FLYING A DRONE ON MARS Must-know signs & symbols FLY SAFE SPIED & TRIED! We test-fly the DJI Air 2S Join a $64 billion industry! 10 TOP JOBS Pro photo tips & tricks ELEVATED SELFIES Counting Penguins ARCTIC SURVEY AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2021 RotorDronePro.comFEATURES 20 ‹ 10 Top Jobs Fields where drones are taking off! BY TEAM ROTORDRONE PRO 38 ‹ Mission to Mars NASA’s high-tech sUAS BY PATRICK SHERMAN & TUNESHA GRIFFITH 54 ‹ Drone Selfies Fun tricks to elevate your feed BY GEORGE SURESH VOLUME 8, NUMBER 4 | AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2021EXPERT TECH 48 ‹ Understanding Aviation Sectional Charts Signs and symbols every remote pilot needs to know BY DAVID ISON 62 ‹ When Drones Go Bad Investigating incidents of rogue operations BY PATRICK SHERMAN AIR SUPPORT 32 ‹ DJI AIR 2S A test-drive of the hottest new consumer drone BY PATRICK SHERMAN DEPARTMENTS 6 ‹ Top View 7 ‹ Return to Home 8 ‹ Aerial Intel 66 ‹ Over the Horizon RotorDrone Pro (USPS 18095; ISSN 2374-8389) is published bimonthly by Air Age Media, Inc., 11 Grumman Hill, Suite 5, Wilton CT 06897 USA. Copyright 2019, all rights reserved. Periodicals postage paid at Wilton, CT, and additional mailing offices. Canada Post Publications Mail Agreement No. 40008153. SUBSCRIPTIONS: Go to RotorDronePro. com/subscribe. 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TOP VIEW BY DEBRA CLEGHORN FLYING ON MARS The first aircraft to fly on Mars, NASA’s Ingenuity spacecraft is a drone in every sense of the word, and among its many achievements is a record distance for beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations. But how does this small helicopter fly in the Martian atmosphere, and how is it being controlled from Earth? You’ll learn the answers to these questions and more in our “Mission to Mars” feature. Did you know that the drone services market is expected to grow to a $64.3 billion dollar industry by 2025? And according to the Federal Aviation Administration, 2.85 million small drones could fill the U.S. skies by as early as next year. It’s no surprise that a variety of fields are using small uncrewed aerial vehicles to increase efficiency and safety, and this month in “10 Top Jobs: Fields where drones are taking off,” we investigate how top ground- breaking industries are incorporating drones into their job sites and workflow. 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CUSTOMER SERVICE To subscribe, submit a change of address, or for questions about your subscription, go to https://rotordronepro.com/help-contact-us You can also send an email to service@airage.com, or call +203-529-4638 8am to 6pm EST Printed in the USA Like a proud parent, the Perseverance rover keeps watch over Ingenuity, standing alone on the Martian surface prior to its first test flight. (Photo courtesy NASA)RotorDrone Pro 11 Grumman Hill, Ste. 5, Wilton, CT 06897 twitter.com/ rotordrone facebook.com/ rotordrone pinterest.com/ rotordronemag instagram.com/ rotordronemag youtube.com/ airagemedia rotordrone@ airage.com RETURN TO HOME RotorDronePro.com › Mailbag Kudos to Zehra Akbar for her feature on blockchain and how many ways it can enhance practical drone operations and applications, from security to maintenance and even mapping. At first, I was surprised to see an article on this topic in a drone magazine, but it really checks a lot of the boxes. I look forward to seeing drone software companies putting blockchain into practice. Diego Garza [email] Instagram Facebook › Cherry Blossom Flight For a moment of Zen, we posted relaxing drone footage through Washington, D.C.’s famous cherry blossoms. Here are a few of your comments: Simon Dacat: Best thing I’ve seen all week! On my bucket list for sure. Emily Bronte: e next best thing to being there. Nice piloting skills! Summer Breeze: Spring in our capitol— what a flight! anks for sharing. We love hearing from our readers. Your emails, tweets, and comments let us know what you’d like to see in print and online. Here’s what some of you are saying about RotorDrone Pro. RotorDronePro.com › Mailbag Like author Patrick Sherman (“ e New Flight Rules,” June/July 2021], I was pleased to learn about the FAA’s updated Operations Over People and at Night Rule. I was also pleasantly surprised to hear that recurrency