Flight Termination System for H3

[ciaranpaterson]

Hey guys,

So EASA (European Aviation Safety Agency) are adamant that a flight termination system (parachute) is to be fitted to any drone flying in the specific category (controlled airspace). Personally not a fan of that idea but I suppose we'll have to do it!

Anyone here have any good recommendations?

 

[Chris Koch]

Hey guys,

So EASA (European Aviation Safety Agency) are adamant that a flight termination system (parachute) is to be fitted to any drone flying in the specific category (controlled airspace). Personally not a fan of that idea but I suppose we'll have to do it!

Anyone here have any good recommendations?

That is why we the UK have left the EU, all they want to do is control everything, next they will tell you that you are only allowed to exhale you breath once a week due to climate change

 

[vr-pilot]

Hey guys,

So EASA (European Aviation Safety Agency) are adamant that a flight termination system (parachute) is to be fitted to any drone flying in the specific category (controlled airspace). Personally not a fan of that idea but I suppose we'll have to do it!

Anyone here have any good recommendations?

We had this "parachute discussion" last week when planning to operate BVLOS in the U-Space "Hamburg Harbor UTM Real Laboratory". In general the port authority only allows granted overflying of ships when the UAV is equipped with a parachute system (or equivalent safety system), that avoids damages to that ship (or property) when the drone falls onto its deck from a minimum hight of 50 m.

Because BVLOS within the harbor could cause unapproved overflights of ships (out of sight, not depicted in i.e. VesselFinder app, Fail Safe Return to Home e.g. on R/C connection loss etc.), only drones equipped with a parachute system were allowed to operate that scenarios. We flew with the H520 (having at least its 5-Motor-Mode) but did not have the parachute ready. So we were not allowed to fly the BVLOS tracks that went over water ways.

In my opinion a parachute system on a drone like the Yuneec hexacopter H-Series does not ad much safety: adding weight to a drone could actually cause the drone to crash i.e. in windy conditions (adding battery stress, aerodynamic drag, vibrations, CG variations, GNSS signal degradation, compass errors etc.). Also the reliability and practicability of the parachute system must be proven in advance: does it deploy under all circumstances (within 50 m free-fall or worse: partly uncontrolled but nevertheless crashing), and if deployed does it not entangle with the (windmilling) propellers? ...

So the question "Flight Termination System for H3" has no easy answer. A web search provides no decent results.