Taxiing past a taxiing drone

That's pretty slick!
Curious - do you hear the pilot/operator talking to ATC while they're taxiing/flying?
Always wondered how those comms would work for a remotely operated aircraft.
 
ArrowFlyer86 said:
That's pretty slick!
Curious - do you hear the pilot/operator talking to ATC while they're taxiing/flying?
Always wondered how those comms would work for a remotely operated aircraft.
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I don't remember hearing them, but I think one time we may have.
 
ArrowFlyer86 said:
That's pretty slick!
Curious - do you hear the pilot/operator talking to ATC while they're taxiing/flying?
Always wondered how those comms would work for a remotely operated aircraft.
Click to expand...

Aircraft has transmitters on it. That's one of the newer versions that has onboard "detect and avoid" systems and doesn't have to fly with a chase aircraft. Pretty gucci setup from a pilot perspective compared to the rest of the RPA control systems.

www.ga-asi.com

Certifiable Ground Control Station (CGCS)

GA-ASI's Certifiable Ground Control Station (CGCS) was designed for use with Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS), specifically the MQ-9B SkyGuardian/SeaGuardian – the world's first RPA designed and built to fly in non-segregated airspace
www.ga-asi.com
 

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That's interesting, I thought the Air Force owned the MQ9's, yet it has an N number and its owner is DHS.
 
There are far more operators of them now than just the USAF.
 
One time in Afghanistan I was instructed to hold for one that seemed like an eternity. Just got fuel in the FARP and loaded up some special ops ODA guys. Sitting there like 10 minutes when one of the dudes in the back “chief, what’s the hold up?” Finally, a Predator departs right in front of us. Always amazed at how they launched those aircraft being controlled all the way back at Creech AFB NV.
 
Velocity173 said:
One time in Afghanistan I was instructed to hold for one that seemed like an eternity. Just got fuel in the FARP and loaded up some special ops ODA guys. Sitting there like 10 minutes when one of the dudes in the back “chief, what’s the hold up?” Finally, a Predator departs right in front of us. Always amazed at how they launched those aircraft being controlled all the way back at Creech AFB NV.
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My understanding is there are takeoff and landing qualified pilots at the field with line of site that take care of departures and arrivals. Sometime after departure they hand off control to the crews at Creech, or wherever else the ops are controlled out of. I believe there was enough latency in the satellite based control from the other side of the globe to be “problematic” during takeoff and landings. It wasn’t uncommon for them to step on radio comms in an air stack over an op for the same latency reasons.

This Air Force fact sheet makes mention of it: https://www.af.mil/About-Us/Fact-Sheets/Display/article/104469/mq-1b-predator/

I know it’s for the Predator but I would imagine Reapers have a similar limitation. My info could be dated though.
 
Arm3 said:
My understanding is there are takeoff and landing qualified pilots at the field with line of site that take care of departures and arrivals. Sometime after departure they hand off control to the crews at Creech, or wherever else the ops are controlled out of. I believe there was enough latency in the satellite based control from the other side of the globe to be “problematic” during takeoff and landings. It wasn’t uncommon for them to step on radio comms in an air stack over an op for the same latency reasons.

This Air Force fact sheet makes mention of it: https://www.af.mil/About-Us/Fact-Sheets/Display/article/104469/mq-1b-predator/

I know it’s for the Predator but I would imagine Reapers have a similar limitation. My info could be dated though.
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They probably did. I never ventured down to their area to check it out. This wasn’t an area (Jalalabad) where I was based. They always had priority over all other flights except emergencies. Almost hit one once on departure as well.
 
Yeah, waiting for them could be frustrating. Even more fun could result when they’d go lost link and RTB themselves direct through whatever ROZ happened to be between them and home. I never had the pleasure, but squadron mates had stories them fly though their orbit unannounced at co-altitude.

Coolest one I saw was the Beast of Kandahar takeoff one morning when I was headed to breakfast. Didn’t find out what it was until later.
 
Arm3 said:
Yeah, waiting for them could be frustrating. Even more fun could result when they’d go lost link and RTB themselves direct through whatever ROZ happened to be between them and home. I never had the pleasure, but squadron mates had stories them fly though their orbit unannounced at co-altitude.

Coolest one I saw was the Beast of Kandahar takeoff one morning when I was headed to breakfast. Didn’t find out what it was until later.
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Actually flew through one of their ROZs before without comms with the “controlling agency.” The airspace piece was a **** show when I was there and not being able to establish comms was common. Anyway, when I got back to the TOC, flight ops got a call from someone who was pretty ticked about us flying through their ROZ. Whatever.
 
Arm3 said:
My understanding is there are takeoff and landing qualified pilots at the field with line of site that take care of departures and arrivals. Sometime after departure they hand off control to the crews at Creech, or wherever else the ops are controlled out of. I believe there was enough latency in the satellite based control from the other side of the globe to be “problematic” during takeoff and landings. It wasn’t uncommon for them to step on radio comms in an air stack over an op for the same latency reasons.

This Air Force fact sheet makes mention of it: https://www.af.mil/About-Us/Fact-Sheets/Display/article/104469/mq-1b-predator/

I know it’s for the Predator but I would imagine Reapers have a similar limitation. My info could be dated though.
Click to expand...

Info is correct. Some of the aircraft have auto takeoff and landing now, but for the most part there are still launch and recovery crews downrange while the mission element is usually stateside.
 
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Well there were quite a few manned ops that flew thru a drone box or three…..a C-130 has the battle scares to prove it. lol. ;)
 
Legend has it at one point they were recruiting RC pilots to fly the take off's and landings locally. Reason being that it's a slightly different skill set than being a conventional pilot. The whole left/right thing with the aircraft coming at you not being intuitive to some people being one example. Another that you're not looking at any gauges or numbers, you're just flying by observation. These days it might be completely different, though.

I do remember my first time seeing a cub up close, and thinking it was built like a giant RC plane...and it kinda flies like one.
 
I can see the recruiting part being legend. The pilots getting confused about left/right when an RC aircraft is headed toward them I've seen. It's kinda funny.
 
And has nothing to do with the type of RPA being discussed. Pretty sure even the smallest military grade RPAs have some type of forward looking camera and flight instrument display for the operator.
 
These days I'm sure they do. When video enabled remote aircraft were first developed, in any size, situational awareness and obstacle avoidance would be difficult. Time frame I'm talking about would be probably 20 years ago, more or less. Flying something with a single forward looking camera and minimal instrumentation is possible, but landing it that way isn't easy, from my experience with little tiny things. Similar to flying a simulator on a VFR approach where the only view you have is straight out the front window, but 'twitchier'.
 
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