REGION
Tuesday, July 19, 2022
East Oregonian
A3
FAA grants Pendleton UAS Range line-of-sight waiver
By JOHN TILLMAN
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — The
Federal Aviation Adminis-
tration on May 9 granted the
Pendleton Unmanned Aerial
System Range a waiver for
beyond visual line-of-sight
operations. This allows drone
fl ights without observers for
the entire mission.
“We’ve opened a small
corridor for true beyond
visual line-of-sight fl ights,
and have already fl own some
missions,” Range Manager
Darryl Abling said.
This is the first step in
obtaining full permission for
beyond visual line-of-sight
operations, he explained, and
waivers are company-spe-
cifi c and for a single type of
aircraft.
“It’s a crawl, walk, run
process,” he said. “We’ll
eventually expand the corri-
dor of operation and add
more beyond visual line-of-
sight aircraft. We’ll go out
and do flights within the
parameters of each waiver.”
Abling said he envisions
not only expanding opera-
Stan Springer/Contributed Photo, File
Retired Air Force Col. Stan Springer, center, runs the Volatus Group, a drone pilot training
facility at the Pendleton Unmanned Aerial System Range in Pendleton. The range on May 9,
2022, received a federal waiver for beyond visual line-of-sight operations.
tions to the range’s whole
14,000 square miles, but
ultimately to the entire
national airspace. Not just
last mile delivery drones but
pilotless passenger fl ights
over cities are in the offi ng.
“It’s maybe 10 years out,”
Abling predicted. “But it
can’t just be a free for all. A
national standard is going
to emerge for detection and
avoidance equipment to
enable unobserved flights
over populated areas.”
Abling said he expects
manufacturers to cooperate
in setting standards, with a
role for the federal govern-
ment.
“The existing air traf-
fic control system on the
ground should play a part,”
he said. “But the onus will
be on manufacturers to
come up with standards. To
be compliant, onboard equip-
ment might need to detect a
bumblebee at two miles. The
technology is there. Once a
detection and avoidance stan-
dard is agreed upon, then we
can roll out implementation.”
He also said he looks
forward to urban mobility
corridors throughout the
national airspace.
“For now, we’ll go fly
where waivers permit,” he
said. “It’s coming and we’re
on the cutting edge. We’ll
keep expanding our corridor.”
Volatus Group at Eastern
Oregon Regional Airport is
fl ying beyond visual line-of-
sight drones on the range,
Abling reported.
“It’s interesting to see the
shape of the curve of fl ight
operations here,” he said.
In April, the range had
1,900 fl ights, 2,300 in May
and 4,500 in June, Abling
said. A company is fl ying
frequently to demonstrate
robustness and reliability, so
he said he expects a similar
high number of operations
as in June this month.
“Number of operations
is one metric we look at,”
Abling said. “We charge
companies per fl ight day,
not by number of individ-
ual operations. Another
metric, which further indi-
cates our growth, is number
of companies invoiced per
month. We invoiced 20
companies last month. Some
are bigger than others, but
they all count.”
Pendleton UAS Range
just signed a new company,
Abling said, and he expects
another next week. The
range employs 150 workers.
“We’re growing by all
metrics,” he concluded.
Pendleton gives tentative OK to
proposal to restore guardhouses
By JOHN TILLMAN
East Oregonian
East Oregonian, File
Columbia Harvest Foods in Umatilla on Nov. 17, 2021, advertises the store’s “holiday meal
deal.” Bill Meade, the Stanfi eld man who started the grocery store in 1992 that would be-
come Columbia Harvest Foods, died July 9, 2022, at the age of 84.
Longtime Eastern Oregon
business owner dies at 84
By ANTONIO
ARREDONDO
East Oregonian
STANFIELD — Bill
Meade, longtime Stanfield
resident, Umatilla business
owner and civil servant has
died. He was 84.
Meade was born Dec. 18,
1937, and raised in his family
home in Stanfield. He is
survived by sons Dave and
Mitchell “Russ” Meade, as
well as three grandchildren
and fi ve great-grandchildren.
A star baseball player
at Stanfield High, Meade
attended Eastern Oregon
University, La Grande, to
play before meeting his wife,
Barbara. The two moved to the
Seattle area, where he began a
job in the grocery business.
After 27 years in Wash-
ington, Meade worked his
way back home to Stanfi eld, a
community he had kept close
with over the years.
“He always had a soft spot
for Stanfi eld,” Dave Meade
said, “He always was a Stan-
fi eld Tiger.”
Upon his return to his
hometown, Bill Meade, who
had been involved with grocer
advertising, became interested
in owning a store of his own.
In 1992, he purchased
a Umatilla grocery store,
remodeled it and renamed it
the Red Apple Market. The
store, still owned and oper-
ated by the Meades today,
now is Columbia Harvest
Foods. During his time as
owner, Meade was three-time
businessperson of the year in
Umatilla.
His son remembered him
for his compassion, instituting
policies in the store that stand
today, such as 10% discounts
for seniors.
“He had great compassion
and courage,” Dave Meade
said. “Everyone who knew
him, liked him.”
