Autonomous Aerial Systems for Wildfire Management in Montana - Third Quarterly Report - October 31, 2016

Sep 16, 2026

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Third Quarterly Report for the DroneFire program details quarter three activities, accomplishments, and progress organized by objectives and milestones. Most effort centered on wildfire data collection, including operational drone missions at the Roaring Lion Fire in partnership with the Bitterroot National Forest. The report covers goals achieved in UAS operating agreements, USFS flight procedure demonstration, rotor-wing fireline intelligence testing, and thermal infrared imagery acquisition. It also documents FAA COA progress, contract-driven partner expansion, data processing milestones, and upcoming winter campaign and training initiatives.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryPresentations

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Pages11

Reading Time4 min

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Executive Summary

Objectives and Milestones

Objective #1: Project management organization and workplan

Objective #2: Contracts and coordinate flight operations

MONTANA UNIVERSITY SYSTEM RESEARCH INITIATIVE Autonomous Aerial Systems for Wildfire Management in Montana Third Quarterly Report – October 31, 2016 Submitted by: Carl Seielstad, Project Lead and Principle Investigator FireCenter – The University of Montana – Missoula October 31, 2016 [http://www.umt.edu/aaso/DroneFire/](http://www.umt.edu/aaso/DroneFire/) Executive Summary This document describes activities, accomplishments, and progress in the third quarter of DroneFire. Activities are organized by objectives and milestones, as reported in the Project OTOs. Expenditures and photos are included at the end of the document. In Quarter Three, the majority of effort has focused on data collection, with emphasis on measurements in the fire environment. The project remains on schedule and within budget. The most significant effort in the Quarter was deployment of unmanned aircraft on active wildfire. Although the use of drones in operational fire has so far been limited nationally due to safety concerns associated with UAS in airspace shared with piloted aircraft, we accomplished four missions on the Roaring Lion Fire in partnership with the Bitterroot National Forest. Two small rotor-wing platforms were deployed on a portion of the fire to test instruments and techniques for providing fireline intelligence. We achieved four primary goals: 1) developed and tested agreements and protocols for operating UAS in the fire environment on a USFS administered active wildfire; 2) demonstrated UAS capabilities and flight procedures to USFS fire personnel; 3) Tested performance of small rotor-wing platforms for gathering real-world fireline intelligence in the form of video inspection and mapping of fireline; and 4) Acquired thermal infrared imagery to identify presence/absence of heat. These missions represent an important precedent in fire management that are expected to lead to additional R&D in the fire environment. We applied for a new Certificate of Authorization (COA) from the FAA to operate drones up to 18,000 feet AGL at our Lubrecht flight facility without pilot line-of-sight (LOS) . Documents outlining highelevation mission procedures, lost link and lost communications procedures, and procedures for maintaining LOS from manned-aircraft were developed and are currently under review by the FAA. The application is halfway through the approval process. Acquiring this COA would be an unparalleled accomplishment for a university research enterprise, would facilitate extraordinary opportunities for drone development and testing, and would attract partners and funding. Our public-private partnerships continue to grow. We acquired a locally-built, high performance M4 quad-copter from the Missoula company Skyefish and conducted training flights at the Lubrecht Drone Port to aid in advancements in flight planning software suitable for mountainous terrain. Contracts and project specifications were finalized with Commander Navigation of Hamilton to acquire multispectral and thermal data for fire reference sites at Lubrecht Forest from a long-dwell time fixed wing platform. Data collection is scheduled for late November 2016. We have acquired and processed reference data for two of three Fire-Fire Surrogate experimental blocks to support the efforts with Commander Navigation and Skyefish with additional acquisitions ongoing. Looking forward, two of our graduate students have advanced to the final round of the Barrett Business Challenge with a proposal to develop a drone-based wildfire defensible space technology company and we have committed modest support to a student start-up to assist with development of aircraft and sensors focused on measurements of snow and water. Mission planning for our winter prescribed fire campaign has been completed and permissions secured. A new UM course (Introduction to Unmanned Aircraft systems and GIS) has been developed will be offered in Spring 2017. Objective \#1. Develop project managem

FAQs

What were the main focuses of the third quarter of DroneFire?

The quarter focused on collecting measurements in the fire environment and deploying unmanned aircraft on active wildfire missions, including work on the Roaring Lion Fire. Data collection and performance testing of small rotor-wing platforms were central outcomes.

What progress was made with the FAA authorization for drone operations?

The project applied for an FAA Certificate of Authorization to operate drones up to 18,000 feet AGL without pilot line-of-sight at the Lubrecht facility. Mission procedures and lost-link communications procedures were developed and the application is halfway through approval.

Which partnerships and contracts supported the project during the quarter?

Partnerships expanded with organizations including Skyefish for a high-performance M4 quad-copter and Commander Navigation for multispectral and thermal data collection for fire reference sites. Reference data acquisition and processing for experimental blocks continued during the quarter.

Sep 16, 2026

Uploaded by Putri