BUSINESS & AG LIFE
B2 — THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD
THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2022
DRONES
Continued from Page B1
Pendleton has become one of the
most popular of the federal gov-
ernment’s seven drone testing
sites, with up to 1,000 takeoff s or
landings every month.
Retired Air Force Col. Stan
Springer runs the Volatus Group,
a drone pilot training facility
in Pendleton. He said there are
several reasons Pendleton has
become popular. High on the list:
cost.
“They have a natural distinct
advantage with their low-cost
base,” he said, noting that the
price of doing business in Eastern
Oregon is cheaper than in parts
of the country that already have
a booming tech scene, such as
Texas.
Also, Eastern Oregon skies are
not as busy as those around some
other test ranges.
“They have a great big range
that nobody else can duplicate,”
Springer said of the Pendleton
site.
Pendleton off ers 14,000 square
miles of sky, and the altitude
limit doesn’t kick in until 15,000
feet. That’s a big slice of North-
eastern Oregon skies, higher than
Mount Rainier. The range runs
from Boardman in the west to the
Idaho border in the east and from
the Columbia River in the north
almost to John Day in the south.
“By negotiating with area
wheat farmers and other land-
owners, we can spread operations
out away from congestion, which
provides some level of safety,”
explained Cory Roeseler, with
Hood Technology, which spe-
cializes in blade vibration and
monitoring.
Chrisman, the airport eco-
nomic development director, said
there’s another reason Pendleton
is popular. The city’s mantra,
“Let ’er Buck,” fi ts well with fast-
paced, high-tech businesses that
don’t want to be tied down with
red tape.
“So many of these test sites are
operated by government entities,
universities. Folks that maybe
are more interested in printing
research papers than they are in
understanding what the customer
wants,” Chrisman said.
What customers want,
according to Chrisman, is to get
to market quickly and safely. And
Pendleton helps them do that.
Economy boost
Over the last six years, the air-
port has hosted dozens of major
tech organizations, including
Airbus, Yamaha, NASA and
Verizon.
Nine companies now lease
space year-round; Yamaha is
testing unmanned helicopters
about the size of a small person.
They can deliver herbicides
directly onto an individual vine on
a hillside. Company leaders think
the drones might be more effi cient
and cheaper than traditional crop-
dusting planes.
An Arizona-based company,
Spright, is working on trans-
porting medical tests between a
Stan Springer/Contributed Photo
Retired Air Force Col. Stan Springer, right, runs the Volatus Group, a drone pilot training facility at the Pendleton Unmanned
Aircraft System Range. He said there are several reasons Pendleton’s drone range has become popular.
health clinic and a laboratory via
drones.
“Our goal is not to come, test
and leave. It’s actually to come,
test and hire and encourage jobs
locally,” said Spright’s vice presi-
dent, Justin Steinke.
About 10% of drone activity at
the Pendleton Unmanned Aircraft
System Range is military. Those
projects are secret. Chrisman said
what’s important is that all these
technologies are cutting-edge and
the basis of what he calls a fourth
industrial revolution.
“The world and Oregon would
be very shocked if they knew
the technology that’s right on the
horizon. And we’re going to hope-
fully usher it in, right here through
the Pendleton airport,” Chrisman
said.
All the new activity at the
drone range has been good for
the local economy. Employment
around the airport has jumped
from 20 jobs to 200 over the last
six years.
But the new workers are not
doing traditional airport work like
air traffi c control, and the airport
doesn’t off er any more commer-
cial fl ights than before the drone
boom. Instead, the new employees
are drone pilots, engineers, entre-
preneurs and software experts, all
working for private companies on
drone projects.
Those businesses are paying to
lease hangars and to use the drone
range, money that funnels back to
local coff ers. Airport revenues will
amount to about $1.7 million this
fi nancial year; that’s four-and-a-
half times more than in 2016.
After years of operating in
the red, the airport now makes a
profi t.
Drone activity is being felt in
town too. A brand new Radisson
Hotel opens this spring, to provide
accommodation for visiting drone
pilots. One drone company booked
the local Pendleton House Bed and
Breakfast for two years solid.
