 Live Friday afternoon folks. It's hard to believe Friday's rolled around again. Ted Ralston here hosting our show where the drone leads on Think Tech Hawaii with one of our favorite and frequent flyer guest Mike Elliott of drone services. Oh, hey, thanks for coming on Thanks again, Ted really appreciate being on the show and really excited for the future of Hawaii and where this technology is leading That's a you've read down the script. That's perfect. That's great But there's cards here you can read all the cards hanging around a place and they're all good script cards Mike we're taking you away from your business. You should be out making money at this point You're giving your time to us here and appreciate that very much It's okay. This I mean an educational piece for the community. It's really big in helping not only individuals Folks at work in the government, but also businesses understand the technology and how it can benefit them I think that's pretty important. That's one of the things this show is all about is bringing information like what you've got to The public and to other people as agencies and such so they can get a glimpse once a week And what's taking place in the world of drone ism in fact since we've met last talked and met There's been a lot of change and let FAA rules come out recently the educational interpretation as such get videos to show here to the folks and We've also changed the format of the show. It's down to half an hour now Yeah, it used to be 45 minutes Oh, we have speed it up to speed it up back the whole thing in get our messaging in there And then read the card the cue cards on the way out and and stay on the script the whole time So Mike It's been what four or five months since you left your real job and took on a unreal job Yeah, and you know it was a bit of a leap for us You know, we realized where this industry was going, but it was a bit of a leap of faith you know to leave a good-paying job and then You know wonder how things we're gonna plan under how and when no one's been before Well true, and when we look at what's Going on here in Hawaii, you know, we we are one of the few if not only the only business It's doing kind of that full 360 we do sales. We do various services under our current three through three exemption And you know, we also are active in repairs We're active in STEM and other programs to help with educational aspects because we see educating a workforce is a Big component of our business also and so what you're actually doing is providing a full service anywhere from You provide the operation for somebody you provide the equipment for them you buy training and and and maintenance and such Anything associated with the world of commercial drone operations and that's for all this new change has come about right? You're earning under a three three three exemption Which was a loophole at the FAA allowed us all to operate under and now we'll be making a change again Into the dimension of the well, yeah, and that was the good thing that just a couple weeks ago after Being delayed for quite some time the FAA finally announcing their part 107 rule set So the biggest thing that people were waiting on or they knew about was that we wouldn't have to have a pilot's license Anymore to fly and then but at the same time there is also a licensing test for a drone operator that you have to take and we've been going through the 600 plus pages of Rules that were released there was a summary sheet that most people queued in on what was on the summary sheet But there's a lot of other things that are actually inside the document itself That are kind of the details as to how this is going to be executed including the thinking the FAA went through as it dealt with the 34,000 Comments that came in from the proposed rulemaking true and they had to deal with each one of those and then there's some residue with that Shows up in that 624 pages right of information narrative information five telephone books thick worth of close-packed type Explaining all of their reasoning and all their logic in terms of how the rules have come forth today So, you know kind of a quick summary though what would it really? Like said biggest thing is a pilot license requirement is removed and you can be a commercial operator But at the same time what you're doing is you're at operating in the national airspace and that's where They want you on par with manned aviation in the level of knowledge that you not a bad idea and we've seen one of the Practice exams that they've already released and it looks very much like a sport private private pilot type of Exam with some of the questions that are on there And we see that as being a bit of a challenge for some folks is being able to pass it The test is going to cost 150 bucks It's a hundred fifty bucks every time you fail and come back to so you get to try it again You ever run out of options? I don't think you run out But I you have a two-week period before you can come back and actually this is fine for the FAA might be to have a lot of Failures for this is a lot of money. Well, I think what's really important is that you know one of things that we've been looking at and working on for the past really three months or so With a certified flight instructor is developing a program that can act as a educational gateway to Prepare for this exam and have the resources and knowledge necessary to be able to pass the test pretty much the first time out a pretty close if you study You know afterwards, so we're going to make an announcement Monday For this course that we're going to be offering it's a part basically a part 107 prep course taught by a certified flight instructor And if I can interrupt for a moment, that's a key message having a certified flight instructor Present this that means someone who's in that business in this is a flight in flight instruction and training It's going to actually manage this program for you with this training program true, and we're actually going to get the the curriculum is going to go under just a Review kind of a quick check get a little bit of a