Drones perform well in staged SAR operation

"No bucks, no Buck Rogers."

Who's going to buy the technology? Who's going to pay for and perform the maintenance? These are important questions to ask when considering new things. Look at the fiasco named ARCHER. Decent idea, but poorly conceived and eventually relegated to CAP's dustbin.

I'm a PPSEL and also have my Part 107 FAA Remote Pilot certification for small drones. I'm ready, and would bet CAP has many others as well.

I have mine as well, I have been operating commercially under the Legacy 333 before the 107 for film and TV.   I have been asked to help stand up a program in my wing.  My conundrum is that I am commercial pilot working on MP.  I have no motivation to be tronching through the woods like my cadet days.  I m looking to try to put together a program to train people to get their 107 RPC.  This is something event Cadets could do since the min age is 16.  It would be good for PPSEL's that do not have the hours to qualify for MP. 

On the 107 thing I have been wondering if that is the appropriate method for CAP.  IMO I think CAP getting a public COA might be the better route.  Right now the one problem with the 107 is the clogged process to get ATC auths and various waivers.  But for now any Part 61 pilot who is current can get one through the FAAST website.  Its not that hard for anyone to get it the test way either.

Anyone that thinks that drones will not have a big piece of the air SAR pie are kidding themselves. Look only at what Autel Robotics has in the pipe for this year alone. Member owned drones with FLIR capability, a 1+ mile range, and 25+ minutes of flight time for less than for less than $2K? Not to mention their VTOL Kestrel with a 60+ mile range.  Just think about having that tool at one's disposal. Imagine how many of those CAP could put out during a mission for the cost of one C172.

The future of this business belongs to UAVs. That's just a fact.

I think in the near future I can see the Autel and the Inspire XT being viable.  I am interested in how good the Autels FLIR will be compared to the Zenmuse XT camera.  I have flown both variants of the XT and there is a noticeable difference in resolving between the low and high res versions.  But the Autel is fairly compact it would not be much to field deploy one.  Even the DJI Mavic w/o flir the thing is the size of portable mirrorless camera for the most part.  There lots of options for member owned equipment that many may have. 

As for the 60 miles range thing.  That will take a while.  The FAA is pretty strict on how they are handling VLOS waivers.   In fact it almost impractical at the moment.  Two companies have one at the moment.  One is Precision Hawk and the other is BNSF.  Precision Hawks waiver requires a visual observer to be stationed at intervals through the entire flight path which sorta defeats the whole point of rapid deployability.  I think the FAA is really going to want a system with a robust sense and avoid ability to detect an aircraft's path and auto deviate.  Until then I think current method is the only one they will allow.  So it will probably be sometime after 2020 IMO.

 Imagine how many of those CAP could put out during a mission for the cost of one C172.

It'll still be both for a long time. If the pilot was VFR and no flight plan and no flight following, but the spouse knew the pilot was 'suppose to be flying to a city 400 miles away" .... its going to be manned planes flying that route at the start. If they can narrow it down to a much smaller area of high probability ... THEN bring in the small drones.

Yes, if CAP ever gets anything like a Predator, then the whole mission could be flown with 'a real drone'. But lets not hold our breath for that one. LOL