6 Advanced Pilots
Over the summer of 2021 Four Rivers endertook an ambitious project to certify members of our team through Transport Canada as drone pilots with Advanced Operations status. This involved intense written exams, flight practice, and final flight testing in addition to the development from the ground up of safe operational procedures for our Four Rivers drone fleet. Today, Four Rivers is the home to 6 drone pilots with advanced operations.
5 Drones in our Fleet
The Four Rivers fleet contains a fixed-wing drone, commercial quatcopter, and 3 smaller quadcopters. For supporting mapping project across larger areas, our WingtraOne is our drone of choice. This speedy fixed-wing drone able to is currently outfitted with high resolution Sony camera for arial imagery and has vertical take off and landing. Our DJI Matrice 300 RTK quadcopter drone, is highly versitilie, able to fly in more difficult weather conditions, with its 4 propellors providing maximum stability, and on-board battery warmers for colder temperatures. It is capable of carrying up to three payloads, but is currently outfitted with the P1 high resolution camera and parachute for flying over people. Both of these drones are capable of precision mapping, with accuracy below 1cm. Our smaller DJI Mavic 2 Pro drone is also capable of mapping with its onboard camera, as well as capture video through a track & follow feature. Four Rivers also has 2 mini quadcopters which we use for reconisons, and video & photo capture.
Endless Outputs
With our versatile drones and trained pilots, Four Rivers’ drone program has introduced us to endless possibilities for the First Nations we support. Baseline data can be collected and reflown at intervals to measure and track any change to the landscape, waterways, shorelines, vegetation or other infrastructure. Existing community infrastructure can be accurately documented with 3D imagery, collected and precisely mapped for the first time. Topographical mapping can provide detailed views of specific areas of concern, historic sites, traplines, animal habitat or sensitive environmental regions. Four Rivers’ WingtraOne and M300 Drones also have the capability to be upgraded in the future with different payloads to collect other environmetnal information.