blessing for hopefully from the local FISDO office here Just to say hey, it's all the stuff that's in here Here's how we've kind of merged the traditional flight training that's required and then some of the elements of the drone Operator license piece that we're looking at for the 107 that's going to be part of this overall exam but this this level of formal training and the need to take the training in order to Pass the test and get a certification really represents a change from the way We've been dealing with drones in the past under exemptions and under different forms of waivers and under model airplane rules is one thing but now there's a degree of of a professionalism coming into the game caused by this rule change and so people are going to be taking a step up in Competence in order to be part of this game and I suspect it's going to be deterrent to quite a few people who just don't have the mental Capital to go into it and spend that much time and deal with all the updates and such and they'll turn to you and have you to The operation for them in many cases rather than having them generate the qualifications. We've worked really hard You know my partners George Purdy my wife Ellen a lot of the guys that work with that we fly with have worked very hard to figure out Exactly how the FAA wants us to operate We've got koas the certificate of authority for Operations that are pending for various locations all throughout Hawaii We've got some that are already issued for certain locations to fly in or near various areas that normally are off limits for flight We're working on another that for out in the cloud right here as a matter of fact. Yeah, so the Pearl Harbor project This was just a wonderful opportunity for us Tim Gray World War two Foundation contacted us a few months back about shooting some drone aerials at Pearl Harbor and Being one to never say no. We said we'll figure this out and yes, we're gonna make this happen I used to work over there So I knew a lot of people and I knew how the process worked In being able to do some events over at Pearl Harbor, but the biggest thing was this was something that was new and it was the first time It took us about three months to get through the entire process with the FAA and The base getting permission to be able to do this and then we came over there with a team of six people To be able to shoot this we doubled up on the pilot We had an assistant for the pilot our camera operator an assistant in a backing everything up We had you know with visual observers You know just trying to do everything that we could to Demonstrate a like set a safe and professional event and always leaning towards safety and everything that we did So, you know, it was very much a pleasure to do it There's a promo piece on the World War two foundation dot org site for the film that's being narrated by Tom Selleck So that's coming soon. What I like about this video in particular is that it shows so many aspects of what the professional drone The commercial professional drone community is all about doing it, right? I really enjoyed the fact that you guys have your FAA designation of your status on the back of your Safety jackets. So anybody any law enforcement guy or anybody who's got a question. What's going on? They just right there, right? It was something that we saw as a way to just one point is You know point us out and so people wouldn't maybe necessarily wouldn't You know if somebody came up there was there. Oh, okay. These guys are the ones that are supposed to be here It's just uh, you know, we're we also, you know, we have hard hats for some of the jobs we do We bring all our own gear But we wanted to show kind of how you got some of these shots and then kind of what it looks like You know from the ground and from the air and then for people to see this and kind of say, oh, wow Okay, I I get it. I see what this is all about So you see that aspect of it too, not only do you see how you actually operated and how you Indicated and expressed yourself anybody who might come up by the way you put your signage up and such You're also showing here the nature of the information that can be collected the quality of the video and the Smoothness of the video and the stability of the shot and such in fact shot framing is a big part of this So I mean a lot of times what you end up doing one of the great things about a drone Is you can immediately review footage You can go back and reset for a shot while you're in the air and you got plenty of battery and stuff Hey, you know, hey back out a little bit more. Let's you know, let's slow this down As opposed to 1500 bucks an hour for a very well at the low end for helicopter or something. Yeah So it makes it a lot of fun, uh, you know, but it does give you a lot of flexibility and like said does reduce cost So not only in the in this aspect of it, but um a lot of operations that you do Drones can put high tech sensing capability At low cost into people's hands in areas where they never thought of using it before Agriculture in your clients hands and if they don't want to actually get the capability and their and the and the certifications and licensing themselves Again, I just think that video is so useful because it shows the process of how you actually did it It shows the quality of the results that come back and it shows it all being done Transparently out in the open with all definitions and identifications present So anybody who has a need for that kind of new perspective on real estate on geography on on Topographical situations on reefs on whatever the place may be where a different perspective is going to generate new information Can get ahold of you and can do themselves through your help or can have you Take care of them. We uh, we've got a number of different projects going to we're helping Some local companies that are Realizing that the new rule sets coming into play trying to get a head start on some things there's a company who has a hyperspectral sensor that they want to mount to a drone and We're working with them to actually be able to fly it so they can