Business is open

Wake up Drone industry “Business is open!”

After listening to Lisa Ellman the FAA Attorney working with Stampede Global and the Unmanned Vehicle University explaining that the 333 Exemption are being issued for every application where there has been a pervious exemption issued. Then she went onto say that the license requirement has been reduced to a “Light Sport” pilot’s license here there are no medical exam and 20 hours instead of 30 hours of instructor supervised stick time. Most flight schools will still try and get you to sign up for the full “Private pilot’s License”, getting wrapped around the minutia involved with someone who actually want to be airplane pilots, instead of just punching the ticket requiring a “Light Sport Pilot’s License” so they can make a living flying UAS/drones. Understand that the proposed rules before congress no requirement for any form of licensing. Congress might adopt the creation of a Commercial UAV/Drone license but that could take a couple of years. However, with a pilot’s license of any kind, it is legal RIGHT NOW!

Maximizing the opportunity                                             

In the vent that you do not own a Phantom, I would work on whatever you need to do to get your “Light Sport Pilot’s License” first. If you re someone in the business of providing equipment or services for UAS/Drone pilots, I would put out my shingle. Start your marketing campaign. I had a meeting with Paul Linnel of MTSI while we were both in San Diego Friday and he talked about “It is probably going to be easier to find a land surveyor who will learn how to use a drone and Pix4D than it will be to find a UAS/Drone pilot who is willing and able to plot points and dig up monuments and they all are going to need someone to do the CAD overlays, plot the points and take the data and create a usable product.”

Cellular is where it’s at

Both Paul Linnel and David Copenhaver from NexGen Now talked about how the cell phones no have the capabilities of used to called “Super Computers” 20 years ago. As soon as they mentioned this I thought of Michael Creamer of FAVNET and his talk at the drone pavilion at NAB and the suitcase packed data-connectivity technology. Bringing your data with you. If cellular is going to be the method of collecting data and imagery, you’re going to need access.

Where is the financial sweet spot?

I received a text from T.J. Diaz while he was at the AV show in New York saying “TV and cinema is where it is at, these guys have the budget and they know that this technology is where it’s at!” That is great for him that is his business. When it comes to me working with the so called “Smart people” in the survey industry, agriculture, energy and geospatial applications, I am bogged down in the process of teaching a bunch people who think they are smarter than me that this the direction they need to go. Well I found some who see the vision, now I just have to help them over a little hurdle in getting a “Light Sports pilot’s License” then they are out in front of the field. The best pricing I could find for the “Light Sports Pilot’s License” is $30 to $40 per hour for instructor airtime and $450 for a check ride and $150 for the written test. That is $1,200 to $1,400. How many surveys would it take to make up this expense? If you could go to your civil engineering with your 333 exemption in your hand, how fast do you think they would start giving you their business?

A pilot’s license is a license to print money

George Sigler the proprietor of Sky Warrior Inc. was at the Sun and Fun airshow in Lakeland Florida last week and he was looking at buying a specific “Light Sports” Aircraft that is limited in use for pilots but just enough for UAS/Drone pilot’s is quickly and inexpensively get their license and qualify for a 333 exemption but he said to me “Reuben, I can buy this aircraft and even a Phantom but unless you can show me how people are going to make money with this technology, who is going to want to pay for the training?” I have working in this industry for three and a half years and I have talked with the highest levels on the surveying industry, State DOT in California, Texas, Michigan and Florida, Ocean Spray Cranberry, the leading seismic surveying company in North America told me that they were ready to use this technology as soon as the FAA authorizes it. Well, it is authorized now!

Commercial UAS operations are now LEGAL!

Commercial Unmanned Operations are now legal!

According to Lisa Ellman a Counsel in the Washington, DC office of McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP, as long as your 333 exemption submission describes use of an unmanned aerial system (UAS) similar to what they have approved before, you will also have your 333 exemption approved. She also informed the group at the National Association of Broadcaster’s, Drone Pavilion that the threshold for licensing has been lowered to a Light Sport Aircraft Pilot’s license. That is, until the Congress passes the proposed rules submitted by the FAA in which no license is required. So in the event you wish to make a living with you Phantom or other UAS technology, you can try and push your congressman into acting on the proposed ruling for which they don’t really have motivation to do so since the FAA has opened the door with the 333 exemption or you can go through the process of obtaining your sport pilot’s license.

