[Strategic flight planning or why the Bavarian Mountain Rescue Service relies on drones]

The Bavarian Mountain Rescue Service has always shown a great interest in innovations, chances and possibilities. Against this background, in 2012 the construction of a new structure was initiated, the localization, communication and situation report team (LKLD: Lokalisation, Kommunikation und Lagedarstellung), which uses modern techniques, such as the GPS, mobile internet, thermal imaging, residual light amplification and drones. The use of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) has already been proven to be very helpful and facilitative in the search for missing persons. Using UAS the LKLD teams could also successfully master unusual missions, e.g. for the inspection of damaged structures in the bridge construction after the tragic collapse of the bridge in Werneck or in connection with monitoring of dangerous alpine conditions. Motivated by these successes and by the political appreciation of their voluntary work, dedicated work is being carried out on further innovations. Under consideration are automated flights far beyond the range of visibility, transport of materials and drones which can carry passengers.