All posts by Jeff Salmon
An Inside Look
The New FAA UAS Registration Recommendations The UAS Registration Task Force (RTF) Aviation Rulemaking Committee has recently published its recommendations. For an insider’s look, we talked to Altavian’s John Perry, a member of the committee. Unmanned & Unlimited: Could you give us your take on the process? As a representative of MAPPS and as a...
Aqua Bots
Above: The Z-Boat 1800 on a riverine hydrographic survey using sidescan sonar. Unmanned & Unlimited Unmanned aerial systems (UAS) get the lion’s share of media coverage, which is just not fair. Hardworking unmanned marine platforms, both surface and subsurface, have a lot to offer in the hydrographic surveying and inspection space. As a big bonus...
Top of the Crop: Best of Pangaea 2015
As we end the year 2015, it’s interesting and informative to look back and see what you, our readers, found most interesting. Using metrics gleaned from our newsletter platform, I picked the top five issues for… Best of Pangaea 2015 Surprising UAS Section 333 Exemptions UAS continue to be a hot topic as the FAA...
Multicopter Profiles
The eXom, RiCOPTER, Aibot X6, and Trimble ZX5 SenseFly’s eXom Inspection and close-in mapping sUAS I first saw sensFly’s new eXom sUAS at the ILMF conference in Denver early this year. It’s billed as an inspection and close-in mapping platform, and I thought, “Inspection? That’s interesting” and moved on. Turns out the team at senseFly...
Getting Beyond VLOS
The FAA’s streamlined Section 333 exemption and COA process is welcome, but there’s still a fly in the ointment. While the ongoing FAA Section 333 exemption process is a big step in the right direction for UAS, all operators flying under these exemptions are constrained by the VLOS rule: all flights must be conducted within...
Feature: A Strategic Shift to Ship Scanning
A surveying firm based in the United Kingdom leverages its terrestrial 3D scanning and modeling expertise into a new market: marine and shipping applications.In February this magazine showed how Fenstermaker and Associates expanded their firm by successfully employing “Diversification through Scanning.” Now we take the idea another step to a firm with extensive 3D scanning experience that is...