The Lay of the Land                                         

The majority of pilots who hold a Light Sport Pilot’s license are experienced pilots who either may not be able to pass the stress test of physical required to maintain the private pilot’s license. Now in San Diego California there is only one Light Sport Aircraft to test on in the whole county and it is located at Palomar Airport in Carlsbad California. Julie King (760)703-1967 would be the one to contact for flight time with this aircraft. Now to log your 20 hours of instructor supervised flight time, you do not need to fly a Light Sport Aircraft, only for your check ride. George Sigler the proprietor of Sky Warrior Inc. is looking into the ERCO_Ercoupe plane just for those specific students trying to qualify for a 333 exemption for commercial unmanned operations. This would allow him to keep the cost down. Texas seems to have the greatest number of Light Sport aircraft training facilities, probably due to the abundance of wide open areas to fly. The cost very, depending upon where you are located anywhere from $2,800.00 to $15,000.00 depending upon where you are located. When you buy your UAS system through XFly/X-Fold, if you have a pilot’s license, give them the description of your commercial application and they will have Lisa Ellman submit for your 333 exemption, so when your system is delivered you will be legal to fly too.

Fear of the FAA?

They are afraid of the FAA

I have been talking to UAS/Drone pilots across the country and I mean hundreds of them and they are flying and making money. Then I start introducing the opportunity to surveyors and oil and gas exploration companies and I hear “What about the FAA?” or “They are afraid of the FAA”.  I got into a debate with the FAA attorney with Stampede Global and the Unmanned Vehicle University about flying for hobby is authorized but flying for profit isn’t but I didn’t want to make her my enemy and I realized that she makes it easy. She is an expert of applying for and getting exemptions and for commercial UAS/Drone operations. There is something called a 333 exemption. The FAA just reduced the requirements from a civilian pilot’s license to a sport pilot license. So I looked up the requirements for a Sport Pilot Licence (Link).

As I was investigating the costs to obtain such a license I stumbled on a link to Gleim Sport Pilot Course for $104.00. Now that is just the test prep and course material. So far the best price for the pilot instructor hours is $30.00 to $40.00 per hour. That is a minimum of 20 hours which come to $600.00 to $800.00. The FAA written test is $150.00 and the practical test is $450.00. If you can find a flight instructor who charges these rates and honors the Gliem Sports Pilots course. You are looking at $1,504.00. I paid more than that for my Series 6 and 63 Exams. George Sigler is currently at the Sun and Fun Air Show in Lakeland Florida, the second largest airshow in the country. There have been approximately 1,890 authorizations filed and approved through the FAA. What is there to be scared of?

 

If you need any further assistance feel free to contact Lisa Ellman

1900 K Street NW

Washington, DC 20006

TEL: 202.496.7184
FAX: 202.496.7756

lellman@mckennalong.com

UAS Platforms compatable with Pix4D

If you go onto the Pix4D website under Products, UAV+ Software under the Our UAV Partners tab you see a list of systems.

Going down the list the SenseFly is priced between $10,600 and $12,000.

The AERON Labs Sky Ranger does not show pricing on the website but I did see a quote between $2,000 and $5,000.

The 3DR Aero-M is $5,400 and their X8-M is $5,400.

The DJI Phantom Vision 2+ V3 can be found on Amazon from between $825.01 and $1,625.00 with case and through the Xflysystems.com site you are looking at $1,099 but you better move fast their inventory is running out.

Everyone is either going to the Inspire price through XFly at $2,899.00. I know that T.J. Flew the Inspire in 20+ MPH winds and had no problems. According Antoine Martin "You can already process Inspire 1 (Spec) images with Pix4D. The capture app will be compatible with the Inspire in about a month".

Delait Tech DT18 is priced around $40,000.

I could not find a price for the Skydrones Bumblebee V. They are a Brazilian company.

I could not find a price for the Topodrone100, they are an Australian company.

Aeronavics BOT on Google show $329.99 but I think they are a New Zealand manufacture.

I could not find any pricing on the ATyges site but they do have some awesome Pix4D videos.

I do know that the Phantom 3 is coming out if it is not already and if you buy the full Pix4D package I can get you some discount via XFly for an Inspire.

UPDATE!!!!! Phantom 3 pre-order

Escambia high school place 19th at the NASA Mars rover challenge

My son Collin Lowing as part of the autonomous engineering class at Escambia High School Mars Rover Challenge Team. I am very proud of my son.

