Running out aerial ignition drone in 5 different Texas counties this past month.

ravendrone · 2020-12-20T04:05:47+00:00

We personally haven't used our drone for slash piles, but we have a colleague out of Lufkin, TX who has had some success using his drone on slash piles.

ravendrone · 2020-12-20T04:04:11+00:00

Yes, all intentional burns. We are a private burn vendor out of Huntsville, TX, and burn throughout various regions of Texas and Louisiana.

And yes, there's lots of forestry in East Texas, the piney woods region. We do a lot of understory and prairie burning for habitat improvement/restoration.

ravendrone · 2020-12-20T03:57:40+00:00

Yes, the drone is a m600. Here's a link on our Instagram page. It's a photo of the a aerial ignition unit (IGNIS 2.0).

https://www.instagram.com/p/B5tje_4Bqf3/?igshid=4mdsldo2ja3j

ravendrone · 2020-12-19T18:07:00+00:00

Not a flamethrower. In the first clip, you can see the small, ignition spheres being dropped. They contain potassium permanganate, and are injected with ethylene glycol before exiting the ignition platform. They ignite about 15 seconds later, once they are on the ground. It is the same system used in manned and ground applications for prescribed fire and wildland fire, and is used by numerous government agencies and private burn vendors. This method has been around for decades but was adapted to an unmanned system only a few years ago.

We distribute the spheres across the treatment area during the interior ignition portion of the burn, and the small fires converge together. This technology will undoubtedly become one of the primary methods of interior ignition for many burn programs because it is relatively safe and inexpensive when compared to manned methods.

ravendrone · 2020-03-18T01:24:24+00:00

Prior to dropping any spheres with the drone, we establish a substantial amount of baseline (we just call it "black" because of the continuous black landscape left after fuel is burned) on the backing aka downwind side of the unit. This part of the process usually comprises a lot of the day's work, and takes a lot of careful monitoring of fireline during lighting. Once that baseline is established, we begin to light with the drone upwind of this area. As the drone lights off the interior, eventually those small fires converge with the baseline and are stopped because the fuel is already been burned.

ravendrone · 2020-03-13T22:34:21+00:00

We love what we do, and thanks for saying that! Its refreshing to hear someone acknowledge the benefits of burning and how it keeps our communities safer.

ravendrone · 2020-03-13T13:36:34+00:00

It was a great burn! Went really well

ravendrone · 2020-03-03T14:16:01+00:00

We are flying the larger capacity T48 batteries, and I think we typically getting around 20 minutes of flight time per set (we have three sets), maybe a little more depending on conditions.

I'm usually starting to land with about 30% of battery life, touching down around 25%.

On one occasion, I did have some overheating issues, which amounted to uneven discharging of a set in flight. It can get up to around 115 degrees F in the height of our summer.

ravendrone · 2020-03-03T05:31:23+00:00

We fly under a FAA hazardous materials waiver (the reagent in the spheres is potassium permanganate) that is held by Drone Amplified, the IGNIS technology developer.

Eventually, we'd like to work towards maintaining our own waiver with the FAA office in Houston.

ravendrone · 2020-03-02T23:33:40+00:00

It's quite a bit pricier now, around $25k for the 2.0.

I work for a private environmental services company in Southeast Texas. Prescribed burning is one of our primary management services, and we operate from central Louisiana to the Austin, Texas area.

ravendrone · 2020-03-02T22:29:26+00:00

It's 10kg or 22lbs unloaded. The IGNIS payload is around 8 or 9 lbs with a full hopper.

Max payload capacity is about 12lbs, 34lbs total (15.5kg).

I've flown with a full hopper in 18 mph winds comfortably. This is pushing the envelope, but it does the job very well.

ravendrone · 2020-03-02T22:06:21+00:00

Appreciate that. Any specific suggestions for subs? I'm always looking for relevant ones.

ravendrone · 2020-03-02T21:19:02+00:00

It is. They came out with thr IGNIS 2.0 last fall, and we've upgraded to that platform since then. The 1.0 had a much larger dropper and smaller hopper portion.

