But with all these agencies doing it in-house, CAP will be sitting by the phone ....
That's my point. There may still be a window here that CAP can squeeze into, but if it moves at its usual pace, it might just as well hang it up.This isn't the '80s and people aren't going to wait around anymore for years-long updates to regs, re-numbering that delays enhancements, and other "fun" - they will simply move on to the next table at the air show and fill out their application.At $2k on the low end for a UAV with thermal, this tech is well within the reach of any municipality, even as an "experiment".CAP doesn't have the time to spend trying to find some off-brand supplier from another country to provide an RFP for 2 experimental units that will be deployed a year later to a region for a "pilot", to then be discussed sometime in the future.These things should be the new L-Pers, deployed at least to every Group in CAP(yeah, I know, some wings don't have groups, somehow it'll work itself out), and NESA should have a UAV SAR school THIS YEAR.When the average CERT team can outpace an organizaiton like CAP, the clock is ticking.This something that would attract new members, bring us into the mid-2000's in tech, and CAP could leverage it's still outstanding ICS capabilities into deploy-able UAV units.
So I'm thinking the marketing would have to be to smaller towns in neighboring 'poorer' counties. The towns with a three man police force and a volunteer fire department.It would be quite a marketing challenge.
Quote from: etodd on November 09, 2017, 01:51:04 AMBut with all these agencies doing it in-house, CAP will be sitting by the phone ....These things should be the new L-Pers, deployed at least to every Group in CAP(yeah, I know, some wings don't have groups, somehow it'll work itself out), and NESA should have a UAV SAR school THIS YEAR.
After selling the so-called white elephants, how do you suggest we conduct our orientation flights? Do you think that cadets will adore flying a drone as opposed to flying in a real elephant aircraft?
One problem that we're going to run into is the FAR's regarding drones, and them not being able to be out of visual sight of the operator. That's why when US drones are flying outside of restricted areas they have to have a chase plane.
I saw a video at our meeting last night about drones and their possible use for SAR. The specific unit used was a preprogrammed autonomous drone that flew a predetermined grid, and took video of the track. I'll have to get the URL from the presenter and post it later.