We had a break from the workload this morning to have some fun and train one of our new employees. He’s well on his way to becoming a fully qualified and once he’s up to the professional standard of our other RPAS pilots, he will be studying hard to obtain his ‘Permissions’ from the Civil Aviation Authority.
We took one of the smaller drones out this morning. The amazing DJI Phantom 2. Already proficient in GPS flying the ‘student’ (secret for now) is now learning ATTI flying.
While the Phantom is in GPS mode, it will use satellites, gyroscopes and an altimeter to hold it’s position in the air. It is incredibly stable and easy to fly in this mode but as per the CAA guidelines, the pilot has to have a backup method of flying just in case GPS signal is lost. This method is ATTI mode.
In ATTI mode the Phantom will hold its height but not its horizontal position. If the wind blows, the Phantom will move and the pilot has to manually correct its position. It takes a bit of getting used to and it’s always advisable to practice this mode on a calm day.
Today wasn’t a calm day but the ‘student’ is already able to safely control and land the Phantom in ATTI mode. Now all he has to do is learn meteorology, map reading, Newton’s laws of motion and the principles of flight and he’s ready for the Ground School training.
