Volunteering as eyes in the skies, need advice

[ScottNH]

I've been doing this for several years. I'll throw some tidbits out there (I have NOT read all previous posts so I may repeat things)

A) Be self sufficient before you leave the house. SAR can be grueling. Someone mentioned Command Center... while that is the IDEAL situation that isn't the NORM, at least not at first on an incident. Have your own Food, Water, Appropriate Clothing, First Aid and so forth. When I get called out I can self serve for the first 24-36 hours including shelter (not COLD weather). I'm one of the first dispatched once UAS services are requested.

B) Power - I had a dedicated power outlet hardwired in my service vehicle so I can plug in a 110V inverter in the back. I can charge 4 batteries, multiple USB devices and much more from my vehicle. It's amazing how often I use this setup even outside of Emergency Services.

C) Someone mentioned additional waivers for BVLOS etc. Those will have to be done at the Agency Level and would likely require an Agency Owned aircraft. That's something you'll want to approach much later down the road as it requires a lot of approvals etc, attorneys, and a crap load of paperwork.

D) Keep in mind that any incident you arrive on could "become Criminal" and any data you create become evidence and can't leave the scene. This includes SD cards and Cell Phones so anything you use be prepared to surrender at least temporarily. That's why I never use my Cell Phone with the UAS on-scene. Always carry extra SD Cards just in case you have to leave any you've used on the scene. I've had this happen a couple of different times so be prepared.

If you have any questions feel free to drop me a note.

Allen

Can I ask what model drone you use for this work?

Thanks.

 

[BigAl07]

Can I ask what model drone you use for this work?

Thanks.

I use a Yuneec H-520, Phantom 4 Pro, Mavic 2 Pro, and Mavic 2 Zoom of my own fleet and I work with local and state Emergency Services and fly several other aircraft but the ones listed above are the only ones I dispatch with in my vehicle.

 

[Dbez1]

Thanks for the great information/experience from our forum members. I have a meeting with the Fire Department Chiefs coming up and will find out about power availability. I’ll also look into multi chargers starting with the one Mobilehomer noted in response #8 in this thread. I’m going to start easy but am willing to grow as needed. I’ll have to wait and see exactly how much I’m used, but I have to say, early enthusiasm has been high.

How many search and rescue, brush fires has there been in the last 10 years? I would be careful not to invest too much.
success
Keep up the good job.

Good advice, that’s how I’ll proceed.

 

[ScottNH]

I use a Yuneec H-520, Phantom 4 Pro, Mavic 2 Pro, and Mavic 2 Zoom of my own fleet and I work with local and state Emergency Services and fly several other aircraft but the ones listed above are the only ones I dispatch with in my vehicle.

Thanks.

 

[Dbez1]

This has nothing directly to do with your hardware questions, but you may wish to take a look at a standard that has been created specifically for public safety users, that addresses training, certification, skills, equipment maintenance, mission planning, etc. The document is: "NFPA 2400: Standard for Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS) Used for Public Safety Operations".

It is a consensus based standard published by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and developed by public safety stakeholders specifically for the purposes you are indicating that you wish to take part in. The current version is from 2019, and a new edition is currently being developed as a revision (these docs get updated around every three years or so).

One of the best ways to minimize risk, as well as your and any other participants liability, is to adopt and adhere to standards like these, which create a baseline of knowledge, skills, abilities and help better define scope of practice and essentially level the playing field and define expectations for those engaged in public safety support activities using UAS systems.

The document can be read and reviewed online here: NFPA 2400: Standard for Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS) Used for Public Safety Operations and if you are interested and want to enter a comment for the next edition ANYONE can do that by following the links provided.

For anyone else interested, the skills sections contain some good stuff with respect to developing your piloting proficiency and being able to safely and efficiently handle different situations that may occur during a mission.

I am fortunate enough to be involved in the process of writing and revising this and several other public safety related standards for NFPA and its members/customers and welcome any questions. As a long time public safety practitioner, training and certification service provider, and end user, these documents can be both a blessing and a curse but for the most part are an excellent resource to define training goals. Although compliance is voluntary, these documents often carry the weight of law (both in the US and internationally).

Best of luck in your decision to become involved in serving your community, very cool way to share your love of flying and your skills with people who need these resources!

Thank you for this information. Be assured that I will read BFPA 2400 and thanks for your contribution to this cause.

 

[EsaT]

Inverters can be really power hungry though, and not terribly efficient with power losses.

Yes using a Power Inverter is terribly inefficient to say the least. It's ironic I'm taking 12V, going up to 110V and back to roughly 12V again. But it works and it works well for the way I work and fly

Generic cheap inverters certainly have garbage efficiency for lunch and excrete square wave.
Again well made sine wave inverters can exceed 95% efficiency.

