It was canceled at the last minute two weeks ago, but now a drone was able to take off for the first experimental transport flight to Texel. “It went very well,” says drone pilot Jim van der Mee of DroneQ, who organized the flight with the maritime technology center METIP.
The preparations had taken no less than two years, so it was a disappointment that it was two weeks ago couldn’t go on. The cause: sea flame, or rapidly rising fog at sea. Even now it was just as exciting. “Last night we heard that solar storms could come,” said drone pilot Jim van der Mee of DroneQ. “The GPS can get confused there and six months ago satellites even fell from the sky.”
Soil sample
But this morning the company was given the green light. Van der Mee: “We took off in Huisduinen, went around the Razende Bol and flew over Texel to the NIOZ research institute. There, the contaminated soil sample that the drone had taken with it was removed, after which a bird transmitter was inserted. test what the range of the transmitter was. Then it flew back to Huisduinen.”
There was another small surprise, because the NIOZ had also given the drone a t-shirt as a bonus. “With this experimental flight we want to show that drones can be used to transport stuff,” says Van der Mee. “We are ready for it, but the laws and regulations do not yet allow the use of drones.”
Flying with a drone to the Wadden Islands or drilling platforms is cheaper and less polluting than when ships or helicopters are used, as is now often the case.
drilling platform
Today it was a controlled flight, which was coordinated with air base de Kooy and the navy – who also held an exercise today. “There are more flights to come. For example, we are working to get an exemption for the first test flight to a drilling platform, specifically the L10-Alpha, which is 60 kilometers off the coast. While the drone we have now used is small and 40 kilometers can fly, it will soon be a larger drone that can fly 160 kilometers far and can take up to 15 kilos of luggage.”