Blog Post by Roy de RuiterBehind the scenes: Flying the Inspire 2 under the Remote Operations Certificate

Come along with us behind the scenes of our city drone shoot in Utrecht, The Netherlands

Introduction

Hi guys, it’s Roy from ungraded, and today we’re doing a flight with the Inspire 2 in the city center of Utrecht, and we thought, why not bring you guys along so you can see how a job like this goes?

So we’re here on the terrain of Congress into the Yardbirds and Utrecht, and they’ve been so kind to give us clearance so we can fly above that terrain. So as a thank you for that, we’re going to shoot some footage for them as well.

License

So to do a flight like this in the city centre with the Inspire to you would need to have your license in a specific area category of the new European drone regulations. We’re not in that category yet. We’re still flying under old papers: the Remote Operation Certificate.

You can get your remote operation certificate once you’ve written your own manual on how you’re going to do your flights and how you’re going to do it in a safe way. Together with your remote piloted aircraft, license your medical test and once they’ve disassembled your drone, put it back together and tested that out. You can do flights like these.

Flight plan

So for today’s job, we need to make a risk analysis and a flight plan. The risk analysis is all about looking at the possible risks that are involved, like signal interference or pedestrians. Walking by the flight plan is a description on how you’re going to do your flight and which area you’re going to do it, where you’re going to fly off off and where the observers are going to stand.

Weather

So twenty four hours in advance, we need to check if the weather is still OK. If the wind is not too strong or anything, we do this with you. You can set all the parameters, the maximum parameters of your drone, and it’s an easy way to see if it’s still OK to fly.

Safety Map

So also 24 hours in advance, we need to check the drone safety map. And in the Netherlands, here we use a drone that anele. And on this map, we’re looking out for no dummies that have been placed and no time is a notice to airmen. And it’s basically a circle on the map that describes Look out for us. We’re doing a specific thing at a specific height, at a specific time. So we checked it all the told OK, now we have to do the checklist, see if we’ve got everything, if everything is in place with a drone.

Observers

Now it’s time to give the observers a little instruction, and the task of an observer is that they have to look out for possible other air traffic obstacles and talk to people who may have something to say or have any questions. So I can keep my eye out on the drone after just a 10 minute instruction on the call signs and what they have to do. We’re ready to go. The drone is in place. Safety checks everything, so we’re good to go.

Batteries

So that’s one better, he said, done. We’ve got six battery sets of 12 batteries, every battery pack gets about 25 minutes of flight time, so that’s in total two and a half hours of flight off the debt. We need to recharge. And with this fast charging box, we get 90 percent full in thirty five minutes.

Wrapping up

So that’s it for tonight, because the Sun is going down and we can’t fly in the dark, we need a special permit for that. That is going to change in a specific degree. But for now, this is it. I want to thank you guys for watching and see you next time.