  See who they competed against: NASA Mars rover challenge entries

Fighting inertia

Disruptive technologies

I am the guy who can get people to understand and figure out how to use new and disruptive technologies. I just received an email this morning that said ““Life is thickly sown with thorns, and I know no other remedy than to pass quickly through them. The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us.”― Voltaire. It all depends upon your perspective. I thought Dave Woolley was clever in his presentation starting off showing how this new technology is going to cause a loss of jobs in the survey industry, then transitioning into the flaws in the industry void of the new technologies and I learned something I never knew about the industry. When I was in school, I didn’t have the confidence to go to college. I failed algebra II but I got A’s during the trigonometry portion of the class. I only now am finding out that you don’t need a degree to be a surveyor. In the Navy it was called “Striking”. I was a Tradevsman or “TD”. Technicians on training devices like submarine and flight simulators. I learned about the Navy SEALs and I struck for the Internal Communications Electricians rate. I passed and made Third Class and Second Class Petty Officer. Then I struck for Engineman but I never worked or went to school for the rate, I only completed the courses. As a civilian, I only took the California Real-Estate Principles Course. I passed the tested and I averaged $200,000 per year for five years consecutive. When the industry slowed down, I took the Life and Health Insurance license test and past, then the series 6 and 63 for securities and then the Investment Advisor’s Series 65 exam and passed. There are less than 1% of the population who has all of the licenses I have had. So what I am hearing from Dave is that it’s the Wild West for data collection and surveyors can’t compete. What I have found is that with UAS Pilots, very few who are flying are willing to go through the process of getting certified for anything. Everyone is complaining about the threshold to fly commercially for UAS/Drones but the FAA just lowered the bar, only requiring a “Recreational Pilot’s license”. Stampede Global’s enterprises with XFly, X-Fold and The Unmanned Vehicle University in conjunction with Lisa Ellman have it so that when you purchase a system and outline your specific use 333 exemptions are part of your package.

Adopting existing licensing models

As a Real-Estate agent, I could not just got out and sign up listings or represent buyers, I had to be affiliated with a broker. The same with my insurance and securities licenses, it is the same for construction. If you are doing anything to your property or business that structurally changes your property, you need plans approved and you have to either hire a licensed contractor or be registered as the general contractor and the building department doesn’t have to sign off on you being the general contractor unless you can demonstrate that you are competent.

Subcategories                           

At the NAB Drone pavilion Lisa Ellman addressed the attendees several times explaining the labyrinth of rules the FAA has drafted, amended and granted exemptions for. She offers her attorney services to help streamline the process, then the representative for AUVSI basically mimicked her, offering their consulting services to do the same thing. There is a UAS professional in Dallas who has the templates for the exemptions for the film industry. He paid over $30,000 for them. I would not be surprised to see similar templates on Legal Zoom fairly soon. What these attorney’s need to do is go to the insurance, real-estate, construction, energy and survey industries and help them draft license guidelines and training for unmanned pilots to work in their specific fields. You don’t get an exemption unless you have it. I think the different chapters of the California Land Surveyors need to become dealer for Stampede Global Systems and offer guidance on how to implement certification in their industry, they would have access to the most recent technologies and applications to expand the opportunities for employment and revenues. I have now sympathy for anyone who lets a test of continuing education get between them and a better job, higher income and opportunity.

Roy Jones Sr. used to call it being “Lazy minded” Pretending you are ignorant or that you can’t remember how to do something you have been shown or told to do, multiple times just to get out of doing it. In this situation just doing what you need to do to produce is what Dave Wooley was saying.  

The creation of an awesome story

It all started when I left

I went home to Michigan for Easter to visit family and then my business partner and I drove to Las Vegas in two days. The first day we drove out to meet with T.J. Diaz for the Drone Pavilion field trip out to El Dorado mine. We followed the GPS to a dirt turn off and we drove and drove and drone, heading to a canyon and the road started getting softer and more difficult when we came around a bend and saw two pickups with their drivers and we let them know where we are? They responded “Are you with those broadcasters?” They told us to go back and to turn left and then right and we will see the mine. We parked and there were about four different groups throughout the western style town. We were told that the XFly group had left. Then Manny from UVU told us that T.J. Diaz was down behind one of the barns. We went down and he introduced me to his partner Ziv. We watched T.J. take one of his cinematography student UAS pilot’s octocopter out for its shakedown flight.  Then I stood next to a guy flying his Phantom FPV, out almost two miles. Then someone else had an Inspire and it just launched off of the ground at about a 45 degree angle. Then another gentleman broke out a space aged looking quad-rotor called a “Yuneek” the operator flipped it around trying to get it to synchronize with a GPS satellite, it buzzed and whistled until all of the lights turned green. Then he flew it around and it sounded as if it was a slower RPM than the Phantoms we have heard flying. Then as we watched the octocopter flying around on its’ shakedown flight we heard a load crashing sound and we saw the “Yuneek” crash into a mock plane crash.   

