Beagle
Lost link mode is a little more than...
In the event of loss of signal, everything to neutral and throttle to idle - hopefully the model had sufficient natural stability to glide to a soft landing.
It is pre-programmed to fly a pre-set series of manoeuvres - for example, the UAV loses link with the rest of the system, it then flies to a pre-determined orbit area and flies there until it either restores the link
or it starts to run low on gas and then goes back to base and enters the hold for the line-of-sight team to gather it on a different frequency/antenna set up. Obviously, the orbit area and hold has to be selected carefully and notified to other air users - it would also be prudent to ensure that if the UAV runs out of gas it will come down with the lowest chance of a human casualty. Of course, you could always send up QRA for a bit of target practice! (unless you've mothballed them, that is
).
So it's a bit more than centralise and throttle back, I'm afraid.
What are the wind limitations on these machines?
The auto take off and land on some types is pitifully low (around 6kts on some) but human-in-the-loop fying is around 15kts akin to your PA28 or C152. It certainly doesn't help when BAeS built one of their's based upon a tail-dragging motorglider (HERTI is based upon a J&AS motorglider) - x-winds, tailwheels, motorgliders, hard runways and UAVs are not your best choices of combination!
Cyprus - too many political sensitivities these days for it to be an option.
MPA - Runways not into prevailing winds (thanks to the REs!), weather factor not great and then it isn't exactly replicating Afghanistan is it? Which is why CREECH/HOLLOMAN is so good for MQ-9 Reaper.
Now the UK Military have just invested £14m in Stanford Trg Area (STANTA) to build an Afghan Village - opening up Honington to fixed wing flying again???
Here's a piccy of Lashkar Gah in Norfolk!!
