SuperMissII - Harbour Mission

[icebear]

I have just finished trimming my second SuperMiss and now it is time to put it to work...

The aim with my small simple UAV platforms has always been to have an aerial photography platform for those "hard to get" locations. Our local harbour is one of those where I often find it hard to get out over water and concentrate on shooting while having the sun behond the plane and the extra stress of being over water.

Therefore, I setup a simple 10 WP route in front of the harbour with approx 500 m route legs to let the plane stabilize and get as many shots as possible before having to turn.

Here is the proposed route and if weather permits I hope to be able to present some nice aerials this week...

/Bjorn

[Tom Harper]

Bjorn,

Are you looking for a shipwreck?

Tom

[icebear]

Now, that's an interesting thought Tom...!

I did see one during the Lighthouse Mission I (visible in the last portion of the still photo series) but that was a modern ship that actually had sunk the previous day (!) - guess they didn't see the lighthouse...

In fact this area used to be a ships yard where lots of wodden ships where made in the last half of the 19th century, so there are supposed to be quite a few wrecks around in these waters. I doubt you can see much from the air because it is fairly deep unfortunately...

/Björn

[Tom Harper]

Looks clear - you might see some ballast mounds.

Tom

[icebear]

The weather was great today so we got the opportunity to try the planned mission much quicker than we thought.

The sea was like a mirror (very unusual!) and after finding a good spot to take off by the beach close to the harbour I climbed to approx 100 meters, did some trimming for straight and level and switched on the autopilot...

It is funny how real-life situations seem to differ from the map image -distances in the air are hard to judge from the ground - I stayed withing LOS at all times, but it is clear that the auopilot is a great help when finding a good angle for AP shots.

The mission went well BUT upon landing I found there was a glitch in the PRISM switch, so 3 minutes of the mission were without photos :(... I still got a few good ones but this calls for a return later in the summer!

Enjoy!

/Icebear

[Paul_BB]

SuperMiss throw should become an Olympic discipline. :p

Nice pictures Bjorn.

Best regards,
Paul

[Tom Harper]

Bjorn,

Possible ballast mound at arrow - this from my wild youth in the Florida Keys.

Tom

[icebear]

SuperMiss throw should become an Olympic discipline.

Paul - ha ha that's really funny!!! :D

Possible ballast mound at arrow - this from my wild youth in the Florida Keys.


Tom - interesting - have to get my diving mask out this summer...


/Bjorn

[small_rcer]

Hello Icebear;

You say you climbed to about 100 meters high. How did you determine that and why did you choose that height?

Can the autopilot change or maintain altitude?

Thanks

Jim H

[icebear]

Hi Jim,

I used a secondary GPS to log the flight and got the alt from there. After a lot of practise I am getting pretty good at estimating altitude but the unit is "alt hold" so it holds whatever alt the plane has when enabled...

100 meters is a good alt for AP in my setup...

/Björn

[GeeW]

Bjorn
Great mission, and images. Have you given the harbour-master a copy for his wall?

Regards

Gordon

[icebear]

Thanks Gordon, that's a good idea - will do that after the next try - I want to have another fo at t since I didnt get the number of pics I wanted!

/Björn

[webfoot175]

Bjorn, nice to see someone using their UAV for a mission.
That plane is equiped with a PICOPILOT-NA .....right ?

[icebear]

Thanks webfoot, and yes, that's correct!

/Bjorn