 Well, Hawaii and to all you YouTube followers out here and welcome to another episode of where the drone leads right here on Tink Tech, Hawaii. And I'll introduce myself. I'm the co-host, Michael Motas, and we have a very special guest speaker, Ms. Mike Elliott. Mike Elliott, thank you for coming. Hey, nice to see you again, Michael. Pleasure. Face-to-face this time. Face-to-face. It's got a Skype in it, right? Right, right, right. Thank you for being here. How's the company and how's things going? How was this past year for you? Things are actually going pretty well. The industry is making a lot of great moves in the right direction with, you know, finally the 107 rule set that actually is codified into law, where the 3-3-3 process for drone operators for commercial ops was an exemption from the rules. Now we actually have rules. You've seen great progress. The drone racing world, we had drone worlds here back in October. A number of different countries that were here for that period of time, racing out of Kualoa Ranch, first-of-one-ever type of event here in Hawaii, and those guys are going to be coming back again. So it's a really amazing opportunity. Work, commercial work has really taken off as more people understand what drones are capable of and what types of jobs that these can do, what kind of services that you can be provided with these types of systems. Not just taking photos and video, but mapping, assisting in search and rescue, infrastructure inspection. I mean, you name it, it just keeps growing every single day. Just to make clear about drone services, Hawaii, where can our followers go ahead and find you folks online? Is that at? Yeah, at our website, it's just droneservicesway.com, and also we've got a small store here off of Dillingham and a small one over on Maui. We're just trying to service the local community with the things that they need and be a resource to them and an advocate. We also help with 107 classes to help people get the 107 license, but also teach them how to conduct drone operations in a smart, safe manner in which the FAA is looking to see this happen. And if we do this as a community, then there's really not a lot of need for outside assistance from people who don't know really what we do or how we do it. We can self-police and self-regulate. And the more of us that are operating by that common standard will make for a safer environment and one that will be prosperous for everybody. You know, Mike, I really enjoy that the fact that you say community, and just to write, we're at the end of 2016, and what we would like to do is kind of draw back as to what kind of projects that the drone community has been getting involved with. Like you mentioned about the racing and all. For you followers out there, it was an amazing event, right? A lot of people came over from all over the world, pretty much, to see this event and what kind of other projects that you would like to highlight with drone services all evening. Just in general, we've started to see drones being utilized in some actual TV productions and some movies that are being done here in Hawaii, which is great. You know, that's opportunity for local operators and stuff to be able to participate in some of those things. A number of TV commercials that have been done legally and some not so legally have happened, but working on that. Great coordination and discussion with the film offices for the state and city county, trying to introduce ourselves and others as drone operators who are trying to do things legally and within the bounds of the law and within the guidelines that they set forth so that it just allows open opportunity in a lot of locations that are normally managed by city county or state property and would open those up to be able to shoot drone footage, whether it's for TV commercial, TV show, film project in some of these locations. So it's been a lot of work and there's been a lot of people that have been involved in doing this. Folks like George Russell has been really working hard, Jonah Shaw working very closely with the film office and a number of other people. Eric Sturman, what a great guy doing surf photography and video, working with World Surf League last year in this and doing live streaming where they're taking that video right from the drone and putting it right on TV with folks. And then, you know, I can't say enough about my partners, you know, George Purdy over in Lanai, working the emergency services piece and just being a great, you know, partner and advocate and friend. And then my wife Ellen, who's, you know, always there just backing us up and taking care of so many things in the background to make this happen for us every single day. So for us, it's been very good. And I think a number of other folks and yourself included, you know, we're seeing new opportunities every single day. Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, that recap kind of sets that whole tone for our community out here in Hawaii and into the drone community out into the world. The possibilities are out there. And just like Mike and I, you know, we believe we believe in something like this, that we encourage all pilots to get involved, to learn more about the rules, learn more about the industry and start building off from off from good people that wants to do something good. And of course, shout out to George, right? Yeah, I mean, great, great guy, great advocate, you know, is working hard, doing a lot of stuff on behalf of folks here in Hawaii that a lot of you don't know about, but he's working very hard. Yeah. And then, you know, just to highlight one of the, you know, I guess crown jewels of something we were able to do this year was the Remember Pearl Harbor project film that air debuted on the 4th of December. And showed on PBS here locally on the 7th, but it's going to air again here in 2017. You know, it took us multiple months to do that. Very, very proud and humble, you know, as a retired naval officer myself to be able to participate in that project. And from that, you know, there's some other good stuff that, you know, people took note of and want to work with us to do similar things in the future. So, you know, it's it's not just the work that we're doing, but but others, too, we're able to potentially create a community that is generating jobs and from that tax revenue that doesn't really require any effort from the city, county or state. Just let it happen, let it go and just let good things happen. And there's going to be, like I said, a new industry really take hold here in in Hawaii. Absolutely. And no, you mentioned about everything that we can focus here in the state with, especially with building the industry from the community, working together and working to build a bigger, a bigger branch, reaching into, like like that phrase that we would always say, you know, when one boat rises, all of us rise, when the tide rises, we all rise. It's very similar to what we see in this industry. Looking into the community, what kind of aspects that we can do to, especially Ted Wilson, you know, Ted Wilson is our host here on Tintek Hawaii. And it's very honorable to be here and to speak in front of you and speak in front of the community, letting everybody know this is a possibility where an industry that can come in and help provide jobs. Well, some of the uses that people don't even think about, you know, agriculture, construction, conservation, even, you know, using drone systems for conservation and GIS mapping and 3D mapping. These are systems that allow for ease of use, you know, highly accurate high resolution photo, video and different sensors that can be carried aboard that can actually do some jobs and locations that normally weren't you weren't able to do. And then on the other side of that, you have in emergency services, whether it's police, fire, search and rescue, these are tools. They're just tools. Yeah. And that's it. Right. And once people start to think of them that way, you know, that mystique that is around them will kind of go away. And I think you're going to see more integration in some of these areas, companies incorporating them into their workflow or hiring individuals who are certified to come do some of this work for them in the coming year. So drones used as tools. That's where it's leading. That's where we recapping right with 2016, where our drones are leading into tools to help solve problems in a community, one through agriculture, through emergency responses. And it's quite a pretty exciting thing that it is for. And we don't want to forget hobbyists either. You know, even for hobbyists, there's, you know, there's a misunderstanding that there's a requirement to get licensed. Hobbyists do not have to get licensed. They still fall under the basic rules of, you know, 400 feet line of sight, five miles from an airport, no national parks. Don't fly over people to the basics. It takes five minutes, five bucks. When you register your drone online with the FAA, that's it. You know, we always encourage people to spend some time, you know, practicing in a very wide open area. Use the types of flight simulator apps that are sometimes built into some of the drones that are out there. And if they ever have questions, you know, we're a resource and there's other community Facebook forums and stuff that would here in Hawaii or on the mainland that can act as a resource to help answer questions. But we want to encourage, you know, safe, responsible flight. And, you know, one of the things that we try to do is help people who are just getting started so that they feel comfortable and confident and enjoy what they're doing. And some people, you know, it's really been a change their lives, you know, in some ways that we never thought some folks that are in their 80s who use this as a tool to get out of the house and just go have fun. And shoot pictures and video, but it gets them out of the house. You know, something we never really thought of, you know, bringing father, son, father, daughter, mother, daughter, you know, whatever together as a family activity, never really kind of thought of it that way. But sometimes we've seen some cases where that's what they're doing. They're getting a drone for the family. OK, so it's a great, great opportunity that really many ways that we never we never thought of. But, you know, we continue to work with people and encourage them. Yeah, especially with this past holiday, Christmas just around the corner. Everybody wants, hey, mom, I don't want that drone. Well, speaking of that, so one of the things that's really important, you know, if you are flying and stuff, you you just have to be aware of where you're at and what you're doing. One of the tools that, you know, we use, obviously, for commercial operations is Sky Vector. It's a website you can go to