The Village of Foremost received a Minister’s Award at the Alberta Urban Municipalities Conference for innovative practices developed by a community with less than 3,000 residents, specifically recognizing the Foremost Unmanned Air Systems Range. From left, AUMAC president Al Kemmere, Foremost mayor Ken Kultgen, Foremost CAO Kelly Calhoun and Minister of Municipal Affairs Danielle Larivee. Photo courtesy Village of Foremost.
and people. There's a variety of farmland, pasture land and water bodies, but very little trees, so it's easy to find a unit if it goes down. There are lots of sunny days for long sight lines and a variety of weather conditions to test devices in, from extreme cold in the winter to hot summer days."
Currently, companies and individuals can come to the Foremost range to fly their drones within line of sight, but rules and regulations are being developed for operating beyond line of sight.
"This is brand new. We're breaking new ground," Hanna said.
Operating beyond line of sight would be beneficial for applications such as pipeline inspection, fire management and surveying in remote areas with tough terrain.
Unmanned aircraft are also useful in agricultural applications, wildlife surveys and for police departments.
Standard operating procedures for beyond line of sight operation for unmanned air vehicles will be released by Transport Canada hopefully later this year. Hanna, with his past experience in defense research and head of the robotics program at CFB Suffield, is helping create the regulations, as is Medicine Hat's Sterling Cripps, the one who first envisioned an unmanned air systems (UAS) space at Foremost and gathered the necessary people to make it happen.
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Cripps was also the driving force in developing a UAS training manual and today is the president of Canadian Unmanned, specializing in drone training
for operators. He was the first to develop a specialized ground school for commercial and civil small drone pilots in 2009 and was the first UAS ground school to meet Transport Canada's knowledge requirements for drone operations under 25 kilograms within line of sight of the operator.
The demand for the highly specialized training continues to grow and Cripps travels the country providing training sessions. He reached the milestone of training his 1,000th small UAS pilot in Richmond, British Columbia last fall.
"In 2009, it was very slow. I may have had 20 people in the whole year," he said. "At the very beginning of 2014, people really started looking for this type of training and that year, I provided training for about 400 people. In 2015, it was about 500 people."
The one-and-a-half day course covers topics such as aerodynamics, communications and aviation weather.
Cripps was awarded the prestigious Pip Rudkin Award for outstanding Individual Achievement in the emerging Canadian unmanned systems industry for 2015.
The award recognizes individual achievements in the unmanned systems sector on a national scale and Cripps received it for his work in developing the Foremost Restricted Airspace for testing and developing procedures for operating drones beyond line of sight. He has been a vocal advocate for the promotion of safe and regulated drone operations throughout Canada.
to announce climate change policies that will greatly affect the area, but local officials aren’t simply sitting around waiting for direction. The Town of Hanna, Cactus Corridor Economic Development Corporation and Special Areas Board have joined forces to form a task force that is looking at ways to keep the community vibrant and growing.
T TERRI EGER
he Town of Hanna is taking a proactive approach when it comes to the future of the community. The Province of Alberta is expected
“This community is very proactive,” said Trisha Sewell, Economic Development Officer for Cactus Corridor Economic Development Corporation.
“We know change is coming, but with change comes opportunity.”
The provincial government has informed the public that it will be moving away from coal as a power source, phasing out the industry by 2030. Information on a carbon levy across the province has also been mentioned although details on the full policy have not been made public yet.
“Right now we are waiting for the official policy to be released,” said Sewell. “The government regulations are like the playbook and until we get that information we don’t know exactly how things will look for us.”
The Sheerness Coal Mine currently supplies the Sheerness Generating Station with coal to generate power. If the provincial government moves forward on the policy to phase out coal power both businesses would experience change.
Hanna sees opportunity in change
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