Suggestions

I would have liked to have seen a eight by ten foot, high resolution video wall on a cart to be able to see what the Phantom that was out nearly two mile flying FPV. I would also want to see a drone obstacle course for those manufactures and pilots who want to show off their capabilities.

Monday

On Monday I introduced Michael Creamer of QCTV. I introduced him to T.J. Diaz and we talked about data connectivity with a suitcase sized case. Then we got to listen to Lisa Ellman the FAA Attorney talk about the FAA recommended guidelines what was allowed and how applications which has been granted COAs and exemptions were more apt to be approved. I always get hung up on how hobby flight over land owned by the operator or where the operator has been given permission, under 55lbs, below 500 feet, within line of sight and outside of five miles from an active airfield is legal but operations conducted under these same exact criteria are not authorized where there is financial compensation. When it comes to Jurisdiction, I say that on private property, with property owner’s authorization there is nothing the FAA can say about UAS operations and she said that the FAA claims jurisdiction from six inches and up. I countered with “Law enforcement doesn’t enforce guidelines. If the FAA fines or prosecutes outside of airport runways and approaches, they convictions won't hold to appeal, unless the municipality or agencies like the parks department prosecute for violation of their ordinances. Afterwards I felt bad about being confrontational and I wrote her an apology via email. Unlike FAA cease and desist orders I hope she is able to recognize it. I have her email and I will refer her to anyone who is attempting to file for exemptions or COAs.

Then T.J. Diaz asked Michael Creamer to speak on his suitcase sized, remote data transmission solution to the NAB Show Broadcast Engineering Conference. He had all of the attendees sitting on the edge of their seats. The funny part with me is that he wasn’t trying to hype or sell at all, he was just stating the facts about the technology available. Well I will promote and sell for him. Michael has a system called “Little Blue” remote broadcast trailer. Michael is selling this technology for an extreme discount because since he took his position with QCTV hasn’t been able to utilize his creation.

Tuesday

T.J. Diaz told me he wanted me to talk to someone, the Provost for the Unmanned Vehicle University John Minor. T.J. introduced us and John told me “We are getting a lot of demand to bring back the fixed winged training program. We have centralized the VTOL training in Phoenix but we want to offer the fixed wing training nationwide. Now I already had my team lined up because T.J. had informed me that there wasn’t enough approved airspace available for training. Right away I thought of my retired SEAL buddies who have 100+ acres they use for range facilities. He asked me to help line up facilities to conduct the UVU training program. After 3:30PM we left for San Diego but T.J. Diaz participated in a panel with Lisa Ellman and several experts.

Wednesday

I got into San Diego around 11:00PM, I got a good night sleep and called all of my buddies from cross the country out the possibilities of hosting the UVU fixed winged training at their facilities and they were all receptive. I even picked up two others, one in San Diego and the other in Arizona. The San Diego facility used to have a COA. Then I attended the California Land Surveyor’s Association meeting in Carlsbad. I was to follow Dave Woolley a well-respected and published surveyor. He started off talking about how technology has caused reduction of survey jobs. I wasn’t feeling loved but then he started ranting on how the model of the industry is effecting it as much or more as technology. He made me think. He finished with encouraging these surveyors to engage this new technology and master it. I got up and told my story and promoted T.J. Diaz, XFly, X-Fold technology and UVU. I talked about how Stampede Global has divided UVU into the pilot training, the masters and doctorate program and research and development. I talked about Pix4D and offered trial, seven day licenses to those surveyors who were serious and would be willing to purchase the full license. I told them “If you just want the monthly lease, go online and buy it!” Then I talked about how Boy Scouts and 4-H have geospatial, aviation and surveying categories that drones are being used now to achieve. I suggested that if I were a surveyor, I would become a Scout master and host a Geospatial 4-H group and cultivate my own work force. I would offer to UAS professionals who were only doing cinematography and offer them my expertise for CAD and quality control of their data and get paid on their hustle. At the end of the meeting eight surveyors lined up for trial versions of Pix4D. I fell asleep that night sending them their licenses and composing emails with links to Pix4D.

Thursday

I woke up and finished emailing my emails and followed up with the surveyors and composed an email to John Minor describing the relationships with the owners of the land and facilities I have lined up for the UVU fixed winged UAS pilot training.

On the agenda Friday

I have some follow up on the business that has been lined up for Pix4D for surveyors and the fixed wing training facilities. I have been hustling for the last three years with very little monetary benefit for my efforts but I can say that I can be considered a subject matter export. I cannot claim all the positive developments are due to hard and persistence but I have to give credit to T.J. Diaz with his knowledge and expertise, his competence is unrivalled. His competence gives me confidence and that confidence is would has my contacts ready to commit and except this technology.