Drone Calculators & Helpful Tools You Need!

Jonathan Rupprecht is an attorney whose highly regarded practice, Rupprecht Law, P.A., offers comprehensive guidance to drone pilots on legal and technical matters.  Rupprecht’s many tutorials and educational posts have provided invaluable support to the drone/UAV and radio control (RC) communities. Below are helpful calculators Jonathan Rupprecht has programmed for drone pilots.

Practice Initial Remote Pilot Knowledge Exam (60 Questions) with scoring to tell you what you missed.

Drone Kinetic Energy Calculator (for Multi-Rotors) – Calculates time, velocity, and foot-pounds for a given altitude.

Cloud Base Altitude Calculator (for Unmanned and Manned Pilots)  – Calculates what is the base of the altitude in feet above ground level so you can figure out how close you can get without violating the law.

Drone Operations Cost Calculator – This is great if you are starting a drone operation or drone business.

Drone Visual Line of Sight Calculator – Great for figuring out the maximum range you can see the drone before you start losing visual contact.

Under or Over 55 Pound Operations Calculator – People are having a hard time trying to figure out if they should purchase a drone that is capable of flying over 55 or one that is under. This calculator was originally designed for drone sprayers but the same 500 ft buffer zone applies to those doing cinematography, mapping, etc.

Fresnel Zone Calculator – Helps you determine how much radius you need for a specific radio frequency and distance to maintain optimal radio communications. This is important as trees and other vegetation with water absorb 2.4 GHz radio waves in the Fresnel Zone and decrease your signal strength.

Rupprecht Law, P.A. is located in Palm Beach County, Florida.. Photos courtesy of Rupprecht Law, P.A. 

Thanks to CDR David Place (USN/Ret), davidplace47[at]gmail[dot]com, and Robin E. Alexander, President ATC, alexander technical[at]gmail[dot]com, for their assistance with this report, the background for which appeared in their  # 21 - 11 – 25 APRIL 2021 edition of the UNMANNED SYSTEMS NEWS (USN).

David distributes the USN, a free, comprehensive newsletter in PDF format every week or two, as well as serial news flashes, from which this NREF news update was sourced. To be included in his distribution, simply send David a subscribe request to davidplace47[at]gmail[dot]com