Public Safety Drone Flight

Brandon Karr is from Pearland, Texas, and is currently the Chief Pilot, UAS Program Coordinator, and night shift patrolman for the Pearland Police Department. And I thought I had a full plate.

Brandon is another guest that has a different perspective on public safety drone operations because he has been a manned aircraft pilot since 2006. He worked hard and earned his commercial pilot rating as well as becoming a Certified Flight Instructor for single-engine airplanes, multi-engine airplanes, and trains instrument pilots. That is quite an accomplishment.

But that's not all. Brandon is also the head honcho of the Gulf Coast Regional Public Safety UAS Response Task Force in Texas that is comprised of over 85 agencies and 250 pilots that fly to assist police, fire, or other agencies with natural disasters and major incidents.

In this podcast, we cover a number of topics. Including:

Why it is imperative to maintain VLOS with the Matrice 300 because when the app crashes you are blinded.  

Things manned aircraft pilots can do to share aviation experience with new drone pilots.

Learning from the oh crap moments.

Hard lessons learned from the experience of flying drones in public safety. 

Why you don’t want to have to type the letter, “Dear Chief, nobody was more surprised than I was…”

Why flying outside the regulations can ruin probable cause.

Dealing with counter-UAS operations while on a public safety flight. 

Good flight attitudes to fly with.

How to tell risk from reward when you are asked to fly.

The three skills public safety pilots should learn. 

And much more.

FDNY lieutenant Fred Carlson started as a fireman on Queens Ladder 151 in November 2006 and has risen through the ranks since then. Promoted to lieutenant at the end of 2019 he now serves as in leadership of the FDNY Command Tactical Unit (the drone program).

Fred comes from a family aviation background. His mother and brother both hold Part 61 pilot certificates. His dad, uncle, and cousin served in the Air Force.

Fred and his pilots fly in some of the busiest airspaces in the United States and have found a way to make things work.

The unit Fred is with manages all sorts of robotics from underwater, ground-based, and airborne.

• One thing most new pilots don't know but should.
• How to filter marketing messages from reality.
• Words of wisdom for new departments.
• Thinking about compliance.
• Tethered drone systems and if they are helpful.
• What makes someone a good public safety drone pilot.
• Tips to start a drone program. 
• How to help more people with a flight.
• The Incident Command App that FDNY uses.
• What happens when you put a monitor in front of the Incident Commander to watch a drone feed.
• What the most important skill drone pilots need to develop and it's not flying.
• The role of internal public relations for the drone program.
• How to say it is not safe to fly.
• Why it is important to avoid flying over people and how to get your drone into position.
• Visual Observers are mandatory.
• Integrating manned and unmanned aircraft.
• The challenges of managing the airspace.
• Dealing with news helicopters.
• What is coming to drones in public safety?
• How to avoid mistakes.
• Checklists. 

When it comes to someone with an extensive resume in law enforcement, Tom Madigan has a bio that reads like the book of an expert. His experience runs from find them, catch them, extract them, test them, to lock them up. In other words, patrol, detective, SWAT, crime lab, and corrections. Today we can aviation to that list.

With 25 years under his belt, he has finally landed as the Assistant Sheriff at the Alameda County Sheriff's Office in California. He is responsible for the aviation program that includes a big fleet of drones, pilots, airplanes, and helicopters. Tom is a private pilot and holds a Part 107 certificate.

Assistant Sheriff Madigan has been critically involved in many efforts to integrate drones into public safety. If there is an important group to present to or advise, he's done it.

I invited Tom on to pick his brain about what an exceptional COA flight program looks like in law enforcement so others can follow his lead.

• Doing what you want under a COA as a public safety flight operation.
• Aircraft integration.
• Airspace considerations.
• Not every single person makes a good public safety pilot.
• Checklists.
• Not every flight is smart to do.
• Officers and deputies are flying FAA-recognized aircraft and precautions need to be taken. 
• Using drones as a force multiplier.
• Why buying inexpensive drones makes the most sense right now.
• Look at drones priced so they are disposable and avoid expensive drones right now.
• Using multiple UAS at a scene.
• Drones will not take the jobs of manned pilots.
• Top lessons all departments should know before launching into a UAS program.
• The importance of internal and community PR awareness of your drone program.
• You can pursue Part 107 training and a COA at the same time.

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You can read the show transcript here. 

This is the first of hopefully other podcasts where I talk directly to the FAA and get the facts and information from the source.

