Wake Forest Fire Department Firebird 1 Flight Debrief Incident: Commercial Structure Fire Location: Chili’s Flight Time: 60 minutes Mission Goals: To assist with commercial structure fire by checking the roof of the building to determine any thermal activity as the result of the fire. What Went Well: The following items were conducted without incident: It was a safe flight operation ... Read More »
Drone pilots should have an aviation handheld radio to communicate with nearby aircraft, transmit blind announcements about operations near an uncontrolled airport, and most importantly, to communicate with helicopters flying above incident scenes. I regularly communicate with news helicopters when they are on the scene to coordinate the airspace and provide an awareness I’m operating below them. You can be ... Read More »
Nobody is perfect. Even very experienced pilots face issues all the time. The NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) is a good window into issues that happen. Reporting aviation issues to the ASRS portal is also a good way to reduce liability since voluntary gives you some immunity from prosecution and “although a finding of violation may be made, neither ... Read More »
To see all of the upcoming free online classes, click here. I’ve got a free online class coming up on the use of thermal cameras on UAS. The goal of the class is to help public safety drone pilots become knowledgeable about when and why to fly a thermal camera. The class is on February 27, 2019, at 3 PM ... Read More »
To see all of the upcoming free online classes, click here. This class is designed for individuals that may have to conduct Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Visual Observer (VO) training at their agency and department. It will give you an overview of what will need to be covered in the class you develop and how this can be a simple ... Read More »
I just finished conducting a free two-day class on multiagency flight training. Students came from different public safety agencies and everyone was into learning and very dedicated to learning. This was a classroom and hands-on flying class. We had some special guests which helped to relate some personal experiences regarding their own hurdles they’ve faced when dealing with multiple public ... Read More »
This is more of just an observation but after a year of use, I’ve had three of eight DJI TB55 batteries fail. They have all failed in the last month. Two of them failed on the same day. Here is what I’m seeing in trying to troubleshoot the batteries. According to DJI, the warranty on these batteries is 6 months ... Read More »
Last night I was flying at a Hazmat scene when we discovered what looked like the heat signature of a person wandering into the scene. Two of them in fact. What made the situation difficult was I was unable to fly further forward to get a closer look and the general scene was too dark to see clearly with the ... Read More »
The FAA has sent out this notice to UAS Part 107 pilots. Important information for COA pilots is below the Part 107 update. The first Remote Pilot certificates were issued in August 2016 and are nearing the end of their 24 calendar month currency. Remote drone pilots must complete a recurrent training course or pass a recurrent knowledge test within ... Read More »
The FAA has released information on the recurrent test Part 107 pilots will have to take. I was just asked if there will be 40 or 60 questions on the test. Interestingly the FAA does not say. What we do know is the allotted time for the recurrent test is 1.5 hours instead of the two hours for the initial ... Read More »
Public Safety Flight Public Safety Drone Info for Police, Fire, and EMS UAS and UAV ops