I have been involved in technical rescue for the past 28 years and I am also a member of the state task force urban search and rescue team. As I think back I can recall several instances where having a UAV with a competent pilot would have been a tremendous asset. As a airplane pilot I have a good appreciation for what I can see and do in the air that someone on the ground can’t. I long ago recognized the value that a UAV could bring to the table. I purchased an H last March for my own enjoyment as well as to start to demonstrate to the agencies that UAVs are soon to become as much a standard piece of equipment as is a PFD for those involved in water rescue. It is my impression that the UAV’s role in S&R is still in its infancy. From what I have read, some agencies are further along than are others but there still seems to be a need for a central, coordinated source for information related to the topic. It should not be necessary for everyone to invent the wheel. I am beginning to see more “courses” being offered in S&R operations but it is often difficult (impossible) to determine the quality of the course. I also believe there is a bandwagon out there that everyone wants to jump on. As has already been mentioned, different UAV manufacturers direct different amounts of energy towards the S&R discipline; concurrently folks writing S&R applications seem to gravitate towards those manufacturers. I firmly believe that almost any aerial search should be flown via a preprogrammed course. Hand flying over a wide area is guaranteed to miss areas within the search limits. It is very discouraging, and frustrating, to download the track of an UAV flight, only to see the gaps in the search area and requiring the area to be searched again. Yes, I think there are exceptions - flying along a train wreck to asses the situation being one that comes to mind. It is a fairly linear search. Another exception might have been the search this past spring for a drowning victim swept away by a creek turned raging river due to mountain snow melt combined with torrential rains. Just downstream from the last seen point the creek is covered for a few miles by trees on both sides of the creek. Yes, the national guard helicopter came in at treetop level and “searched” but how effective was that and at what expense to the taxpayer? A local law enforcement agency searched the creek with an DJI UAV. I do not believe it was on a preprogrammed flight plan. I suspect given the course of the. Creek and the tree cover doing so would have been difficult. I have only identified a couple of programs for the Typhoon H that can be adapted for S&R searching. I am currently attempting to determine how accurate these preprogrammed flights are. I suspect accuracy will differ in various parts of the country based upon GPS coverage. But even with good coverage I am not sure you can take the flight planning option in the Toolbox or the Typhooh H Flight Planner, set up a flight and not risk an early unscheduled landing when flying in areas with obstructions. And in this situation I think 2 observations are accurate - you don’t get to pick where you are flying and when in search mode you may be inclined to push the limit a bit more than if you are on a flight videotaping the local scenery. And it should be apparent to all that flying the “course” to set up waypoints as is recommended for video shoots is not an option. I am hopeful that in time more SOGs will begin to appear that agencies may wish to incorporate into their system(s). I am confident that we are only scratching at the surface as to what role the UAV will come to play in the S&R arena. LIves have already been saved; its value is undeniable.
Lastly, as a search specialist I feel compelled to respectfully offer the following advice/reminder to those of you who may be new to search and rescue. While extremely gratifying when a mission is successful, we sometimes can forget the inherent dangers that come with the job. On my technical rescue team there is an unspoken rule, as I am sure there is in other agencies, that when we go out the door our first priority is that we all get to go home to our loved ones. If we save the person(s) we are going out the door to assist - that is a bonus. We have been fortunate that in my career there have been many bonuses and we have all been able to go home, sometimes battered and bruised, but nevertheless alive. Finally, do not forget the other “R” when talking about S&R - Recovery. When the decision is made to go from Rescue to Recovery it is time for everyone to stop and take a step back and assess the situation using an entirely different mind set. Not doing so only leads to accidents that never should have happened. To this day I am haunted by an incident many years ago in which several agencies, including my technical rescue team, were participating in the recovery of a drowning victim in an extremely hazaradous area. I was not involved in the recovery operation but based on what I saw on the evening news where one member of the dive team did not drown only because the strap on his BCD broke and he fell out of it, I predicted to my Dad that if they did not reassess what they were doing, someone was going to get killed. The following day a diver from a different agency tragically drowned attempting to recover the victim’s body. And while you might ask how dangerous can it be standing there flying a UAV, remember that the S&R,R environment can change drastically in a very short period of time. Please be safe.