When I was a child, I liked origami planes. When I grew up, I became a drone "flying hand".


　　Wuhan "test pilot" sent thousands of drones to the sky

　　Recently, in Dongxihu District Cross-Strait Science and Technology Industrial Park, a half-person-height drone rolled off the production line of Wuhan Jet Aviation Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Jet Aviation"), and the test flight was handed over to the test pilot Huang Lei's hands.

　　47-year-old Huang Lei is the first-generation drone trainer in Wuhan, and his other identity is a drone test pilot.

In the early years, he liked to do origami planes by himself, and he began to expand the drone service to the field of drone manufacturing.

He has personally sent thousands of qualified drones to the blue sky and white clouds.

　　test flight

　　"Hundreds of thousands of yuan of equipment disappeared all of a sudden"

　　The Jet Airways JT380 drone can survey 1,300 square kilometers per day, and was booked by the Hubei Provincial Bureau of Surveying and Mapping before it went offline.

　　"Test flight must meet two conditions before leaving the factory." On April 26, Huang Lei said with a smile that he was somewhat similar to a fighter test pilot: a new model needs to be off the assembly line for 300 accident-free test flights, even if it is the 299th test flight. If there is a problem in the second flight, it has to be re-adjusted and then tested from scratch.

　　After passing the test flight, the drone will be equipped with the lidar, multispectral camera or Phase One camera required by the customer.

According to Huang Lei, it is only qualified for 3 flights with equipment without failure.

　　Open the vehicle ground station, set the test flight route through the laptop, set the airspeed, flight altitude and the starting point of the drone... In the outskirts of Dongxi Lake, in just a few minutes, Huang Lei completed the preparations for the test flight of the drone in one go.

One key take off, dust is flying.

After the drone takes off, it automatically enters the cruise state, and returns smoothly after the cruise.

　　Because the JT380 UAV is a mature model, it only needs to be installed and tested for 3 times to verify the normal use of the equipment.

"The lidar is more than 1 million yuan, and the Phase One camera is more than 400,000 yuan..." Looking at the expensive equipment on the drone, Huang Lei did not dare to slack off. He knew that any mistakes in the test flight would bring heavy losses to the company.

　　During the test flight, it is necessary to test the UAV's flight attitude, airborne time and extreme flight performance, such as maximum wind resistance, minimum turning angle, etc. According to the use environment of the UAV, it is sometimes necessary to go to the Hoh Xil Plateau at an altitude of more than 4,000 meters for testing.

　　Flying drones is often dangerous.

Huang Lei remembered that when he was testing a new model in Hoh Xil, he was suddenly unable to receive the drone signal at high altitude.

He judged based on experience that it was the interference of electrical clutter, which caused the GPS signal of the drone to disappear.

The drone did not fly according to the scheduled route. In order to eliminate the problem that the drone signal was shielded and unresponsive, Huang Lei installed an anti-jamming GPS module on the device.

　　There is still a chance of survival if the signal disappears during the test flight, and the sudden loss of power of the drone is the most fatal.

During a test flight, due to a mechanical failure, the drone at high altitude suddenly lost power, and repeated rescues did not help. Huang Lei could only watch the drone fall to the ground. , it hurts."

　　Huang Lei introduced that the vertical take-off and landing fixed-wing UAV JT450 produced by Jet Airways is the main model that has been continuously improved in the test.

　　emergency　

　　Remote guidance to rescue the 800-mile out of danger drone

　　One day in April 2021, a drone flew over the Houhe National Nature Reserve in Wufeng County with undulating peaks and mountains. When it returned after inspecting 50,000 mu of forest in 4 hours, it did not land as scheduled, but Directly over the head of the "flying hand" Zhang Guofeng... "It's over, don't listen to orders!" Zhang Guofeng, who was in a cold sweat, immediately video connected to Huang Lei, 400 kilometers away, for guidance.

　　A drone can complete the patrol of 50,000 mu of forest resources at a time. If it is replaced by manual labor, it will take one person to complete it in a week. Some places with high mountains and dense forests cannot be visited, and the protection of forest resources must be completed by drones. Patrol.

　　Huang Lei once taught Zhang Guofeng, who worked in the Hubei Provincial Forestry Bureau, for 20 days, so that he fully mastered the control of the hanging fixed-wing drone.

Huang Lei has brought out more than 600 apprentices like Zhang Guofeng.

