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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 18, 2018)
LIFESTYLES WEEKEND, AUGUST 18–AUGUST 19, 2018 Best friend a firefighter could have Scott Stoddard/The Daily Courier via AP In this Aug. 7 photo, Ty Sibley, right, an unmanned aircraft system operator for Insitu, prepares a ScanEagle drone on a ridge south of Galesville Reservoir near Azalea. The aircraft, equipped with an infrared camera, flew for more than seven hours that night while detecting hotspots over the Taylor Creek Fire in Southwest Oregon. Drones deployed to scout fast-moving wildfires overnight By JEFF DUEWEL and SCOTT STODDARD The Daily Courier Kale Casey almost can’t believe what a metal bird 5 feet long, weighing 44 pounds with wings spanning 10 feet, can do to help fight a wildfire. “For eight hours a night, without getting tired, with- out needing a meal ... scanning the landscape, map- ping, searching for hotspots,” Casey, a fire informa- tion officer for the Taylor Creek Fire, reeled off. “It’s by far the most impressive tool I’ve seen in my wild- fire career. It’s the best friend a firefighter could have.” The ScanEagle unmanned aircraft system, or UAS — what some would call a drone — has been moni- toring the Taylor Creek Fire west of Grants Pass every night for over two weeks. It also spent time on the Grave Creek Fire north of Wimer, and has logged 110 flight hours in 16 flights, according to ScanEagle. Unlike other aircraft, it flies in smoke, at night, and provides real-time information to firefighters on the ground, detecting hotspots, providing a previously unattainable scan of wildfires without the concern of pilot safety. It has a range of over 50 miles with six gallons of gas, and can fly for more than 20 hours. This isn’t a toy from a department store. More like a possible mini-revolution in firefighting. “At some point you’ll have an unmanned system over every fire,” said Paul Allen, account manager for Insitu, a company based in the Columbia River Gorge town of Bingen, Washington, that makes the ScanEa- gle. “We can operate in conditions where it’s really hazardous for manned aircraft.” On a ridgetop in southern Douglas County on a recent Tuesday night, amid slash piles left from a clearcut, a team of four men launched the ScanEa- gle, which carried infrared and electro-optical cameras along with tactical fire-mapping equipment. Three of the people on site were Insitu aircraft operators and were led by Ty Sibley, who’s worked with the company’s drones for nine years. Scott Stoddard/The Daily Courier via AP In this Aug. 7 photo, the ScanEagle’s launch site is located on a ridge south of Galesville Reservoir near Azalea. From this spot, the unmanned air- craft flies to the Taylor Creek Fire area and spends hours aloft mapping the heat intensity and de- tecting hotspots. Credit (map): U.S. Geological Survey Scott Stoddard/The Daily Courier via AP In this Aug. 7 photo, after the ScanEagle unmanned aircraft is loaded onto the launcher and a series of pre-flight checks are carried out, the pneumatic slingshot sends the 44-pound drone into the night sky near Azalea. “We’re all real pilots, too,” Sibley said. “We all fly real planes. “In the aviation community, we don’t get a lot of respect as drone pilots, but it’s getting better.” Sibley has a commercial pilot’s license, Justin Coats holds a commercial helicopter pilot’s license, and Gabe Garriga is licensed to fly private planes. “We understand airspace and the complexity of weather and where there could be other airplanes fly- ing by,” Sibley said. “We take it pretty serious.” Sibley served two six-month tours in Iraq, oper- ating drones from forward operating bases, and also launched them from patrol boats. He prepped the ScanEagle for its mission along- side the pneumatic launcher that would slingshot the aircraft into the night sky. A meticulous 20-minute period of completing a pre-flight checklist preceded the drone’s takeoff. At 9:42 p.m., the bird was airborne. It would ascend over the launch site on a corkscrew-shaped flight path to about 8,000 feet before heading toward the fire zone, where it flies at 5,000 feet. Sibley said it would return at 5 a.m., seven and a half hours later, snagged out of midair by a stationary cable that is grasped by a wingtip hook, guided by dual GPS units on both the aircraft and the towering snare. See DRONES/6C “That’s why we fly at night, because it’s a lot easier to see on the IR (infrared) camera. During the day, that size of a piece of a heat would be very, very challenging. You’d miss it, something that small. ” J.D. Morton, Bureau of Land Management