and you can view any of the no-tams noticed to airmen that are up there or temporary flight restrictions. They're issued because they're it's it is the site that the information gets entered into by the FAA for the air traffic controllers through was Lockheed Martin. So right now we've got an example up here for the temporary flight restrictions. They're listed in red. So this is real time active. You know, once two seconds after that person hits enter, it's going to show up here. This is a system that is used by, you know, the HEC air traffic controllers. Anybody can log in here, just go to the website, pull up Hawaii and you can see what's going on. If you had any areas listed in there in purple, they'd be maybe no-tams for drone operations that were going on. So maybe if you're working somewhere, somebody else is, you know, de-conflict, but, you know, a good tool, a quick resource. There's a lot of apps out there, but some of them where they get some of the information is kind of questionable and they don't always seem to work very well together. But, you know, utilization of something like this real quick, you can put on your phone or tablet, pull it up. Yeah, we're good. You know, and at least do a quick check and stuff and just kind of see, OK, where am I am I inside of any airspace that might be of concern or is there a temporary flight restriction like while the president is here in Hawaii? Absolutely. That's a real good message out to resources. Like you said, right, Mike, that our new drone, you know, hobbyists or operators who's coming here in Hawaii and we look into it's it's a it's quite exciting to be honest, to have all these operators. You know, we don't want to we want to make sure everybody's comfortable when they're going out with their there's so many questions to answer. And, you know, in in this past year of 2016, we've been trying, you know, in the process of having that given people that confidence to go out, you know, and enjoy yourself, you know, and not to burden yourself with all these rules and regulations. Come visit us, see us here on this show. Talk to Ted, talk to Mike and speak with all of us. We'd be more than happy. You know, this is a community that we can definitely help. You know, we're definitely approachable. I just want to get across to that. This is a it's it's a legal hobby. It's a legal industry, you know, and that people need to understand that there's still some folks from time to time. Think that what you're doing is it can't fly. That's illegal. Well, no, it's not. And it was a lot of misunderstanding from articles that were put out during 2016. Some of the things that were issued by the FAA, but it's a legal hobby. It's a legal profession if you're commercially licensed. And there is a process now for that. And it's, you know, it's pretty straightforward. And it's something to that we help a lot of people with. And we encourage people to do that if that's what they want to pursue. Exactly. So we're going to take a quick break right now. And we'll have our main host Ted Wilson up on the screen. We'll get back to you as soon as possible. Aloha, my name is Justine Espiritu, and I co-host Hawaii Farmers Series with Matthew Johnson of Oahu Fresh. We talk about Hawaii's local farmers and their supporters in order to have a vibrant and sustainable local food system. Farmers are always the foundation, but there's so many other people involved in the community that help support those farmers. So we bring those folks onto our show every Thursday at 4 p.m. We get their backstory, their history, find out a little more about them and we find out why they love what they do and their perspective and their advice on how we can continue to have a dynamic and vibrant and sustainable local food system. So we, again, we broadcast live every Thursday at 4 p.m. And you can also catch us on ThinkText's YouTube channel as well as Alelo 54. So we hope you tune in and join us. Thank you. Aloha, my name is John Wahey, and I used to be a part of all the things that you might be angry at. I served in government here and may have made decisions that affects you. So I want to invite you in. I want to invite you in to talk story with me and some very special guests every other Monday here at Talk Story with John Wahey. Come on in, join us, express your opinion, learn more about your state and then do something about it. Aloha. Aloha. I'm Kawe Lucas, host of Hawaii is my mainland. Here on ThinkTech Hawaii every Friday at 3 p.m. We address issues and importance for those of us who live here on the most isolated land mass on the planet. Please come join me Fridays at 3 p.m. Mahalo. Aloha and welcome back to where the drone leads right here on ThinkTech Hawaii. We have Mike Elliott from Drone Services Hawaii. Mike, thank you for coming and what the one and only Ted Walls. Ted, thanks Mike for coming to the show. Our last 2016 episode here today and no better place to be than right here next to Mike and next to Ted. Thank you folks for coming. I mean, you know, for something you don't know, I mean, Ted has been not only a mentor, but a great advocate here for the state of Hawaii throughout a gamut of UAS related issues and stuff, whether it's from the university and trying to get them to coordinate all their programs through a single source so they're not doing multiple programs on top of one another, commercial operations, helping with hobbyist peace