Pan-Pacific Test Range Conducts Demo for FAA, Law Enforcement Officials

Photo courtesy Peak 3 Technical Services

 

By Priya Potapragada



The Pan-Pacific Unmanned Aircraft Test Range Complex conducted a training mission with the Alaska State Troopers, the Fairbanks Police Department and the Fairbanks Fire Department to demonstrate the benefits of using UAS with law enforcement and to help the Federal Aviation Administration establish regulations. 



This mission’s objectives showcased how communications with air traffic control support operations near a public airport to FAA officials and showed how the UAS could be used for public safety. 



An Aeryon Scout, a quadcopter fitted with cameras and sensors, was used in three mock scenarios — a barricaded subject situation, forensic evaluation of a vehicle accident scene and a multi-story fire — to display how UAS can help each of the situations at the Fairbanks Regional Fire Training Center. 



The Scout was used in May to conduct research on caribou and muskoxen at the Robert G. White Large Animal Research Station. 



Peak 3 Technical Services, an unmanned aircraft services company, from Anchorage, Alaska, supported the effort by providing mission planning, operations development and acted as a pilot-in-command. 



"We would not have been able to execute this mission without the support of Peak3,” says Marty Rogers, director of the University of Alaska Unmanned Aircraft Program. “Through the growth of our UAS Science and Research program and the newly added test site program, Peak3 staff have consistently provided outstanding support to the University of Alaska unmanned aircraft program.”



The Pan-Pacific range is part of the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.