TRAVERSE CITY — The Cherry Capital Airport will collaborate with the U.S. Coast Guard to conduct a week of drone testing at Camp Grayling later this summer.
The Coast Guard presented the collaboration at the Northwest Regional Airport Authority’s regular meeting Tuesday.
With public concern about what drones may mean for personal privacy, Commanding Officer U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Ryan Hawn said they will be as transparent as possible.
“What we are doing is exploring how to use these to save lives,” Hawn said.
Hawn said that the goal for this training is to use the drones for life-saving measures, like search and rescue missions along the Great Lakes.
“There’s a lot of people that get in distress on the Great Lakes unexpectedly,” he said. “The water’s very cold, and the weather picks up very quickly.”
Although there is a goal for the training, there is no end goal for the drones. Much of the drone technology is not used in the United States and will need to comply with FAA regulations to be used regularly, according to Hawn. He said the use of drones will be “an iterative thing.”
Hawn also said that the Coast Guard is drone testing at the end of the summer because of the weather.
“We’re using these in a real controlled environment when the weather is better so that there’s less unpredictable stuff that can happen as we’re figuring out how to use these things.”
The Traverse City airport will cooperate with the Coast Guard to ensure there is no aerial conflict between planes and drones.
Cherry Capital Airport was founded by the Navy to develop drone technology to counter the kamikazes in World War II, according to the airport’s CEO, Kevin Klein.
“It just is a full circle to return to what our roots were in developing that,” Klein said.
He also stated that drones should not be a fear for the community.
“They don’t have the time to do what people are afraid of,” Klein said. “They have the time and the assets to go after and help people who are in distress.”
In other business:
After the NRAA meeting, representatives from Cherry Capital Airport and AVFLIGHT, an aviation service provider, celebrated the expansion of their new Fixed-Base Operator facility. The FBO facility will service and fuel planes, and welcome passengers and pilots.
“The facility itself is enhancing the customer service experience,” said AVFLIGHT Senior Vice President of Operations Joe Meszaros.
Even with some community pushback, both Klein and Meszaros said this expansion will benefit locals and the local economy. Klein said that future investments and expansions at the airport include remodeling their storage, expanding their current hangar and making additional parking spaces.