In this podcast, I talk with John Meehan from the FAA and we talk a deep dive into flight under a COA and investigate the landmines and pitfalls most pilots and departments are not aware of.

If you ever wanted to learn more about COAs and flying under a COA, this is the podcast you must listen to.

Highlights

• Why the new drone pilot of today is a danger as an accidental aviator.
• You are a real pilot flying a real aircraft and you have the same responsibilities as every other aircraft pilot flying in the sky.
• What all-new drone pilots missed and set them up for unlimited liability.
• Expertise is available if you reach out for it. A lot of local assistance is available.
• Congress created the rules that COA pilots operate under.
• The history of COAs.
• Be careful of COA flights that are not eligible.
• COA pilots and the named responsible person named in the COA personal liabilities and exposure to being sued personally.
• The first question the FAA is going to ask in a ramp, accident, or incident check.
• Your department is a person.
• A public aircraft crash where people went to jail.
• What Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) actually means under a COA and why most people are doing it incorrectly.
• The FAA wants everyone to be able to fly BVLOS.
• COAs still require a Visual Observer even under a BVLOS flight.
• Case law is coming. Just because there is no drone legal interpretation of the regulations published yet does not mean flight decisions are not non-compliant with the Federal Aviation Regulations.
• The surprising facts of accidents that have happened.
• Why a safety culture change is needed.
• The liability of anyone in your flight department with a hazardous attitude.
• The results of recent COA accidents and the findings.
• Is it even possible for a COA drone to be determined to be airworthy?
• You are a flight department of one to all pilots.
• If you have a local public safety manned aircraft department, they are your friend.
• The limiting factors of regulations but why that can be helpful to you from management.
• Why volunteer fire departments are not eligible to fly under a COA.
• How your COA flight can fall outside the rules and drop you into civil aircraft rules.
• Why COAs are walking into a giant minefield with a bayonet.
• Why public safety manned helicopter pilots will not fly under their COA.
• COAs add two sets of rules you have to remember.
• The pros and cons of COAs.
• When a COA is a big advantage to some flights.
• Your COA does not allow you to fly over department staff, even momentarily, except for a few specific members.
• What a qualified non-crew member.
• The FAA expectation of what it means for a COA pilot to be certified.
• COAs increase complexity and falling outside the rules.
• COA malfunction reporting requirements.
• Why you need to hunt down helipad operations staff ahead of time.
• When a COA can be really good.
• Why you should start budgeting now for type certified drones when they hit the market.
• If you are doing any FEMA or compensated flights it is better to do it under Part 107.
• Under a COA you can only fly a handful of flight types.
• Training flights are not permitted as COA flights.
• The documents all COA pilots need to carry.
• The types of COA drones that must be registered with the FAA. Surprise!
• Where you can turn to for guidance and support at the FAA.
• Technology limitations that are restricting flight today.
• What drones will look like in five years.

Doug Bainton is a public safety drone pilot with a unique background and skill set. Not only has he been a New York City firefighter for 17 years but he had various important roles with the FDNY Disaster Assistance Response Team and has been deployed all over the place to assist with incidents and emergencies. Doug is currently assigned as the Citywide Interagency Coordinator and a public safety Part 107 pilot for New York City Emergency Management. 

In this episode we cover the following topics:

• The force multiplier power of manned and unmanned aviation in disaster responses.
• Getting drone teams in the right place with information to access the areas they need to get to.
• Why it is important for different types of aviation assets to work together. 
• How to gain an honest perspective of an actual disaster to get the right picture rather than conclusions.
• Advice and experience in getting manned and unmanned aviation to fly together.
• Teamwork is the critical skill needed to get past public safety drama so we can all work together.
• Flying together with other agencies is a right-of-way situation.
• How to say no to a flight that is not safe or regulation compliant.
• And then how to professionally decline an unsafe flight request. 
• Why crazy is a real way to deal with problems and situations at times.
• Lessons learned the hard way.
• The one thing I wish I knew before becoming a drone pilot.
• Why a daily preflight is critical to safe flight. 
• How to turn on the pilot-only brain when starting to fly.

