SAR flight over Rogo Field to look for a downed model airplane.

[Frank v B]

Paul Gray lost sight of his 2.4 meter power glider a few weeks ago.  Several searches and a mercy drone flight by George proved fruitless.

In a weird but serendipitous way we were contacted by a professional drone flyer who volunteered his services to try to locate the downed airplane.  Paul and I met the team at Rogo Field at 10 this morning.  He had already registered a flight plan with Transport Canada for a 9-12 operation and received confirmation and clearance.

The company name was Squadsight Inc, Premier Drone Services.  Norbert brought his friend/spotter Steve along. https://squadsight.ca

He used a Mavic 4 drone.  He checked all the fields around our area and found nothing.  He then took a flight over the tree line on the south end of the field and saw a plane in a tree.  He and Paul went over for a closer look.  Paul took the close-up picture of the plane.  It appears to be a Kingfisher by HobbyKing.  No sign of Paul's glider...yet.

When Norbert was in the woods looking for the treed plane, he had the drone in a geo-stationary hold above the tree, walked over, found the tree and the plane and sent the drone home.  It landed perfectly on the landing pad without any inputs from anyone.  Amazing.

The resolution on his camera was amazing.  He flew about 3 x the height of the trees and could zoom in at will.  He used a tv screen on the transmitter, not goggles.

Thanks to Norbert for his services.  He is a qualified TRANSPORT CANADA drone tester if anyone needs a test.

photo report:
07- Norbert before his SAR mission.
10- Norbert just before take-off.
11- a screen shot of his first flight.  Interesting prison bar view of the screen.  Has to do with my camera's shutter speed.
13- Paul trying to explain what happened.
14- Paul trying to explain where it happened.
21- Drone coming home by itself.
-- screen shot of the tree where a plane was found.  (yellow circle)
-- close-up of the plane in the tree.

Thank you Norbert and Steve.  You brought a whole new level of professionalism to Drone (quad) flying.  Much appreciated.
Paul settled the bill with a Tim Card each for Norbert and Steve.

Next steps: Norbert and Steve have volunteered to come back when the leaves are gone.
A great team.

Frank

[GuyOReilly]

WOW!!
Glad I was able to safely return my glider a few weeks back.
Hopefully Paul's plane will be located soon.

[Crow]

>>>

Next time, we will try to stream the drone gimbal to a screen for the guys to help spot the plane.