Drone SAR

[RoySwkr]

I have been reading "Mountain Rescue Doctor" by Christopher van Tilburg, many of their incidents are on avalanche-prone terrain on Mt Hood and those below treeline often come with poison oak thickets.

On one of their major searches a private group showed up with a drone which didn't help that particular time, and obviously it has no capability to drop off rescuers, winch up patients, or provide medical treatment. But I wonder if this isn't the future for searching, surely some drones might be lost but that's better than losing personnel and the Mt Hood people had a Pave Hawk crash during a rescue doubling the number that needed to be evacuated.

 

[sardog1]

The FLIR units on helicopters are often close to worthless in wooded terrain, being unable to detect humans under a thick canopy of conifers or deciduous trees with their leaves on. Ditto for any visible light camera at night.

There's a pilot project being considered in British Columbia. It will be interesting to see the results: Drones evaluated for use by B.C. search and rescue

 

[Nessmuk]

The FLIR units on helicopters are often close to worthless in wooded terrain, being unable to detect humans under a thick canopy of conifers or deciduous trees with their leaves on. Ditto for any visible light camera at night.

On the other hand, a large fraction of searches I have been involved in here in the Adirondack region have been during the fall hunting season, when leaves are gone. The state police helicopter with FLIR is a frequent SAR participant, given availability from other assigned tasks (often an issue), and good weather. They tell me it is easy to distinguish a human form from other warm bodies (so we don't go chasing after deer). I believe a fleet of UAVs would be very useful for SAR, as well as other civil missions.

 

[skiguy]

Well if they do find you they might at least be able to deliver a Dominos Pizza in the meantime. http://money.cnn.com/2013/12/02/technology/drones-reality-check/index.html

 

[Brambor]

It could be useful to drop a medicine or sleeping bag or firestarting tools or liquids etc... while the SAR is enroute.

 

[RoySwkr]

It could be useful to drop a medicine or sleeping bag or firestarting tools or liquids etc... while the SAR is enroute.

I was thinking of a much smaller drone to reduce operating costs and value if crashed, but as drones get cheaper and labor costs increase even a drone 747 may appear

The Eagle Scout supposedly built a fire using hand sanitizer each night he was out, maybe that would appear on infrared

And how large is a cell phone repeater, could one be mounted on a drone to fly over areas lacking cell reception?