In conjunction with the BBC South production team (Simon Marks, Kevin Bird and Dolly Gulliford), the team at the ASL planned to cross from the Isle of Wight to Portsmouth using a Small Unmanned Aircraft on Friday, 9th May 2014 during a live TV broadcast.
The distance from Ryde to Southsea is 4.4 nautical miles (7.1 km) and to our knowledge this has never been attempted before.
Due to strong wind gusts, the air vehicle was lost at about 1 nautical mile NE of Ryde at approximately 18:42 hrs, ditching into the Solent at Spithead.
To date no wreckage has been located. Since the aircraft was carrying three buoyancy aids, it is possible that she floated some distance in a Westerly direction following the prevailing current.
The ASL team working alongside specialist antenna manufacturer HorizonFPVAntennas has devloped a system to enable 5.8 GHz video downlinks at minimum power (25 mW) over the entire distance, thus enabling a safe passage. Follow the link below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eRsHCF7Aw8
Satellite GPS network prediction for Friday, 9th May 2014:
[1] Navcomtech.com (2014).