Fire & Rescue

Young Air Patrol pilots get training to fly drones

Published

4 years ago

May 9, 2021

Folks spending Saturday morning on one part of Goose Island might have heard some buzzing sounds over their heads, and it wasn’t mosquitoes. They were hearing, and maybe seeing, drones.

“It has a lot of great benefits,” said Mandel. “It’s certainly more cost-effective. It costs about $5 an hour to operate the drones, whereas it costs upwards of a hundred dollars an hour to operate the aircraft.”

Mireau thinks the project is “very cool,” saying he’s been interested in drones for a long time.

Brad Williams

A native of Prairie du Chien, Brad graduated from UW - La Crosse and has worked in radio news for more than 30 years, mostly in the La Crosse area. He regularly covers local courts and city and county government. Brad produces the features "Yesterday in La Crosse" and "What's Buried on Brad's Desk." He also writes the website "Triviazoids," which finds odd connections between events that happen on a certain date, and he writes and performs with the local comedy group Heart of La Crosse. Brad been featured on several national TV programs because of his memory skills.