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.     

 

 

Work for drones is out there

It is not magic

In sales I capitalize on my extensive relationships from former Navy SEALs, former boxers, trainers and fans that I know and their referrals. Recently a surveyor in Texas who has been following from the beginning of my endeavor with the unmanned industry. He used to work for a very good friend of mine in San Diego but he as the company they both worked for had a shakeup, he left California and back to Texas where he had an opportunity to work in the in the oil industry and raise his kids in Texas. When I came to Texas I looked him up and he introduced me to the GSR survey applications. Now moving the clock forward, with oil prices dropping, things are hard for him now and he decided to jump in and buy a UAS and Pix4D. The survey company he works for supporting the oil industry let him go. I reached out everywhere and looked for someone to hire him but before I could line anything up our mutual friend in San Diego snapped him up and hired him and he is headed to San Diego right now. The three of us got on a call and our San Diego connection told us how a real-estate development company asked him to survey an area where the terrain would make it very difficult and expensive job to do and then he realized our buddy was coming and he told the developer “I have someone coming to work for me with a drone and he can fly over this problem area, gather the data with his drone and save you time and money.” The real-estate developer said “I’m in, let’s do it”.

Getting comfortable and finding the need

I had been talking with my friend in San Diego since the very beginning and we have never done any business. Now this other surveyor, made the plunge, bought a system and got the training, researched Pix4D and got excited about it. That was enough to make our buddy in San Diego to consider it. We were on the call talking about all of the possibilities. Aerial image gathering for commercial architects and developers, ALTA mapping for title companies, flood plain mapping, bridges and overpasses. Then our buddy in San Diego has an account with the trolley and rail systems where the terrain would be difficult for a man on the ground but would be a snap for a UAS.

Red tape

Under the current FAA guidelines, they say “No commercial use” but there are hundreds of certifications issues and exemptions authorized. These 333 exemptions require that the UAV pilot hold a privet pilot’s license which has no bearing on what it takes to fly a UAS. Then the rules presented to congress to be passed into law does not require the operator to hold a pilot’s license. I have a list of over 100 UAS pilots that are making money but do not hold any type of pilot’s license. They are flying over private property with the property owner’s written permission. The current FAA guidelines and restrictions are problematic because the FAA’s authority is limited to airports, runways and their approaches. Municipal code supersedes FAA guidelines. So when someone is found to be violating the FAA regulations they have to get the local law enforcement to site them. Law enforcement officers do not enforce guidelines, only laws. There is no federal laws and that means that the state, county or city has to have passed a law for them to enforce. All states have left it up to the federal government which they haven’t. In some cases the cities have laws in place for RC hobbyist that apply. Now these guys brought up that they have retired pilots that they can list as the “Pilot in Charge” which is a concept that had been brought to my attention from someone working with the FAA rules committee. This would be a solution for DOT and operations over public property, until congress finally rules on the FAA rules.

Duplication

I have a lady who owns an LED manufactures rep company that is fascinated by drones and their imagery and I told her about this situation and she referred me to the small survey company next door to her business and I have contacted them. Then I started calling surveyors in the Dallas area and what I found was some interest but no follow through. I will spoon feed them information on the capabilities and I have asked my two buddies to give me their insight. I have had some of the gate keepers, receptionists who answer the phone telling me that they are not interested and I asked them “So you’re not interested in saving time, money and have more accurate data?” and they said “No” and hung up. We will just see what their customers say when another surveyors calls their clients and leads with the time and money savings with a better quality data.

    

 

All of the pieces make a whole

Ramping up

This last Friday Lena Vander Stap traveled from Mankato Minnesota to Eau Claire Wisconsin for training on Pix4D and the Power of Ground technology developed by Joe and Christina Hupy. Lena is writing and evaluation on the Pix4D at the request of T.J. Diaz of XFly T.J. has been asked to be the key note speaker at the drone pavilion at the National Association of Broadcaster’s convention in Las Vegas in April.

Combined solutions

I was asked by Steve Heise the president of the San Diego branch of the California to find brush penetrating LiDAR, I knew right where to go RiEGL. The funny thing is Steve Heise first introduced me to RiEGL in 2012. At that time UAS/Drones wasn’t really on their radar. Now they have their own UAS/drone product but if you buy their stand-alone LiDAR system with their IMU and integrate with the XFOLD CINEMA X8 U7 RTF and a DJI Phantom Vision Plus Version 3 with Pix4D and save significantly from what you would pay for the RiEGL LiDAR with their UAS solution.

FAA Grants UAS Exemptions

FAA Grants UAS Exemptions

Merging industries

Maximization

I can’t help noticing signs along the road now. Today I saw several video wall displays, one was a used car dealer that had an American flag flying digitally on his billboard out in front of the business. There is a Toyota dealer in Pensacola off of 29 that has an ad for the service department and for the Tundra then another ten second ad for the 4Runner one for a Prius going through their whole inventory. Then there was a Ford dealer North of Mobile, Alabama that showcased their service department the Ford Focus and their trucks the same way. There are others that flip ads everyone ten seconds, everything from GIECO Auto insurance, health insurance, auto leasing, assisted living facilities, churches to my favorite, barbeque restaurants. It seems kind of random.

Primary Media has created a Facebook page showcasing the companies they are advertising on their billboards. I think they are onto something here! Tommy Jennings of The Image of Magazine was telling me how he is looking for video content for businesses advertises in the print magazine and he loves the aerial video from the small UAS/Drones. I gave him the contact information for the local UAS/Drone professionals in his area. I recommended XFly for training and systems so he could get his own imagery and video for his clients the way he conceives it.

The convergence of UAS/Drone technology and imagery and LED lighting and video wall advertising is amazing. I haven’t even scratched the surface of the potential. There is so much more that can be done, better and more efficiently. With Stampede Global Media absorbing the Unmanned Vehicle University, T.J. Diaz from XFly UAV and XFly Films with in New Business Development for XFly Films and DX2 Broadcast. They say “Birds of a feather flock together”.  I haven’t even gotten all of these players talking yet but I am sure after this blog, I can make it happen. There is about to be a technological revolution once these industries really start to jell and this blog is getting that party started.