actually collect data with their hyperspectral sensor that they've developed and Building out a platform that can power it and you know, how are they collecting the data? you know, what do they need from us so I mean we can best figure out how to Get this thing in the air and get them what they need. So it's it's a lot of fun You know, the challenges are always out there and the technology is You know just getting better and better every day to make this something that is more common place For benefiting. I mean society overall really in some of the data that you can collect and how rapidly You can turn this around and use it And when you say rapidly also in a lot of respects we're actually rapidly moving into this domain of commercial drone operations I mean this video you showed and the description you've had of the various other work you're doing Wouldn't have been possible a year ago a year ago We would just been filling out three three three exemptions trying to figure out what that's all about how What is the FAA want? How's this all going to work? How about the landowners? How about the privacy and all those other issues? Well, those are being solved one at a time and the this is turning from an art into a practice and uh, Mike I just want to Once again, congratulate you for having the courage to to lean forward that way and do it in the way you've been doing it Well, it's something else too for the other folks that may be out there I want to do this or are doing this and want to continue on this You know, I think it's it's up to us is if we want to be responsible Business individuals who are trying to promote this as a profession That we should go out of our way to operate professionally and follow the rules that are out there And you know that safety should always be the default in every action and operation that you do We've never lost a craft. We've never had a crash You know, we we haven't had any of those problems and in big part. It's because of the um The preparation that we do the practice that we do and then sometimes, you know, there's certain jobs It's like, you know, I can't fly there or I can't do that and just saying, you know, no There are other folks out there that will take on some of these Uh risk and uh, they've had problems and they've had issues and stuff. It just isn't worth it You know what goes to my mind we back in october I think it was or maybe september of last year We had a the first gathering of the professional drone association, so to speak Maybe it's time for that again, especially With this with 107 on the on the on the table these days and with the Status and the and the best practices that you've been able to establish Maybe it's time to host that I shouldn't say to you hosted again. I get it last time It was fun. Yeah, let's uh But not just me. I think there's other folks out there too that are learning Um, you know through some of the actions and operations and their experiences that they're doing So I think it's uh, you know, kind of a Once like it was when we met a year It was kind of a community-based event as to hey, how do we do this and how do we move ahead? There's some other changes coming around too in that the university and the state Which we should sort of bring them all together and let's talk about that after this for our first break here Welcome to same tech highway dot com. This is johnson choy your host The topic is asian reveal We do it on month basis on thursday at 11 o'clock. We shoot a checker schedule See you Aloha join us at tedx honolulu 2016 is at the blaze dale july 9th From 10 to 5 the discount code is r a c h a e l underscore T. E. D. X. H. N. L. See you then Second half of our show where the drone leads, uh, ted ralsson here hosting us at uh, Think hack away and mike elliot once again from drone services. Hoey We got to put your phone number up there so people can get a hold of you. That's pretty easy 844 drone 50 If you have any questions not 808, right? It's 844 so it's 800 number. It's like an 800 number 844 drone 50 drone 50 estate something like that That's how you thought that up. Yeah, I can reach reach one of us You know, we'll try to answer as quickly as we can or get right back to you But we try to answer every call as soon as it comes in what we were talking about just before the break and during the break Is that certainly the perception i've got is that we had A lot of rough edges in the last year or so we had a lot of unknowns We had a lot of different ways that the fAA issues could be addressed and solved and worked and there's issues There was the emergence of the rapid growth of the of these free free free exemptions to generate some form of commercial Activity now we have the rule 107 coming out which is uh is actually here August 29th. I think it becomes law. Yeah, I've already I've already yeah We got folks signed up to take the exam as soon as it's available probably that day or the next day There's such a much transition here and it's all heading in a very uh Or it should head in a very professional direction with a community of practice and with best practices and this sort of Controlling social controlling mechanism in order to make it a success And and you're probably the lead in how that might all want to go forward So I think it's your responsibility Michael To collect the other people here in hawaii. They're involved and generate this try to help them and stuff We try to inform them You know, we're going to have some amount of rogue operators that aren't are going to just say i'm not going to do that I can do what I want who's who says you can tell me what to do Uh eventually they'll go by the wayside because what's going to happen is that just like any Any other profession out there and stuff, uh, you need a plumber. You need an electrician You're going to go to somebody who's a professional qualified trained certified The dealer for that particular, you know air conditioning unit. You need whatever it is. That's where you go You don't go to some guy who's got something scrawled on the side of his truck in spray paint You know say any fixes air