CAL FIRE Issues Urgent Warning Regarding Incursions of Unmanned Aircraft Systems
The state fire agency has issued an urgent warning regarding the incursion of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) into firefighting airspace. These incursions have raised serious concerns and led to the suspension of critical aerial
firefighting operations on a half-dozen incidents so far this year.
Cal Fire incursions by the year
The FAA regularly establishes Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFRs) around wildfire areas to protect the safety of pilots and other aircraft crews working in firefighting operations. All aircraft, including drones, are explicitly prohibited from entering these restricted areas unless they are operated by an agency directly involved in the wildfire suppression efforts. Even when a TFR is not in effect, drone pilots are warned to avoid flying near wildfires — it is considered a crime to interfere with firefighting operations.
“The danger of flying drones near wildfires cannot be overstated,” said Chief Jake Sjolund, Staff Chief Tactical Air Operations. “Such actions jeopardize lives and have immediate consequences for firefighting agencies’ response efforts.”
When drones are detected near wildfires, fire response agencies will ground their own firefighting aircraft to mitigate the risk of a collision. This delay in airborne response on a fire threatens the safety of firefighters on the ground, residents, and properties in nearby communities.
Anyone who operates a drone without authorization near a wildfire can be found in violation of federal, state, and local laws, regulations, and ordinances — regardless of whether a TFR is in place. Anyone who interferes with wildfire suppression efforts with a drone can face severe consequences, including civil penalties of up to $20,000 and even criminal prosecution.
Helitack and on-the-ground firefighters learn to keep eye contact with a helicopter pilot. So it’s unnerving to look into the cockpit of this Robinson R22 and not see a pilot’s helmet as it lifts into a hover. But this is the point – this is a video of the first test flight of an uncrewed, teleoperated helicopter focused on fire missions. And it takes just a moment to spot a focused face in the control van behind the hovering helicopter – the pilot, holding a cautious yet quite committed in-ground hover.
First teleoperated flight of Robinson helicopter with Rotor Technologies. The pilot is in the control van on the right.
On December 2, 2022, Rotor Technologies’ teleoperation tools demonstrated the first and key technical challenge of moving the pilot out of the helicopter. The first three-minute flight of “Birdy McBirdface” (named in honor of “Boaty McBoatface,” a pioneering British uncrewed submersible) demonstrated the initial flight operations with their CloudPilot system and began testing and refining the remote piloting process.
To get to this launch, company co-founders Dr. Hector Xu and Greg McMillan studied the opportunities for improving aviation with technology. Their research showed that “firefighting came across as a very urgent need,” Xu said after the first series of test flights. “It’s a growing need in terms of the climate crisis. And people don’t have the tools to fight fires.”
After a year and half of programming and prototypes, they’ve launched their CloudPilot teleoperations system that relies on low earth orbit satellites to integrate accurate, real-time location-sharing and communications between the pilot and the helicopter.
While others are developing larger payload aircraft with autonomous piloting, Rotor is focused on light helicopters with real-time but remote piloting. By removing the pilot from the light helicopter, the payload increases from 170 pounds to 400, with a three-hour flight time. Even with that gain, Xu acknowledges that “in suppression operations, we will always be a little payload limited when compared with the competition.”
The advantages of a remote pilot become more apparent in precise and interactive operations, both high risk and more routine, “when flying low and slow in the deadman’s curve, such as ignitions, and providing logistics, food, water, tools. The case that is exciting is working on the fringes of the day. To build technology that is able to fly beyond visual flight restrictions, that improves situational awareness of remote pilots beyond the physical cockpit. The technology we’re building will improve situational awareness in low-visibility situations,” both to avoid inadvertent entry into instrument meteorology conditions (IMC) and to ensure safe flying in IMC. With CloudPilot technologies, even night operations become possible – think of the potential of aerial night ignitions.
Yet what adds the most value to a light helicopter with remote piloting? As Xu notes, “People have been building uncrewed rotorcraft for awhile … trying to build fully autonomous systems. We’re very clear this is teleoperations. A pilot is operating this remotely. Not a lot of people are building this technology, particularly in the civilian operations.”
And it is this clear relationship – between pilot and helicopter, and with fire operations on the ground and in the air – that Xu holds is unique in their approach, which will help build trust in new technologies that will in turn support safer mission operations overall.
Beyond wildland firefighting, use scenarios include disaster response, emergency management and eventually passenger certification.
With their success in the first flights, Rotor Technologies is planning for simulated firefighting scenarios in field tests this summer for their two prototype helicopters.
Still image from the Unmanned Aerial System Aerial Ignition Academy video, which is below.