Airman Knowledge Testing is free and online. Who would have guessed the government would forgo collecting $150 a pop? I do wonder how long these rules will stay in eff ect, however; what the FAA giveth, the FAA can taketh away. As usual, I appreciate how RotorDrone Pro has explained these updates. Robin Meade [email] Does anyone else worry about the updated FAA rules on flying over people? Just because a UAV is airworthy doesn’t mean it can’t hurt people or property on the ground if it’s involved in a midair. I can envision a time when there are so many drones flying over a city that a midair could cause serious harm to those below. Charles Gerhardt, Kansas City, Missouri8 RotorDronePro.com AERIAL INTEL Windracers Mail Delivery W ith its partner Windracers Ltd., Royal Mail has become the first UK parcel carrier to deliver mail to a UK island in a 70-mile, beyond-line-of-sight, autonomous flight to the Scilly Isles. Tasked to better connect the islands’ remote communities, a consortium including Royal Mail, Windracers Ltd., DronePrep, University of Southampton, Excalibur Healthcare Services, and Consortiq Limited is funded by UK Research and Innovation. e large, twin-engine, UK-built UAV from Windracers can fly in poor weather conditions, including fog, potentially enabling Royal Mail to better serve remote island communities. It can carry roughly 220 pounds worth of mail, equivalent to a typical delivery round. A smaller Windracers Ltd. Vertical Take-off and Landing (VTOL) drone will then fly parcels between the islands for delivery to recipients. It the trial is successful, Royal Mail will consider expanding the technology across its network, potentially providing opportunities to better support postmen and postwomen in delivering to remote areas and addresses in the UK. e trial will also examine fuel efficiencies that the drones could provide, as part of the Company’s continued drive to reduce emissions associated with its operations. Windracers Ltd. CEO Charles Scales said, “It’s been a privilege and an honor to serve the Isles of Scilly and Royal Mail’s customers and employees with our autonomous, 100kg over 1,000-kilometer, Ultra UAV. e Ultra platform was designed to supply and serve people in remote locations, whether to children in need of medical or food aid in a country as large as South Sudan, or to serve island communities within our home shores. is project has proven the efficiency and robustness of Ultra, with each round trip being 211km and being completed in less than two hours. With our unique CAA permissions, this will be the first time a large, economic, load carrying UAV is used between the Isles of Scilly and mainland Cornwall in a month-long trial. I want to thank our team and our project partners, the UK Government’s August/September 2021 9 Skyward, a Verizon company, announced its integration with Pix4D, giving customers the ability to turn drone data into 2D maps and 3D models. Enterprises and drone pilots can now plan flights, receive approval to fly in controlled airspace with LAANC, fly with Skyward’s InFlight ground control station, and process data using Pix4D—all from within the Skyward platform. Skyward President Mariah Scott, said, “Enterprises in construction, energy and utilities, and the public sector can get even more ROI out of their drone programs when combining Skyward’s drone management platform with Pix4D’s market-leading photogrammetry tools.” Skyward Mapping & Modeling, powered by Pix4D, enables customers to create, view, measure, and export 2D orthomosaic maps and 3D photogrammetric models right from Skyward’s web app. With the processing power of Pix4D, the market leader in photogrammetry software technology, Skyward customers can get business-ready data sets through a seamless plan, fly, process workflow. skyward.io Skyward & Pix4D Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, Cornwall Development Company, Civil Aviation Authority, DronePrep, Consortiq and University of Southampton.” In December, Royal Mail became the first nationwide UK parcel carrier to deliver a parcel for recipients via drone to a remote lighthouse on the Isle of Mull in Scotland. In coming months, a consultation will be undertaken with residents on the use of drones to deliver to rural communities on the island. windracers.orgNext >