In my continuing effort to share drone flights with lessons learned here is a recent incident where things unfolded very rapidly. Flight emergencies never happen at the best times. You always need to be prepared for an unexpected event. I just published Expecting Trouble is a Safe Way to Fly. Ironically I had written that post before the flyaway described ... Read More »
As a public safety rescue pilot with the Wake Forest Fire Department, I’m here to tell you there is no substitute for preparing for something unexpected to happen while you are in the air. Let me share some of my scares with you. Every day I fly a very expensive DJI Matrice 210 with thermal and zoom cameras on it. ... Read More »
A big thank you to the Wake Forest Fire Department who I’m with for their willingness to allow me to share some of our flight debriefs for educational purposes. Incident: Missing Person 2-15-2018 Narrative: At 1823 I received a call from the Wake Forest Police Department for a request for service in conjunction with the Wake Sheriff’s Office. The call ... Read More »
Okay, a recent flight wasn’t to find a missing person but to find a pair of $750 drone batteries I had removed from the aircraft and laid in some tall grass on a very dark night. It’s official, you can use a $30,000 drone to locate $750 batteries. Thank goodness they were still hot from the last flight. Read More »
In an effort to create affordable solutions for emergency service pilots operating drones for fire and search and rescue groups, here is my latest budget loving Frankenstein solution. The dedicated equipment for this comes in at a grand total of $76, not including parts used for other things. The Wake Forest Fire Department coverage area has some large lakes in ... Read More »
At the time this is posted there is not yet a perfect solution for providing illumination at night for an emergency scene or incident. Some light bars do exist but the weight and payload reduction makes them not practical for many emergency services UAS pilots. Lume Cube makes smal 1.5 inch cubes that can putput 1,500 lumens at the highest ... Read More »
Today I updated the Pilot app to the latest version 0.5.1 and in combination with the latest Zenmuse Z30 firmware update of 1.00.00.47 my issues with drift with the Z30 camera when zoomed has gone away for the most part. The only other change I made was adding the external GPs antenna in anticipation of adding the upward gimbal. The ... Read More »
Around 3:30 on 1-29-2018 Wake Forest Fire Department drone was requested to participate in the search for a missing Rocky Mount resident, Stephen Miller (70) who was last seen two days prior on Saturday according to the WRAL online story. Chief Ed Barrett and drone pilot Steve Rhode arrived in Rocky Mount at approximately 4:40 PM at the search location ... Read More »
By Kerry Koppes Poudre Fire Authority, (PFA) in Fort Collins, Colo., has begun testing of UAS-based hazardous materials hardware, designed to send gas and radiation detectors to places their typically ground-based equipment hasn’t gone before: the skies. The PFA UAS and Hazardous Materials teams recently purchased a Stinger Drone Mount from FLYMOTION US that is designed to lift 4-Gas and ... Read More »
The local police tactical unit and I recently conducted an active shooter drone flight exercise flying inside a big box store. These are large stores like Sam’s Club, Walmart, Best Buy, or even most major grocery stores. The DJI Matrice 210 is a larger Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) and what we learned from the exercise is while the drone was ... Read More »
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