conditioning. So we're talking about the state you have a well Yeah, you have a bit of a but it's an awareness piece. I mean people who are actually hiring you If they understand that there are folks out there operating by professional standard following the law And the rules and that uh, eventually the rogue operators will go by the wayside So maybe a maybe a product of this commercial drone association is is that at best practices that this community Obeys or at least is aware of uh here in Hawaii. Well, it could be or something I think what businesses need is some way to identify Who's legal and who's not and you know, what we do is we go out of our way to we share all that information With our potential clients as we give them Uh, here's a copy of our exemptions. Here's a copy of a certificate of insurance You know, whatever they need to make themselves feel confident comfortable And then we tell them what the requirements are under which we're allowed to fly We share that with them also so that we know that here are the requirements for things I can and cannot do So that they're well aware before we ever contract with them That's all part of the whole education process here as well because it is a very confusing world for people on the outside To understand are you a hobbyist? Are you in education? Are you under an exemption? Are you under a public aircraft ops corps or are you under FAR 107 five different ways that operations can occur They all look the same In fact, you probably could conceive a situation where the same person and the same equipment Is operating under one of any one of those five domains at any one time Right and the rules are different you can't sit there and swap hats halfway through or Or wear one to fool somebody for another and there's there's folks out there doing that now And what's going on now is that there are folks out there that have been saying This is kind of you know, um, oh, I'm only charging people for the photo and video processing I didn't charge them to take the photos with the drone or the video a loop as if that really matters Right, you're fooling anybody and the FAA said no you can't do that. There's others that out there that don't specifically Mention that they use drones and the stuff that they get And it's not in any of the paperwork that you sign with them But when you see any of the final product, it's in there and uh, some of those folks have flown in Inside of five miles of airports and it's well known to the local FAA who some of these people are You know, and it's you know, those are the ones that are ruining it for folks that are trying to operate properly Um, you know, we're in the process of finalizing a uh co-ed operate out Cali Loa Area on the airport there It takes time and there's a process and you know, you can do these things It's just you have to be willing to put forth the effort and understanding to do it properly Key word is time because you got a lot of setback time in terms of getting hold of the right person For example or understanding what the issues are that have to be covered Then you have to generate moas or someone or document that says we understand what we're doing and we have approval to do this Assemble it all together apply for a exemption or a a extension of a coa if you need to And under 107 you may have to apply for a waiver of some kind a lot of waiver functionality going on there So there's a three months is not an unreasonable setback. Is it for a complicated situation? We've got a we've got a pending contract. We've got some uh, as soon as we get back We're going to be doing night operations And yes, you can apply to do night operations and there's a way to do it to fly at night legally To take photographs for a particular project that we're going to be doing We're going to be working in some areas that normally drones don't fly Uh specifically for this project, but there's a way to do it There's a way to do it legally and properly It just takes time and to get everybody to sign off on it and say yes And then once that happens, it's just business as usual You don't want to like to do is uh over time here as you've been on this show so many times and brought Your expertise and knowledge and passion to the table here and let the people see about it There's a number of business aspects or business Segments that could benefit from that level of understanding and that level of confidence I'm thinking of the journalism folks at this point in time media and print journalism. In fact, this station is a I think we do print journalism here video journalism Um getting the journalism community to be fully aware of was available What's capable where the limits are what can't be done It could be something they could use on a regular basis I mean they they already have vans that are out running around capturing stories all around the islands anyway Um, you know, if you were able to train somebody properly to be able to use a drone and actually capture some additional aerial footage Uh, it just enhances the story And maybe better tells the story than somebody standing on the ground such as the pearl harbor video He just took us through and so and six weeks from now about that. This can all be done with under 107 And uh, so we ought to really get with the journalism people quickly and let them see that capability see that Understood show them the video. So I said, well, uh, you know, you don't have to take a training course or anything Uh, you know, but they're after seeing the tests and knowing what's involved And then knowing the level of knowledge of a lot of people that are looking to take this test Uh, yeah, there's a big delta there And so our thought process was when we figure out a way we can help people prep So they don't have to spend money 150 bucks a pop to take this test until they pass it And uh, you know, just better enhance them to operate too. So the the last piece of that class uh in in discussing this It was okay test prep But why don't we spend some time talking about how do we do commercial operations? And so we're going to spend a piece of that