The Unmanned Aerial System Aerial Ignition Academy trains personnel in the use of drones on prescribed fires and wildfires. The video below is a brief description of the academy.
Joe Milligan and William Bowman of the National Park Service Type 3 UAS Module.
Background
Fire Season 2021 has forced Incident Management Teams to be creative in how they engage with fires. One of the ways teams have been successful is with the use of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), informally known as drones.
Unmanned Aircraft Systems are now used regularly for commercial, military, public and private applications. Experts suggest that while this technology is already impressive, it is still in its infancy. Some have described the state of UAS technology like being in the pager stage before cell phones. Many government agencies, even those regulating UAS, are struggling to keep up with the pace of development and spread of UAS use in the national airspace.
Previous reports have been published regarding the utility of UAS on wildfires. The intent of this post is to use the Schneider Springs Fire to frame current and potential UAS applications for wildland firefighting operations.
The Schneider Springs Fire
Operational Picture
The Schneider Springs Fire on the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest started when a lightning storm blanketed the northern Cascade Mountain Range on the evening of August 3, 2021. During the next several days, the fire grew quickly in record hot and dry conditions. It was burning in heavy timber, standing dead trees, and very steep terrain that was difficult for ground resources to access.
“The UAS program will pay for itself by reducing the mental and physical wear and tear on our people.”
THOM TAYLOR, NIGHT OPERATIONS BRANCH, SCHNEIDER SPRINGS FIRE
The Schneider Springs Fire is being managed under a full suppression strategy. However, due to the large number of fires in the region and nationally, as indicated above, there are a limited number of available firefighting resources. When PNW Team 2, a Type 1 Incident Management Team, took over the fire it was at only three percent containment after another IMT had been managing the fire for two weeks.
Type 3 UAS with Ignis PSD.
How UAS Were Used on Schneider Springs Fire
Swing Shifts
Swing shifts allowed both day and night operations to benefit from the UAS. Swing shifts are often used as an opportunity to make the most of burning conditions. This approach was noted to synergize UAS opportunities by making the most of both day and night fire behavior.
Burning at Night
The Type 3 UAS was used extensively at night for Plastic Sphere Dispenser (PSD) burning operations.
Intel Gathering
The UAS were able to access portions of the fire that were inaccessible to other aircraft, as well as areas that had limited visibility due to smoke.
Providing Real-Time Data
The Type 1 UAS on night shift was used to fly Infrared (IR) over the entire fire.
The Type 1’s data interpreter was especially useful when the U.S. Forest Service’s National Infrared Operations (NIROPS) orders were Unable to Be Filled (UTF).
After the Type 3 was used for PSD burning operations, it was then able to get back up in the air to grid for spots in the burn area—providing IR immediately after burning or gridding deep in the green through thick smoke.
Both the Type 1 and Type 3 UAS were used concurrently during burning operations. The Type 3 burned and the Type 1 looked for spots. Once they located a spot fire, these UAS could “walk” suppression crew members on the ground to a spot’s lat/long—always being within a few feet of the spot fire’s location.
Kelly Lewis, BLM Alaska Fire Service, with a Type 1 UAS.
What Are We Learning?
Benefits
Better intel leads to better decisions. UAS can now improve how we manage risk by limiting exposure when scouting, patrolling, and firing.
UAS can identify spot fires. They also increase confidence that spots are being found—that you wouldn’t otherwise know about.
The UAS can support patrol operations with high effectiveness and less people, ultimately reducing exposure.
Smoke was not a limiting factor during UAS PSD or recon operations. Utilizing the UAS provided precision PSD operations, related to both timing and geography.
UAS can reduce the human exposure involved in helicopter PSD operations.
UAS can fly in smoky or foggy conditions not ideal for manned aircraft.
A UAS can cover more ground than a person on foot over various terrain conditions.
Night operations means no conflict with other aircraft.
Challenges
More aircraft increases the coordination workload – including between manned and unmanned aircraft.
Air Operations and ground operations must coordinate on priorities for the entire incident.
With few UAS modules available, the existing ones are often required to drive back and forth trying to cover more than one fire incident.
The learning curve of not having previously worked with UAS.
Not knowing what products the UAS can provide, having no set standards.
For the Type 1 UAS it can take 24-48 hours to get it running on an incident—due to FAA approvals, Temporary Flight Restrictions, Landing and Recovery Zones (LRZs), Land Use Agreements, Mission Aviation Safety Plans, etc.
There will always be a need for manned aircraft. In terms of situational awareness, drones can’t see what a person looking out of an aircraft can see.
