DRONE ON THE RANGE
At most airports, if you walk out onto the tarmac carrying a drone, about the best you can hope for is to be asked, “What do you think you’re doing here?” At Eastern Oregon Regional Airport, however, they ask a different question, “How can we help?”
That’s because Eastern Oregon Regional Airport (PDT) is home to the Pendleton Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Range—and drones are their business.
“When people come out to do testing with us, they find that our control tower is very familiar with UAS,” said Darryl Abling, the range manager. “They have a lot of experience coordinating multiple, simultaneous UAS operations alongside our manned traffic—commuter airplanes, general aviation pilots, crop dusters, cargo flights, helicopters and the military.”
While the full integration of UAS into the National Airspace System (NAS) may still be years away elsewhere, it’s happening right now in Pendleton. Along with my Embry-Riddle colleagues, I had the chance to see it for myself over last summer.
STRETCHING OUR WINGS
To better prepare our students for a future where UAS will be a mainstay in the aviation industry, the Embry-Riddle Worldwide Campus Department of Flight recently acquired a fleet of new drones—and not the sort that would fit easily inside a shoebox, or even a compact car.
These are big, heavy, sophisticated aircraft, including the DJI Agras MG-1P, a crop-dusting drone with a maximum takeoff weight of 54.7 pounds; the Lynx VTOL from SRP, originally developed for