class Prepping them all the way through your best practices. Yeah, how does somebody somebody comes to you and they want to do a job Well, what do I do? And how do I prepare for that? And what do I need and what Websites should I use and how do I file a notam and how do I look to see if there's a temporary flight restriction? Or how do I read a vfr section which is going to obviously be part of the course anyway? But you know, you have to be able to talk in the same language that pilots talk National airspace operations and this is about the National airspace integration piece. So you have to be on the same, uh You know speaking the same language on the same playing field So that you are integrated into that process And that's that's one of the most important aspects of this transition as we go into the 107 because It's going to provide a A equivalence between manned aviation and unmanned aviation and they'll be dealing with the same issues and dealing with the same The same approach to the same issues. So as opposed to having a potential Harm or risk, it's going to be immediately rated and mitigated by virtue of everybody understanding The the proper procedures and operate them together. There'll still be the rogues So you still have some of the same things, you know about the the restrictions that you have over with regard to airports and You know, um, you know flying over, you know crowds some of that's got uh That's one of the things that kind of went away somewhat in there. So 500 foot rule Which is kind of nice too because it was pulled and this is what I know where it came from Pulled from helicopter. Yeah from movie stuff from heli and and people they'd acknowledged that said 500 feet That makes no sense But it was in there and so people latched on to it didn't require a change of law It was just imposing an existing law on the system And that's just something that was out there and you know, so that's kind of gone too And there's some wording in there with regard to that that's beneficial for the community also But it still comes down to safe operations planning things out shooting things properly, uh You know knowing your equipment preparing your equipment Maintaining it and then keeping a record log of that too since you're operating this, uh, you know And the f a could come and inspect your records at any time You know, what kind of maintenance have you done? Where's your logs of all your flights? You still have to report all this stuff on a monthly basis And that's something that we want to help people understand and prepare them for so that they Uh are compliant and don't have any of these problems in the future Let's make sure zuri that we get mike's contact information appear again on the screen one more time before we come to the end of this segment There we have one eight four four drone 50 drone services Hawaii and anyone that will take your Yeah, so we're our plan for this prep course. We're going to start here in oahu We're going to be doing some courses over on Maui And then we're going to do a little bit of a roadshow on kawai and the big island And then we'll kind of go from there and feel out the the demand but I know we have a lot of businesses that have already Come to us and said we're going to fill your class. Let us know when it's ready Because they want to get out there and start using drones on the job site. That's good We got to get to the uh again the journalism people and the other people who are involved in publicizing this so that we make sure that Uh the the fact that the rule changes has happened and what that means to people what that means to businesses who want to get into the operation or uh Police and fire agencies and such and then and department of health and red cross and folks who are involved in emergency management There's so much opportunity that's been created by this recent rule change And uh, you're the conduit to get between people who aren't there today And then there's uh, there's a bit of a learning curve, but once again, you know, we had uh, it was a guy from Hawaii, uh Honolulu fire department came by not about drawing picking up something at the store and was just talking and stuff and uh He was telling me how um, it'd be nice, you know, we could start to use these things at some point someday And you know, I explained to him. I said if you guys think of these things It's just another tool like you do everything else. It's on that truck when you pull up to a fire Uh, a car crash you're out looking for somebody you just think of it as a tool Then it's not that big a deal when you separate it out as something special or different Then that's the mystique that's that mystery that you've created and and that doesn't need to exist If you just think of it as a tool It's just one more thing you have available and that tool would be available to journalists or hospitals to red cross anybody else Who's even even the station here that we're sitting in and so this actually brings us to the end of our Very shortened span here, Mike And uh, good. I believe that we're here at the end already, but so much want to thank you for coming on Thanks again, Tedder. Yeah, because um, we need to tell your story a lot here We need to get this story out to people so they can become aware of what's available and follow the right procedures going forward so we really want to be uh The folks that you know trying to help some of the businesses here in Hawaii that have expressed interest over the months prior to the Rule change, you know, they just weren't sure where to go or what to do Uh now is really the opportunity So what you should start thinking about is you can buy equipment and start working on training individuals Prior to the exam coming out and kind of work to start to get a program in place So that when the rule change happens and you've got tests folks have taken the test You're ready to get to work To your homework time is now to start doing it and 844 drone 50 and you got it easy enough folks. We'll see you next Friday Thanks a lot, Mike. Thanks for coming on. Appreciate it. Ted. Thank you very much