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John Dickow: Hello and welcome back to another episode of your drone questions answered. I'm John Dicko with the drone launch Academy here to find the answers to your drone questions, the questions that you submit. And today's question is how are drones used in search and rescue, which is a pretty cool topic today.

I have with me first Lieutenant. Martin Lessem, he's with Massachusetts Wing, DOU, also with the Civil Air Patrol in US Air Force Auxiliary. Martin, I'm gonna let you kind of explain what you do, how you've been doing it and how long you've been using drones especially.

Martin Lessem: so my name is Martin Lessem.

I'm a first Lieutenant with the Civil Air Patrol, which is the US Air Force Auxiliary as mentioned, I am the director of operations. For the small unmanned aerial systems for the Massachusetts wing. So that's the entire state of Massachusetts. I'm also a Coast Guard Auxiliarist where I'm a short range, UAS, pilot for them and the two sort of work in tandem a little bit.

so essentially what we do is we use drones in a search and rescue capability. we. are responsible for training people up on, on how to do that. the civil air patrol has been [00:01:00] using drones now for, I want to say about five, six years total as an organization. Massachusetts wing has been using them for the last two and a half.

and then coast guard has been using drones for about the last three or four years as an organization. And again, sort of the Massachusetts. area has been using them for about the last two.

John Dickow: Okay. Well, thank you, Martin, for joining me today. You are the person that is qualified to answer this question and, and I'll just sort of jump right into it.

And it seems obvious, that drones have that advantage of being high in the sky quickly and maybe even cheaply. I kind of want to just get your perspective how are drones used in search and rescue?

Martin Lessem: So drones are used in search and rescue in a multitude of ways. quite honestly, it depends a little bit on the equipment that you have and that you use. So, one of the drones that's used by both the Coast Guard and Air Force Auxiliary is the Skydio X2D, which is the sort of, industrialized defense model of the Skydio.

Um, it's designed specifically so that it can [00:02:00] operate on multiple frequencies, so that if there's frequency interference, it can hop over to a dedicated defense channel, and therefore, like, the disturbance won't cause the drone to do anything weird or funky. one of the nice things about that drone is that it does have multiple cameras on it.

It has both a regular optical camera, but it's also got the forward looking infrared. So, especially if you're searching in dense areas like forests or things like that, you can use that infrared camera to your advantage. You can help find those heat sources a lot easier. You can help find, areas that are cooler that might that shouldn't be cooler.

and this lets us use it in a variety of different missions. but primarily search and rescue is obviously one of the big ones. Civil Air Patrol does have, I want to say, a total of four finds. Using, the drones that we have and a find is basically when, a hiker has been reported missing or an aircraft has been downed and we've found that person or found that aircraft or found whatever it is we're looking for.

the advantage is that, as you mentioned, we can send drones up to a height above the trees, for example, so we can send it up and look [00:03:00] down. This can then direct to other Ground assets into that area, because we have a better visual of that area. it's also a safety issue when you think about it.

The nice thing, especially in the Northeast, is there are, some areas where there are animals that just aren't happy to see you. you know, bears and coyotes and things like that come to mind, and they show up very differently in a forward looking infrared than a human does for the most part, usually size wise.

So you can send, you know, ground teams in and say, hey, look, we know there's a bear den in this area because we see the heat signature. Avoid this area. Go around here. that's one of the big uses that we have for them. for the Coast Guard, it's search and rescue at sea for the most part.

the Coast Guard has developed, patterns that they use for their ships as to the most effective pattern to do a search in a, grid area of ocean. The nice thing with the drones is that it extends your vision. It gives you vision, you know, up to and beyond the horizon, which is. Really advantageous, especially if you're looking for something moving on the ocean.

again, they use the X2D. They also use the [00:04:00] Paradonophy. So, all of these drones are, are what are called blue listed drones. They're approved by the Department of Defense specifically for use by these types of organizations. it also means that all of the components are built in the United States so that there's no transmission of data to other, powers.

It's one of the really nice things with the systems is that they're compact also, the Parrot Anafi and the X2D, you can hand launch them if you need to. And obviously the advantage for that is, you know, when you go out into an area like, the forest or when you're doing it off a cutter, you don't need a large space to launch or land your, drones.

You can sort of toss them in the air and they're good to go. the Skydio is a flat hand launch, whereas the parrot's more of a toss. But the nice thing is that, that in either, instance.

the launch and recovery platform you need is literally the size of your hand. Wow. Um, now I will say you need a good pilot to be able to land back on your hand, especially if you're in a moving craft, but we train for that.

John Dickow: I can imagine that's quite a bit of training and, and from where you're from.

it's probably the best trade [00:05:00] people. You mentioned certain situations, like your example was a hiker where you would send somebody up for or send a drone up for a search and rescue. is there a protocol? Is there certain approval you need to get depending on the area that you're at? Or is it something that just happens kind of in a snap of a finger?

Martin Lessem: Sure. So in the case of, a missing hiker, for example, or, airplane crash or something similar. The Civil Air Patrol will get a call from the U. S. Air Force tasking us to do that search. we are responsible for 85 percent of all inland search and rescue in the United States, so we do a lot of that.

it's sort of our bread and butter, it's what we're really good at at the end of the day. And what happens is we'll get a tasking from the Air Force, that'll go through our National Operations Center. Our National Operations Center will take care of any and all clearances that we need for drone operations.