“Aerospace is a fever. Once you get it, you don’t get
out, and you’ll go to about any place in the world
to do something cool.”
— Retired Air Force Col. Stan Springer, Volatus Group drone pilot training
Some of Pendleton’s construc-
tion companies have benefi ted.
Joseph Hull, a vice president at
McCormack Construction, said
they have hired several dozen
workers to build hangars over the
last couple of years.
Pendleton’s car rental busi-
nesses are benefi ting and local
restaurants like the Oregon Grain
Growers Distillery have seen a
substantial increase in diners. Not
one Pendleton restaurant closed
during the pandemic.
But the owner of Eden’s
Kitchen, Kayla Henshaw, said
while she’s seen a few extra cus-
tomers, the bigger deal for her has
been all the weird things in the
sky.
She lives out by the airport:
“I like to do motion lapses, time-
lapses out my porch, of the sunset.
And there’s this one that me and
my husband to this day can’t
fi gure out,” Henshaw said. “It
looks almost like a spaceship or
something.”
Manufacturing next?
While restaurants, hotels and
car rental shops are reporting
increased economic activity,
Oregon Employment Department
economist Dallas Fridley said a
major drone impact cannot yet
be detected in the local job num-
bers. It’s one thing to test drones
in Pendleton; the real question
is whether Eastern Oregon can
someday attract businesses that
make drones.
“It’s not a situation where you
have manufacturers who are based
in Umatilla County testing prod-
ucts,” Fridley said.
Over the last 20 years, Uma-
tilla County has had a remark-
ably stable economy with a level
of 28,000 non-farm jobs. But
that stability masks turmoil. For
example, hundreds lost work when
the Umatilla Chemical Weapons
Depot closed. At around that same
time, hundreds of others found
work, as the nearby Wildhorse
Resort and Casino expanded.
Twenty years of stability
may be comfortable, but it’s
not growth. Pendleton leaders
would very much like to grow by
attracting drone manufacturers.
Fridley, the state economist, thinks
the airport is on the right path.
“They are setting themselves
up for the future by doing this,
because we’re looking at the fi rst
phase of development in drone
technology and who knows what
it’s going to be like in 10 years,”
Fridley said.
Pendleton Mayor John Turner
thinks that given time, some drone
companies will start manufac-
turing locally. He points out that
to start with, they only came to
the airport for a week. Then they
started to stay for a few months.
Now many have a permanent
presence and some are starting to
bring in parts to assemble.
“We think the next logical step
would be manufacturing of some
kind,” Turner said.
He thinks manufacturing in
Pendleton makes sense because
costs are lower than in places
like Silicon Valley. The city has
invested in the kind of infrastruc-
ture — state-of-the-art hangers,
high-tech lathes, 3D printers and
fast internet connectivity — nec-
essary for more.
Springer, the retired Air Force
colonel, agrees the airport has
done a good job attracting busi-
nesses such as his. But he’s not
sure attracting manufacturers is
as simple as saying: “Build it and
drones will come.”
“There has to be an invest-
ment in people capital, on top of
the physical capital to really see a
spike in employment,” Springer
said.
Springer’s company trains
dozens of people a year to main-
tain and fl y drones that check
power lines and survey farmland.
They can start at $60,000 a year
and make upward of $150,000
over time
Springer believes there is a
good chance some manufacturing
will come to Pendleton, largely
because the barriers to entry are
low. For example, drones are
small, relatively cheap and easy
to design and manufacture. Plus
there are a lot of inexpensive high-
tech sensors and probes that can
be attached.
He thinks the sector is still at
the stage where a couple of people
in a garage can break through.
But there’s always one question
companies ask before moving to
an area: “What’s the local labor
force?”
The city of Pendleton knows
skilled labor is an issue and has
taken steps to grow the supply. For
example, Blue Mountain Com-
munity College now off ers drone
operator and maintenance courses,
and Pendleton High School has a
talented robotics team.
If Pendleton can increase its
supply of drone experts, Springer
said it doesn’t need to worry about
competing with overseas labor,
like in China. That’s because
national security concerns, over-
seas supply chain constraints, and
intellectual property issues are
now driving many Western com-
panies to relocate manufacturing
in the United States again, particu-
larly in the high-tech sector.
