Flying inside a church?

[Lady Rover]

Hi,

I got asked to fly inside a church to de-dust the walls ;-)
Apparently the dust compromises the organ over time and the organ builder suggested cleaning the walls.

As scaffolding is to complicated and expensive and the drone props create a lot of airflow, we want to use the drone to propel the dust which has settled on the rough plaster in the air and than wipe up the majority of it once it's settled on the floor.

Here is the question, has anyone experience flying indoors?

How good does the position control work?
Most likely one needs to switch the sensors off as the dust will compromise them.
Not sure about GPS reception.

Most likely I'll fly with a Mavic Air or Mavic Pro. Prop guard attached.

Thanks for your thoughts & suggestions,

Fran

 

[Olav van Gerven]

de-dusting will not really work, it will be more re-placing the dust. The wind produced by the props will blow up the dust, but it will not dasappear, just come down at another place.

It is unlikely that you get a gps-signal inside the church (any building), so the flight has to be done 100% manual. I would advice to use the propguards, IF sou come to close to an object, they might prevent a crash and/or damage, nut that is what you figured yourself already.

Depending on the amount of dust, there not only might be a sensorproblem, but also the problem of dust being sucked into the drone (coolingfan...). TO be honoust, I would think twice, sleep a night and think again and then pretty sure would decide not to do it.

 

[Marty Markoe]

As scaffolding is to complicated and expensive and the drone props create a lot of airflow

Highly doubt The props can remove years of dust caked on walls and ledges. Frankly, I would use a high ladder or step ladder and a long handled duster for high ceilings. See:

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www.amazon.com

 

[THE CYBORG]

Can't see it working to good but you could always give it a tentative trial to see if it is viable.
At least you would look good in the eyes of the church curator for attempting to help.

 

[Lady Rover]

de-dusting will not really work, it will be more re-placing the dust. The wind produced by the props will blow up the dust, but it will not dasappear, just come down at another place.

It is unlikely that you get a gps-signal inside the church (any building), so the flight has to be done 100% manual. I would advice to use the propguards, IF sou come to close to an object, they might prevent a crash and/or damage, nut that is what you figured yourself already.

Depending on the amount of dust, there not only might be a sensorproblem, but also the problem of dust being sucked into the drone (coolingfan...). TO be honoust, I would think twice, sleep a night and think again and then pretty sure would decide not to do it.

Thank you.

Actually my first thought was too that it will not work, but, thinking about it, it might work.
The reason is that the dust will not settle in large amounts on the rough plaster again, but most of it will distribute itself over the complete floorspace of the interior where it can be wiped up.
We are not talking about 100% dust free. But a reduction of perhaps 90%.

Regarding the fan inside you are right. Will need to land and vacuum the drone occasionally.

Regarding caked dust, we are after the loose stuff which can easily become airborne again. The caked dust poses no risk to the organ.
Ladder or scaffolding is very difficult and dangerous, it is a big church.
The ladder would need to be about 100ft long.
They had already specialists in trying to clean anything reachable with extensions and ladders.

Still no way to reach the upper 40ft that way.

Only alternative would be a cherrypicker.

Thanks for your replies!

 

[THE CYBORG]

Like I say if you feel confident then there is no harm in a little test flight.

 

[Lady Rover]

Yep ;-)

Scheduled for Friday morning, if they actually give the go ahead in principle.

Like I say if you feel confident then there is no harm in a little test flight.

 

[BigAl07]

We've never "intentionally" stirred up a dust storm inside but we have done it as part of a process of shooting some video for a client in a factory setting. At the time we were using a Phantom3 Pro and it did stir up a lot of dust from on the upper walls, flat areas, and from very near by objects that were well out of reach. It made a pretty good mess but the walls weren't affected until we got very close to them which can be a challenge if you're not comfortable flying in ATTI mode in close quarters. Remember the majority of the air is going straight down and not out directly from the sides.

Be on your A-game and give it some practice flights. Also wear a dust mask and eye protection because a LOT of it is coming down when you get close to the areas.

 

[Lady Rover]

Good points. Might add a deflector (pointing into all directions, but towards the wall) a bit below the drone.
We came up with the idea when I flew above a cupboard at my brother's place ;-)

We've never "intentionally" stirred up a dust storm inside but we have done it as part of a process of shooting some video for a client in a factory setting. At the time we were using a Phantom3 Pro and it did stir up a lot of dust from on the upper walls, flat areas, and from very near by objects that were well out of reach. It made a pretty good mess but the walls weren't affected until we got very close to them which can be a challenge if you're not comfortable flying in ATTI mode in close quarters. Remember the majority of the air is going straight down and not out directly from the sides.

Be on your A-game and give it some practice flights. Also wear a dust mask and eye protection because a LOT of it is coming down when you get close to the areas.

 

[hiflyer201]

Dusting with a drone...what a concept
I can hear it now....”a drone blew away all of our hymnals”
Ladder, leaf blower and mask! And remember the poor drone Would be breathing that dust cloud

 

[Lady Rover]

Ladder and leaf blower 100ft up. Not really....
See my previous post.

Thanks anyway.

Dusting with a drone...what a concept
I can hear it now....”a drone blew away all of our hymnals”
Ladder, leaf blower and mask! And remember the poor drone Would be breathing that dust cloud

 

[lannes]

Adding a deflector will need some practice, I'm not sure how the AC will adapt to the changed airflow, might affect the IMU.

 

[Skyflyer129]

Please keep us informed on how it goes Lady Rover, you’ve got me curious on how this will work. I’m a routing for ya’.
Blue Skies ?

 

[Lady Rover]

Will do. Testflight happens tomorrow.

 

[paul242]

Can you fly in Tripod mode to keep all the movements slower?

 

[BigAl07]

Will do. Testflight happens tomorrow.

Make sure you have someone who can take some video of the process We LOVE videos

 

[Lady Rover]

Absolutely. That's the plan.

Can you fly in Tripod mode to keep all the movements slower?

 

[Lady Rover]

Tomorrow is just a brief test.
When the real deal happens I'll take some video.

Make sure you have someone who can take some video of the process We LOVE videos

 

[Huo]

How good does the position control work?

Compared to human? Absolutely miserably useless. If it sees reflecting floor it thinks the ground is moving and drifts. It is as blind as a bat and needs birght light and patterned surfaces to make sense out of anything. What makes things work as well as they do is the fact that it is not just the vision system, but the gps as well, and the barometer as well, and some **** smart algos that DJI has evolved over the years.

So indoors we struggle against both weak GPS signal and poor vision, and obstacle avoidance isn't something to count on. So it becomes a choice of turning all those off and using pilot skills. Damage caused to uav and church with be directly proportional to pilot skill if using pure manual flight, and plain old dumb luck if relying on uav position control.

 

[Lady Rover]

The test got postponed to Sunday after service...