Good use of existing infrastructure

[Joeboy]

I really like this.

https://electrek.co/2023/10/30/in-a-wor ... -turbines/

[Stinsy]

Seems like vapourware to me!

My understanding is that current drone technology allows the drone to carry its own weight for about 20 mins. The bigger you make the battery the more weight so the endurance remains the same. If you add payload (normally camera equipment) then the endurance reduces significantly.

Autonomous aircraft are the simple bit. It is the energy density of the battery that is the limiting factor.

[Moxi]

Dunno about that Stinsy but I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that the Ukrainians were asking Ørsted to borrow a few drones for some “special deliveries” of their own.

Moxi

[Tay]

There is some careful wording there.

Drone usage has always been about flight times as mentioned, the commercial stuff has generally had better flight time than the prosumer versions that I mostly used. Its not a simple case of bigger battery = more flight time or vice versa.

There are many factors affecting the flight time, not least of which is the actually weight of the drone. quad motor drones or drones of that ilk are heavily affect by head wind, this could affect the flight time by more than 50%, but it varies, there is typically a sweet spot for it.
Vertical take off drones that transition to horizontal flight (like traditional planes) offer much more range than previous quad bladed drones.

I'd be very interested to see how far they actually are flying those drones, the implication was that its from ground based launches, yet all I really saw was the ship based launches which were probably very close to the turbine.

Seems like a good advert, but I'd like to see some raw facts about their use. I spent some years flying drones trying to navigate the nuances of our CAA drone legislation.

[Joeboy]

Shipbased take offs and landings to avoid WT shutdowns is how I read it. Would be interesting to know the rules on humans close by to WT's.

I've done a fair amount of at sea boarding from vessel to fixed and vessel to vessel and its not great. If the human risk can be taken out.

It's bad enough jumping from a moving vessel to a ladder without X amount of gear in a backpack too.

[ALAN/ALAN D]

Quote from Mr Joeboy “ It's bad enough jumping from a moving vessel to a ladder without X amount of gear in a backpack too. “

Used to work for Trinity House back in 1970.

Don't think it would be allowed Today how the getting On / Off used to happen.

[AGT]

I did a daft thing once, not sure what it was called, clearly not done in the UK!,

It’s like a large ring at the bottom, with a smaller ring at the top, connected together with a cargo net, and a crane lifts and lowers it.

You stand on the ring, put your hands through the cargo net, interlink them and then the crane lifts you up to the helideck……

After that was easier to walk up and down the steps and avoid the ring!!

[Fintray]

One of these:

[AGT]

That’s the thing, no hard hats, harness etc just holding on

Older wiser me wouldn’t even entertain that now, young and daft me, didn’t think about it!

[Joeboy]

I did a daft thing once, not sure what it was called, clearly not done in the UK!,

It’s like a large ring at the bottom, with a smaller ring at the top, connected together with a cargo net, and a crane lifts and lowers it.

You stand on the ring, put your hands through the cargo net, interlink them and then the crane lifts you up to the helideck……

After that was easier to walk up and down the steps and avoid the ring!!

A Billy Pugh, I was boarding one in Nigeria and this huge Nigerian across from me on it said 'I see fear,, your eyes', it was meant very derogatory. I waited until we were 80ft up, went 'hey', took my arms off it, just stood there (leaning in) and said 'where's the fear now c**t'. He was absolutely bricking it.!

Eyes down for a full house every time he passed me on the rig.

I'm not so much like that now.