BACKGROUND INFO FOR THE ONG TRAINING PROJECT
George Scott, President Barnstormers R/C Club
Article I wrote for TEST magazine
about this endeavor.
Last November the Barnstormers were contacted by 2LT Tiffany
Ramsdale, representing B Co, 41 STB Oregon National Guard (Tigard area). She was
seeking help from the Club in training personnel to fly R/C aircraft. This was
to be in support of the Guard’s mission of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)
intelligence operations; actual vehicles were scheduled for FY 2008 but the ONG
wanted to have a head start on the program.
The UAVs are actually self-guiding; using GPS sensors and
other means, the vehicles are able to automatically take off and fly a mission,
then return to base. However, the FAA and other civil authorities were very
unhappy over the prospect of unattended "robot airplanes" sharing the
airspace with commercial and private aviation. In view of the consequences of
malfunction, regulations now demand that all RPV flights be monitored by actual
humans with the capacity to manually take over the vehicle at any time. This is
where R/C flying skills would be required.
The Barnstormers club voted unanimously to support this
effort by providing instructors for "ground school", hands-on training
using RealFlight G3 simulators, and for flight training at our Butteville Road
flying field. Our first session, held at the ONG Tigard armory on 3-4 February
2007 was a resounding success; the dozen or so students were treated to two
half-days of basic flight training lectures and an equivalent amount of
one-on-one simulator operation. We have received many compliments from them on
our conduct of the courses. Two more weekend segments are scheduled for
mid-March and early April; these will be conducted at our Butteville church
meeting location and at the adjacent Barnstormers flying field. Although all
flights will be using the "buddy box", (AMA regulations) we hope to
produce several students flying at the solo level who can carry on further ONG
flight training in the months to come.