Paul is with Nine Ten Drones and shares exceptional real-world information about the following items:

• What new drone pilots should understand before they begin to fly.
• Why it is often hard for new drone pilots to be aware of all the safety issues.
• How to interpret waivers and requirements in the waivers.
• Training missed by not having a flight instructor you work with. 
• How to get the missing training and why networking is important. 
• When talking about only the good misses the best lessons to learn.
• We talk about flight mistakes that could have turned out very badly but became learning moments.
• Why being great at flying a drone is only part of the skill set.
• How to get your mind right before the flight.
• The pitfalls of too much confidence. 
• How to listen to that voice in your head.
• Making the right decision every time is tough.
• The cost and role of airworthiness type certification and why it matters.
• The missing maintenance requirements for safe drone operation.
• We talk about more close calls and lessons learned from flying mistakes we made.
• Why it is tough to fly in situations that are comparable to a public safety situation. 

We all want to be great pilots and some of the examples Paul and I share are hard-learned lessons or mistakes you don't need to repeat.

You can subscribe to my public safety pilot newsletter over at my site, PSFlight.org.

Jonathan Rupprecht is a recognized attorney in the drone niche. He has an extensive background in UAS aviation, and his law firm website is a wealth of information for all drone pilots.

Jon is a trusted source of information, and he spends a lot of time helping to understand issues that impact us all as public safety pilots.

In this episode, we talk about:

• How departments can evaluate the difference between what a salesperson or manufacturer promotes and how to fly within current aviation regulations.
• The limits of flight as a government agency.
• Why public safety agencies seem to fly beyond the regulations without concern or "color outside the lines."
• The landmine's new public safety pilots have never been taught, but they are required to know.
• The federal crimes and flight restricted areas you can fly into by accident.
• Even manned aircraft pilots are not aware of all the regulations they have to comply with.
• How to become the most knowledgeable drone pilot at your agency.
• A Part 107 pilot meets the FAA remote pilot certification, but it is not training to fly under a COA with stricter rules and requirements.
• We do some aviation scared straight.
• How an attorney would easily target your flight operations and stack up the penalties.
• How FAA prosecutors might give you a heavy spanking or a slap on the wrist.
• How your flight operations can string you up with your own flight telemetry.
• Why a consultant can be a source of information to prosecute illegal flight operations.
• Are all drone failures negligent?
• The need for test flying the aircraft after every update of hardware, software, or firmware.
• How a plaintiff attorney will target the pilot or public safety agency if an issue arises. The weak points to target.
• How effective a Remote Pilot Part 107 certificate will be in a flight incident.
• When you can launch quickly or when you have to preflight all flight operations and document it.
• Why it really matters who is drafting your Certificate of Waiver or Authorization or a Part 107 waiver and what is the unauthorized practice of law.
• We talk about the questions agencies should ask before thinking the marketing or salesperson is telling you the truth.
• How drone mapping is creating legal problems for drone pilots.
• If you are flying a modified drone, there are things to check before you take off.
• Why flying all the time lawfully is smart, or do you have to.
• How software that tracks flights for your department can cause more liability, you don't expect.
• Why it is effortless to figure out if you were flying beyond VLOS without even seeing your flight telemetry.

Don't forget to subscribe to my pilot newsletter for the latest news and information for public safety pilots.

Jim Moore is the Drone Pilot Newsletter editor with the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA), the largest association of aviators globally. If you have not yet subscribed to the free newsletter with AOPA, you can click here not to miss an issue.

In this episode, we talk about: 

• Different ways checklists are important and how they can be implemented. 
• Why checklists are not "Do" lists.
• The Part 107 pilot learning curve and different learning experiences.
• What "Off Nominal Conditions" are (thanks NASA).
• How the earliest pilots learned to fly by mail, and it didn't go well.
• What manufacturers don't tell us about that goes into our drones.
• The responsibility rests on the shoulders of the remote drone pilot.
• How the FAA sees you and will judge you.
• What the FAA expectations are of drone pilots.
• What the FAA could care less about what you know or can do.
• Which is most important: understanding the regulations, Aeronautical Decision-Making or Risk Management.
• Loose, Juice, and Roost. A great tip for a minimum emergency UAS checklist.
• Landing zones and trees.
• We talk about how to handle fear, panic, and emergencies.
• How to get the gonads to say no and put your foot down.
• Where to find your best safety pilot.
• What we can do to lift all of us up as pilots.

You can find Steve at PSFlight.org and subscribe to his private email list for public safety pilots.

In this episode, I talk with Miriam McNabb, the editor-in-chief of Drone Life about how we can best deal with a rapidly evolving drone industry with growing pains while trying to make good hardware, software, and training choices at the same time.

For more information and to get on my private email list for the latest updates, safety advisories, and important information, visit Public Safety Flight at PSFlight.org.