The Drone Trainer Podcast: Recent Episodes
The Drone Trainer
Are you looking to have a successful drone business? Join Chris as he interviews other successful drone pilots from around the world. In these weekly interviews, you'll hear about everything from marketing your drone business to flight tips, and a variety of ideas that you can use to help your drone business really take off! Yes, that pun was intended! Subscribe now :)
John Brainerd is a drone pilot from the Philadelphia, PA area, who is working hard on his full time drone business. In this episode we follow up on our chat in episode 138, and get a two year update on the past 2 years of business.
Where to find John:
- Website: 400 Foot Views
- YouTube
Join our community at TDT Pro!
Join a support and strategy-focused community for commercial drone pilots who are ready to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth: Join now for free!
Please support the show:
- BTC: bc1qr2nzt7aanyj2j3qrtty7y5gn6l86kdngjp6ejd
- ETH: 0xBca1860E88A8239F779E553210bD9D21042702D9
- XMR: 87Jirm5GHkLEiuXFJVkdrfJo6e4RnAmH87H3PfmXDf3PbLGMJiWRWxy6fhAUbNw37j6RbA11b3BsnBCtxLY9ocNh5pd4Dmn
Eugene Matthews is a university professor who teaches public safety, public service, and commercial enterprise. He's integrated drone training into his programs, and also has a side hustle commercial drone business. It doesn't stop there though... he's also a published author, and military veteran that focused on law enforcement and investigations around the world.
Where to find Eugene:
- Website: CW3 Drones
- Eugene's Books on Amazon
Join our community at TDT Pro!
Join a support and strategy-focused community for commercial drone pilots who are ready to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth: Join now for free!
Please support the show:
- BTC: bc1qr2nzt7aanyj2j3qrtty7y5gn6l86kdngjp6ejd
- ETH: 0xBca1860E88A8239F779E553210bD9D21042702D9
- XMR: 87Jirm5GHkLEiuXFJVkdrfJo6e4RnAmH87H3PfmXDf3PbLGMJiWRWxy6fhAUbNw37j6RbA11b3BsnBCtxLY9ocNh5pd4Dmn
Luis is a drone pilot in Connecticut who uses his engineering background to grow his drone business. With his focus on construction, we do a little role playing where I'm a site foreman, and Luis pitches his drone services to me.
Where to find Luis:
- Website: Creative Drone Imaging
Join our community at TDT Pro!
Join a support and strategy-focused community for commercial drone pilots who are ready to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth: Join now for free!
Please support the show:
- BTC: bc1qr2nzt7aanyj2j3qrtty7y5gn6l86kdngjp6ejd
- ETH: 0xBca1860E88A8239F779E553210bD9D21042702D9
- XMR: 87Jirm5GHkLEiuXFJVkdrfJo6e4RnAmH87H3PfmXDf3PbLGMJiWRWxy6fhAUbNw37j6RbA11b3BsnBCtxLY9ocNh5pd4Dmn
Internationally recognized artistic drone pilots, Athanasia & Nestoras are a couple based in Athens, Greece. Listen in as they discuss how their advertising background has helped them excel, how to enter a drone footage competition, their editing process, and more!
Where to find Athanasia & Nestoras:
- Website: Inva + Sla
- YouTube
Join our community at TDT Pro!
Join a support and strategy-focused community for commercial drone pilots who are ready to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth: Join now for free!
Please support the show:
- BTC: bc1qr2nzt7aanyj2j3qrtty7y5gn6l86kdngjp6ejd
- ETH: 0xBca1860E88A8239F779E553210bD9D21042702D9
- XMR: 87Jirm5GHkLEiuXFJVkdrfJo6e4RnAmH87H3PfmXDf3PbLGMJiWRWxy6fhAUbNw37j6RbA11b3BsnBCtxLY9ocNh5pd4Dmn
The topic of Neural Radiance Fields, aka NerF, is so hot right now! Especially when it comes to the discussion of how we can use this tech with our drones, and how it compares to the photogrammetry that we've been utilizing for years.
So who better to bring on the show than Jonathan Stephens! In this episode, Jonathan discusses the difference between the tech, best practices, and a ton more. Prepare to have your mind blown!
Where to find Jonathan:
- Linktree
Join our community at TDT Pro!
Join a support and strategy-focused community for commercial drone pilots who are ready to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth: Join now for free!
