DENVER — The sound of buzzing in the summertime no longer belongs only to bees.
Often times, the only way to know a drone is nearby is from the buzzing sound.
Websites like FlightAware give anyone the opportunity to track an airplane in real time. That does not yet exist for drones. And that can cause problems in life-saving situations.
“My job at the Center of Excellence is to explore, test and to implement new technology for wildland firefighting,” said Jeff Singers, unmanned systems project manager for the Colorado Center of Excellence.
He manages drones used by the state and how to handle drones interfering with wildfire operations assisted by the state.
“The large air tankers that deliver retardant, they have to be set down. All the helicopters that deliver crews and cargo loads, they have to be shut down. So, everything gets shut down until that drone is either no longer a threat or it’s been removed from that area, and that could take up a whole day,” Singer said.
The Federal Aviation Administration tracks reports of unauthorized or “rogue” drones.
Since 2020, 147 rogue drones have been reported in Colorado.
In June 2021, a rogue drone prevented aerial wildfire crews in Colorado from attacking the Pack Creek Fire in Utah.
“The difference right now is I have to visually be able to see a drone,” Singer said.
“We make receivers that detect Remote ID; the height of the drone, the speed of the drone heading, as well as a location of the pilot,” said David Burritt, owner of UAS Sentry.
Burritt, and his company in Broomfield, are developing technology to detect drones in real-time, including the location of the pilot.
“When this device detected the drone, it sent the information to the iPad, which then displayed it on the map,” Burritt demonstrated. “Before now, it was very difficult to find the pilot. So, now they can find the pilot.”
“This technology is going to be able for us to detect drones within a fire traffic area, and use that information to contact that pilot,” Singer said. “Most of the time they’re clueless or careless, they’re not trying to do it for criminal activities, they’re just doing it because they don’t know any better.”
Burritt will test his equipment during the Taylor Swift concert, since there will be tens of thousands of cell phones in the same area.
“Lots of radio interference and we want to test and see how the unit does,” Burritt said.
There is a temporary flight restriction around Mile High, not because of the Swift concert, but because the Colorado Rockies are playing the New York Yankees. During home Rockies games there is a three-mile temporary flight restriction around Coors Field.
Burritt also tested his equipment during the fireworks following a Rockies game at Coors Field, and at the Denver Nuggets parade.
“This device that Dave’s got going on, we’re notified, maybe even ahead of time, that it’s entering into the area, so maybe we can prevent it from even coming into the area,” Singer said.
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