The end of fire-fighting pilots............
 

Looks like it fly's better than most people I know thats for sure !!

Seismic guys will be next?

Link to Wired Magazine.

isn't the cost of these things still something like $20 million USD each? You can buy quite a few conventional mediums for that kind of money. So "the end" is probably still a few years down the road.

Clever stuff. Love to see how it works in the hills, among the trees and in wind.

I would love to see the raw footage video at full speed. You wouldn't want the new $20m toy slowing down all the cheap old machines...

Also, placing stuff within 10' won't take my job off me luckily...

Regarding fighting fires at night, or when the fires aren't very active, it would help if the guys on the ground didn't mess around for the first few hours of daylight, having their breakfast and making plans for the day, then waiting for the flames to get going before they let us go to work.

Careful now! Certain Empires have been built on that.

Utilizing this technique on a Fire … maybe, at the cost of 20 M a piece … no way. Seismic up north @ Norman Wells might work too, Seismic in the mountains … not quite there yet.



Can’t wait to challenge the beast :-)

To me it just looks like someone showing off their computer programming skills.

With a $20m price tag I'm sure the programmer has thought of every possible situation unless he/she was watching cat videos while subcontracting out their work to some 2rd world country.

They really should get pizza delivery via Amazon working first.

Fire Fighters need not worry....but Offshore Pilots best be concerned as to the decision being based upon "Task".

But so long as Humans will work for less money than the Robots.....nothing is going to change in the Helicopter Business.

I still have a couple of decades to go and I'm thinking the average factory guy in the 60s, 70s didn't have fancy YouTube clips warning him he was about to lose his job due to automation. :sad:

The problem I see with it.

The helicopters cost more than the ol girls we are using now.

The computer programmers get paid more than pilots.

The customer doesn't have enough money for everything that they want now, how will they find more money to do the same job. It's all well and good, saying we can fly 24 hrs / day instead of 8 or 12 or whatever they limit pilots to in different areas so we need less machines, coz we can use them all night and day.

But when there are two different fires miles apart they still need more machines than they can get their hands on, so they will still call us out.

Luckily I fly because I enjoy my job, not because I have to, and fires aren't a big part of it, so when I can't do fires I'll keep doing something else.

The price of the technology will come down. There are mines now with completely autonomous trucks carrying ore, fleets of them with no drivers. Never say never!

For some tasks, autonomy will soon start to creep into our industry, but only where the risk is limited to machine damage. There is a lot of $ behind this technology.

I feel with certainty that my job will be secure for a long, long, long, time to come......;)

hey Helilog, that's a few too many "longs" for a guy your age ;)

Ouch....okay then, how about just 1 long time...??!?! :}

yeah, I think there is still one "long" left in ya :ok:

I'd do all of that for only $1,000,000.

Those who think their jobs are safe need to do a little research online.

Lots of unmanned helicopters used in Afghan and getting cleverer and more capable all the time.

Video: A Black Hawk Helicopter Goes Autonomous | Popular Science

They cannot yet compete with a man in daylight, but IMC?

Can you please expand on this?

Edit: That was directed at post #7 @Boudreaux Bob

I say bring it on.

They may use drones for aerial mapping at night or in inclement weather, but we are many years away from replacing a fire fighting pilot. The video shows a K-max in daylight, flat terrain, no wind dropping water. Try doing the same on a fire, mid-slope at 9,000 ft with 25kts prevailing wind, with downslope draw and a fire moving at 20kts. NOT gonna happen just yet.

As Gordy pointed out.......I am also curious how well the communication link is between operator and drone in mountainous terrain and high KV wires and other communications towers we see all over the country. Also regulations and rules required for this technology to work in potentially urban areas and mix with current air traffic safely would also have to be addressed.