Help Rangitikei District Volunteer Rural Fire and Civil Defense replace their damaged Drone

About 3 years ago the team realised the massive potential that a drone could serve in fire fighting application. That’s when "Dronie" our current drone was purchased. He has proved time and time again not just at fires but also searches how valuable a tool Drones are. Unfortunately during the last major floods Dronie was picked up by a freak gust of wind and swept into the flood waters. Never to be seen again so we thought. Huge thanks to our friends at Rotorwork who mounted a successful rescue mission and managed to recover Dronie. Unfortunately despite our best efforts Dronie has never returned to full functionality. We hope to be able to replace Dronie with his newer brother the Phantom 3 which offers increased flight time and stability along with better images. Ultimately with enough support we would like to purchase a thermal camera to exponentially increase the functionality of the drone not just for fire fighting application but also search and rescue assistance. This is where we need help from some generous people out there. The cost of the drone is $2900. Anything extra raised (if we have enough support) will go towards the cost of thermal imaging packages which can range from $10,000 to $18,000. While the set up cost is rather high the on going savings and benefit from having a thermal imaging airborne platform available for use 24/7 are huge. We realise that people have busy lives and may not be available to offer volunteering their time fighting fires but if you can assist us in replacing our drone, it will reduce the amount of time wasted on the fire ground and dramatically increase the safety of the hard working volunteers.

Have a look, at the Facebook page to see some of the imagery Dronie has produced over his time with us. The link is on the right. ->

or here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1656040294668787/

If you are interested in volunteering contact Paul Chaffe on 3270099 during work hours. :)