Un uccello cane modificato :-)
How accurately can you pinpoint land mines? Are you just looking for general areas or can you pinpoint individual ones?
Sorry kwlf,
It was just way too good a flying day yesterday to be chatting on the internet!
The vertical gradient magnatometers on the 206, and then the SM1019 are intended to detect individual landmines, and GPS locate them in real time. A huge stream of data is produced for later analysis. I don't know much about this technology, just how the plane flies with them attached.
I did the initial flying for the system checks. The operator put a steel trailer hitch ball in the grass beside the runway, with an orange traffic marker beside it. He had me fly centerline over it at 500 feet, and did detect it, but not with great certainty or precision. He then had me fly centerline over it as low as I was willing. He was very happy with that pass. He then asked me to fly one wingtip over it for calibration. Problem was when I came around again, the orange market was not visible - I had blown it away with my first pass. I landed, and we set it up again. The trials went very well. I have not heard anything about the inservice use of the system, but I am able to contact him if there is a need for more detailed information.
The people at that airport are getting pretty used to me flying planes with weird things sticking out of them....
I thought anti-personnel landmines were plastic...
Thanks... No need for further information - just curious to see what the state of the art is capable of. Also impressive to get it working on an aircraft that is presumably full of ferrous bits.
Yes, the ferrous bits, and various motors can be a problem for the magnetic sensors. There are some offsets they can enter to the data to correct for the fixed ones, but the ones which move in flight are a problem. We do a lot of conversions to replaced steel parts in flight control systems with non magnetic stainless steel parts. Survey companies like pilots who move the flight controls as little as possible during flight.
When I was flight testing the SM1019, I had the owner/client/operator in the back. He was asking me to turn off aircraft systems one by one to see which one was interfering with his sensors. I was down to the last one - fuel pump. Flight Manual says on all the time. As the engine is turbine, and dependent upon a pressurized fuel supply (and there is no FM procedure), I was reluctant. But, I flew to gliding distance of the airport, and turned it off. The turbine engine continued to run, and it was the source of the interference. I told him that he'd better find a way to tolerate the interference, as no pilot should be flying around with the fuel pump off.
As for the plastic mines, I did ask about that, and no, they are not generally detectable this way- but I'm no expect on land mines either....
When you say Obama you have to acknowledge the fact that he really is a potential target for many people. In june 2011, France closed part of its airspace, including model aircraft in an area of 30NM radius for ...
the wedding of Albert of Monaco!
Don't laugh please. He is a real target to. At least for paparazzi. Strangely enough, the temporary restricted area was not centered on Monaco. That's because East, there is Italy which saw no point in closing its airspace for such a "unsignificant" event.
Obama has been in Germany before IIRC 2010.
Don't ask how I know.
:-)
Today two police cars showed up at the local airport to look if anybody flies and to make sure everybody know that the leader of the free world is around.
I can live with that thinking and activism. However, I can not live with government continuously eroding citizen rights. Flying my airplane around Berlin is my right as a citizen of the EU.
Achim, I don't think that is quite correct?
Is flying your airplane around Berlin really your right as a citizen of the EU? Is it not rather so that it is a privilege granted to you by a democratically legitimated authority? And isn't it that those democratically legitimated authorities, in fact, have a right to limit the area in which those privileges may be exercised temporarily or permanently if they deem appropriate to do so?
Just the question IF what they're doing right now is "appropriate" is a matter of opinion and can be debated. But it's nothing to do with rights, I'd say?
Cheers Patrick
