Drone Forestry Cruising

[Chris(Glen)]

Just curious if anyone has any input if the price of a drone now a days makes it a viable option to cruise a wood lot with? Be more up to date then old aerial photo's.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

Someone told me for commercial use you needed a special permit and license to run them things. True?

 

[Chris(Glen)]

I believe this is true, but that would be a bridge crossed once it was deemed a good process.

 

[madhatte]

Here's what I know, in brief.

First, the FAA are going to require UAV operators to have a license to fly drones for commercial work. This quote id from a different forum:

"Currently, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) requirements to fly UAVs under a section 333 exemption or a Certificate of Authority (COA) is a conventional pilot's license (airline transport, commercial, private, recreational, or sport pilot certificate). Under the proposed rule, the person who manipulates the flight controls of a small UAS would be defined as an “operator.” A small UAS operator would be required to pass an aeronautical knowledge test and obtain an unmanned aircraft operator certificate with a small UAS rating from the FAA before operating a small UAS. In order to maintain his or her operator certification, the operator would be required to pass recurrent knowledge tests every 24 months subsequent to the initial knowledge test. These tests would be created by the FAA and administered by FAA-approved knowledge testing centers.
As of this date, 5 April 2016, the FAA has not completed the rules for UAS operations. We are anticipating that this UAS ground school training will meet the FAA proposed rules on aeronautical knowledge. The student will be responsible for scheduling the necessary exams."

Second, several vendors are developing UAV systems for Forestry applications. Here is one example.

Third, as remote sensing technologies such as LiDAR become more common and their price comes down, expect to see these technologies intersect. Already my office is dreaming about doing LiDAR runs in-house over areas of maybe 100 acres. There are some other options, as well -- Fodar comes to mind immediately -- which are also becoming more attractive.

Finally -- never underestimate the Court Of Public Opinion regarding how quickly things move. It appears that the public is torn between a love of drones -- as seen in the sales of toy quadcopters in mall kiosks everywhere -- and fear -- as seen in the strong protests regarding their use in warfare. This is new ground and the legal end ethical implications are still to be fully explored.