How Long Will A 12v Battery Last With An Inverter? Calculator

How many hours can a 12 volt battery run an inverter? As a simple rule, to calculate how long a 12v deep-cycle battery will last with an inverter multiply batte

diysolarshack.com

But there's second round of losses from down conversion from mains to charging voltage.
(and that down conversion to charging voltage could be done more efficiently from car battery voltages)

 

[Rich QR]

Generic cheap inverters certainly have garbage efficiency for lunch and excrete square wave.
Again well made sine wave inverters can exceed 95% efficiency.

The "modified sine wave" inverters do output what is more properly called a "modified square wave", or perhaps "stepped square wave". This has lots of odd harmonics, and a transformer or motor may buzz, overheat, and be damaged by such a waveform. Don't use a modified sine wave inverter with such a load.

But a switching power supply, which is the kind of thing that drives most modern electronics, such as chargers, laptops, tablets and many others, is perfectly happy with the stepped waveform produced by the cheapest inverters. If you look carefully at the data plate of an electronic device, and see an input requirement similar to "100-240 Volts AC, 50-60Hz", that tells you it's using a switching power supply that is not very particular about its input power. It will work well with a "modified sine wave" inverter.

 

[EsaT]

The "modified sine wave" inverters do output what is more properly called a "modified square wave", or perhaps "stepped square wave". This has lots of odd harmonics, and a transformer or motor may buzz, overheat, and be damaged by such a waveform. Don't use a modified sine wave inverter with such a load.

But a switching power supply, which is the kind of thing that drives most modern electronics, such as chargers, laptops, tablets and many others, is perfectly happy with the stepped waveform produced by the cheapest inverters. If you look carefully at the data plate of an electronic device, and see an input requirement similar to "100-240 Volts AC, 50-60Hz", that tells you it's using a switching power supply that is not very particular about its input power. It will work well with a "modified sine wave" inverter.

Modified square wave would be the most honest description.
Good examples of what that looks like in here:

https://www.hardwareinsights.com/database-of-ups-output-waveforms/4/#APC-Schneider-Electric-other

Have to be drunk or have really bad vision/dirty eye glasses for those to look sine wave...

As byproduct wide input voltage range giving active-PFC is designed to make input current wave form sinusoidal/follow voltage.
But overall it copes pretty well with non sinusoidal input voltages.
Though some inverters can have that top of the wave form too high putting stress on active-PFC circuitry.
(some old UPSes had such risks)

 

[LongRifle]

Being retired, I am in the process of beginning to volunteer with local VFD’s and the Department of Public Safety to help with search and rescue, brush fires, and basically anything they’ll find a drone’s view helpful with. I fly an Air2 with 3 batteries, a 10.5” iPad, a strobe for nighttime flying, have my Part 107, and completed the ICS100 and IS-700B training. I live near a small town where LE and VFD’s are too small to afford a large expensive drone dedicated to these needs, and my volunteer services have been enthusiastically received by emergency authorities. I’m sure some of you have been volunteering also and I would welcome advice from your experience. In particular, I’m wondering how many batteries you have and how many you keep fully charged in case of an emergency. I know it’s not ideal to keep them fully charged, but I was thinking if I rotate 1 fully charged and 2 at 50%, that would be adequate for most situations? Thanks in advance for your advice.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B088ZVNW2M/ref=sspa_dk_detail_4?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B088ZVNW2M&pd_rd_w=5KxC9&pf_rd_p=57cbdc41-b731-4e3d-aca7-49078b13a07b&pd_rd_wg=mTT3r&pf_rd_r=1EFYSB7923B5WA76AR4F&pd_rd_r=6dfd70ce-d57f-456a-8762-70e004a33d4f&s=electronics&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEyV0EzVTlNQThUU0I4JmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwMTM0MDU1MTdISUQ1MTBQUk5ZSyZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwMTI5Nzk1MUUyN1dVRTUxSTEwNiZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX2RldGFpbF90aGVtYXRpYyZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=

This is all you will need to keep your Air2 in the air indefinitely. Unlike the DJI charger it doesn't care if your car's battery drops to below 12.7v, but instead I believe there is an alarm for when it gets too low to start your car. I was able to fly continuously with the 3 batteries in the fly more combo for a few hours and several battery cycles each with my own Air2. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

 

[SamM3]

One slight clarification. BVLOS waivers, at least the SGI kind that are normally used, require an agency request but are not limited to agency aircraft. The request form requires the aircraft and pilots to be listed but they can be volunteers as long as they are under agency supervision - i.e. the SAR IC. Every SGI waiver request that I've submitted over the last few years has been for volunteer search and rescue pilots.

sorry I have not had coffee, when you mean agency do you mean the fire department or the owner of the UAS functioning as an agency?

 

[sar104]

sorry I have not had coffee, when you mean agency do you mean the fire department or the owner of the UAS functioning as an agency?

Typically fire department or LE.

