High-Risk Operations

PILOT REPORT

To any person who has ever uttered the phrase, “Those who can't do, teach,” I'd like to extend an invitation: spend a day on the flight line with Dr. Scott Burgess of the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Worldwide Campus Department of Flight. For myself, I've always had the utmost respect for the teaching profession, so I was delighted to be recruited for this mission—although my enthusiasm ebbed somewhat when I learned the details.

I would be operating a drone a few feet from a highway bridge while another drone, piloted by Dr. Burgess, flew a few feet from mine. I've done proximity flying on several occasions in my career, and more than once I've seen it end badly: that sickening crunch when a propeller strikes an external object, followed by the inevitable fall to the ground below. Except, in this case, we'd be flying over the Deschutes River, so at least I wouldn't have to gather up the broken pieces if something went wrong. Needless to say, I was curious to learn what specific circumstances required us to undertake such a hazardous mission. Scott told me: “We're developing a course for the Office