Current UAS availability is a limitation. There are not enough pilots, aircraft, or modules to meet the demand. Regional UAS Coordinators work with incidents and the Geographic Area Coordination Centers (GACC) to set priorities for the modules and equipment. In doing so, they try their best to meet the needs of the fire and the region. There are a lot of pressure points: A high demand for the equipment; the pressure of “use it or lose it”; and the pressure to burn even if conditions aren’t right.
A UAS connected to a suppression module, such as a hotshot crew, means that you’re pulling one to three hotshots off the crew for UAS operations which may limit the crew’s capabilities.
UAS modules are not standardized. Currently, there is no established configuration. Equipment is often shared, including: big TVs, batteries, staffing (most modules are interagency), trailers vs trucks.
UAS have limited flight times. The Type 3 drone has anywhere from a 15-25 minute flight time, depending on payload (PSD operations vs IR).
UAS pilots need to have more than just UAS experience. They need to know what they’re seeing and how to talk on the radio. Having Firing Boss experience is very valuable.
Line of sight is still a limitation for the Type 3 UAS, which, due to terrain and vegetation, is about two miles.
Type 1 and Type 2 UAS are only available as Call When Needed (CWN) contracted aircraft.
UAS Possibilities for the Future?
A UAS—or multiple UAS—being assigned to every incident. Having dedicated federal UAS modules rather than taking from other modules.
Integrating UAS with incident Air Operations.
Development of UAS leadership positions.
Full time “eyes in the sky”—that could replace recon and patrol.
Eliminate the use of a light helicopter for PSD operations. Aerial ignition modules.
Better battery life for longer flight times.
Higher payloads and flight times for operations such as bucket drops.
Fireline explosives.
Search and Rescue on a fire.
More structure and standardization.
For More Information About How UAS can Benefit the Wildland Fire Community:
As unmanned aerial systems (UAS), or drones, become more capable and ubiquitous on wildfires the infrastructure supporting the flight crews will undoubtably become more sophisticated. Typically they work out of a cargo trailer or pickup truck and may have a generator to recharge the batteries on the controllers and aircraft. But it does not always have to be done that way.
A conventional Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) module on the Sawtooth Fire, June 3, 2020. InciWeb photo.
Two companies, Volta Power Systems and Draxxon have partnered to develop the first fully electric battery-powered towable Command Center designed for UAS. The DX-816 center allows organizations to integrate UAS into other command and control systems. The automotive-grade Volta system allows the entire mobile center to run up to 24 hours on a single system charge without the use of a generator or idling the towing vehicle.
The customizable setup offers both interior and exterior monitoring, as well as a fold-down rooftop UAS flight station. The whole unit is equipped with climate control and LED lighting for reliable visibility, day or night.
Draxxon rooftop UAS flight station mounted on the Command Trailer. Photo by Draxon. Draxxon Command Trailer. Photo by Draxon.
The trailer’s 24,000 Wh Volta system recharges via a shore power connection, but unlike many technologies, it doesn’t require special charging infrastructure. The power pack can charge safely from a standard electrical wall outlet. Distributed through a 5,000W AC inverter, the system eliminates the need for a generator on-site, with enough stored energy to power the trailer without noise or emissions.
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Rangers have started using drones to scout fires from above, the Grand Canyon News reported. From the article published Tuesday:
Justin Jager, interagency aviation officer for Grand Canyon National Park, Kaibab and Coconino National Forests and Flagstaff and Verde Valley Area National Monuments, said the drones are utilized in conjunction with traditional methods. Operators use the devices to scout fire lines, or communicate information to other personnel in the area.
The unmanned systems aren’t replacing fixed-wing scouting planes. Rather, they’re being used to search a fire’s outer edges and providing intelligence that can help establish stronger fire lines.
“We’re taking what we’re learning and creating a guide for other agencies, like BLM (Bureau of Land Management) or other national parks to create their own programs,” Jager said. “I think they can all benefit from adding this tool.”
Grand Canyon National Park is the only park with its own fleet of unmanned aircraft that can be used for locating people who have gotten lost, stranded, injured or killed. Under a program that began last fall, it has five drones and four certified operators, the Associated Press reported.
The drones are about 18 inches across and 10 inches high, with a battery life of about 20 minutes. Drone operators watch the video in real time and then analyze it again at the end of the day.
As fire season revs up, so will conversations about the crossroads of the devices and wildfire. While crews have successfully used drones for recon and to aid in igniting prescribed burns, it’s only a matter of time until a curious hobbyist — once again — flies too close to firefighting operations.
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has come out in the past supporting the U.S. Department of the Interior and U.S. Forest Service in their simple message to drone operators: If you fly; we can’t.
