I am a Search and Rescue volunteer in Eastern Idaho and have been active since 1997.  Throughout this time I have been associated with both public entities (Bonneville County Sheriff's Search and Rescue) and a variety of private ones such as National Association for Search and Rescue (NASAR),  Mountain Rescue Association (MRA),  National Search Dog Association (NSDA), Tri-State K9s,  & Snake River Search.  I got my first search dog, Bailey, an Airedale Terrier, in 1997 and certified initially for wilderness live.  Bailey subsequently worked cadaver and water.  We certified with several agencies including Bonneville County Sheriff's SAR and NASAR.  Bailey had successes in live and cadaver searches.  He went on his last search in 2009 and died in 2011.  Loki is my second Airedale and came from Canada in 2007 and has certified in wilderness live and cadaver with NSDA, and with Tri-State K9s in cadaver and water(shore).  Loki has had successes in live and cadaver, and has participated in searches in Idaho, British Columbia, Utah, Nevada, Oregon, and Wyoming.  Loki was still certified when he died on December 4th, 2018.  Archie also came from Canada and was born on September 6th, 2018 and enjoyed a month of mentoring from Loki.  Archie is in training.

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My personal focus has always been on wilderness search and air scent (as opposed to Tracking/Trailing).  

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The drones (Small Unmanned Aerial Systems -  sUAS - as the FAA prefers) have an older and more recent connection.  I am a retired USAF Officer (Navigator) and was on active duty from 1969 -1989.  During this time I served in a number of roles involving Electronic Warfare and Command & Control, as well as air operations.  After retirement I went to work for EG&G Idaho and Lockheed Martin at the Department of Energy's Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL).  At the INEL I was a systems engineer and project/program manager for USAF related Command & Control rapid prototyping efforts.    During my time with Bonneville County Sheriff's SAR I tried to generate interest in 'Drones' for use in SAR during the first decade of the 21st century (the INEL was working on 'Drones' at this time) but a lack of suitable platforms and FAA restrictions made it very slow going.   Later with Snake River Search I again pushed to develop a drone/sUAS program and obtained some small fixed wing platforms for evaluation and then moved to quadcopters as the most practical platform for our requirements and to operate within FAA restrictions.  I filed for a FAA 333 exemption in 2014 to operate the quadcopters for Search and Rescue and received the exemption in Spring of 2015.  The FAA part 107 rules went in force in August of 2016 and solved most of the problems related to operating drones/sUAS in the National Airspace.  Snake River Search currently has five quadcopters; two Tellos for basic training, an old DJI FC40 & Phantom 2 Vision plus used for advanced training, and a Phantom 4 Pro and Mavic2 Enterprise Dual used for operations.    Additionally there are another five individually owned quadcopters (One Phantom 4,  2 Phantom 3s  and 2 Mavics), and one Yuneec Typhoon Hexacopter,  which are available for SAR use.  This has been a very slow process to create a viable operational capability and is still ongoing.

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David J. Forker