2022 Year in Review

This was another banner year for our organization as we further our mission to educate our members and the public through our public outreach and education initiatives.

Regular Meetings
Our meetings this year were phenomenal! It included presentations on photogrammetry, BVLOS mission to a volcano in Alaska, using drones to help veterans with PTSD, drones and their use to characterize conifer forests, and a look at the FAA Community Based Organizations and Federally-recognized Identification Area guidance.

Presenters included Jon Aultschuld of Chinook Landscape Architecture, Dr. Jack Elston of Black Swift Technologies, Kenji Sugahara of the Drone Service Providers Alliance, and of course regular visits from Greg Reverdiau of Pilot Institute and Vic Moss of Moss Photography.

In addition to our regular meetings, we hosted activities for the FAA-sponsored Drone Safety Day which included brief lectures on topics included in the theme Fly RIGHT.

Significant Milestones and Achievements

Buena Vista High School
In 2021 our group made a grant to Buena Vista High School (BVHS) to help defray the costs for an instructor to achieve their Unmanned Safety Institute (USI) Safety Certificate Level 1 (SCL1) certification. This is required to teach the USI curriculum to students. In February, teacher Adam Fuller completed his certificate. By the end of spring, three students and Adam had successfully achieved their FAA Part 107 Remote Pilot Certificate and two students received their USI SCL1 certificates. We also provided funding for BVHS to acquire aircraft for the students to fly.

Students in the Buena Vista High School drone program

Fundraising
In 2021 we received a grant from the Ray Foundation. This grant totals $50,000 to further our education initiatives mostly geared toward the unique Buena Vista Drone Training Park (DTP). The grant is matching and is paid in two $25,000 installments. In July we achieved the first match!

As many of you know, grant writing is a difficult, time-consuming process. While some of our members have a bit of experience in this arena, we didn’t have the time or extensive skills necessary. Taylor’s wife, Anita, had a career in development and she graciously agreed to come out of “retirement” to help with our efforts. As a result of her approach, the group received grants from a local resident, the John Olson estate, the Salida Noon Rotary Club and the Salida Walmart Super Center! In addition we hope to hear soon about our major grant request from the El Pomar Foundation.

In addition to the monetary contributions, we received significant in-kind contributions from our membership and also a fantastic video contribution from a friend of member Stu Langrehr’s, Rick Fiduccia of Star Center Recording. Leo Accaira of Continental Divide Productions also provided a significant in-kind contribution of his services at the 10th UAS Roundup in September.

Through everyone’s generosity we are about $10,000 towards our second match and hope to achieve that in 2023.

10th UAS Roundup
In September about one hundred folks attended the acclaimed 10th UAS Roundup. This two-day event included aircraft demonstrations at the DTP, three Multi-GP-sanctioned races, and a full day conference at the beautiful Mt. Princeton Hot Springs Resort in Nathrop. The focus was Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations and an all-star assembly of industry participants were there. Keynote addresses were provided by Vic Moss of the DSPA and Maciej Stachura of Black Swift Technologies. There were four panel discussions and panelists included several nationally-recognized leaders including Greg Reverdiau of Pilot Institute, Jon McBride of Autel Robotics, Matt Quinn of Great Lakes Drone Company, Rob Knochenhauer of Censys Technologies, Mike Mocerino of DroneSense and Adam Smith of the Colorado State University Drone Center. The venerable Dawn Zoldi of P3 Tech Consultants led a roundtable discussion about BVLOS leadership! We also had a record number of vendors attend.

Organization Re-branding
During the year the Leadership Team had several discussions about the organization. They felt that the name did not adequately reflect our growth and reach. In July we decided to re-brand and Mountain West UAS was born. This change was announced at the 10th Roundup and was quite well received.

New Mountain West UAS logo

Corporate Sponsors
Our efforts were recognized by a growing number of corporate sponsors. Joining our group of sponsors of Pilot Institute, the Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District, Our Town Medical and TNL Aviation were Unmanned Safety Institute, Black Swift Technologies and Sangre de Cristo Electric Association. We will be announcing another sponsor in January and hope to have additional companies support our group.

2022 Corporate Sponsors of Mountain West UAS

Town of Buena Vista Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for Drone Training Park
Our development of the unique Buena Vista Drone Training Park was put on hold after the Town received an offer to add the Chicago Ranch to the Rodeo Grounds. This about doubled the size of this open area. As a result, the Recreation Department underwent a Master Planning Process for the entire area.

In May the Leadership Team met with the Town to discuss the DTP. The Master Plan was being held up, but the Park’s location remained as-is so we asked to continue development. The Town desired to update the MOU to include specific projects we want to complete.

After some lengthy delays the final MOU was signed on October 27, 2022!

The nine projects include:

1. Shade Shelters
2. Storage Facility
3. Racing Zone Development
4. Power Poles
5. Antenna
6. Signage
7. Geoscience Test Site
8. Concrete Culverts
9. Bridge Structure

We are well on our way to completing many of them, and by 2023 the Park should be nearly complete. Building plans have been submitted for the shade shelters. The storage facility was delivered on December 27. Racing Zone gates, flags and infrastructure was acquired for the UAS Roundup. So we’re well on our way to initial completion.

The Future Is Bright
2023 promises to be another fantastic year in the growth of our missions in education and public outreach along with our membership.