and drone racing, dealing with test site issues. And I mean, just one thing after another. And Ted has been a continuous advocate for the state and a lot of us can't thank him enough. And I don't know if he's got to make an announcement here. Well, Mike, I thank you very much for that disclaimer. But I'd like to also thank you guys in particular. And of course, George Purdy, who is our George, our virtual alter ego, not here on the table, but over on the line. And a shout out to all three of you for really setting a high standard in this really confusing domain of the emergence of UAS or drones into the game. Well, it's not that confusing. I mean, yeah, well, I think that the embers piece and it is like I had really established a path forward with George and community involvement, which is essential. That's huge here in Hawaii. But that is that is number one on hit for you. You might have established a real track in terms of how to make a commercial service is transparent, open and friendly, trying to work behind the scenes. And there was a lot of things that weren't written down. I mean, it was interesting. You get to the next page and something that you're trying to do. There's not a lot. There's really sometimes next nothing written down. And you not that you're making it up as you go, but you have to work with folks to develop a process procedure that's necessary. And it's interesting how talking to a lot of people that are doing this now commercially are actually following some of those same footsteps. And it's very humbling, to say the least. But to see them succeed, you know, where we had tried to trench through and then also learning from others, it's, you know, it's really nice to see and to see folks do well. And like I said, create an industry where we're nonexistent with no need for government support through financial assistance or anything. Let it happen. Let it grow an industry that out of thin air, basically, and let the tax revenues roll in. There you go. And the commercial revenues as well. We talked on a show earlier with Michael about taking on in 2017. The year of community involvement in drones. Let's do it, Mike. It's awesome. This is it. You're often running and not a coolie and up in a new way and areas yet to be defined. And that is so exceptional, because you're not only working in the community involvement, you're working in the core community, which is an educational process. And you get to the kids, get the kids interested and get them heading in that direction. They'll bring their parents along and their uncles and aunties and such. And we bring the whole community together by that means, you know, we all grew up just saying yes and thank you. That's just say yes and thank you. And this is where we're at right now and on this show and we're talking to each other. And, you know, I can really appreciate everything that we've been doing. I mean, really, this year has been all of our ups and downs, that conference, meeting at the conference and having the, I'm sorry, not the conference, but over at the Capitol, that was that was a real experience for us, especially in this community that we can really push forward in and it's the small things, right? It's always the small things that matter. And things like this, reaching out to the community or even talking. And, you know, it's just those small steps that we always focus on the outcome. And the outcome is having this industry that can provide for our community, give jobs. Exactly. I mean, you know, the education piece is huge. You know that George has worked very closely with folks over in Malaya through STEM, Women Technology Group, Isla Young, Isla, great support. You know, that's our future there. That's our future workforce, too. So what Micah is doing, what George is doing, what Isla, you know, working to develop that future workforce and Ted, you know, working to see that through at the at the UH level, too, to where there are some programs to help introduce those people into this industry. We have to have these kind of conversations extend beyond just the three of us here at the table, but absolutely a community event of some kind. We have to create earlier in the year, I think, as this goes forward to bring other people into the picture. But I'd like to compliment Micah again. I mentioned community involvement and that includes education. But also, this is the second time you've mentioned and observed that dealing at the capital is pretty essential here in Hawaii. Capital is where a lot of things happen. A lot of decisions are made and clear and and concise information has to be delivered and you learn that at that at that aerospace conference. Let's go shout out to Jim Christopher for putting that on. Yeah, Jim, and you know, it's really to Hawaii. It's it's the best place for networking. Yeah, yeah, go down to the capital. That's the best place to be. And then you got Senator Sparrow. What a what a huge advocate, you know, talking to him and helping him understand the nuances of the industry and what was going on and what was not happening really helped him see how this can move forward. The racing piece was really huge for him, too. But also as an industry, how we're working to move ahead with a lot of different stuff and do this commercially, because he does see the opportunity for the state where there's commercial opportunity. And then how can we make this a simplified process