Drones swooping into Kansas skies carrying solutions – and fears

Nick Oswald succumbed last month to a lifelong passion for photography.

He succumbed in a 21st-century, Air Capital of the World, nerdy-techie sort of way:

He bought a DJI Phantom 3 standard flying drone.

It was his birthday. Family and loved ones pitched in.

It had four propellers.

A camera.

GPS. Smart capabilities. Gimbal controls, letting Oswald tilt and circle and zoom this thing while holding the camera as though it’s nailed to one spot in the sky.

“It’s just really cool what it can do,” he said. “It’s so addictive once you start flying.”

This purchase made Oswald one of nearly half a million U.S. owners of drones, also known as unmanned aerial vehicles or even flying robots. Drones can be useful to farmers and safety inspectors and others in saving money and saving lives.

But they also are prompting concerns about privacy and safety.

Safety, privacy fears

A lot of people love drones, but drones scare some people.

They scare some public safety officials because some novice drone flyers are not bothering to learn laws.

FAA laws, if you are caught violating them, could cost you $250,000 in fines.

For better or for worse, we’re about to be surrounded by hundreds of thousands more of these buzzing robots, many of them staring down at us from the cold fish-eye of a video and still camera. Some drone flyers will behave; some will not.

The Kansas Legislature worried enough about drones that in the session earlier this year, it approved new legislation. The state already had anti-stalking laws; the new law expanded the definition of harassment to include drones.

The concerns involve more than privacy. Lives are at risk if drones collide with a plane or get sucked into a jet engine.

The Federal Aviation Administration gets at least 100 reports a month about drones being flown illegally.

“Pilots, or law enforcement, or members of the public tell us in these reports that they saw a drone that was close to their airplane, or an airport, or that someone was operating a drone in an unsafe manner,” said Les Dorr, a spokesman for the FAA in Washington.

‘Acquaint yourself with the rules’

“Flying safely is everybody’s business,” Dorr said. “Take the time to acquaint yourself with the rules.”

To fly drones weighing more than 0.55 pounds – about the weight of two sticks of butter – you need to register with the FAA, he said.

Don’t fly over people unless they say it’s okay, because you don’t want to drop your drone accidentally on somebody’s head.

Don’t fly within five miles of an airport unless you call the airport and tower.

Don’t fly over unprotected vehicles. Don’t fly above 400 feet. Don’t fly your drone out of your line of sight.

There’s more, most of which you can look up at this website, and at www.knowbeforeyoufly.org.

The privacy concerns, legal and otherwise, are substantial.

Bob Brock is Kansas’ new director of unmanned aerial systems with the state Department of Transportation. He thinks drones will become a huge benefit to Kansans, but he says users need to know the law.

Do you have the right to fly your drone in your own backyard? Yes, he said.

You also have the right to climb a ladder with a pair of binoculars in your backyard.

But are you violating your neighbors’ privacy?

Think of it this way, Brock said: In your own backyard, decades before drones were invented, it was not okay for you to climb a ladder and stare into the your neighbors’ windows with a pair of binoculars.

And now you fly a drone.

Staring still isn’t okay – or legal.

There’s more, other state officials say.

For example: Chase or come close to migratory birds with a drone, or chase after a deer or other game in hunting seasons, and you could break state and federal laws that could cost you thousands of dollars in fines.

Consequences regarding wildlife are not new, said Chris Tymeson, chief legal counsel for Kansas Wildlife, Parks and Tourism.

The law has long held that you can’t use a pickup truck to “take” a deer, he said.

You can’t use a drone to take a deer either. Flying up to have a look around is okay; flying to help a hunter triangulate and track a deer’s exact location is not.

Drones’ capabilities

Drones are expected to multiply in our skies.

They’ve become easy to fly, even for novices. Because they come equipped with smart, mobile technology, they can do amazing things.

With a few keystrokes on his smartphone the other day, Oswald had his drone flying a route, climbing to a specified height, circling, and taking perfectly steady and focused photographs and video.

And with all of that awesome ability, drone prices have dropped to the point where many people can afford them. Oswald bought his for $500.

