Insert Image: Director, Rowley Cory-Wright, Hexcam
Main Featured Image: Hexcam. StirlingX, a GALLOS company, is providing HexCam with the Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) ‘SPARROW HAWK’ fixed-wing drone that will be conducting BVLOS flights along the corridor
Article by Hexcam
Standfirst: Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) drone flights present huge opportunities for large scale infrastructure projects such as offshore wind and powerline upgrades, says Rowley Cory-Wright, director of HexCam.
HexCam, a Norfolk-based commercial drone operator, is part of a collaborative partnership that’s on a mission to make large area construction surveys safer and quicker for major infrastructure project developers.
The company is one of just six in the UK to be selected by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) for a “sandbox” trial that aims to make Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) drone flights an “everyday reality”.
The CAA project will enable HexCam to control drones remotely from its base at Felthorpe Airfield, near Norwich, and carry out BVLOS survey and mapping flights along the 60km long onshore construction corridor of RWE’s Norfolk Offshore Wind Projects.
HexCam has been providing aerial video, survey and mapping services to J. Murphy & Sons as well as directly to Vattenfall (who have now sold the projects to RWE) for the past three years. It’s currently carrying out monthly ‘construction progress’ survey and mapping missions along the western third of the cable corridor between the sub station site at Necton and the River Wensum crossing at Elsing.
The speed at which it’s able to complete these surveys will be significantly enhanced by its participation in the CAA BVLOS sandbox project. As part of the project, HexCam is working with its project partners to fly a fixed-wing drone, which can travel further and for much longer than a standard ‘quadcopter’ drone.
StirlingX, a GALLOS company, is providing HexCam with the Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) ‘SPARROW HAWK’ fixed-wing drone that will be conducting BVLOS flights along the corridor. The first short-range test flights have already been completed and these will be extended in the coming months as HexCam gains CAA approval of its new Operating Safety Case (OSC) covering the new drone’s planned longer range survey work.
“Under standard CAA permissions, we used to be limited to flying out to just 500 metres from where we were positioned. We’d then have to pack everything down, relocate further along the construction corridor, set up and do it all again,” said director Rowley Cory-Wright.
With its current enhanced CAA permissions, HexCam is already able to fly its drones out to 2,500 metres as well as use a dual-pilot system that allows control to be passed between two pilots – delivering huge time savings and efficiency gains as the team ‘leap-frog’ along long linear routes.
“We can now complete mapping of the western third of the corridor in about six hours, from only seven take-off and landing sites,” said Rowley.
A ‘Visual Observer’ (VO) located between and in direct 2-way radio contact with the 2 pilots helps to maintain the required direct visual contact with the drone but, as part of the sandbox project, HexCam is now testing Electronic Conspicuity (EC) devices, which sit on the drone and communicate its location to other airspace users.
As well as StirlingX, HexCam has also partnered with Global Drone Training to ensure its team is fully qualified to conduct BVLOS flights, while Norwich Airport’s Air Traffic Control team is overseeing the airspace integration and helping to test and prove the reliability of Electronic Conspicuity measures.
“Our ultimate goal is to fly the SPARROW HAWK fixed wing drone from Felthorpe along the 60km long corridor, carry out a survey, then fly back and land here,” said Rowley.
“It’s about making survey work quicker, safer and less obtrusive for land owners.”
For more information, visit hexcam.co.uk/bvlostrial, call 01603 327676 or email hello@hexcam.co.uk
+44 (0)7436 140185