for a lot of people permitting, you know, we're still working with the city county and state film offices, but it's getting better. But we want to work to a simplified process to show people that there are professional operators out here that will operate by a high level of safety and a good standard and want to work with nothing but aloha with the different state agencies involved. You know, we've had actually had Senator Sparrow on his show. He was sitting around here about two months ago, right after the summit. And we talked about one thing he'd like us as a collective group, the three of us plus the other 500 we could bring into the picture and generate kind of exactly what you said. A standard operating practice manual best best practices and standards for the state of Hawaii that include a chapter for every aspect you might think of public safety, the film office, our mental people and have a a standard understanding of what it is that a user or a supplier of the services needs to think about going forward here if everybody can participate in that. We have something to take a simplified guide. It doesn't have to necessarily be, you know, hardcore written regulations or law, but it can be interpretation of those things and a guide that helps to make it an easy flow path because that's what was missing between law, especially 107, and then, OK, how the heck do we do this? And there was a there was a gap there and that air gap has been filled by folks like Micah and Ted and others trying to build a bridge between community and rules and regulations. Produce that document. That actually is the piece that underpins the community involvement. A larger community can get involved and get involved better if we can have standards they can refer to that are written and are available online and such. And people can then interpret, for example, in the educational system. We got to get into the Department of Education and make sure that all schools understand what the limitations are and opportunities are and how to operate and how to structure themselves. So 26 2017 2016 was a cool year. I mean, if you would ask us in January, if we would have been where we are now, I don't think we would have we couldn't have foreseen the future. Yeah, just 2017 has so much more in store for us. So we're going to have to make sure it happens and heads in the right direction. And that's what we like to really focus on this wrap up is that how we can appreciate how 2016 went for us. And yes, 2017 is right around the corner, literally two day one day. Well, in fact, this is the very last show at station before 2017 happens. So after another five minutes, the people can go off and start entertaining those from New Year's. Happy New Year. But really, yes, so what we've seen, you know, so one of seven rules for rules and laws, you know, one of seven was issued a few months back. We had a lot of folks have taken the test, gotten the license. So there'll be some refinement. I think you're going to see with some of that is from what we see from the FAA, there'll be some refinement and also the approval process for waivers that are necessary to do certain types of job fly at night inside of controlled airspace, that that process may get shortened here in 2017. And we all can appreciate. Yeah, I'll believe me. Yeah, true. It was back to the Senate operating procedures because as those billings used to get waivers changed or the methods changed, then we have to make that back into our SOP. So the people use the current system as opposed to something that might have been archaic in the past. The other thing we have interesting to me that coming forth in 2017, we're finally going to get going on the Hawaii component of the pan-Pacific unmanned air systems test range, which is a mandated test range function that in this case of Hawaii, Hawaii is a partner under Alaska with Oregon and Mississippi in this pan-Pacific operation. We have a chance to get that going. And another great shout out to, you know, George Purdy. I mean, you know, if it wasn't for his tenacity, I don't know if some of this would have happened with the and he's worked very well with the folks in Alaska and we're just very excited to see how what 2017 has to hold for that. You know, and there's a good point in there is that up in the last conference in Alaska a month ago, George was the height of it was the height of the event and he took away the show. Basically, people kept saying George Purdy's name and we had upon panels and he was so eloquent and coming forth on the community involvement and the educational component, which a lot of those folks had not had the attention to it. And so George can lead us in that direction. Mike was following footsteps here on Oahu. These are things that can be exported from Hawaii to the other states through our pan-Pacific and unmanned air systems test range complex. So in conclusion to our show, I mean, it's really an appreciation for what 2016 has to offer or had to offer. I mean, we made a long journey here and moving on to our next year. Mike, thank you for coming. Thank you, Mike. And thank you for all you've been doing. Oh, absolutely. I appreciate it. Thank you. I mean, restriving, that's the main thing. And Ted, of course, thank you for letting me co-host here today out to the community. Thank you again. And Aloha to you, folks. Happy New Year. Happy New Year. Happy New Year, everyone.