Heavy Lift Drone

Downed trees blocking the road at NW 22nd & Flanders Credit: Peter P

We has a snowstorm last month and because the trees had leaves, they collected a large amount of snow, more snow than they could handle, so we got a bunch of broken trees. There were so many downed trees that it impacted traffic over the west hills for a couple of days.

I was at the new house the other day and looking out the back door, down the hill, I can see a bunch of broken trees. Not giants, but still substantial with four to six inch diameter trunks. If should be cleaned up and I imagine it will, eventually. But cutting down the damaged trees and cutting them up pales in comparison to the work involved in hauling that wood to the top of the hill. I mean, you wouldn't have to haul it up, you could just leave it down there, pile it up neatly (or not) and let it rot. But if you could get it to the top of the hill, it could be worth cash money as firewood. Seems a shame to leave it to rot.

You know what would be perfect for this job? A great big drone, a drone that could lift 100 pounds. So I looked around and I didn't find much. Most big, fancy drones are aimed at the camera business and they are ridiculously expensive, like tens of thousands of dollars.

Incredible HLQ bench test

But then I found the Incredible HLQ (Heavy Lift Quadcopter). It looks like just the ticket. Except this project was started back in 2013 and disappeared shortly thereafter. I don't know whether they ran into technical problems or the FAA. I suspect it was the later, but I didn't find any explanation for its demise.