Jenkins - The Droners Manual: a Guide to the Responsible Operation of Small Unmanned Aircraft

The Droners Manual: A Guide to the Responsible Operation of Small Unmanned Aircraft

by Kevin Jenkins

Aviation Supplies & Academics, Inc.

7005 132nd Place SE

Newcastle, Washington 98059-3153

2017 Aviation Supplies & Academics, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright holder. While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher and Kevin Jenkins assume no responsibility for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.

None of the material in this book supersedes any operational documents or procedures issued by the Federal Aviation Administration or other governing agency, manufacturers, schools, or operator standard operating procedures.

Cover photos: Images used under license from Shutterstock.com. Cover (top): Alexey Yuzhakov/Shutterstock.com; (bottom): Volodymyr Goinyk/Shutterstock.com.

ASA-UAS-DRONE

978-1-61954-434-5

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About the Author

Kevin Jenkins grew up outside of Portland, Oregon, near the airport where he first learned to fly. In 2009, he earned a degree in Aerospace Engineering from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona. Kevin spent several years as a test engineer and UAV operator, including deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. After returning to the United States, he worked on a composites research and development team but was soon drawn back into the field of unmanned aircraft. What began as a hobby in his garage developed into a full-time career, leading to positions with three small companies developing small UAVs for civilian applications. Kevin is deeply passionate about the science of unmanned flight and its potential to shape the world we live in.

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Introduction

RC Aircraft, Drones, and UAVs

With the rise of civilian unmanned aviation, several terms have entered the public vocabulary which are, in many cases, falsely considered synonymous. Therefore, it is important to establish, at least within the framework of this book, what each of the terms mean, beginning with the one that is probably most familiar to the layperson.

A remote control or radio control (RC) aircraft is an aircraft, regardless of size, that is piloted solely by a person outside of that aircraft via some means of wireless communication. While some advanced RC systems are capable of transmitting basic information (such as battery voltage or signal strength) back to the pilot, communication is more commonly entirely one-way, with the pilot sending commands to the aircraft. These aircraft are not capable of autonomous flight, and the act of flying an RC aircraft is a finely honed skill. It is important to understand RC flight as many conventions and components from this hobby are used in small civilian unmanned aircraft and their operation.

The use of unmanned aircraft by the military as targets for aerial gunnery practice and as reconnaissance platforms can be traced back to before the first world war. Initially, these aircraft employed rudimentary mechanical autopilots to maintain a single course and altitude but later RC systems were added in order to be able to control them remotely, albeit at short ranges. Eventually, small aircraft were outfitted with basic forms of memory and gyroscopes allowing them to execute simple commands or even be pre-programmed with flight plans while flying beyond the range of RC transmitters. Once launched, these aircraft would mindlessly drone along their predetermined flight path (perhaps snapping photos or impersonating an enemy plane along the way) until meeting their end in one form or another. This is the origin of the military drone,an aircraft capable of autonomous flight but which cannot be monitored or controlled for most or all of its flight. Similar principles of operation were later employed in the Nazi V weapons, the first guided ballistic missiles used to bombard England from Germany during WWII.

Drones continued to be used by the military for decades. However, technological advancesspecifically increased computing power within a small space, greater data transmission capability, and the advent of the Global Positioning System (GPS)allowed a similar but distinctly new type of aircraft to take on increasingly greater mission capabilities. Since their introduction into military service around the time of the first Persian Gulf War in the early 1990s, these aircraft have borne several technical acronyms, most notably unmanned air vehicle (UAV), but in the interest of brevity and demilitarization, well refer to them as unmanned aircraft (UA).A UA may be piloted remotely, similar to an RC aircraft, or fly autonomously, like a drone, due to its distinguishing feature: an onboard flight controller with a two-way data transmission system. This system facilitates communication between the aircraft and a ground station, allowing an external pilot to both monitor the aircrafts status (i.e., position, altitude, heading) and send commands to the aircraft in flight. Further technical advancements in the last decade have put these UAs within reach of the average person as their components become more widely available. These are the aircraft that will be discussed at length in this guide.

Recently, the term drone has become a catch-all for anything resembling the aircraft described above, regardless of actual configuration. This is especially true for multirotor airframes, the existence of which are due to the same recent advancements in technology that allow autonomous flight on a small scale. Moreover, for multiple reasons, multirotors have been many peoples point of introduction into the world of RC and autonomous flight. The popularity of this term is partially due to the fact that UAV does not exactly roll off the tongue, and also because the imagery of flying robots roaming the skies of their own volition has been seized upon by some in the interest of sensationalism. Nevertheless, many experts and practitioners within the field, who in the past may have considered the term drone derogatory, seem to have yielded in their protests and begun to accept the term, at least in casual conversation.

The purpose of this text is to serve as a guide to the construction, operation, and maintenance of these small, electric UAs for both recreational and commercial use. Beginners in this field will be able to use this book as a point of entry, while more experienced operators will find ways to improve their systems and procedures. With UA technology readily available and huge commercial opportunities on the horizon, the objective of this book is to empower new operators with the knowledge required to use this technology safely, responsibly, and effectively.

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