Search and Rescue

[Honker47]

Last evening a 74 year old man went missing here in SW Wyoming while out hunting elk alone. His pickup became hopelessly stuck but instead of putting his energy into getting it out and staying with it for warmth and shelter while awaiting help he took off. Number one DO NOT DO THIS EVER unless it's life or death to do it. Had he stayed with the pickup he would have been home with his family last night as they have found the pickup and some foot prints.

Anyhow my first thought was to offer my assistance to go fly the drone to search a huge area fast! I have 3 batteries and a power inverter so I can charge batteries in the field. Even with limited (just under 2 mile) range I could be transported by motorcycle or 4 wheeler to further destinations to search. I immediately called the sheriffs office to offer my help but the life flight helicopter offered to search for them this morning, which takes drones in the air out of the picture! I'm probably going to sell my Karma very soon and upgrade to DJI because of much greater capabilities (especially the longer flight time and over 4 mile range and being able to use my Apple pro tablet as a monitor on the controller) but I'm thinking that I should join the search and rescue folks here as being a drone pilot/owner could help save lives aside of being great fun flying around taking video's.

I just heard Life Flight come over my house flying into the hospital and it's 9:20 in the morning so hopefully they have found him. Pray for good news! I will update if I hear anything or the sheriffs office asks for my assistance. I decided to write this in hopes of possibly gaining interest in you other drone pilots that we could all offer our assistance in our home areas to help possibly save lives with our amazing drones!

 

[Ironspear]

Great idea but unfortunately cant do it where I live, not allowed to fly near emergency vehicles/situations. They have their helos that attend etc.
Still though for rural/small town areas its a great idea.

 

[Ironspear]

If it is extended flight time that you want then look into the Narwhal 1 (3 hour flight time)
You can hang an Infrared camera from it to.....
Good luck with DJI.

 

[Honker47]

The Sheriff contacted me this morning and said that Air Med was volunteering a helicopter this morning so the drones were grounded from flying. I haven't heard if they found him but Air Med flew over my house at about 9:20 am heading for the hospital just across the canyon from my house.

 

[Honker47]

If it is extended flight time that you want then look into the Narwhal 1 (3 hour flight time)
You can hang an Infrared camera from it to.....
Good luck with DJI.

For the bargain price of 28,000 US dollars..... Completely out of my price range!!!

 

[JCLs]

I will sound like a weirdo or something but nobody , except military of course, can fly a drone beyond line of sight now by law in USA. (New FAA regulations as discussed in other threads.)

I suspect but do not know for sure that local law enforcement and fire etc. will be allowed to do more but for all us folks even with a 107 license searching for people would be limited I believe. Interesting.

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[Honker47]

To many people doing to many stupid things creates all these laws. Sad! Most don't use common sense or think about anyone but themselves!! They feel they want to go fly over a forest fire to satisfy their own need to know and put all the manned aircraft trying to save lives and homes in extreme danger! Flying so high the planet looks like a flee circus getting into air spaces cuz they want to see how high they can go.... Around here people were flying to locate wildlife to hunt or whatever and harassing them. Like they don't have it hard enough being hunted..... What all this stupidity boils down to is that all of us will continue to be regulated so much that nobody will be able to do anything anymore. Another freedom we had abused and lost. I don't get it! I heard that a man got stuck and left his truck and was missing and I called the sheriffs office and offered to help fly in the area to help try and located the man who is still missing. When I heard that an Air Med was going to donate a helicopter I did not need to be told to stay out of the area but they did post an article about no drones being flown because of manned aircraft being used. I din't need to be told but I'm sure many did, most not even asking the sheriffs office, just going to be some sort of hero and take matters in their own hands. To bad most can't use common sense, and quit thinking about themselves putting others in danger and all the laws were supposed to keep apprized of and deal with because of it.

 

[JCLs]

Government and common sense no longer seem compatible.


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[Honker47]

Well, the sheriff's office called and said it's okay to fly and search with the drones, They grounded the manned aircraft for the remainder of the week. So I went and flew about 2 hours. I don't think I found anything but have to sit here and review my video on my computer. At this point and with the extreme low temperatures it's most likely a body recovery effort now. Big storm coming and major wind so I'm probably grounded now. I was flying to day in 20-30 mph winds, it got a little hairy at times! First time flying over heavy timber. There's a snow base on the ground and I was shocked at how much white I was able to see threw the mostly pine forest and aspen groves.

 

[Shon]

DJI Enterprise just announced a MAVIC 2 Enterprise drone with features that can help search and rescue (like heated batteries to keep the drone going in colder temps). Modular attachments, like infrared cameras might make it easier to find folks on the ground...etc. I can only imagine the tools that will be available in the next ten years.

 

[Honker47]

DJI Enterprise just announced a MAVIC 2 Enterprise drone with features that can help search and rescue (like heated batteries to keep the drone going in colder temps). Modular attachments, like infrared cameras might make it easier to find folks on the ground...etc. I can only imagine the tools that will be available in the next ten years.

Pretty cool!!! Hope they're affordable. I flew a portion of the area on Monday after the Sheriff's office asked for help and grounded the manned aircraft. Still no luck.... The search will be on again on Saturday with Air Med on scene again, high winds are in the forecast so drones are not an option again. I flew in really high winds on Monday too but did fine, looking STRAIGHT down flying above the heavy pine timber was amazing what I could see! I've never done it before and there was about 6-10 inches of snow on the forest floor. I would estimate I could see at least 95% of the ground threw the timber. Most of my issues were I couldn't find the exact location I wanted to search so I gave up early and went exploring. I found this old homestead named the Rife Ranch and decided to fly out to it and film it.... So first flight stupid me forgot to arm the video player and I had a pretty good flight too, even looked in the tree's at a couple buildings in them. When I got back and landed I notice I didn't start the video so I flew back out on the same battery for a quick fly around. The wind was terrible and I was fighting it. When I came around to the door side the wind almost blew me into the door and I panicked, cut grass and seen the drone drop. Then I was told I lost the drone and asked if I wanted to search now or later..... I'm on a crutch to walk and have a hard time but what was I going to do? I had to trespass onto someones land also. I did surprisingly good, adrenaline to get to the drone drove me allot! I lost two props but otherwise it survived the close to ground mishap. I learned to edit something out of my video's finally, it was to painful to watch. First accident... oops!!!