He can now swoop over nature from on high, zoom over the corn and wheat fields of his in-laws’ in Butler County, and delight his small children. “It will circle or do anything else you tell it to do,” he said.

Oswald, 33, is a medical laboratory scientist at Wesley Medical Center who bought a drone to capture the wonders of nature.

It’s a way to fire up his 5-year-old son’s curiosity about everything from flight to the outdoors to the big Kansas sky.

With a few keystrokes he can fly it to 400 feet in seconds, or send it over a picturesque pond or a field of wildflowers to take photos or video. He can take drone selfies.

The drone is so “smart” that if Oswald fails to call it back, or if the battery that powers it dips below 30 percent, the drone will descend and land itself, on the spot where it took off.

Benefits and concerns

On the upside, about two-thirds of all drones used in Kansas are used in agriculture, and the flying robots are probably going to save farmers money, Brock said.

The state of Kansas recently realized that drones will be a big enough boon to farmers that it needed to hire Brock, a former Air Force lieutenant colonel who oversaw drone operations and training during his service.

Brock is there to help protect public safety and privacy, but to also help people realize what he considers the substantial benefits of properly used drones.

“Once they are refined, I think we’ll all wonder how did we ever do without this,” he said.

Farmers can use them to check crops for insects or disease, he said. They can count spring calves without having to drive through a pasture. They can check fences for damage without having to walk or drive along them.

Nobody can yet calculate how much money drones will make and save for farmers and other businesses, but he thinks it will be substantial.

Drones used by the Kansas Department of Transportation are probably going to save state taxpayers money, Brock said.

Drones are going to save lives and speed rescue efforts after disasters, Brock said. “After a tornado, if we have a drone with a live camera with a live feed, first responders can quickly know how many people were affected, what are the conditions, what kind of (equipment) is needed. Is it flooded? Is there electrical equipment sparking?”

Another big savings: Brock’s Kansas Department of Transportation is required by law to inspect 2,500 bridges in the state annually. Inspection is hard and sometimes risky work.

Those light poles you see at freeway cloverleafs are 60 feet tall. If they get damaged in storms with big winds, imagine climbing them, as KDOT workers have had to do, inspecting whether the poles and bolts are holding together, he said.

Now drones can fly 60 feet up and in a matter of minutes send an inch-by-inch analysis to a KDOT worker sitting warm and dry, looking at his laptop.

Drones everywhere?

Brock is a drone expert. So is Kurt Barnhart, associate dean for research at Kansas State University Polytechnic campus in Salina, which offers a bachelor’s degree in unmanned aircraft systems.

“We have already seen the last generation of children grow up without seeing drone ubiquity,” Barnhart said. “We could soon potentially see flying aerial robots around every corner. It could be that you won’t be able to walk out your door without being seen by a drone.

“As a result, as a society, we’ll have to figure out how many of them we have, how intrusive they can be; we’ll have to figure out privacy laws, worry about peeping toms and other nuisances. If you’re flying one in your own backyard, which way is your camera pointed, and what is it looking at?”

According to the FAA, nearly half a million people in this country own registered drones, including 717 in Wichita, 50 in Andover, 13 in Bel Aire, 20 in Valley Center, 20 in Rose Hill, 36 in Newton, 19 in Mulvane, four in Kechi, 27 in Haysville, four in Eastborough, and 71 in Derby.

There are more than 470,000 “hobbyist” drone owners nationally, many of whom own more than one drone, the FAA’s Dorr said. There are more than 10,000 drone owners who fly them for commercial purposes, he said.

There will likely be a lot more drones soon, he said.

Brock, the state’s drone systems director, thinks Barnhart’s concerns about “drone ubiquity” won’t come to pass.

“He’s correct to a point. But it’s not going to be a swarm of drones that you have to swat off to get to work,” Brock said. “They will be prolific, they will be everywhere. But will it be burdensome? I think not.

“In the early 1900s, people worried a lot about cars,” he said.

“But I’m glad I don’t have to ride a horse to work.”

This story was originally published July 15, 2016 at 4:27 PM with the headline "Drones swooping into Kansas skies carrying solutions – and fears."