Kiwanis receive drone presentation from Waushara County Sheriff’s Department

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On March 25, the Wautoma Kiwanis Club had many members of the Waushara County Sheriff’s Department as the guest speakers for their March 25 meeting held at Stahl Celebration and Remembrance Center.

Chief Deputy Jim Lietz spoke about the generous donation from a citizen to purchase a drone for the sheriff’s department. After Jim was done talking the club went outside to see a demonstration of how the drone works. Jim told members that the county has nine licensed pilots to run the drone, four detectives, four patrol officers and Jim, himself.

The average study time was 30 to 40 hours before each person felt comfortable to take the very hard test. They needed to know information about weather, military and airport besides the knowledge to run the drone to be able to pass the test. The FAA requires a waiver application to use the drone at night and Waushara County has completed and gotten confirmation that they can now fly at night. This waiver is good for four years and a pilot’s license is good for two years. FAA also requires the County maintain records on flight logs, training logs and maintenance logs for the drone.

An old ambulance has been converted into the Drone Command Center and Kiwanis members were able to see the inside and what the command person sees while the Drone Operator is using the drone.

Jim told the club a little bit about the actual drone, it flies no higher than 400 feet and can reach speed of 50 mph but they never fly it that fast an average speed would be 25 mph when coming back to base, for example. It runs on two large batteries at a time and in perfect weather can last 45 minutes of air time and they have more batteries to change out when needed and it weighs between 10 to 15 lbs. The drone has a high quality camera and spot light attachments and they have a wish list of other attachments once it becomes available. The company they purchased their drone from also included a free small drone with the purchase and it was so helpful to practice flying the small drone before flying the very expense large drone.

 

The Waushara County Sheriff’s Department is very thankful to the citizen who donated the money to purchase this drone.

 

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  • Pictured with the large and small drone are Drone Pilot Jim Lietz, Sheriff Wally Zuehlke, Drone Pilot Brandon Rasmussen, Drone Pilot Zach Gunderson and Kelsey Koch.
    Pictured with the large and small drone are Drone Pilot Jim Lietz, Sheriff Wally Zuehlke, Drone Pilot Brandon Rasmussen, Drone Pilot Zach Gunderson and Kelsey Koch.