New Drone Club at CHS

With strong interest from students we are launching a Drone Club at CHS as a sibling club to the Robotics Club -- several dual memberships.

We are likely to start out as falling under the rules of the FAA's Model Airplane Club guidelines which are straightforward and common-sensical (is that a word?) The FAA has initiated an NPRM (Notice of Proposed Rule Making) to investigate whether universities and high schools clubs need a higher level of regulation.

We have a number of goals, near and longer-term:
1) use kits that requite the members to assemble the drone rather than buying already-assembled drones;
2) use open source software so we can add capabilities to the aircraft;
3) work on at least these applications to the extent we can under FAA guidelines:
a) Perform aerial inspection of all SOMSD building rooftops -- many have pitched roofs and an aerial inspection may help determine of more detailed inspections are needed;
b) Perform aerial surveillance of parts of the South Mountain Reservation for several reasons:
1) track vegetation changes on a seasonal basis;
2) using infra-red cameras do large-animal population counts at least in some areas of SMR
3) track changes before and after severe storms, like Sandy or Irene
c) Create videos and photos that would be used in Art and TV production classes;
d) Help the Athletic Department video practice sessions (cannot do this during games under FAA guidelines) for team sports like football, soccer, field hockey and lacrosse. This can give coaches another view of how the teams execute formations and plays
e) Likewise for filming Marching Band practices from above.

One thing we will not be doing is flying over residential neighborhoods!! And even to do the aerial surveillance of SOMSD school buildings will require careful planning and coordination with the local police departments. If ultimately that application were not allowed, then it would not be done.

The drones we are looking at are small, very lightweight and will have GPS capabilities and will operate under line of sight only.

As with other clubs, student conduct is one of our paramount concerns. No goofing off will be tolerated.

As to why a club, there are several reasons:
1) As an offshoot of the Robotics Club it will share the several experiences of (a) building; (b) coding; (c) operating; and (d) learning through failure - build, execute, fail and learn from the mistake.
2) Drones are rapidly becoming part and parcel of today's technological landscape just as robotics is rapidly doing. It is to the advantage of students who are interested in this to learn how to build, code and operate them safely and learn the proper "rules of the road". For some, as in the Robotics Club, it may lead to a career or at least a life-long interest just as the traditional Model Airplane Clubs have done.
3) I am goofy enough to be the faculty adviser.

Maybe we will demo a much smaller drone -- one that is off the shelf and weighs less than a pound -- at the Achieve Foundation Maker event at Columbia High School on May 2. Those small drones are for demo and practice purposes only -- no building or coding, just used for learning how to fly a drone.

Of course, anyone who wants to part with some money, feel free to donate via the Achieve Foundation and specify "Drone Club" (the Robotics Club likewise would love to take money out of your pockets. We can even program a robot to do that!!)

I live close to the high school. Should I expect to see strange flying objects landing in my yard?

I hope not. We may do practice in school parking lots or even hoof it up to the reservation. We will NOT allow flying into residential neighborhoods -- forbidden by the FA anyway and not likely to get an endearing response from the local PDs. We want to run this as a straight-arrow club -- no goofing around and no testing of limits.

Sounds cool. Do the State, Essex County, and Maplewood have any regulations on the books regarding drones?

They tend to reflect the FAA rules -- open spaces, no buzzing of homes and that, plus staying at low altitudes. Our attorney is working through the FAA guidelines and we will work directly with SO and Maplewood PDs.

This is spectacular. The flight part is actually the least interesting- though it will offer some good service to the town and county- compared to the building and skunk working that will go in with the software.

Bravo!

Sounds like a great idea . There are colleges that now offer drone management as a course and graduate job placement is at or near 100% .

I challenge your students to pick up and deliver my pizza orders.

FilmCarp said:

I challenge your students to pick up and deliver my pizza orders.

I will never complain about taxes again if this happens.

This club is for high school students only?

What day will the club be meeting?

Pity the drones can't fly into residential neighborhoods. A low altitude aerial survey of pot holes in our two towns would be a real public service.

Some of those potholes are so deep that when flying over them the drone would no longer be at 'low altitude'. :-(

The club sounds like a great idea.

For now, we start on Wednesdays and when we graduate to the build it kits, then several days a week, and then lots of practice.

