In
2016, NAAA began reaching out to operators telling them about an opportunity
our industry has to help the FAA keep manned aircraft safe from UAVs. By
anonymously sharing your GPS data logs with Mississippi State University, the
University will work with the FAA to demonstrate ag pilots flight
characteristics. This, in turn, could lead the FAA to have sufficient data to
better protect ag aviators flying in and around UAVs, based on submitted GPS
data logs.
Mississippi
State University's Raspet Flight Research Laboratory (RFRL) is leading a team
of aviation researchers to determine when and where unmanned aircraft systems
can operate safely with other aircraft at low altitudes. To do this, the RFRL
research team is collecting data on when and where low-altitude aviators fly.
But air traffic control radar doesn't provide coverage in the rural and or low airspace
where ag aviators are. If we want to
show the FAA where low-level UAV flights could put ag aviators at risk, we need
to send the RFRL our GPS data logs. The data you provide will be used to build
representative flight profiles for agricultural aviation operations. Your data,
when combined with flight data from other pilots, will help the RFRL team
create the most accurate computer model ever built for low-altitude flight
operations. This model will help to more reliably determine where drones can operate
safely.
RFRL
will conclude GPS data collection at the end of 2018 and transition into the
data analysis and modeling phase of this project. Therefore, GPS data
from the 2018 season is especially important to this research as it provides
the most current GPS data of the entire project. Even if you have donated
in years past, donating the data from your 2018 season can still be very
useful. If you have never donated your data before, please consider sending
your GPS data to university researchers to help them complete what promises to
be a life-saving project.
As
important as this research will be to flight safety, protecting your privacy is
even more important. The data you provide
will be stripped of personally identifiable information before it
is stored and processed for this project. Your data
will only be used for this purpose and will not be released
outside of Mississippi State's flight research team without your express
permission.
Additionally, Raspet preforms all
calculations in-house without any third-party involvement. Raspet DOES NOT save
any maps, images, or any other representation of the GPS logs and the
geographic location of field will never be released. Lastly, since Raspet does
not have any farmer or land ownership information for fields, there is no
personal information involved or included in this process whatsoever.
If you
are willing to provide GPS data to support the RFRL's objective of enhancing
low-altitude flight safety, MSU has set up a website that allows you to securely
upload 1GB of your GPS track files. Go to www.hpc.msstate.edu/raspet-naaa and follow the
instructions. The page will ask for a login—the username is: raspet-naaa,
and the password is DATA#submission. Or if you prefer, you can
simply email your files to agdata@raspet.msstate.edu (please limit email deliveries to 15 MB). For
deliveries over 1 GB, you can save them on a thumb drive (or any external
storage device) and mail it to:
Raspet
Flight Research Laboratory
Attn: Madison Dixon
114 Airport Drive
Starkville, MS 39759
Additionally,
if you have a large set of files you are currently storing on Dropbox or
another file hosting site, email agdata@raspet.msstate.eduto request a link to share your files through Mississippi
State's secure file sharing site.
The
RFRL will make recommendations to the FAA that will inform policy, procedures
and operational guidelines for drone use that will help make our national
airspace system safer. Most importantly, the results of this research may help
save ag pilots' lives by making sure that everyone has the space they need to
operate safely and effectively.
The
RFRL at MSU was recently in the news for its contribution to a study showing
UAV strikes are more dangerous to aircraft than bird strikes. The study was
conducted through the Alliance for System Safety of UAS through Research
Excellence (ASSURE). In addition to using resources from Mississippi State,
researchers from Montana State University, Ohio State University, and Wichita
State University also contributed.
This GPS project has been sanctioned by NAAA staff and the
NAAA Government Relations Committee, both of which strongly believe this will
benefit ag aviators nationwide.