The fact that Pendleton is a
small rural town isn’t a problem
either, he said: “Aerospace is a
fever. Once you get it, you don’t
get out, and you’ll go to about any
place in the world to do something
cool.”
Incubation center on
the horizon
There is one thing Pendleton
needs that has yet to be built and
that’s a drone incubation center, a
place where garage tinkerers can
share ideas and get advice from
experts.
The airport has picked out a
location for just such an incuba-
tion center, but it’s still trying to
fi nd the money.
In 2020, the airport received
$16.8 million in CARES ACT
funds from the Federal Aviation
Administration to help recover
from the eff ects of COVID-19.
Pendleton used the money to
improve airport infrastructure and
build new hangars.
Meanwhile, unlike Pendleton,
the skies above most American
cities remain relatively drone-free.
FAA rules continue to restrict air-
space. But those rules are con-
stantly being updated as busi-
nesses push for new ways to fi t
drones into the economy.
SCIENCE
Continued from Page B1
collected and sampled the
types of invertebrates, such
as insects or crayfi sh, in the
water.
In the riparian vegeta-
tion zone, students learned
about fl ora along the riv-
erbank and helped catalog
locations while learning
which plants have cultural
signifi cance to Indigenous
peoples. This workstation
is done in partnership with
the Confederated Tribes
of the Umatilla Indian
Reservation.
“We’re learning out in
nature,” said Mason Miles,
a high school student from
La Grande. “We see it in
the books, then get the
hands-on experience.”
BOUTIQUE
Continued from Page B1
can try on their clothing
in one of two dressing
rooms.
“We’re really trying to
create a place that people
from surrounding coun-
ties can come to as well,
including Baker, Wallowa
and people from Pend-
leton,” he said.
With the rise of online
shopping, Moschkau said
women don’t have the
option of trying clothes
Isabella Crowley/The Observer
Isabella Crowley/The Observer
Students measure water temperature as part of the water quality
workstation while attending the Qapqápnim Wéele/Grande Ronde
Community Science Project on Wednesday, June 1, 2022, at Bird
Track Springs.
Brandon Galvez, left, LHS science teacher, helps students carefully
empty nets at the macroinvertebrates station while attending the
Qapqápnim Wéele/Grande Ronde Community Science Project on
Wednesday, June 1, 2022, at Bird Track Springs.
Outreach programs are
benefi cial for both stu-
dents and schools. Field
trips can be cost-prohib-
itive for schools, as they
project get funding specif-
ically to conduct outreach.
“This is a really nice
partnership with the
schools and program,” the
on before purchasing and
finding out what actually
feels comfortable to them.
That’s what Bout Time
Boutique wants to give
their shoppers, a retail
space in which to explore
and try things on at their
leisure.
Bout Time Boutique
practices and promotes
the “buy local” motto,
and the owners encourage
customers to visit them
and discover the afford-
ability of the shop’s com-
fortable women’s clothing
for everyday wear.
need to cover the price
of buses and substitute
teachers, Galvez said. Pro-
grams such as the Grande
Ronde community science
LHS teacher said.
The Qapqápnim Wéele/
Grande Ronde Commu-
nity Science Project is
funded entirely through
Are you running an
outdated Windows
Operating System?
We’ll help you
avoid critical
issues by installing
Windows 11!
grants and donations. This
year it received $120,000
— from the Wildhorse
Foundation, National Park
Service’s Crayfi sh Study
and Amazon Web Ser-
vices in collaboration with
the Greater Oregon Sci-
ence, Technology, Engi-
neering and Math Hub
— to cover the cost of
implementation, supplies,
tribal guidance and local
participation.
There is sometimes a
debate within the scien-
tifi c community whether
to refer to projects like
this as citizen science or
community science, Lowe
said.
“We use ‘commu-
nity science,’” she said,
“because we want the
community to know that
everyone is welcome.”
Computer not
running as
fast as when
it was new?
Let us install
lightning-fast
solid state drive!