[kanga]

..a singe operator ..

expecting it to crash and burn ?

[Dave W]

Only if they keep monkeying around...

[Morten]

Now you're just Scilly.

(sorry...)

[peter272]

Certainly being used for essential supplies

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... -time.html

[neilmurg]

Aren't UAVs planning co-operatively communicating / controlling / networking / ECing using something like FANET (or FANET)? Which isn't ADS-B.

[kanga]

Another NHS delivery flight reported yesterday (Tuesday):

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-55319337

[skydriller]

Im finding it hard to believe that even 50kg of supplies is cost effective by drone as pictured.

[kanga]

Perhaps it depends on what the scheduled air services charge for bulky or heavy urgent freight; what is trivial in the belly of a widebody may be significant (involving loss of a passenger seat) for a Twotter or Islander or helicopter. And maybe this is contingency for medical emergencies.

[Iceman]

If you’ve ever tried to purchase a commercial passenger ticket to the Isles of Scilly, £/mile I can imagine freight being equally eye watering. There is the supply ship, but obviously not as quick.

The use of such UASs is still developing, but it’s got to start somewhere. Let’s not be the country to get left behind with the technology and infrastructure development.

Iceman

[Bathman]

I bet it would be quite a bit cheaper in a Cessna caravan. Are the runways long enough?

[Dave W]

"For crying out loud, Wilbur - what possible use is something that only carries a person from one part of the beach to another?"

[Peter Gristwood]

If you’ve ever tried to purchase a commercial passenger ticket to the Isles of Scilly, £/mile I can imagine freight being equally eye watering. There is the supply ship, but obviously not as quick.

The use of such UASs is still developing, but it’s got to start somewhere. Let’s not be the country to get left behind with the technology and infrastructure development.

Iceman

I wonder if I can fit guns to the Robin...

[Lefty]

When the Americans were operating their huge surveillance and ground attack drones in a certain sandy part of the world, the found that they needed to have a human pilot within visual range of the runway to “fly” the takeoff and landing, by actually seeing what the aircraft was doing. Then once airborne, the drone was controlled by pilots sitting in the US. They found that even with WAAS GPS, onboard video and rad-alt, that the time delay of only a fraction of a second in the two way transmission between the drone and pilot in the US, was enough for the pilot to get out of sync with the aircraft, causing PIO, and causing them to crash several of the $multi-million drones. Hence they reverted to controlling takeoff and landing from the side of the runway.

I think that any firm operating fixed wing drones would have to do the same. I really don’t think these will be able to fly in conditions that would ground the Islanders.

[MachFlyer]

If they can fit “auto land” to a full sized manned aeroplane as described in the flyer magazine not long ago, could these drones be made to auto land also?

[Stampe]

The pay of pilots on those routes is famously poor and seasonal most probably less than that which the geeks who operate drones would expect.The hideous costs of operating small commercial aircraft in this country come from meeting the regulatory costs of ATC , AIr Operators Certificate (AOC) airfield charges ,engineering and the CAAs own horrendous costs.Whilst promoting drones at present to GAs detriment is only to provide another revenue stream for the CAA to replace that from those areas it has strangled by over regulation and its own profligate running costs.A totally self serving Quango that hides behind the “safety “ word ! Stampe