Exemption for movies and film

Is it a light at the end of the tunnel?

Friday the FAA granted an exemption to six UAV/Drone production companies authorizing their use to movies and film. When you look at the FAA web-site and download the documents they only specify one system out of the six, listing the other five under fictitious names. Astraeus Aerial, Aerial MOB, LLC, HeliVideo Productions, LLC, Pictorvision Inc, RC Pro Productions Consulting, LLC dba Vortex Aerial, and Snaproll Media, LLC. There wasn’t any certification process for selection only the discretion of the FAA.  The Motion Picture association of America sought the consulting services of Chris Dodd the former Connecticut Senator to influence the FAA to allow these six production companies to utilize UAS/Drone technology commercially. The one caveat that had any semblance of logic was the requirement for the UAS/Drone operators must hold a private pilot’s license.

Reaction

The reaction that got my attention the most is from Patrick Egan the face of SSUASNews and RCAPA who until today has voiced his opinion that the fix is in for the military contract manufacturers. This exemption for these six UAS/Drone production companies did not include a single system from Lockheed Martin, Northrup Grumman, AeroVironment or Insitu. I talked with Gus Calderon of ISISCopter whose claim to fame was the flying dress used in the Lady Gaga music video and he liked the requirement for UAS/Drone operators to hold a private pilot’s license, since he holds a commercial pilot’s license. He wasn’t too keen just these six UAS/Drone production companies being authorized based solely on that appears to favoritism from the FAA. T.J. Diaz of XFlyFilms whose system was used in the production of the “Expendables III” movies stated that “It’s the wild west in the motion picture industry”! His reasoning is based upon the FAA not being specific on systems or air worthiness other than the producers asking for them in their requests. As Brendan Schulman would say “This is problematic”. I believe this is a good thing for the commercial UAS/Drone industry but it troubles me to think that the FAA makes decisions without thinking them through and considering the impact or legal liability. I think this action is a move in the right direction but consequences because their action were not well thought out is going to be decided by a judge.

Recommendation

I would like to promote David Copenhaver and his professional capacities with NexGenNow. For over a year and a half David has been hammering his company’s capabilities. His system is what Gene Robinson uses to stream imagery live for search and rescue operations but he has been part of a situational awareness solution that is all encompassing. Picture this “A UAS/Drone pilot with a private pilot’s license gets a work order for a survey job on a new housing development, specifying the scope of work, time and location for the job. He logs onto a web-site that has his license information as part of his membership registration. He types in the geographic area of the job, goes to a drop down window to select the UAS/Drone system he is certified on and the sensor or camera system that will be used, then he uploads the work order via PDF. After de-confliction of the time and airspace he is e-mailed a COA via PDF which he downloads and keeps in his pocket. While conducting the operation a satellite will have the parameters of the operation and he will get an online alert when the satellite detects an airplane or helicopter approaching the UAS/Drone operation area so he can be aware and take appropriate action, i.e. land the UAS/Drone or just be aware of where the plane and UAS/Drone are located.” This capability is available right now and not only would it solve the airspace concerns of airplane pilots. It would be a revenue generating system and regulatory tool for the FAA.

Disruptive technology

The perceived problem with this common sense solution is that it were adopted for the commercial airline industry to would have an impact of cost savings and man-hours for air traffic control. Sure it would add to safety and save money but that means less work for air traffic controllers. That is a common reaction to the discussion of the use of UAS/Drone commercialization. The ripple effect of the existing systems and applications but what needs to be weighed is the increase of jobs and revenues that can be realized for industries and workers that are not available now.

GUTC UAS/Drone professional registration

GUTC has developed a UAS/Drone professional database for the different projects both domestically and internationally. To better manage the professionals interested in employment on these projects please submit the information on your self and your company's capabilities through the GUTC registration page: http://www.globalutc.com/signup.htm 

Hazard Yet Forward

Phrase analysis

After the fall out of the 2008 market crash I heard a retired economist and sociology professor state “We are going through a process of Global Economic Reshuffling. All of the systems and processes we have grown accustom and counted on for decades aren’t working anymore and everyone is scrambling to find the new path to prosperity. There is going to be economic equalization until we dump the old failed methods and systems and develop and adopt new and reliable solutions”. This made me think about Social Security and the over use of NPK in agriculture. Now recently I have heard the phrase “Root Cause Failure Analysis” applied to data collection, storage and distribution. I was just listing to the challenges with ISIS or ISIL and Iran. ISIS/ISIL are Sunni and Iran is Shiite, mortal enemies. But Saudi Arabia is Sunni, why should they have a concern of ISIS/ISIL? For the same reason the Assad regime is at war with them, those regimes are monarchies with their origins from figured heads propped up by the West, USA and Great Brittan. To find the Root Cause of this issue you need to go back before Muhammad and Ishmael. The current challenge with ISIS/ISIL goes back to the rise of Saddam Hussain a Sunni who being the minority is Iraq but maintaining control through a brutal dictator. With the ouster of Saddam and the election of Nouri al-Maliki a Shiite who bullied the Sunnis. They sided with Al-Qaida to fight against Assad and now we have ISIS/ISIL. The result of a failed system.

