For last 3 years, our crack team of talented drone pilots have been flying regularly on emergency management missions throughout the country. With literally thousands of hours of flight time logged, we assumed our pilots were probably full of pro tips for the early stage public safety drone program.
And, boy, were we right! Here are just a few of the very best.
KNOW THY GEOGRAPHY
When planning a mission be sure to evaluate the lay of the land around you to determine safe locations to land in case you can’t get back to home point. Alternatively, try to identify the places you absolutely do not want to land.
KNOW THY SAFETY CHECKS
From checklists to flight plans to hazard identification, safety is paramount to a successful drone operation. Often, flight planning for a mission begins days before a flight with checks of weather and proper location planning. Once on site, it’s important to identify hazards and create flight plans with multiple options in case something goes wrong. Checklists, a critical part of Aeronautical Decision Making (ADM) and highlighted by the FAA, make sure proper procedures are followed every time and abnormalities become quickly identifiable.
KNOW THY DATA
After each flight remove the SD card from your UAV and immediately back it up. You might have extremely valuable data on the card from your last flight and in the case of an incident you don’t want to lose everything you just spent the last hour collecting.
So, there you have it, folks! A few of the best tips to first timers our crack team of experienced emergency management pilots could come up with. For more tips and news from around the world of public safety UAS sign up for the PROPELLERHEADS weekly newsletter.