A drone is no toy

Is it a fun piece of technology that allows regular citizens a bird's eye view, or a piece of machinery that can cause serious harm if not used properly? It's a drone and it's both.

During this 2015 fire season, the vital air attack of wildfires has been stopped twice because a drone user decided to break the rules and fly over an active wildfire.

These drone fly overs grounded all air attack for hours on both the Westside Road fire in early August and the Testalinden fire this past weekend. The actions of those drone operators severely hindered the BC Wildfire Service's ability to fight the fire from the air, support ground crews and save people's home and properties.

An immediate and all encompassing reaction of grounding large aircraft for a small drone may seem to be an overreaction to come, but to the pilots in the air it is a life saving necessity.

Alpine Helicopters' pilot Peter Beets says users who chose to fly their drone over a active wildfire are risking lives – plain and simple.

“It is such a busy environment and if you are just going in there because you have the ability to do so, you are putting everybody's life in jeopardy. Not just the immediate crews on the ground or the aircraft in the air, but also they will stop any aerial work until that threat is completely cleared – so it is incredibly serious,” said Beets.

“You are putting aircraft into an area where visibility is a big issue because of smoke, there are aircraft operating with long lines flying crews around, there is aircraft working above the entire zone directing crews.”

The grounding of aerial fire fighting efforts then slows the ability of ground crews to knock the fire down and risks not only their lives, but the property and homes of residents near the fire.

While a drone may not seem big enough to take down a plane or large helicopter, Beets says they can cause serious damage.

Drones are similar in size to birds, but a lot harder, and bird strikes have been known to severely impact aircraft in flight.

“When you cause damage you seriously affect the ability of that aircraft to fly. When you do that you affect the safety of the people on board and you affect the safety of the people on the ground working underneath those aircraft. So, the full on effect is massive,” says Beets.

“A drone can end up in an intake, it can smash a windscreen and incapacitate the pilot, it could hit a tail rotor. All of these things. The risk is too high to even consider and that is why, in those situations, the incident commander will ground the aircraft immediately – there is not even a maybe.”

Beets said there are very specific rules about airspace over a wildfire that all registered pilots are well aware of – something drone pilots may not know.

He says even if a specific air restriction hasn't been published by NAVCANADA, certain rules apply the minute a wildfire sparks

“You are required to give it a five nautical mile radius berth, or 3,000 feet above ground level, absolute minimum,” says Beets. “Basically they don't want lookie loos and that sort of thing carrying on. There are aircraft conducting very serious work, trying to help people out, doing their best to help ground crews that are really fighting the fire.”

Beets adds that Transport Canada has been very proactive when it comes to drone use, and there is ample information available online for drone pilots.

“As a drone user you should take that responsibility upon yourself to get all that information, to find out what you can and cannot legally do,” says Beets.

“It is your responsibility to know the law, it is not the laws' responsibility to educate you.”

He points out that drone users often spend a couple thousand dollars buying a drone and outfitting it with a high definition camera so they should want to protect their investment.

“Just operate it with respect,” said Beets. “They are pretty powerful little 'toys,' in fact they are not really little toys at all. They have four powerful high-speed spinning blades on them. If those blades hit someone, you are going to cause a lot of harm.”

Beets worries that the drones will continue to become a bigger and bigger problem as they become more affordable and get in more untrained hands.

Sadly he feels the actions of the few drone users risking lives could also ruin it for the many responsible commercial and private drone users around – one bad apple spoils the bunch.

“There is a place for drones and I am sure they are a lot of fun to fly, but the user has to act responsibly,” says Beets.

“Because of the actions of a few people, I am sure in the future we will see some legislation come out regarding the use of drones privately.”