My name is Ryan, from South Devon, UK. I've spent most of my life volunteering for good causes, this cause is no different from some of the other work I've done.
I've been flying drones since 2021, in 2022 I started my own drone business on the side of my day job but I mostly fly for charity fundraisers or for voluntary search and rescue jobs for missing animals. I am now a qualified commercial drone operator and can legally fly drones up to 25kg within 50m of uninvolved people thanks to the advanced certifications and authorisations I have.
Why This Matters: In Devon alone from September - November there has been 22 missing animals that I'm personally aware of, that's nearly 2 a week! Sadly not all missing animals are found, leaving owners upset and naturally fearful of what may have become of their beloved animal/pet.
While I try to assist in searches for missing animals where I can, I'm simply not as well equipped as I could be and unfortunately unable to solely change this myself due to a lack of funding. While there are national groups of volunteers who will try to assist with search and rescue we seem to be lacking thermal drones in Devon, and it can take a number of days for one to be sent down to us or hired out.
The goal: I'm hoping through this crowd funder to raise money to assist me in being able to purchase a thermal drone to improve the chances of locating missing animals during my voluntary searches within Devon.
Example of a thermal drone in use: Fellow drone operators have kindly sent me these examples below which show you the incredible ability of the thermal drones available today, showing you just how much easier it is to search with thermal equipped drones!
What's the initial costs?
DJI Mavic 3 Thermal Drone with single battery (~30 minutes of flight) - £4389
Additional set of 3 batteries (an additional ~ 90 minutes of flight) - £439
For a water resistant and higher wind rated thermal drone we would look to get the below depending upon funds raised.
DJI M30T Drone with 1 pair of batteries (requires both for ~30 minutes of flight) and 1st service - £9978
Additional Batteries - £598 per required pair
If you can donate, then that would be amazing and I thank you as I'm sure hopeful owners will too!
I appreciate times are tough so even if you can't spare any money, by sharing this Crowdfunder you will help us reach more people!
If you have any questions or queries, please feel free to reach out!!