Foremost UAS Range
Owned by the Village of Foremost and managed by UxS Consulting Ltd., Foremost UAS Test Range is the first Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) airspace test range of its kind in Canada.
The concept initially started in 2009, with the assistance of UxS Consulting founder Doug Hanna, and in 2016, the range was officially approved by Transport Canada.
After building over 32 years of experience in the industry, Steve Donovan, under the employment of UxS Consulting Ltd., became the operations manager for Foremost UAS Test Range in November 2019.
He says the range provides their remotely piloted aircraft system (RPAS) clients a technical review of all Transport Canada required documentation. The documents are then approved and clients are granted a special flight operations certificate (SFOC) by Transport Canada that allows them to fly at Foremost UAS Range.
“There has been a very limited number of SFOCs granted outside of the Canadian UAS Test Ranges, and we’ve contributed to the success of a significant number of those companies in getting the certificates approved in other Canadian airspace,” says Donovan. “The best analogy to explain our services is that we are the foundation of a house being built. It may go unnoticed when the RPAS is flying, but we are the foundation that supports the structure.”
Since Foremost UAS Range is the main test range in Western Canada, they provide a very unique array of services for RPAS clients to test and develop their platforms to eventually fly in visual line of sight (VLOS) and beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) airspace in Canada.
Their clients travel from Alberta, Ontario and British Columbia and range from small service companies to large defense contractors and academia.
“We had Qinetiq from Medicine Hat, Canadian UAVS, AERIUM Analytics, SAIT University and University of Victoria come to fly,” says Donovan. “Southeast Alberta is a very ideal location to have a test range, because we have a sparse population compared to larger city centres and minimal air traffic.”
The 5-person team in Foremost manages and controls 2,400 sq. kms of land and up to 18,000 ft mean sea-level of restricted airspace for flying VLOS and BVLOS in Southeast Alberta.
On top of providing their facilities, the company assists their partners in the mitigation of air risk criteria and ground risk criteria with its SkySensus Project and airworthiness expertise.
“We recently launched BVLOS Innovation Centre (BVLOC InC), where we used our experience and management from our range to assist clients and organizations in obtaining the SFOC, where they have permission to operate their aircraft outside the rules for a specific purpose, and fly BVLOS missions for their work environment or development,” says Donovan.
Donovan says the RPAS in North America is projected to grow astronomically over the next 10 years. The growth of the market is attributed to rapid urbanization, increased overall efficiency and productivity for enterprises and increased demand for UAVs.
Donovan recognizes and notes that Foremost UAS has received a large amount of funding and support from the Government of Alberta, Palliser Economic Partnership, Community and Regional Economic Support and Western Economic Development; he says without the grants, Foremost UAS Test Range wouldn’t be where it is today.
Donovan himself was born in Southern Alberta and raised in Foremost, Alta. He started in the industry with the Canadian Armed Forces as a radar technician.
After 10 years of service there, he spent the next 22 years as a defence contractor in the Canadian North Warning System, Alaska Radar System and the Middle East. He worked a number of roles from technical, instructor electronics and airfield and operations manager.
In 2014, he and his family moved back to Foremost, where he would raise his children and admire the advantages of living in Southeast Alberta.
“Southeast Alberta is where I originally grew up. Now, with my family and kids growing up here, and the atmosphere and quality of life, I really appreciate that I’m back,” he says. “Our business success is very much contributed to the fact that not only do we have such a unique airspace that contributes to the success of all our current and future clients, but through the support of our local community and stakeholders, we only see us continuing to expand in this fast-growing global industry and being the focal point on the map here in Canada.”