Going back to Social Security and the economy, the Fed chairman Ben Bernanke has chosen to keep the Fad rate less than 1%. This is the rate banks use to lend each other money overnight. It also effect the rates on your bank accounts (Checking, savings and CDs). In 2009 an advisor to the Fed explained to a group of advisors in San Diego that this was to push investment into the stock market and when investor money grew enough they would start hiring. I was explaining to my 17 year old son Collin that in November 2011 the DOW hit a record 14,000 and now it is 17,279.74. I asked him if he could understand “Why the economy seems to be lagging so much”? In asking him that question it occurred to me that with all of the baby-boomers reaching retirement age and more people will be taking money out of Social Security than those who will be working and putting in to it. I explained to him that the government is going to want those who are still working to make more money and have their savings grow so they can afford to pay enough in taxes to support those who are no longer working. A doomed solution to solve another failed system.

Now when I apply this “Root Cause Failure Analysis” to the UAS/Drone industry I see the FAA seems to be beholden to the established defense contractors. Which are protecting their bottom line by limiting the technology for commercial use by anyone other than what these companies are manufacturing? As Brendan Schulman would say on an interview “It is problematic” for the FAA to grant a COA for the systems developed by these manufactures strictly because they were flown by the military in combat when there are new commercial systems with the same capabilities for payload and duration of flight from 277% to 7,000% less cost. These failed models cannot stand up to economic pressure. It didn’t work in the financial markets when Charles Schwab introduced the discount brokerage idea. It isn’t working in agriculture with algae blooms and dead zones around the world causing water shortages due to the over use of chemical based fertilizers like NPK and herbicides like Atrazine, it is not going to work with the UAS/Drone industry with thousands of jobs that can be created for baby-boomers, gen-X and Millennials.

Congressmen and Senators will be hearing from this industry just like the silent majority was heard from in the early 1980s which pulled us out of a similar economic time. I will end with a cry that has been passed through my family for ages “Hazard Yet Forward”!

Why UAS/Drones?

Where is the demand?

Why use an unmanned aerial system? Safety would be the first reason, examples like firefighting, nuclear power plant inspections and oil platform safety inspections. Then there is economy of effort, search and rescue operations are the first thing that come to mind. The ease of launching and recovering these systems is so easy, then there is the cost savings. The least expensive cost for a helicopter is $1,700 per hour and $180 per hour for a Cessna. You can get an experienced UAS/Drone pilot for under $100 per hour. The technology is getting more affordable by the minute.

 Where is the business?

Agriculture is the most obvious. In precision agriculture the savings is being surgical in application of water, fertilizer and pesticides. The ability to gather imagery from under the leaves of trees and plants cannot be accomplished by any manned air craft or satellite.  The next most obvious application for unmanned aerial systems in geospatial, LiDAR and photogrammetry measuring everything from property corners to algae and moss growing on a century’s old church. If a surveyor can dominate their market by learning to use a handheld GSP and a robotic surveyor scope, what could he do with a quad-rotor and a Pix4D system?

These are all great opportunities for UAS/Drone professionals but where is the economic benefit for a city, county or state? If this technology can accelerate the process of “Root cause failure analysis” for everything from infestations like HLB the citrus greening disease, Laurel wilt, pine wilt, oak wilt the emerald ash bore weevil. Going back to agriculture which is the cause of dead zones in the rivers, streams, lakes and oceans but also the algae blooms which cause a crisis in drinking water in Ohio, Minnesota and California, not to mention Panama and Columbia. You don’t think contaminated drinking water has a negative effect for regions with these issues? UAS/Drone technology can find the affected areas that caused these issues and do it more efficiently and cost effectively than manned aircraft or satellites. Optimally combining these technologies measuredly. Using the right tool for the job.

A satellite can detect a region where plants are effected of infested but not a specific plant of tree. A manned aircraft is much more effective in surveying a 200 square mile area than a UAS/Drone but when you want to get greater than accuracy than 2 cm an UAS/Drone is going to do that for you. It is going to be a lot easier and cost effective to put up a quad-rotor for your specific construction site than to call for a fly over every day.

Certain industries like movies and film have an obvious need and benefit for the UAS/Drone technologies. Marketing for everything from amusement parks, state and national parks, real-estate developments and single family homes with a nice back yard or a pool. The quality of imagery and detail can’t be duplicated with a plane, helicopter or boom camera.

Safety

Safety is the lever that justifies the draconian restrictions of the FAA. It is the blanket excuse for freezing the commercial UAS/Drone operations. So when there is benefit of safety for the use of UAS/Drone use it is critical to emphasize the safety benefit above anything else. Operations below 4,000 feet are too low to make a correction to prevent a crash with a helicopter or bail out in a manned aircraft. Then there is the impact deferential between a manned helicopter or airplane and a small UAS/Drone. This not only has to be considered when planning on UAS/Drone operations but give it the first and highest emphasis.

