PRECISION DRONE TECHNOLOLGY TRAINING FOR ARIZONA FRTEP AGENTS

We contacted two of our geographically closes FRTEP Cooperative Extension Centers to set up appointments to drop off drone operating systems. The two FRTEP centers were offices located at San Carlos, Arizona, and La Paz County, serving Colorado Rivier Indian Tribes (CRIT) office. Agents in these two centers have previous experience with flying drones. During the visit to San Carlos, an outreach workshop for tribal forest management companies were engaged in online training. We set up a drone flight operation course and engaged the workshop attendees in hands-on demonstration and operation of several models of drones. Each attendee was provided an opportunity to fly launch, fly, and land the drones. We later engaged in discussion of how drones may be used in their specific industries.  The new drone flight systems were left with the FRTEP staff for their own use and hands-on operation to become familiar with the different models. 

During our trip to La Paz County Office, we dropped off the three different drone models to the three members of the FRTEP Center. We discussed each of the three drone operation models and how they can best be used to in training various audiences, such as 4-H youth, adult leaders, and community members within interest in drone operation. We shared information about completing the FAA TRUST Exam for beginning recreational drone pilots. 

The DJI TELLO drone is an excellent unit for introducing audiences to basic drone operations. The drone is designed to be operated indoors and can be operated using an app on a smart phone. Another free app can be used to provide an introduction to audiences to basic programming for drone maneuvering (such as launch to a specific height, fly a programmed distance, turn left, turn right, fly forward, fly reverse, turn 180-degrees, perform a flip, etc., and land).  

The DJI Mini 3 Pro is a GPS-guided drone designed to be operated outdoors. The drone system has its own remote controller, so the operator does not have to rely on their own smartphone. The drone has a camera system and can record pictures or record short videos. This drone is designed to be flown by an operator with experience on how the thumb paddles on the controller are used to fly and maneuver the drone. The drone model is equipped with both collision avoidance sensors and return-to-home (RTH) functions. Additional batteries for extending flight time in operation were provided to the FRTEP centers. 

The DJI Mavic 3 is a larger-sized drone with an advanced camera operating system. This model drone can be operated with mapping applications. This drone has a remote controller similar to the Mini 3 Pro drone. Additional batteries and charging hubs were provided to extend the flight operating capacity of this model of drone. 

Funding for this project was received during the summer months of 2024. We reconfirmed our vendors for purchasing our different models of drones. Additionally, we purchased materials for building a drone pilot flight testing course, used by NIST. The course materials included two-gallon buckets, printable decals, 4x4 lumber, fasteners, rope, extension cord, timer, and dry erase board. We spent the first few weeks of the summer constructing the flight course materials, which included four separate stands with four buckets mounted on each stand. Decals are applied to the outside and inside of the buckets. The purpose is to have drone pilots launch and fly drones on a course above the buck stands and record pictures to identify the contents inside on the bottom of the bucket. Flying a rotation around the stand gives the pilot the opportunity to practice circling the drone, pausing, adjusting the angle of the camera, focusing, and taking pictures.