Mounted search and rescue

[ALLEN SNYDER <allendana1@sbcglobal.net>]

This event happened in England and they may not have the restrictions the US has.   It appears this was unregistered or they would not be searching for the owner.  If found and determined to have been intentional, I hope the persons/s have fitting consequences.

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From: irvin lichtenstein <ilichten1@verizon.net>
To: 'Mounted search and rescue' <msar-riders@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Wednesday, December 16, 2015 11:06 AM
Subject: Re: [MSAR] Drone desensitizing

There are several points raised in this discussion:
With regard to drone operations:
First, in the US all non-commercial drones have to have tail numbers
assigned at time of sale
And all existing drones will have to be registered by the owner over the
next 30 days or so.
The FAA is doing this on-line and the fee is $5 for a 3 year certificate.
The operator must read
the drone rules and have liability insurance of some kind to complete the
process.

Second, US regulations designate areas where drones cannot be flown without
a special use
permit. Besides staying under a height above ground limit, usually 400 feet,
they cannot be flown
over public assemblies (sports events, parades, camp grounds) or other large
groups of people.
Operation in or near the flight paths of manned aircraft, over most
government
occupied buildings, schools, hospitals or medical facilities, transportation
facilities, and other
restricted areas is forbidden. Since taking pictures of lots of stuff is
forbidden by the Patriot Act
there are really very few places where a drone can be flown legally. 
Most public recreational areas ban RC aircraft now and it is likely these
bans will be expanded.
(Valley Forge National Historic Park has an RC allowed area in a large
meadow away from
everything else in the Park that is the only one I know of in the PA-NJ-DE
area parks.)

Third, commercial use of a drone currently requires a special use permit
from the FAA and must conform
to local statute if more restrictive, such as using cameras or infrared
sensors for surveillance.
Use of a drone to monitor stock on the range, make promotional videos, drop
stuff without landing
(which is even forbidden for manned aircraft), or provide a contracted
service is considered
commercial operation.  Unless the drone is actually registered to the SAR
organization it might
be considered commercial operation to have some third party operate it for
you. 

Violation of the rules is a US federal offense as well as a state, county,
or municipal offense and some serious
penalties can result. Buzzing a person could be charged as assault for
instance and the operator also be held
civilly responsible for damages and still face federal charges for improper
operation of the drone. In PA buzzing
a search horse is a felony by the way and restitution is mandated.

Desensitizing:
I have never favored desensitizing a horse.  A horse can be educated as to
what a noise is, what a drone is,
and what  the expected reaction is.  You never want the horse to ignore
anything in the field.  Depending
on what it is you may want just an alert, or you may want a drastic
automatic reaction.  This is not necessarily
easy for the rider.  You have to trust the horse and be able to communicate
with your mount.  While I may not want
my horse to react strongly to a drone I do want him to detect its presence
and communicate it to me. I may want
him to stand in the presence of drones, vehicles, bicycles, some animals,
and just give me a little warning if we
are departing the area due gunfire, really bad predators (like bears), or
other dangers where being a short distance
away is good idea.

Horse are prey animals. It is that alertness and the ability of the horse to
fuse inputs from all his senses and identify
what he is detecting that makes him a useful search partner.  Desensitized
horses are useless except as transportation
and may actually be dead horses if they don't pay attention to their
environment.
Irv Lichtenstein
SEPASAR
www.sepasar.net
ilichten1@verizon.net

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