Tips and Tricks: Fly The Way You Were Supposed To! (Synthetic Vision)

Written by Andre Louis-Ferdinand

Cinemizer OLED Multimedia Video Glasses

Some of you fly your drone or plan to fly it using FPV (First Person View). Initially, being a helicopter pilot, I thought drone racers and enthusiasts were just using these to get a more "true" experience, but I was definitely wrong. Using FPV from goggles like these pictured to the right on Amazon (click their title to see them there), gives the operator a huge advantage while flying. They essentially put you in the cockpit of the unmanned drone and give you a whole new level of situational awareness.

While using FPV, the operator/digital aviator is able to do and react to things not possible on a flat screen or flying by VLOS (visual line of sight) of the aircraft. However, be prepared, because glasses like these are the absolute best and, like most technology on the edge, they don't come cheap. For an example of what this new level of situational awareness can achieve, watch this quick video HERE. You will not be disappointed!

FatShark FPV Goggles

However, there are several less expensive options like the synthetic vision system to the left. The Fat Shark brand is probably your best "bang for your buck." They, at a comfortable price, provide an excellent viewing experience as well.

Initially, I expected that using this type of technology would take some time to get used to. I was wrong. It only takes time to get comfortable with. After a few flights, I could do maneuvers and missions I would have never thought possible; this includes flying between trees with ease, remotely manually making precision approaches & landings, and even flying inches over terrain.

To put it simply, synthetic vision is going to be the future of UAS (unmanned aircraft systems). It dramatically increases the situational awareness and allows the user to see the way millions of years of evolution intended (bi-ocular depth perception). For this reason, your brain is able to understand what it is seeing and react to it far faster than a standard flat screen. I have even seen set-ups where one eye shows the visual image from the camera and the other eye shows a FLIR (forward looking infrared) image from another camera. This allows the operator to fly safe visually and search for important heat signatures for search & rescue operations! However, a set-up like that takes time to get used to.