The sky’s the limit for the City of St. Albert’s quad-copter drone.
Well, not quite, but the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has already allowed the city to do more aerial photography for much less money, and there are plenty more applications that could be considered.
Harold Pacheco, a marketing specialist with the city’s economic development department, said since the city bought a DJI Phantom 2 drone in 2014 and trained staff how to use it, it has flown a total of nine missions collecting images for the department.
“We use it mainly for marketing, in our digital print media,” he said. “St. Albert is going through a lot of development in the last year.”
Aerial shots of land for prospective developments, and pictures of those developments as they progress, are used in the city’s marketing material to help keep residents informed.
And with a cost of about $6,000, including the drone itself and all the training for staff to be able to fly it safely and in compliance with Transport Canada regulations, it basically paid for itself after the first flight. The city used to have to hire a helicopter and videographer.
“We were paying $6,300 for three hours of flight time and footage,” Pacheco said. Those flights used to be limited to once per year.
With city staff now properly qualified to use the device for the city’s commercial purposes, that can happen much more often – but it’s not a matter of deciding on a whim to head out and do some flying.
Transport Canada regulates the use of drones, with regulations that are much more strict for commercial flying like what the city does than for your typical hobbyist.
Pacheco said even for a hobbyist in St. Albert, however, a Special Flight Operator Certificate is required. Hobbyists can fly within exempted areas without a permit, but nothing within five nautical miles (9 km) of a hospital or airport qualifies.
“There’s almost no place in St. Albert you can fly under the exemption,” he said.
Before flights, staff files a Notice to All Airmen (NOTAM) with the government to comply with regulations, and also advertise the flight on the city’s website and social media pages as an additional local protocol.
This is done in part to mitigate some potential negative public perception associated with drones. Some people are concerned about privacy breaches, for example.
“You can’t really sneak up on someone,” Pacheco said. “It sounds like an angry swarm of bees when you’re close and the propellers are on,” even through the walls of a house.
There are always at least two crewmembers on every flight – one to operate the drone and another to spot potential hazards.
Although St. Albert was among the first municipalities in the country to get licensed for commercial drone use, and is “kind of leading in that regard,” Pacheco said there are other municipalities in the area that have identified other uses for drones and are operating them for purposes beyond economic development.
In Strathcona County, for example, the fire department uses drones on fire calls.
“They fly it up, and they can see the areas that are hit hardest with a fire and can mobilize their units to strategically address that,” he said.
Other potential uses identified for St. Albert include public works using drones to monitor road conditions, by replacing the traditional camera on the drone with an infrared camera to be able to spot icy conditions from a distance.
It could also be used for surveying. With the right software, aerial photographs of neighbourhoods can be converted to accurate up-to-date maps for planning purposes.
And in a field that’s as new as unmanned drone flight, Pacheco said there is potential for even more applications to come online in the future.