Under the remote guidance of Huang Lei, this aircraft was in danger. In January 2015, Huang Lei signed up for the second 20-day drone pilot training course. There were nearly 40 people in the class, basically all former model aircraft enthusiasts. .

After the assessment, 40-year-old Huang Lei officially obtained the qualification of drone training instructor, and was also the first batch of "flying hand" trainers in Wuhan at that time.

　　"Flying Hand" is what the drone pilot calls himself.

Jet Airways produces 200 drones every year, and at least 200 "flyers" are required. Huang Lei quickly turned from a drone test pilot to a "flyer" trainer.

"It takes at least 12 days to train a JT450 'pilot'." Huang Lei said, for a novice, the difficulty of being a 'pilot' lies in the understanding of flight, especially the flight orientation, attitude and flight indicators under various conditions For example, the relationship between airspeed and ground speed, airspeed is the speed of airflow through the drone body, generally not more than 28 m/s; ground speed is the speed of the drone in the air relative to the ground, usually referred to as is the flight speed, depending on the drone's settings.

In addition, there are also flight attitude requirements such as altitude and flight declination. Generally, the flight declination cannot be greater than 15 degrees.

"Generally, after 40 hours of theoretical lessons and 32 hours of practical lessons, pilots can fly solo after passing the test."

　　Liu Xianwei, head of Jet Airways, and Huang Lei met during a model aircraft flight 20 years ago.

Liu Xianwei, who also loves model aircraft, focuses on the company's R&D and manufacturing.

In his opinion, the drones must have worked well with model aircraft.

The company now holds more than 30 patents and can produce 22 types of UAV models, but there are many uncertainties in the first flight test of the prototype. "The elevator of the UAV controls the flight attitude, and the test pilot must be able to accurately perceive the amount of the rudder. Accurate adjustment of the drone. Huang Lei's perception ability is unparalleled."

　　Start a business　

　　Expanding from drone service to drone manufacturing

　　"UAVs all fly outdoors, can they not be dark?" Thin and black, Huang Lei looks like an outdoor fitness trainer.

　　Huang Lei, who was born in 1975, liked all kinds of airplane toys before he started elementary school. He made origami airplanes by himself. "Ha can fly very far in one breath."

　　In elementary school, Huang Lei was famous for his love of playing with model airplanes, and he also practiced the skills of making model airplanes.

When he was in high school, Huang Lei tried to build a powered and remote-controlled model aircraft, which cost 4,000 yuan.

"I bought an imported remote control for 2,800 yuan, plus an engine of 600 yuan and consumables of more than 300 yuan. The whole cost is equivalent to a year's salary of an ordinary worker." Huang Lei said that his family was very supportive at that time.

Unexpectedly, the model aircraft, which took half a month to manufacture, only flew in the sky for 3 minutes before hitting the ground.

Huang Lei's failure attracted the attention of the Hubei Provincial Model Aircraft Team, and several enthusiastic model aircraft teachers began to bring Huang Lei into the model aircraft organization.

　　During the entire university period, Huang Lei became a model aircraft expert on campus.

He said that at that time, many aircraft models were hand-operated and needed to turn the propeller to start. His right hand was often stained with blood, which scared off many students who wanted to join.

　　After graduating from university, Huang Lei joined a company in Wuhan and lived a life of playing model aircraft while working, and often represented the Hubei team in model aircraft competitions.

In 2005, Huang Lei resigned and joined a model aircraft factory in Wuhan as the production manager.

　　With the efforts of Huang Lei, the model aircraft produced by this model company called "Aoxing" uses methanol engines, which are not only flexible in control, but can fly for more than 10 minutes each time.

Five years later, Huang Lei's "Ao Xing" was quickly crushed by a rotary-wing drone produced in the south.

　　He found a group of model aircraft experts including Liu Xianwei, and in 2011 established Wuhan Xexun UAV Company.

"We are so proficient in drones, why don't we build our own drones?" In 2012, Wuhan Jet Aviation Technology Co., Ltd. was established, and Huang Lei was the technical director.

　　For more than 40 years, Huang Lei has experienced from unpowered model aircraft, manual start of model aircraft, one-button take-off of the starter, and drones have also experienced manual start to one-button take-off.

　　Huang Lei's home is full of drones and model aircraft. His 8-year-old son basically doesn't touch it, but he is interested in mobile phones and mazes. "I don't want to impose my interest on my children, even if my son doesn't like model aircraft in the end."

　　Text/Reporter Yang Jiafeng Photo/Reporter Yu Zhiyong