OPINION: We Get the Drones? They Get the Dough?
I first learned about the possibility of our local airport volunteering as a test site for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (aka UAS or drone) in a February 28 Mountain Mail article by James Redmond, “Local airports explore drone testing”. A presentation was made to our local leaders by John Huguley of Colorado Springs, urging our airport to opt in to the project by the March 5 deadline imposed by the FAA.
As many as 30 states are pursuing this FAA project (formally titled Unmanned Aircraft Systems Test Site Selection), which will designate just six UAS test sites across the nation. The primary purpose of the project is to safely integrate drones into the National Airspace System (NAS). Interest is high because it is anticipated that the drone industry will grow exponentially in the future, springing up around the six designated test sites and bringing millions in revenue and creating thousands of jobs. However, Colorado’s “test site” may be comprised of several test sites across the state.
[incolumn]Reporter Redmond’s article states that County Commissioner Dennis Giese and Economic Development Corporation director Wendell Pryor both think that becoming a test site could be a good economic driver for the county. And when our local governments hear “economic development”, they move full-speed ahead.
Mr. Redmond’s article piqued my interest, but I discovered from FAA test site contact Deb Smith that the web portal for the 68-page Screening Information Request (SIR) — the FAA information document on the UAS test site program — was closed on February 25. So I was left to my own devices to discover what I could.
An FAA Q&A document about the program asks the question “How much money is in the FAA budget for the UAS test sites?” The answer: “The Defense and FAA reauthorizations do not provide any funding for these test sites.” Deb Smith also confirmed this.
What? No DoD or FAA funding?
A March 3, 2013 article in the Denver Post (“Colorado to bid for drone test-site designation, with battles ahead” by Kristen Leigh Painter) includes this quote: “There are other states that are putting millions of dollars behind their [test site] initiatives… in Colorado we have the governor’s support but there’s no funding, no office, no tangible support.”
What? No state funding?
So, if the Department of Defense and the FAA aren’t funding the test sites, and the state admits it has no tangible funding, who would pay for drone testing at our local airport? Chaffee County?
The big economic benefits, should Colorado be successful in its bid to become a UAS test site, would clearly go to aerospace and UAS industries in Denver and other large infrastructure areas — not to rural testing sites. We get the drones, they get the dough.
And I haven’t even touched on the stigma and privacy issues attached to drones. Is the Salida Creative District compatible with the Salida Drone District? Will one detract from the other?
So many questions… and so little time to answer them, before the March 5 deadline. It makes me wary, and weary.
NOTE: To contact the Chaffee County commissioners, visit this webpage or call 719-539-2218.
