give you an easy 25 or even 30 minute flying time depending on how heavy-fingered one might be. The additional time could be useful in a loiter and pinpoint scenario for backup on the ground. A comfortable cruise speed of 35-40kph would give you total ETE of around 18 minutes, leaving some for loitering and safety buffer.

The downlink would mostly be dependent on the terrain. I have taken my Phantom to well over 1.8km completely free of any interference, maintaining 1080 or 720p (can't remember which) continuously, while I've sometimes lost signal before even getting airborne. The location you have described would be perfect, but would need to be checked and preferably cleared of any rocks and large metal objects.
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Re: Preprogrammed plane to fly fence surveillance.

Unread post by Ugly Duckling »

Not sure if 2,3 km can be called visual range however here https://www.livescience.com/33895-human-eye.html they recon 5 km is OK. Suppose it depends on the size of the aircraft? I'm thinking a 2 m span may have the lifting ability.
At 60kmh we could be done in 10 minutes which would be reasonable.
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Re: Preprogrammed plane to fly fence surveillance.

Unread post by Kill_Switch »

Ugly Duckling wrote:Thanks for the feedback
I would prefer to use a fixed wing as the power requirements are less because the wing generates the lift leaving more battery power to get the circuit flown. The lower noise profile will also be a bonus to not disturb/alert the baddies :twisted:

Something like this makes sense https://newatlas.com/spy-hawk-rc-plane/23323/#gallery
I agree the off the shelf drone technology is the way to go , unless you into tinkering and getting custom long range links setup( which tend to be very expensive)

Dji does the Mavic Pro with an advertised range of 7KM( roughly 10 x the the link you shared) The endurance is also better at 30min flight time.
You also get app that allows you to do flight programming via waypoints.
Have a look herehttps://store.dji.com/shop/mavic-series
I have a phantom 2( older and louder that the mavic) and the noise profile is very low 150'

One thing you need to think about on a platform like you linked is the static camera, you might need to fly a specific pattern based on the viewing angle, (this is mitigated in a Quad)
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Re: Preprogrammed plane to fly fence surveillance.

Unread post by Ugly Duckling »

Thanks Tyron will do :smt038
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Re: Preprogrammed plane to fly fence surveillance.

Unread post by Ugly Duckling »

Good info Kill_Switch. Thank you.
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Re: Preprogrammed plane to fly fence surveillance.

Unread post by Induna »

This would be the ultimate toy..!! 20 hours endurance..!

http://www.altiuas.com/

J :D
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Re: Preprogrammed plane to fly fence surveillance.

Unread post by Ugly Duckling »

Induna wrote:This would be the ultimate toy..!! 20 hours endurance..!

http://www.altiuas.com/

J :D
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Re: Preprogrammed plane to fly fence surveillance.

Unread post by Eddie Haynes-Smart »

Fitted with sidewinders?
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Re: Preprogrammed plane to fly fence surveillance.

Unread post by foxbat »

Line of sight extends to no more than 500 meters from the operator and a Phantom is not visible well before your reach that distance.

As a private operator you are still subject to the provisions of part 101 and i dont see you easily gaining BVLOS approval without an ROC.
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Re: Preprogrammed plane to fly fence surveillance.

Unread post by Ugly Duckling »

foxbat wrote:Line of sight extends to no more than 500 meters from the operator and a Phantom is not visible well before your reach that distance.

As a private operator you are still subject to the provisions of part 101 and i dont see you easily gaining BVLOS approval without an ROC.
Thanks for the info. This is the type of information I am looking for. =D>
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