During his time in Stan-
fi eld, Bill Meade became intri-
cately involved with the local
government. Dave Meade said
his father served 17 years in
some form or another, serving
on the city council and cham-
ber of commerce board, even
fi lling in as the mayor for a
time.
Bill Meade retired from
the family business to care for
his ailing wife. Following her
death in 2015, he frequented
Stanfi eld baseball and football
games, reliving his fond expe-
riences from his youth.
A memorial for Meade was
Saturday, July 16, at Pleasant
View Cemetery, Stanfi eld.
CTUIR releases comprehensive app
By ANTONIO
ARREDONDO
East Oregonian
MISSION — The Confed-
erated Tribes of the Umatilla
Indian Reservation debuted it
new communication app this
past week, hoping the user-
friendly system will catch on
quickly.
Cay-Uma-Wa Ca mp
Crier app works as a broad
alert system app as well as
a message board for groups
to communicate together.
The app is only accessible
by approved members, who
must be a part of the tribes.
“We hope that the
community runs with it,”
CTUIR spokesperson Jiselle
Halfmoon said. “That they’ll
see it as a need and add
friends.”
The idea for a compre-
hensive tribal system formed
during the height of the
pandemic lockdown. Years
prior, CTUIR relied on an
alert system for mass noti-
fications across the reser-
vation, but it decided to use
something to meet tribal
needs.
“We saw a lot of people
using socials and websites,”
Halfmoon said. “But we
wanted to get something that
was in people’s pockets.”
Using funds from the
federal Recover y Act,
Mission-based Cayuse Native
Solutions developed the app.
Its name is based on native
history: The camp criers of
old traveled from camp to
camp sharing news and infor-
mation with the people.
The tribes released Camp
Crier last week and is slowly
building up a consumer base
on the reservation. Halfmoon
is the only administrator but
is hopeful that changes as
the tribes plan for a team of
moderators to take over.
“We want to be more
hands-off and that the
com mu n it y r u n s it ,”
Halfmoon said.
And it’s not just those
on the reservation who
can join the app. Anyone
with a CTUIR enrollment
number can join. Halfmoon
mentioned groups in the
Portland area that she said
she hopes will use the
Camp Crier for updates and
messages.
The release of the app ends
the first phase of develop-
ment. Next up is streaming.
Halfmoon said the developers
are in contact with KCUW
Radio for sports coverage and
radio service. In the future,
she said the app could be
available nationwide for other
tribes to use.
The app is available on
both the App Store and
Google Play.
PENDLETON — The
city of Pendleton has tenta-
tively approved Pendleton
Air Museum’s proposal to
restore the historic guard-
houses on Airport Road and
Northwest A Avenue.
“The guardhouses are a
community treasure,” City
Manager Robb Corbett
said. “We’ll do everything
we can to preserve them for
posterity.”
PAM Vice President Tim
Kelly sent the city a letter
proposing the museum take
responsibility for restoring
the guardhouses. The city
provisionally agreed the
museum could restore the
more damaged one, Corbett
said.
“We’ll seek donations
of money, materials and
manpower ideally to restore
both guardhouses,” retired
U.S. Army Col. Kelly said.
“We’re looking into logs
right now. We’d like even-
tually to lease the guard-
houses from the city to
display items relating to
Pendleton Army Airfield
Mackenzie Whaley/East Oregonian
Sunlight illuminates this World War II guardhouse Friday
July 15, 2022, on the north side of Northwest A Avenue,
Pendleton. The city has tentatively agreed to a proposal
from Pendleton Air Museum to restore this and the guard-
house on the other side of the road.
history. Ideally, we’d also
be able to lease the area
near them for future static
aircraft displays, but those
options weren’t included in
the tentative agreement.”
The north guardhouse,
adjoining the new Radis-
son Hotel, is in worse shape
than the southern one,
which might be leased to
Elvis’ Restaurant for stor-
age, Kelly noted.
“We’d love to have
access to both guardhouses
to mount cool displays,
including manikins wearing
uniforms,” PAM President
Chris Sykes said. “We have
space in our downtown gift
shop for only a small frac-
tion of our donated exhibits.”
LOCAL BRIEFING
Umatilla County Sheriff ’s
Offi ce seeks help identifying
relatives of woman who died
Campground & Trailhead in the Umatilla
National Forest near Ukiah on a report of
a dead person. Deputies found Soha’s body
in a tent.
All the addresses on her iden-
UKIAH — Umatilla County
tifi cation were obsolete, accord-
Sheriff ’s Offi ce is asking the public
ing to the sheriff ’s offi ce, and its
to help fi nd relatives of a woman
attempts to locate and notify her
who died camping near Ukiah.
relatives have been unsuccessful.
But the sheriff ’s offi ce only wants
The sheriff ’s offi ce also asks
to hear from people who knew the
anyone who knows Soha to not
woman or know her relatives.
post responses on Facebook but
Barbara Lee Soha, 73, was asso-
Soha
instead call the 24-hour dispatch
ciated with the area of Salt Lake
center at 541-966-3651 and refer-
City, the sheriff ’s offi ce reported
in a press release Friday, July 15. Depu- ence Case No. 22-0961.
ties on July 9 responded to the Frazier
— EO Media Group
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