22 – 23 May 2012 Training with National Centre for Atmospheric Science NCAS

QuestUAV provided UAV flight experience and a lecture last year (2011) at the NCAS summer school in Arran under atrocious wind conditions.  Despite this they liked the system, liked the way QuestUAV worked and found the budget to purchase one for atmospheric research earlier this year. 

Barbara, Brian and James arrived from Leeds looking remarkably refreshed after a four-hour drive through heavy traffic. (We actually discovered later that they had stayed overnight in a B&B for a much more relaxing regime away from work!).  We chose to conduct the training based at our workshops this time following the feedback from Newcastle’s training. (It is a little more cramped but all the equipment, data and processes are there.)  James and Brian had been practicing for some months on the QuestUAV simulator in their office in Leeds and James had also bought a small RC trainer to help with his learning process. Brian was an old hand at radio control with previous experience in years gone by (we wont say how far though). 

The two days were a different format to the Newcastle training with a flying demo right at the start of the first day. The demo led into a very successful two days of training with the crew and an exceptionally competent Barbara emerging with brilliant Commander skills.  Barbara however was adamant that she should never, ever touch a live flight control which was fine because the rest of the crew was happy to step in and do the launching and flying. Sunshine, and light to medium winds dominated the two days.

As always the QuestUAV crew learnt also from the training session. Our particular lesson on this session was actually a relearnt lesson along the lines of “never fly with equipment that hasn’t been carefully tested before.” In this case we had a snazzy new, tiny locator beacon that had flown without any problems before, installed in the wingtips.  However on this day because we didn’t know until the last moment that NCAS wanted the equipment we popped it in the centre of the aircraft right by our twin receivers.  In that location, unbeknown to us, it caused a momentary interference that made the aircraft enter a failsafe in flight and bring the aircraft down a couple of fields away.  Ironically it was the locator that found the aircraft but the whole process gave us an unexpected opportunity to examine and demonstrate the safety designs, the robustness and flight systems employed with QuestUAV aircraft.   (The locator now sits safely in the end of each wingtip on all new aircraft where is has been extensively tested and is the joy of any UAV “retriever” who has to find the aircraft after landing in long grass!)

Barbara Brooks “Thanks for hosting us up in Amble last week. I was really impressed with how everything performed. I've been very impressed with service I have received from QuestUAV. Working with the scientific research community is not the easiest of things for a small company to do but your friendly and flexible approach has resulted in us developing a platform that best suits our needs. The training has been excellent with great patience and clarity of instruction given and I am looking forward to many happy hours of flying and future collaboration. 

Cheers team QuestUAV