Arrowsmith Search & Rescue is collecting donations for a much-bigger drone with stronger digital zoom and better clarity
A provincial decision to allow search-and-rescue teams to use drones is being embraced by a Vancouver Island group, which says the devices will have a huge impact on searchers’ ability to find people. Ken Neden of Arrowsmith Search & Rescue said his Qualicum Beach-based group has already been training with two small drones. Members are impressed at how one of them can detect body heat to pinpoint a person’s location.
“It’s pretty amazing what it will pick out that can’t be seen with the human eye,” said Neden, one of the team’s search managers. “Heat signatures” of people can be detected by drones under forest canopies and in bushes, he said.
Neden said the team has used a drone in a couple of searches, but it has not yet been part of a rescue. So far, 18 of the team’s 60-or-so members have earned a basic drone licence, he said.
The drone that can sense body heat uses made-in-B.C. Eagle Eyes software, which sends back live video that can be viewed on a laptop. “It can pick up colours, and if the drone is sitting still, it’ll pick up any motion.” Neden said drones, which can be used at night and in all types of weather, could open up “whole new areas” for search teams.
The Arrowsmith team is collecting donations on its website for a much-bigger drone with stronger digital zoom and better clarity. It hopes to raise $60,000 for the equipment, training and computer upgrades. Neden said along with “tremendous” clarity, the bigger drone has a spotlight that can shine straight down.
“Say we have a rope rescue on a cliff up on Little Mountain at night,” he said. “We can put it up and hover it a certain distance away with the spotlight to light up the cliff.”
North Shore Rescue is currently the only B.C. search-and-rescue organization with a program for nighttime use of helicopters, he said. Drones have an advantage over helicopters in certain situations, Neden said, pointing to a rescue operation last year with the Alberni Valley Rescue Squad that involved heavy cloud, which limited what the helicopter could do.
“If we’d had the drone working then, we could have taken it to the site, put it up in the air and done a search with that.”
Neden said some other search-and-rescue teams in the province are beginning to look into drone technology, but he believes Arrowsmith is the first on Vancouver Island. “I expect a lot more teams will be getting into it as we go forward.”
He said the drones the team has now were obtained in December with funding from donations, including money from legions in Qualicum and Parksville.
“The community’s been really good to us,” he said.
The group will pursue grants and other funding sources in its quest for the new drone, along with public support, Neden said. Donations can be made at arrowsmithsar.ca.
(Source: Times Colonist, Jeff Bell. Photo/Arrowsmith Search and Rescue)