The pothole survey would be fun but it would put the club into a much higher level of regulation, analogous to police departments and other public agencies. So I think prudence says we should pass on the potholes. Someday police or public works departments will use them. Think of Boston after the storms -- using drones to look at roofs etc.

Delivering ANY package puts us into the same bracket as Amazon and others who want to deliver via drones. Those drone pilots would have some kind of certification since those drones are not line of sight, hence they need a control center and all sorts of stuff. The drones we will use are all line of sight and the payload is not much more than a GoPro camera or something like that in size and weight. Also, battery life for the drones we use is not so long.

If the drones are small I'll skip the pepperoni. Seriously though, people like you are the reason I'm happy my son is in school here.

Why thank you!

I do not know the laws or the rule, so I will just ask.

Once this kicks off and the bugs are worked out, would it be possible to perform Drone Inspections of a private house for home owners that want that done? For a Donation basis?

For example, I have a two story house with slopes a tab beyond my comfort to walk around on. I can see where a recording of the condition of my high gutters and leaders, flashings and caulking around roof peneterations and other such thing would have value to me. And be a project that can be done as a learning event for the club.

The proceeds can be used to lower the cost of the club.

Later, Da
The UPS Store
George

Love love love this! Thank you!

Unfortunately the word drone carries with it the baggage of privacy invasion and killing bad guys.

Realistically this is no different than any rc model airplane, and those clubs have been around for probably close to 75 years!

I used to love going with my Dad to watch RC airplanes. We never did the airplane thing but went for RC boats.

Great idea - I'd enjoy coming by and seeing what students (and adults!) build and fly!

Ordered some small drones for practice ... but not here yet.

George...very unlikely we could do that as a service. The FAA has some rules that are quite specific about what a model airplane club can do (and that is were we are at least for now) and what it can't do. I think the idea of donations for services would probably not work, but that is a question for the attorney.

If we get the drones in on time and the students can practice, we hope to do some simple demos at the Achieve Maker Faire on May 2.

So far, Amazon has not used a drone to deliver the drones!

jgberkeley said:

I do not know the laws or the rule, so I will just ask.

Once this kicks off and the bugs are worked out, would it be possible to perform Drone Inspections of a private house for home owners that want that done? For a Donation basis?

For example, I have a two story house with slopes a tab beyond my comfort to walk around on. I can see where a recording of the condition of my high gutters and leaders, flashings and caulking around roof peneterations and other such thing would have value to me. And be a project that can be done as a learning event for the club.

The proceeds can be used to lower the cost of the club.

Later, Da
The UPS Store
George

George, at my previous home I kept seeing shingles on the ground, but could not see where they were falling from as I had a tall tudor roof on a 3 floor house. So I flew my quadcopter (drone as others like to call them) and sure enough found a nest of squirrels and a hole in the roof!! That hole cost me $1850 to fix and one of the reasons I hate tree rats...

@Jude, this is an awesome idea and I hope lots of kids will be interested and as one of the previous posters mentioned, the fun is truly in building! I've built a couple of them from scratch and it is the most rewarding moment when you first achieve stable flight after many hours of soldering, tuning the flight control board, and cursing hehehe

Is this club for Columbia kids only or is it also open to SOMS and MMS?

For now we are starting with CHS kids but, like the current Robotics program where we have three CHS teams and a middle school team all working at CHS, I see no reason why next fall we couldn't have some middle schoolers working in the drone club. They have to be watched ("they" meaning the kids) as they can without any effort at all act pretty goofy. Can't have that with the drones!!

When you see a Board of Ed member and the discussion warrants it, ask about physical space for tech things like robotics and drones and coding and such. Time to get the high school into the 21st century.

joan_crystal said:

Pity the drones can't fly into residential neighborhoods. A low altitude aerial survey of pot holes in our two towns would be a real public service.

I bet we can think of dozens of good uses for the devices. Sorting it all out will be a big project for society.

Here's one use -- a drone video of the aftermath of one of the tornadoes in Illinois.
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/weather/drone-captures-devastation-illinois-twister-n339471

Here are some drone videos from the NYC Drone Film Festival sponsored by NBC.
http://www.nycdronefilmfestival.com/