 

[bill1950]

very good advice and much to be gleaned here. I personally use a Honda EU2000 and a Hanatora charger. I have been on a couple of search and rescues and a few fires as well as two missing person searches. One thing that I have learned with experience. Always, and I repeat always maintain situational awareness. There is such a adrenaline rush on a call out. So much going on. You have to get to the scene, heart pumping and then in most emergencies their is noise, lights, people running and everything imaginable and unimaginable going on. All you want to do is help but you will find out that on a lot of search and rescue or missing persons there are so many obstacles you have to overcome. Fires are especially hard, smoke, heat and trying to stay out of the way are only some of the real life situations. So all this to say, keep calm and remember where you are and what is around you at all times. In emergencies you don’t get to chose the location or weather. I don’t want to be a downer, but take it from somebody that has been there and done that it is easy to get in trouble fast and lose spatial awareness. I had a tree nail me on a search. I was so intent of searching this wooded area, I got in just fine then I backed up while climbing to get a better view, an hour hiking to find my craft and a set of props and would fly another day, but lesson learned. Guess you for wanting to help out. Go for it, but keep calm and fly aware.

 

[Dbez1]

very good advice and much to be gleaned here. I personally use a Honda EU2000 and a Hanatora charger. I have been on a couple of search and rescues and a few fires as well as two missing person searches. One thing that I have learned with experience. Always, and I repeat always maintain situational awareness. There is such a adrenaline rush on a call out. So much going on. You have to get to the scene, heart pumping and then in most emergencies their is noise, lights, people running and everything imaginable and unimaginable going on. All you want to do is help but you will find out that on a lot of search and rescue or missing persons there are so many obstacles you have to overcome. Fires are especially hard, smoke, heat and trying to stay out of the way are only some of the real life situations. So all this to say, keep calm and remember where you are and what is around you at all times. In emergencies you don’t get to chose the location or weather. I don’t want to be a downer, but take it from somebody that has been there and done that it is easy to get in trouble fast and lose spatial awareness. I had a tree nail me on a search. I was so intent of searching this wooded area, I got in just fine then I backed up while climbing to get a better view, an hour hiking to find my craft and a set of props and would fly another day, but lesson learned. Guess you for wanting to help out. Go for it, but keep calm and fly aware.

Thanks for the very thoughtful response Bill. I’ll definitely keep that in mind. I also want to thank all the others for sharing their experiences and suggestions. I met with the officers of one of the local fire departments today and they watched as I did some flying. They’re very interested in how a drone could help them at various types of incidents. Thursday I meet with the head of our DPS who seems interested also. I feel pretty good at this point, that my skills are going to be used.

 

[Mavic Merrick]

For the power in the field, I would recommend just getting a ton more drone batteries because if you have a 2 way hub you can charge anything off of it but the battery can also go directly into the drone vs a battery pack which would have to charge the drone batteries first which takes lots of precious time. The other tip I have for you is to get your TRUST certificate because no matter what higher licenses you have you still need a TRUST.

 

[Dbez1]

For the power in the field, I would recommend just getting a ton more drone batteries because if you have a 2 way hub you can charge anything off of it but the battery can also go directly into the drone vs a battery pack which would have to charge the drone batteries first which takes lots of precious time. The other tip I have for you is to get your TRUST certificate because no matter what higher licenses you have you still need a TRUST.

Thank you. I already have my TRUST certificate along with 107, ICS100, IS700.b, and NFPA 2400. Your advice re more batteries is probably spot on. Thanks again.

 

[Mavic Merrick]

Thank you. I already have my TRUST certificate along with 107, ICS100, IS700.b, and NFPA 2400. Your advice re more batteries is probably spot on. Thanks again.

Ok great. But definitely just get a whole bunch of drone batteries on a 2 way charging hub.
Glad I could help!

 

[BigAl07]

...... The other tip I have for you is to get your TRUST certificate because no matter what higher licenses you have you still need a TRUST.

Easy there MM, you're painting with a way too wide paintbrush.

You are only required to have TRUST if you are flying under ~44809 (Recreational). Granted almost everyone flying under a COA and/or Part 107 also fly at some point under ~44809 having it has zero weight over flying in terms of the reason in this post. This flight is totally Part 107 and in no way recreational.

 

[Mavic Merrick]

No, TRUST is basically a prerequisite to Part 107, do your research

 

[SethB]

No, TRUST is basically a prerequisite to Part 107, do your research

In what sense? Prerequisite means “required before”. FAA does not require one to take the TRUST training/exam before taking the Pt. 107 Knowledge Exam, so I’m confused as to what you mean.

 

[Mavic Merrick]

In what sense? Prerequisite means “required before”. FAA does not require one to take the TRUST training/exam before taking the Pt. 107 Knowledge Exam, so I’m confused as to what you mean.

You can have part 107 but it means nothing unless you have TRUST as well.