Bastrop Rolling Pines Fires – UAS Operations Highlights

On January 18th, 2022, the community of Bastrop, Texas located just outside of Austin experienced a wildfire resulting from a controlled burn escaping its fire line. Shortly thereafter the first manned aircraft arrived on scene to begin water drops on the ever-growing wildfire. The UAS flight teams were made up of RPICS, Visual Observers, a Data Specialist, and Mission Specialist to oversee safe unmanned system operations. Again, DroneSense was used to enhance interoperability through the sharing of mission codes bringing all unmanned aircraft operations under one COP. The use of radios amongst the participating flight teams were key with communicating with manned aircraft operations, which is critical to maintaining the separation of airspace to ensure safe flight operations.