NY State Police conduct multi-agency drone training in Guilderland

GUILDERLAND, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- Thursday night in Guilderland, the New York State Police Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) held their special law enforcement multi-agency drone training.

“Night training is historically probably the most challenging kind of flying for manned aircraft or unmanned aircraft,” said Joseph Malorgio, Coordinator New York State Troop G, UAS. Which is why the training program having the class, made up of nearly a dozen different law enforcement agencies, studying in the classroom before they go out at night.

State Police UAS Assistant Coordinator Garrett Gainor says they run through multiple scenarios. “We did some PowerPoint presentations based on night operations. The other one was on search and rescue tactics and another one was on thermal imaging and how to use a thermal imager.”

They also flew in search patterns. “Which is used for areas that have easily trackable things like waterways, roadways, trails, power lines, things like that, something we can get up and quickly search and either find someone or eliminate it from a search area,” explained Garrett.

But when it came time to spotting a drone, NEWS10 learned how easily it can be mistaken for other objects in the sky.

Garret explained that first, you have to pay attention to is the noise of the aircraft. The drone has a higher pitch than say a Black Hawk helicopter. You can hear the difference, but seeing the difference is harder.

Malorgio said, “For us on the aviation side, we kind of, been used to it. So, we know what to look for. But for other people, maybe it's a little confusing to them at times. Which may result in some false reporting.” He says it can get tricky for people because nighttime viewing can be deceptive, “The depth perception in the night is tricky as far as the heights of the platforms and where they're flying. It may look like it's about to fly into a tree, but it's really a couple hundred feet behind that tree and a couple hundred feet in the air, well above it.”

The UAS Coordinators said tonight, was a successful training session. “When you have agencies from Ulster County and Rockland County making the trip all the way up here, it's because they recognize the importance of the training and how it's going to benefit them,” stated Malorgio.