Coal Age Magazine - For more than 100 years, Coal Age has been the magazine that readers can trust for guidance and insight on this important industry.
Issue link: https://coal.epubxp.com/i/695160
June 2016 www.coalage.com 25 mapping & surveying continued fixed-wing design would allow for a larger area flown (measured in acres) as well as a higher density of collected data for the site's large topography areas. The other consideration, he said, was entirely tied to safety — that is, a desire to keep employees out of harm's way of the rotating propeller. The UX5's design launches it from the ground using a bungee cord attached to the launcher, with the electric motor starting and the propeller kicking on only after a cer- tain air speed is attained following launch. "This particular drone design mini- mizes an accidental human contact with the moving propeller during preflight and actual flight operations," he said. "When this drone is landing, the propeller stops and the unit belly lands for a safe drone retrieval and return to the storage case." In addition to the safety factor and its flight time, Falkirk selected the Trimble UX5 because of the product's reputation and the integrity of the manufacturer. "The main time savings and cost benefit with the drone is on larger areas," Obrigewitch said of another benefit, the speed possibilities and fight time flexibility. After all, the drone has a complex job to do once it is in the air. "From the drone flights, aerial photog- raphy is taken that will produce deliverables of an orthorectified image, point cloud and 3-D surface module," he explained. "The surface modeling is used to calculate quan- tities [and] the imagery is used for planning purposes and mapping that allows you to zoom in on an area and get details down to 1- or 2-in. resolution. This type of resolution is great for planning with the high detail. The additional time and money savings for Falkirk magnifies tremendously in com- parison when the unit flies in a larger area Getting FAA Approval for Drone Use Should another operator want to add a drone to their own planning feet, Obrigewitch and Burke stressed that there are several steps to getting proper approvals, and plenty of time should be allotted to obtain everything needed before the drone takes its frst fight. • Make a decision on the particular drone or drones you wish to purchase. They will need to be identifed in the 333 Exemption and COA paperwork submitted to FAA. Once the drone is purchased, begin the paper-based regis- tration for a commercial drone (as of mid- 2016, the FAA has proposed to have an online commercial registration in place). Contact the FAA Aircraft Registration Branch or local Flight Standards District Offce for the paper Form 8050-1. You will need the 8050-1 form mailed, as it is not online, and you can only use the FAA form that they will provide to you. You may wish to have two Form 8050-1s sent just in case of a mistake. The information re- quest areas are small, and the FAA will only accept their 8050-1 forms. • Form 8050-2, "Aircraft Bill of Sale," and 8050-88, "Affdavit of Ownership," are both required for this process. Both can be down- loaded and printed from the FAA website. These forms require company information along with a legal name of the drone man- ufacture, model name, serial number from purchased drone, class (airplane, rotorcraft, glider, etc.), the number of engines and type, maximum takeoff weight (which includes all items on board) and category (operate on land, sea or both). • The Falkirk mine researched the FAA rules and regulation information and wrote the 333 Exemption in December 2014. A great source on what is required by the FAA on the 333 Exemption is found under the FAA website "Guidelines for Submitting a Petition of Exemption." • Next, submit the 333 Exemption to the FAA online at regulation.gov. From the home page, select the Search tab and type in shell docket number "FAA-2007-0001." Then select "In- structions on Filing a Submission to FAA" for applications, petitions, exemptions and any other. After it opens, select "Comment Now" and type in the submitter's name, mailing address and contact information. Attach the 333 Exemption and submit. Falkirk mine submitted their 333 Exemption on January 2, 2015, and received approval from the FAA on April 16, 2015. The approved 333 Exemption from the FAA included a blanket certifcate of operation (COA), which allowed a drone oper- ating fight altitude of 200 ft above ground level (AGL) only, which was different than the approved 333 Exemption that had stated a 400-ft AGL drone operation. • In order to take advantage of the 400-ft AGL altitude shown in the approved 333 Exemp- tion, an additional amended COA was sub- mitted to the FAA by Falkirk. To submit an amendment to the COA, there is an online portal under the FAA website called "UAS COA Online System." This COA submittal needs the current approved exemption number and docket number and latitude/longitude of the drone fight areas. Additionally, providing air- craft type, model name, aircraft registration number (received after flling out FAA form 8050-1) will be required, along with climb/ descent, turn rates, approach and cruise speeds, gross takeoff weight, launch/recovery type, amended altitude request, description of operation and how the drones fail safes re- act for a lost link or lost communications is- sue. The approval time on this was very quick for Falkirk, Burke said, with an approval from the FAA in fve days. As of March 29, 2016, the FAA raised the "blanket" COA altitude to a 400-ft AGL, so this step would not be nec- essary if you maintain the 400-ft AGL or less during drone fights. While Obrigewitch said the mine had no is- sues or problems with any regulatory bodies along the way, there are a few things other operations should keep in mind: • Not accurate when reading water • Doesn't do well in vegetation • File sizes are huge • Great planning tool • Pictures can be valuable • Hard to get the drone stuck The camera and software on board the drone helps Falkirk collect numerous types of data over large areas, including surveying and planning, topography, water management and coal stockpile volume monitoring.