Remote pilot preparing to hand launch a fixed wing UAS during a prescribed wildfire burn in Florida

Remote pilot Mark Bauer (Parallel, Inc. for USGS) preparing to hand launch a fixed wing UAS during an RxCADRE event (Prescribed Fire Combustion and Atmospheric Dynamics Research Experiment) at the Eglin Airforce Base in February 2011. 

Since this first ever NUSO UAS mission occurred within military air space (versus civilian air space) no FAA or additional flight approvals were required. USGS remote pilots successfully flew the Raven, one of the three UAS platforms flown, and demonstrated its ability to stream live thermal IR and natural color video to the fire command center to support fire management and operations.