UAS/Drone pilots needed

GUTC is looking for experienced UAS/Drone pilots in Kansas and Missouri to fly architectural and construction projects earning $500 to $700 per day depending on experience, 20 to 30 shoots per month. Please contact Reuben Lowing (619) 313-1073.  

Stepping it up

In the short two weeks as New Business Director for XFly Film. I have run across a disproportionate number of UAS professionals doing cinematography, filming weddings, real-estate, local television newscasts and commercials. I have found these UAS pilots have a desire to do more and provide more services to increase their profits. GUTC has experience in seeking out applications where UAS/Drone technology is beneficial either in cost savings, safety or filling the void that cannot be filled with a surveyor or researcher on the ground and to low or small an area to make sense using a manned aircraft or helicopter.

GUTC has the resources to advise these UAS professionals to be more than paid hobbyists. We are working with the leaders in airframe and sensor technology as well as with experts in integration and data management and processing. GUTC also has relationships with the end users who are looking for professionals with capabilities with a wide range of expertise. GUTC is actively looking for projects and professionals to put together and make business happen. We have access to the most current technologies in the industries for the UAS professionals and end-users.

I am looking for you

Commercial UAS/Drone usage is illegal, really?

I have added up the UAS/Drone professionals I have direct contact with is 25 and I am connected with over a thousand on Twitter. How is this? The FAA has granted COA for the Mesa County Sheriff’s Department in Arizona to fly the Tremble/Gate-wing XU5 to fly over the county dump. The University of North Carolina has 13 current COAs. I have not heard of any UAS pilot being harassed by the FAA when they have had authorization from the city or county, parks department, port or the property owner who tasked them to perform operations. Do they do these flights for free? Does the Mesa county Sheriff do his flying over the dump for free, after working hours and weekends? Does it mean that you have to be granted a COA in order to be paid to fly a UAS? Does the FAA have to write up a certificate of authorization for pilots to fly manned aircraft? Do these pilots need authorization to fly over private property or from the government official who has authority over public property? It seems that the only people who are restricted are those who are trying to follow the rules to the letter.

Where are you? 

I was at the grand opening of the CALUAS test center in Inyokern California and I saw a gentleman intently focused on a presentation on precision agriculture. I asked him “What is it that interests you about this technology?” He went on to tell me about a women he knew that as a researcher of bats, specifically the White Nose Bat Disease. Her husband was a pilot, she would catch a bat and tag it with a beacon and turn it loose and her husband would track it to the cave and she would go there and do her research. Now her husband had passed away and this gentleman believed that these UAS/Drones could do the job her husband used to do. I am looking for someone in Michigan or near the Austin Texas areas, because these are where the leading research colleges and universities are that study the white nose bat disease. Because it would be unlikely to get permission from property owners the UAS/Drone to get a COA.

Then I have read several articles about safety inspectors using quad-rotors to inspect oil platforms in the artic off of the cost of Canada and the Nordic countries. I have heard that they are using them in the Gulf of Mexico but nobody has come forward. The big excuse for not allowing the commercial use of UAS/Drones is safety but using a quad-rotor for safety inspections rather than having someone who is not a trained climber be a safety issue not to allow it’s use?

I am aggressively looking for the use of UAS/Drones for these applications.

Surveys "R" us

Life beyond Pix4D

There is a company in Rochester New York that I only thought of for multi-spectral cameras, high quality multi-spectral cameras specifically designed for small unmanned systems. On a conference call and I found out some things I didn’t know. They are able to micronize these camera systems from 4.5 or 3.5lbs to 1/5lbs with better accuracy than all of the other multi-spectral systems out there. Then they started talking about photogrammetry systems out there. Then they mentioned their ability to process the data within their hardware instead of the cloud. This company is Fluxdata.

 

LiDAR

I posted an article about Peru is using UAS/Drones on ruins and then I see one of my contacts commented “Someone needs to send me there”. I looked up his profile and saw some of his work and I called him off of his web-site and it was already in my phone. He has another web-site promoting his LiDAR. I was just talking with my business partner who commented that we didn’t have any connection in the North Eastern United States and it just so happens this UAS professional and his company is in Providence Road Island, Andy Trench and his companies are XactMaps and Zoomvideo.

California Land Surveyors get smart on Drones

NexGen presentation to California Land Surveyors Association

Last night David Copenhaver of NexGenNow briefed the California Land Surveyors Association in San Diego last night and according to Steve Heise the organization Vice President it was a big hit! The representative from CalTrans stated “I am overwhelmed with all of the possibilities”. There were those in the crowd that who had concerns that this disruptive technology would jeopardize their livelihood by replacing them and their jobs. David pointed out the increased demand for the new data that would be available because of the UAS technology. It was a big hit. I arranged for this presentation by connecting David Copenhaver and Steve Heise a long time personal friend of mine.