An expensive mistake . . .

[BigAl07]

This could be a valuable lesson to all of us. Fortunately the DJI Go Ap is pretty good about this but we must ALWAYS confirm the correct location has been chosen before taking off:
Little Ripper has a day out, shark spotting drone flies away
An expensive mistake reported by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau. An obvious stand out is the poor range of the command and control (C2) link. For an expensive commercial system, 165m is not far.......
(click story title above for FULL details)

 

[AnchorageAk]

They kinda left out what that thing cost. I'm guessing about the cost of 10 P4P's.

 

[N017RW]

Google it. $200,000.00
Don't know if that's Aussie dollars or US equivalent.

 

[AnchorageAk]

WOW. I was just pointing out that the cost was, for some reason, conveniently left out. I don't have to Google, Yahoo, or what ever to know it is expensive. That is 133 and 1/3 P4P's.

 

[N017RW]

WOW. I was just pointing out that the cost was, for some reason, conveniently left out. I don't have to Google, Yahoo, or what ever to know it is expensive. That is 133 and 1/3 P4P's.

Cool. Hope it didn't come off as snippy. I just hate typing!!!

 

[AnchorageAk]

Benn a long winter, only 3 more months to go. I am becoming the snippy one.

 

[N017RW]

I understand. Been in Arctic Circle (Finland) this time of year a few years ago.
Just saw a wisp of sun the whole time.
No fun for a Florida boy.

 

[42FrankZ]

Benn a long winter, only 3 more months to go. I am becoming the snippy one.

This morning I shot 6 holes in my freezer...

 

[Richard R]

Oh boy! Talk about operator error. Using coordinates in the wrong hemisphere. And guys here thought that having Go misplace their home point by a mile or 2 was bad.

 

[N017RW]

Stuff happens to the best of us/them.
NASA/JPL crashed a Mars lander by mixing metric/imperial units.

 

[Richard R]

And Hubble had a similar problem in their lens design. The bigger you are, the more expensive your mistakes.
Wonder what the specs on the helo are? Bet a couple of DJI type drones could have done a pretty good job of shark watching for a whole lot less.

 

[N017RW]

Yea, I remember that. Actually they ground the mirror incorrectly to the order of a few microns IIRC.
(me b space geek)

 

[Richard R]

Yeah, and at optical wavelengths, that's a mountain!

 

[Raptorman0909]

And Hubble had a similar problem in their lens design. The bigger you are, the more expensive your mistakes.
Wonder what the specs on the helo are? Bet a couple of DJI type drones could have done a pretty good job of shark watching for a whole lot less.

I didn't see for sure but suspect the bird had an engine and might have been able to stay aloft for more than an hour.

Brian

 

[Richard R]

I agree, probably was fuel powered with a flight time longer than a phantom. But looking at their intended search area and flight pattern, it would be a simple litchi type mission and a couple (few) phantoms and several spare batteries could keep a bird flying that area all day. But typical government program, why spend a couple of $100s when you can spend hundreds of thousands and loose the bird on the first trial! If I was a "down under" pilot, I would be jumping all over this.

 

[BigAl07]

Battery operated with flight time of 60min at MAX payload which happens to be 34lbs (including flight batteries).