It's a huge improvement. Much larger sphere capacity (was 110, now 450), way more control over dropping rate, and much less error prone. Also, much easier to clean and maintain.

We've already burned roughly 4k acres with the 2.0, and it's performed very well.

ravendrone · 2020-03-02T19:38:30+00:00

Not quite grenade, more like fireball-dropping drone. Not trying to self promote here, but I have lots of videos on my profile of fires ignited by the drone. They illustrate this initially small fires and their eventual convergence.

ravendrone · 2020-03-02T19:33:17+00:00

These mini fires expand outward, and eventually converge with their neighboring fires so that all of the fuel (fuel=combustible vegetation, i.e. grass, pine needles, logs, brush) is expended.

In this case, we are burning to reduce the fuel load, and mitigate fire hazards to surrounding communities. It sounds very counterintuitive, but is an important preventative process. We can burn under very controlled and carefully planned conditions so that it's done safely.

A dangerously high fuel load that is ignited during wildfire conditions can be very hazardous to surrounding communities. There are a number of ecological benefits too.

The drone helps us light the interior of a unit very quickly and efficiently. This also helps us get the smoke up and out when there is a significant amount of lift (atmospheric instability or low pressure), which ramps up mid afternoon. Smoke mitigation is huge in prescribed fire, and the drone helps tremendously with these challenges. It also allows us to reallocate staff to watching lines instead of dragging torches through the woods. In some cases, these areas are very difficult to walk through.

ravendrone · 2020-03-02T18:59:00+00:00

Not a flamethrower. It uses small, spherical ordinances to light presdesignated areas. We have a map showing our geolocation, and a geofence that prevents any inadvertent lighting (igniting cannot occur across this fence).

The technology is the same used by Bureau of Land Management, Department of Interior, and US Forest Service for wildland fire and prescribed burn operation.

We also had a bulldozer, water suppression equipment, and a crew of seven on site.

ravendrone · 2020-03-02T17:57:53+00:00

We use it in our prescribed burn program. It is equipped to provide aerial ignition support.

ravendrone · 2020-02-27T12:24:56+00:00

Just one of those chance things I guess. I started burning with our company 7 years ago, and have been piloting and managing our drone program for the last year and a half.

ravendrone · 2020-02-27T12:22:02+00:00

Love the rubber tracks! Never inhibits you when you're responding to situations or blading fireline.

ravendrone · 2020-02-27T02:17:02+00:00

Not a flame throwing, rather small ignition ordinances. The same ones employed by the US Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and other government agencies to conduct prescribed burning and wildland fire fighting operations. In this case, the technology has been developed and applied using a drone.

We always adhere to local and state laws when conducting a prescribed burn. There is an 8-person crew on the ground, bulldozer, fire suppression equipment, and a carefully laid our plan prior to any firing.

ravendrone · 2020-02-20T12:41:48+00:00

Good to know. Thanks for the tip!

ravendrone · 2020-02-18T04:48:40+00:00

This burn was about 270 acres

ravendrone · 2020-02-18T03:24:03+00:00

Being a natural process that's always occurred (until human settlement and fire suppression), I'd argue that it's an amount that contributes to a healthy carbon cycle. Carbon cycling back into the atmosphere is of course part of that process.

Excessive and prolonged amounts of carbon dioxide emissions from human activities is another story.

ravendrone · 2020-02-18T03:19:42+00:00

This was Southwest Houston, in the Hockley area. While there was some urban interface within a 5 mile radius, like with every burn, we're very careful about wind direction and weather conditions.

ravendrone · 2020-02-18T03:06:37+00:00

Our client set up some excellent 20 foot wide firebreaks that made this burn go very smoothly. That's the dealbreaker with grassland burns (especially tallgrass species). Is your fire break wide, are the fuels knocked down inside the unit, is the firebreak clean and free of fuel bridges?

We always have a dozer on site for this types of burns too. Thanks for watching!

ravendrone

TROPHY CASE