How to make a long range quadcopter?

Hello,
I want to make a quadcopter that has long distance capabilities around a few miles+ if possible. Also want a camera mounted on it, doesn't have to be a GoPro just something with average video quality with which I could watch/navigate from a laptop or tv screen.

Beyond the frame and the motors and such how much would this set up cost me? What would I need to buy to make this requirements possible?

Thank you

 

My specialty, but there are a few laws / rules you may want to consider before embarking on this. UAS (unmanned aerial system) flight is fun, and can be very profitable.

One, and the most important, is the FAA rules regarding "hobbyist" R/C aircraft. Flights must be done within "line of sight" to be considered a no licensed R/C UAS. This means you must be able to see it with the naked eye when flying.

Otherwise you are a pilot that needs a license / certification from the FAA to fly out side of "line of sight". You will no longer be a "hobbyist", your now a FAA regulated pilot.

Two, liability insurance, you will need this to cover any personal property damage, injury, or other mishap your UAS may cause in a crash or lose of control situation.....and this is expensive and hard to find currently as it is a "gray" area with insurance carriers until the FAA finalizes the rules.

Three, welcome to the world of "commercial" UAS flying.........you will no longer be a hobbyist, you get to follow FAA rules and regulations as a commercial pilot would. Yep, I just repeated myself, the fines doing this without the proper certifications are more than just doing it the right way.

Cost, I have UAS's that cost thousand dollars to do this. I also have a few that are under a thousand that can as well. Radio gear is the biggest expense. Dragonlink ( http://www.dragonlinkrc.com/v2/ ) will get you started, (There are even longer range systems out there, but cost a heck of a lot more)

Air frames can be just about anything you can find as long as they are big enough to carry all the gear and the real big battery system you will need for extended flight times. We are talking batteries that will enable 1 hour plus flight times, no 5000 mHa battery here.....more like 20000 mHa or more (these are heavy.

Bottom line, you will need a minimum of $10,000 to start, this will get you your certifications, licenses and minimum insurance and a "entry" level long range UAS.

This is the short story by the way, there is a lot of things you still need to learn / know..........Best thing you can do now is be the best hobbyist pilot you can, then find out if you can afford to make it a second job to get into the UAS business.

 

A few miles? I think the max. distance of remote controller is about 2kilometers

 

Actually, more like 15 -30 Km at the retail level..................want more, go government level and and that make it global

 

Thanks for the reply IceFyre13th! I don't think I'll be making the drone I want for a long while haha. I thought there would be a lot of redtape to go through and I was right, unfortunately. But hey like you said I can still be a hobbyist and work my way . Surely the cost of these parts will probably go down significantly due to a lot of innovation and people are getting into them.

 

The biggest limitation you will have flying quadcopters is flight time. 20-25 minutes seems to be around the limit for quadcopter flight time with current battery technology, so much more than 2 miles is probably pushing your luck. If you really want to fly further than that you should look into fixed wings, they're much more power efficient and much better for long distance flights. As for the rest of your equipment, you'd need a UHF module for your radio (something like Dragonlink or EasyUHF), and you should probably go with a lower frequency than 5.8 for your video along with a high gain antenna (1.2 ghz is popular for longer range flights.

I'm not sure what your experience level is, but I really don't recommend trying this until you really know what you're doing. My advice would be to start with conventional gear (a 2.4 ghz radio and 5.8 video) and shorter ranges and upgrade your gear as your knowledge and experience increases and work your way up to a few miles.