So they will get us any of the COAs that we need to operate outside of that 400 foot range. if we need to operate close to an airport, they'll get us all of those approvals. If we need to operate in the national secured airspace, they will get us all of those approvals. So we'll have all of that taken care of from our National Operations [00:06:00] Center.

Very much the same for the Coast Guard, although Because the Coast Guard is part of the Department of Homeland Security, there are exceptions to where they're allowed to operate without those clearances. unlike the Civil Air Patrol, which is essentially a civilian group within the Air Force.

John Dickow: Okay.

Well, that makes sense. taking a step back here and talking a little bit more about you again. You've obviously been in the civil, air patrol longer than drones have been around, correct?

Martin Lessem: So yes, from a technical perspective, I joined early 20 years ago, and then I left for reasons that, that at the time they were very much.

Pilot oriented. And if you weren't a pilot, you kind of were just like a second class citizen and they didn't know what to do with you. so I rejoined, during COVID actually. Okay,

one of the things that interested me at that time was the drones.

And fortunately, the squadron that I was at, is very interested in drone work. So I got sent out to our National Emergency Services Academy in, Indiana, Fort Wayne, Indiana. And I got, trained up there on, search and rescue specifically on the Skydio X 2D.

John Dickow: Very cool. And the answer to my question right there was actually going to be how you really got involved in the drone [00:07:00] side.

drone launch Academy is an educational organization. A lot of in our community, are people who want to. Almost kind of do what you did, not necessarily in a search and rescue or a civil air patrol, but apply drones to what they do or blaze a new trail, with a drone.

And sometimes that's starting their own business. Other times that's just applying a drone to their current industry. Do you have any advice for anybody who, wants to learn more about drones and, apply it to something big like. you have?

Martin Lessem: Sure. So, for search and rescue, the biggest advice I can give is to either join the Civil Air Patrol or join the Coast Guard Auxiliary or talk to your local police department.

those are sort of the big groups to, help with that. every one of them will give you training in drone operations, they'll give you training in how to use the drones that they specifically use, they'll give you training in how those drones work, they'll train you on the forward looking infrared, because if you've never used it before.

it's very different than just looking at a regular. Sort of image. but the one thing that I can sort of say is, regardless of which one you're looking at, biggest thing you need is hours, build hours, even if it's just [00:08:00] flying a drone for yourself and getting used to the controller, knowing how to control the drone and knowing how to do it with precision.

Is really the key because what you're looking for when you're doing something like search and rescue, you know, yeah, I can send a drone above the tree line, but sometimes I need to send that drone into the forest and knowing what the capabilities of my drone are, knowing how to maneuver it around. tree branches, knowing how to maneuver it around rock and, you know, rock formations.

Not all drones come equipped with good collision avoidance. the Skydio does it in a very unique way. It forms a three dimensional bubble around it. The Anafi doesn't quite do it, do it the same. So knowing the differences between the drones is important and understanding that difference and being able to maneuver where you need to maneuver.

So the best thing I can give you is even if you're not doing something like that, Fly, fly, fly, fly, fly. The more you fly, the more precise you are. one of the trainings that we do literally has to do with, a qualified pilot versus a proficient pilot. I will take a [00:09:00] proficient pilot, which is usually a qualified pilot, but I will take a proficient pilot every day.

You know, you have somebody that just qualified on the drone, I'm gonna put you through a lot of training exercises, a lot of fake missions before I put you on a real mission. Because I know that the guy that's done, you know, 15 training exercises and 2 or 3 real missions has more proficiency on controlling the drone than the guy that just got their certification.

John Dickow: Gotcha. Well, thank you for that. I think that's, valuable. I think our, community would value that piece of advice, Martin, I want to give you a chance to, to make any other point here. before we wrap up the interview,

Martin Lessem: so the biggest thing I can say for drone search and rescue is that regardless of which organization you do it with, training is sort of the most important thing and that training. is different based on the organizations.

the civil air patrol, you go for a week to basically learn how to pilot the drones and then you do training locally. So as the DOU, I'm responsible for training in Massachusetts. I'll set up scenarios that we run, sometimes just us, sometimes with local police [00:10:00] departments, to get a scenario that works and that can be effective for how the drone is used in that particular situation.

The coast guards training it's specifically designed on how you use the drone and then you do mock missions to actually go out and do the search and rescue either on coastline or out on the ocean with the, small cutter craft. So it all depends on which one you're doing, but training is key.

we want people who are. Qualified to fly the drones, but we also want people who are trained on that specific mission, and each organization has multiple missions, so Civil Air Patrol also does, you know, natural disaster post and pre and post, we do fire searches. We help after earthquakes. We help after tsunamis.

The Coast Guard does law enforcement missions. So every mission is specifically trained for. So just because you know how to fly one doesn't necessarily mean you know how to fly the other. And it all depends on the training that you get and receive. Training is king.

John Dickow: Well, thank you for that. I appreciate that.

Martin Lessam, First Lieutenant. Thank you again very much for being on the [00:11:00] program here and answering this question. It's a very cool topic. It feels like we obviously just kind of scratched the surface of it. and I understand you do some other, pretty cool things with drones, including, post storm, post hurricane infrastructure.

damage survey. And so we'd love to have you back on and talk a little bit more about some of these other topics. but in the meantime, you can submit your own drone questions and we can find the answer to them or the right person to answer them. go ahead and submit your questions at YDQA.

io, or if you're part of the drone launch connect community, type your question in there, we'll see it. And we'll find the answer to it until then. We'll see in the sky.