Could you control a ground launched drone from a helicopter?

[African wildlife]

I was watching a clip of the new Kilauea eruption and it got me to wondering.
I guess the USGS can afford good drones probably with enough signal power to fly ground launched and controlled drones into the caldera but............if they can't or if that is simply not possible. Is there any thing to stop them putting a controller and 'pilot' up in a helicopter and have that pilot fly the drone etc. etc.?

I've considered shooting an eruption for decades. Unfortunately, I never got to do so - despite working out of helicopters and light aircraft on several occasions. Regulations have understandably become much stricter over the years because of the real dangers of poisonous gases etc. Drones offer a great tool for geologists or volcanologists - and the better Phantoms are often used, but some are lost when over/into a caldera.

 

[Dogpilot]

Wile a drone sounds like a nice solution for doing work around volcanos, not really all that practicable in a lot of situations. I am a geologist and did a bunch of surveys on many of the volcanoes in Alaska while I was a NOAA Corps officer. Many of them are above 10,000' and in fairly remote locations. So getting a drone in on the ground is in many cases not easy, even with a helicopter. Many of the most active volcanos in the USA are in the Aleutian Islands, so they tend to be of great interest to us. A couple of the most active calderas are up there, one which is thought to have altered the course of history in During the Roman Empire. If we had to use helicopters, we had to do a leap frog method with one aircraft caching fuel for the next hop. So logistically it was a nightmare.

I did most of my work with a Twin Otter with an extra 200 gallon aux tank in the cabin. It was very dicey working around many of the volcanos. They have the pebble in the stream effect being usually a lonely mountain. Winds get very unpredictable and the turbulence was at time quite severe. If your up at 10K the winds can be in excess of 50-80 kts on a regular basis. So having a ton of power and high lift and maneuverability is essential. There is the occasional time when the mountain burps, so you have to bail, diving down the side of the mountain at full power.

So while drones might work in a few situations, operating them from a helicopter, and having an observer, preferably on the ground to keep an eye on it full time, while you maneuver (required by part 107) just does not work with the majority of the mountains of interest. Here is a shot of one of the several active volcanos on Unimak I worked several years ago, notice, not exactly an easy place to work, no place to launch a drone, or land a helicopter, look at the other mountains in the distance, same thing. They go up in perfect cones 7-10,000'. Umnak Island is even worse. Like I said, these are of great interest to us. Then the is the ones in Kamchatka, it is even worse with deep snowfields.

I do use my drones with my work, but not for this. I tend to use my aircraft for a lot of situations, faster, more time on station time and a better 'God' view. Being a pilot as well works out well for me. There are a lot of places in the world I have worked that they severely restrict drone operations, but not working from aircraft.