Small Unmanned Aerial Systems are fast being adopted for civilian research and survey roles around the world. Keeping a track on legislation and product developments sUAS news aims to be the news source for smaller UAV’s
To be able to write for sUAS News you will have flown or created UAS or have been part of the regulatory development of unmanned aircraft systems.
Gary Mortimer
Chief Pastry Consumer
Gary Mortimer has been a commercial balloon pilot for 23 years and also flies full size helicopters. Prior to that he made tea and coffee in air traffic control towers across the UK as a member of the Royal Air Force.
His goal for sUAS News
“Its clear that the small unmanned systems market is poised for a rapid expansion. Putting as many of the press releases and rumours in one place was the reason I created sUAS News in 2008. Now that more systems are flying and people are gaining operational experience, facts not fiction need to exposed. Its a snake oil filled market”
Gary has been a judge in the DIYdrones Time Trust Trial (T3) competition since its inception.
LinkedIn email gary@suasnews.com
Patrick Egan Editor in Field Americas Desk
Patrick Egan
Patrick Egan served as a full member on the FAA’s sUAS Aviation Rulemaking Committee. (Order 1110.150). As a full member, and as Director of Special Programs for the Remote Control Aerial Photography Association. (RCAPA), he represented the “silent majority” or small business users of small Unmanned Aircraft System and their concerns regarding airspace integration. He also is a member of the International Coordination Council, which inputs to the WG-73 and the AUVSI Airspace Advocacy committee.
He has spent many years applying and collaborating on uses for unmanned aircraft technology.
Patrick is currently supporting a United States Army Space and Missile Defense Command, Future Warfare research project. In the past he has trained LTA (Lighter Than Air), ISR systems deployment teams for a OSD, U.S. Special Operations Command, Special Surveillance Project.
LinkedIn email patrick@suasnews.com
Tiaan Roux
Tiaan is a CPL fixed wing pilot currently flying Cessna Caravans between the islands in Mozambique.
LinkedIn email tiaan@suasnews.com
Brett Whalin Training
Brett Whalin
I have always been into aviation. As a kid, I loved the songs about the Red Baron vs. Snoopy. I built model planes, and usually asked for an F-16 for Christmas (for some reason Santa never brought that). When I was in 5th grade, I received my first computer flight simulator. My dad and I flew missions over the skies of Europe for hours at a time. In 7th grade, I took a field trip to the local Air Force base and was able to try the B-1 Lancer bomber simulator. I was the only one of my class that tried to actually fly it, instead of crash it into something. I even beat the local commander at naming his own model airplanes.
In high school, my veered slightly off the aviation course and started focusing on computers. I loved making websites and coding. Still, I did not forget aviation all-together. When it came to picking colleges, I searched hard for one that I could afford with aviation, otherwise I would do computers. I almost didn’t find any, but luckily found the University of North Dakota, just by chance. Not only was it close, but supposedly it was the best aviation school there was. In the end, aviation won out, and I did go to UND.
I started out in commercial aviation. Aviation was just as fun as I thought it would be, but I could also tell that in some aspects, its glamour would wear off quick, and I would start thinking of those aspects as just “doing the job”. I also regretted letting my computer skills get dusty.
My 2nd semester of that first year however, I was riding the bus to the airport when I heard a fellow student talk about how a group of his friends were petitioning to have an unmanned systems degree. THIS seemed like it was MADE for me. Computers, PLUS aviation. Win-win. I followed the progress of this petition, and watched it morph into a teacher supported thing as well. Soon it was up for a vote and making of theoretical classes. I made sure to get constant updates from everyone I could, including my advisor.
When it finally was created, at least for testing for viability, I signed up for their first introduction class in my 2nd year at UND. I avidly asked the main professor, Professor Ben Trapnell, almost every day, how things were progressing for the future classes of the major. I was very into the work that was assigned, and applied for observer positions out at the base. Soon, I was also helping Professor Allen Frazier as an observer and sensor operator for his experiments with UAS for the surrounding police departments. Our first testing area of his new DraganFlyer was in the gymnasium of the fitness center, where there would be no conflicts with airspace (though conflicts with air conditioning ducts did present challenges).
In May of 2011, I was the first of 5 graduates to graduate with the University’s major in UAS. I had taken classes on various ground systems, aircraft systems for UAS, remote sensing, and, of course, operations with UAS. The platform we had used was ScanEagle, and for training used the Software-In-the-Loop simulator. For practice, we had standalone simulators as well, which I used 3 hours a day before my actual flights, just to keep in practice. Overall, these classes have given me a very thorough background in UAS, over a broad area within the field. One of my papers from school on using UAS for finding and eliminating bark beetles in the US National Forests has recently gotten much interest from the US Forest Service, and is presently in their HQ in Denver, being reviewed.
LinkedIn Email brett@suasnews.com
A song for our weekly news update, Seven days in sUAS chosen by MrCellaneous from twitter land.
Dallas Meat Packing plant investigated after drone images reveal pollution..
You think thats bad the one between stephenville and dublin texas on hiway 377 is just as bad if not worse some days the smeel is so bad my kids vommit and we live about 1 mile away.. There dumping blood into there holding tanks..Its been reported but there still getting away with it.. I fear for the water supply