“Flying a drone near aerial firefighting aircraft doesn’t just pose a hazard to the pilots,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. “When aircraft are grounded because an unmanned aircraft is in the vicinity, lives are put at greater risk.”
That didn’t matter. After a string of incidents last year, the FAA warned in a mass email to recreational drone operators that those “who interfere with wildfire suppression efforts are subject to civil penalties of up to $27,500 and possible criminal prosecution.”
Looking for more about the intersection of drones and wildfire? This dated, yet relevant, Smithsonian video below documents the use of the General Atomics MQ-1 Predator Drone in the August, 2013, Rim Fire in California.
The U.S. Forest Service used an Unmanned Aerial System as one of the tools in a very complex inspection of the longest clear span glue-laminated timber truss pedestrian bridge in North America.
The feature story in the June issue of Aerospace America is titled “Fire Drones”. It covers the limitations and possible benefits of using unmanned aircraft over wildfires to collect intelligence and possibly one day to haul supplies and even drop water. Below is an excerpt from the article:
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…One way to [map fires, move supplies, relay communications, and drop water] without threatening piloted aircraft would be to fly unmanned aircraft over fires when darkness or smoke prevents manned aircraft from flying near a blaze. That’s what Mark Bathrick and Bradley Koeckeritz of the U.S. Interior Department are proposing. Bathrick, a former U.S. Navy aviator and test pilot, directs the department’s Aviation Services Office; Koeckeritz is the unmanned aircraft specialist there.
They note that in January, the FAA and Interior Department signed a memorandum of understanding allowing Interior to use unmanned aircraft weighing 55 pounds or less and flying below 400 feet to monitor natural resources and to conduct search and rescue missions on the agency’s land. Interior personnel can now fly unmanned aircraft after submitting a special type of COAs — Certificates of Waiver or Authorization — to the FAA, called a COA by notification. Unlike traditional COAs, the Interior Department’s enables it to file flight plans and fly immediately without waiting for the FAA to approve the plan.
Koeckeritz and Bathrick want to establish a similar policy to test unmanned or optionally piloted planes against fires. They know that it could take years before the FAA establishes rules to allow manned and unmanned aircraft to operate in the same airspace at the same time. Hence their proposal to fly unmanned at night in the mountains or through smoke to ferry food, water, fuel, chainsaws and other supplies to firefighters. Piloted planes would be nowhere around in those situations.
On a good day, when conditions permit, manned aircraft typically support firefighters for about eight hours. “With optionally piloted aircraft, we have the potential to more than double those hours,” Koeckeritz says. “If a pilot could fly the aircraft during the day and operate it remotely at other times, that could make a substantial impact on our ability to contain and eventually extinguish fires.”
One thing I’m surprised the author did not point out is the option to fly an intelligence collecting drone at an altitude above all of the other firefighting aircraft, higher than the helicopters, air tankers, lead planes, and air attack. As long as it remained in the Temporary Flight Restriction, interference with piloted aircraft would be minimized. This, I believe, is what the Predator B borrowed from the California National Guard did when it was flying for 20 hours at a time over the Rim Fire that burned 257,000 acres in and near Yosemite National Park in 2013.
These videos describe the use the Predator on the Rim Fire.
HERE is a link to a 17-second video which can’t be embedded, but it shows the operator’s screen.
Thanks and a tip of the hat go out to @jetcitystar.
ViaSat Inc. today announced it is part of the consortium awarded the DeSIRE II project, a program funded by the European Space Agency (ESA) Integrated Applications Promotion (IAP) program, the European Defense Agency (EDA) and industry to define regulations and civilian usage for satellite-controlled Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) also known as drones, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or unmanned aircraft systems (UAS).
As part of the consortium, ViaSat is taking the lead in developing the communication, navigation and sensing (CNS) technologies for real-time RPAS command and control across Ka- and L-band satellites. ViaSat will provide an advanced satellite communications (satcom) system that includes modems for both frequency bands and modems for system gateways to demonstrate how a satcom system can lead to the safe use of RPAS in “unsegregated” or civilian airspace.
ViaSat will also help identify civilian service applications for RPAS usage such as environmental monitoring, maritime surveillance and emergency response. One application proposed by ViaSat is the effectiveness of RPAS in early warning and response of a wildfire outbreak. ViaSat in collaboration with CEREN, the French public organization that represents 14 fire brigades, will demonstrate how the DeSIRE II project can aid in data collection and transmission; identification of risk and alarm trigger; real-time video information of wildfire outbreaks; and night flights with infra-red capabilities.
