Lost Pets- A while ago I put out an offer that I would use my drones to help find lost pets. This offer still holds and as a pet lover I will be more than happy to do this for no charge.  But there are limits to what I can do with a drone.

The drone is just a part of the searching process, it brings with it a lot of unique abilities, but there are limitations.

First, you need to reach out to one of the local animal groups they need to coordinate the overall efforts, a done alone is not the solution.  I'll work with these groups to help make a coordinated effort to help find the lost pet.

DO NOT attempt to reach out to me via social media or any of the messaging apps.  I am glued to neither and don't regularly monitor them.  I should be directly contacted by phone.

Second, time is critical, the longer the pet is missing the farther it can be away from home and the ground to be covered increases exponentially with each hour.  Generally, if I'm not in the air within 2 or 3 hours of the animal going missing the area to cover becomes too large to be effective searching by air.  A typical search pattern takes about 45-50 minutes to cover a quarter mile radius circle, this is about 125 acres.  If the animal is spotted in a certain area, knowing this information can make the search efforts much more effective.   As the search is going on in one area time continues to tick, and after 2 or 3 hours the distance the pet can roam becomes huge.  A half mile radius is 500 acres, a lot of area to cover!

Third, the aerial searches only work well for dogs as they tend to be runners and inquisitive.  Cats I really can't help with, they tend to hide under trees, bushes, cars, and other objects and are impossible to see from the air.

Lastly, there are legal and physical limits to using the drone to search.  I can't fly at night.  If it's raining, I can't fly, the aircraft are not waterproof.  If the ground level winds are more than 10-15 MPH it's too windy to fly, as you get higher above the ground the winds and gusts really pick up, 10 MPH on the ground can be up to 20 MPH at 150 ft. and 30-35 MPH at 400 ft.  It simply isn't safe to fly in these windy conditions.

I am but one person with limited resources, I have to limit the range where I will look, and I am not available 24/7.  I own a business and have a job as a County Commissioner here in Sumter County that I cannot always pull away from, but I will respond as quickly as I can, whenever I can to help.

If you need help, I'm here to assist.  Go through one of the local pet help groups and have them contact me at the phone number below so we can set up a coordinated search effort.