[UAS] Update on CALS UAS efforts

[French, Andrew]

HI Matt, thanks for the updates. We at  USDA Maricopa are now working the COA process to fly our S1000 Octocopter over a couple of sites at MAC and definitely want to be aware of what others in AZ are doing and specifically how your progress with FAA approvals might facilitate our COA request. We now have a provisional N-number but still have some training ahead of us before submitting the COA for review. Since you mention your pending 333 exemption request I thought I'd mention another option to get airborne more quickly. At a recent meeting in TX A&M I met someone from LoneStar UAS and have since discussed working through them to get flying while awaiting COA approval. LoneStar has a blanket national COA which would allow flying up to 200' agl. I imagine there are other UAS centers that have similar authorization. Of course there are costs to consider but compared with not flying at all, they could be worthwhile.-Andy French

From: UAS [mailto:uas-bounces at list.cals.arizona.edu] On Behalf Of Rahr, Matt - (rahr)
Sent: Thursday, August 27, 2015 7:49 AM
To: UAS Interest Group (uas at list.cals.arizona.edu) <uas at list.cals.arizona.edu>
Subject: [UAS] Update on CALS UAS efforts

Hello,

I was asked by UITS yesterday if CALS was doing anything exciting with UAS/UAVs. I've been loosely keeping tabs on varying activities, but have been out of the loop with a few units, especially ABE. If you have anything to add to the summary below, would you mind responding to the list?

Thanks,
Matt

Hi Nik,

We are loosely building a UAS interest group in CALS, although its meant to be as inclusive as possible. In fact, CALS has partnered with USDA, Arizona Western College, NAU and a few private firms, including Raytheon and M3 Consulting. We have about a dozen drones throughout CALS and Cooperative Extension. Most are flown under the "recreational users" hat for use in remote sensing, but our department's (CCT<http://cct.cals.arizona.edu/>) usage of drones in high value video production pushes us out of that category. We've been in touch with FAA several times, and feel we have a clear path going forward. The first step is registering a UAS with the FAA (which gets us a tail number). This is a simple process, one that does not dictate UAS usage. But, when we sent the paperwork over to Procurement and Contract Services for signature, it got sent up the flagpole and over to Risk Management. RM has been responsive and pro-active in working with us. We are meeting with them and the Office of General Council soon. Simultaneously, we've submitted our Section #333 Exemption form to the FAA. We should be hearing back on that soon.

This Fall, researchers in the School of Natural Resources and the Environment (SNRE<http://snre.arizona.edu/>) will be flying multi-spectral lidar over the Santa Rita Experimental Range<http://cals.arizona.edu/srer/> (part of the Arizona Experiment Station) via a UAS operator contracted through NAU.

Farther out, we'd like to use our Experiment Station centers in Yuma<http://ag.arizona.edu/aes/yac/> and Maricopa<cals-mac.arizona.edu> as training hubs for those that seek skills in flying, post-image processing, and videography. Maricopa would also like to share this facility with their neighbors at the USDA-Arid Lands Research Center (ALARC<http://www.ars.usda.gov/main/site_main.htm?modecode=20-20-05-00>), who share an interest in UAS-based remote sensing.

CCT<http://cct.cals.arizona.edu/> has begun building a UAS website to help coordinate efforts, documents, etc between our UAS users. It's still in development, but I'll let you know when it's ready.


Matt Rahr
Director, CALS Communications and Cyber Technologies (CCT)
VM Hosting, Network & IT Security - lab at cals.arizona.edu<mailto:lab at cals.arizona.edu>
Programming & Web Development - webdev at cals.arizona.edu<mailto:webdev at cals.arizona.edu>
Video Production & Classroom Tech - video at cals.arizona.edu<mailto:video at cals.arizona.edu>
More Information Online -  http://cct.cals.arizona.edu<http://cct.cals.arizona.edu/>
520-626-0329

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