Please support the show:
- BTC: bc1qr2nzt7aanyj2j3qrtty7y5gn6l86kdngjp6ejd
- ETH: 0xBca1860E88A8239F779E553210bD9D21042702D9
- XMR: 87Jirm5GHkLEiuXFJVkdrfJo6e4RnAmH87H3PfmXDf3PbLGMJiWRWxy6fhAUbNw37j6RbA11b3BsnBCtxLY9ocNh5pd4Dmn
Jeremy Almond is a drone pilot based in Washington state. By day (and night!) he is a law enforcement officer, where he is also utilzing drones during his investigations. He's also side hustling a drone business, and has recently picked up a DJI M300 RTK with an L1.
Where to find Jeremy:
- Website: Centerville 3D
- YouTube
Join our community at TDT Pro!
Join a support and strategy-focused community for commercial drone pilots who are ready to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth: Join now for free!
Please support the show:
- BTC: bc1qr2nzt7aanyj2j3qrtty7y5gn6l86kdngjp6ejd
- ETH: 0xBca1860E88A8239F779E553210bD9D21042702D9
- XMR: 87Jirm5GHkLEiuXFJVkdrfJo6e4RnAmH87H3PfmXDf3PbLGMJiWRWxy6fhAUbNw37j6RbA11b3BsnBCtxLY9ocNh5pd4Dmn
Jack Rhysider is the host of Darknet Diaries, and he joins us to discuss passion, business development, and even a little bit of his own drone experience.
Where to find Jack:
- Website: Darknet Diaries
- Discord
- YouTube
- Mastodon
Join our community at TDT Pro!
Join a support and strategy-focused community for commercial drone pilots who are ready to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth: Join now for free!
Please support the show:
- BTC: bc1qr2nzt7aanyj2j3qrtty7y5gn6l86kdngjp6ejd
- ETH: 0xBca1860E88A8239F779E553210bD9D21042702D9
- XMR: 87Jirm5GHkLEiuXFJVkdrfJo6e4RnAmH87H3PfmXDf3PbLGMJiWRWxy6fhAUbNw37j6RbA11b3BsnBCtxLY9ocNh5pd4Dmn
Michael Tucker is a retired military combat veteran, who is also a member of The Drone Trainer Pro. Listen in as Michael discusses how he started his business, Drone of Arc, as well as detail on his archeology missions.
Where to find Michael:
- Website: Drone of Arc
Join our community at TDT Pro!
Join a support and strategy-focused community for commercial drone pilots who are ready to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth: Join now for free!
Please support the show:
- BTC: bc1qr2nzt7aanyj2j3qrtty7y5gn6l86kdngjp6ejd
- ETH: 0xBca1860E88A8239F779E553210bD9D21042702D9
- XMR: 87Jirm5GHkLEiuXFJVkdrfJo6e4RnAmH87H3PfmXDf3PbLGMJiWRWxy6fhAUbNw37j6RbA11b3BsnBCtxLY9ocNh5pd4Dmn
Dan McDonald is a drone pilot based in Clearwater Florida, but originally from the UK. He's concentrating on real estate work right now, and is looking to branch out into video as well. Listen in as we discuss competition, bracketing, outsourcing, and more!
Where to find Dan:
- Website: McDonald Media
Join our community at TDT Pro!
Join a support and strategy-focused community for commercial drone pilots who are ready to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth: Join now for free!
Please support the show:
- BTC: bc1qr2nzt7aanyj2j3qrtty7y5gn6l86kdngjp6ejd
- ETH: 0xBca1860E88A8239F779E553210bD9D21042702D9
- XMR: 87Jirm5GHkLEiuXFJVkdrfJo6e4RnAmH87H3PfmXDf3PbLGMJiWRWxy6fhAUbNw37j6RbA11b3BsnBCtxLY9ocNh5pd4Dmn
I had a request from a listener to speak with Sean from Pensacola Vibes... here you go Jeff!
Sean is the founder of Pensacola Vibes in west Floira, and we discuss his business which involves land cameras, air cameras, hand cameras, and more!
Where to find Sean:
- Website: Pensacola Vibes
- YouTube
Join our community at TDT Pro!
Join a support and strategy-focused community for commercial drone pilots who are ready to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth: Join now for free!
Please support the show:
- BTC: bc1qr2nzt7aanyj2j3qrtty7y5gn6l86kdngjp6ejd
- ETH: 0xBca1860E88A8239F779E553210bD9D21042702D9
- XMR: 87Jirm5GHkLEiuXFJVkdrfJo6e4RnAmH87H3PfmXDf3PbLGMJiWRWxy6fhAUbNw37j6RbA11b3BsnBCtxLY9ocNh5pd4Dmn
Glen Cairns is a Scottish photographer, videographer, and drone pilot. Listen in to hear about meeting Sir Alex Ferguson and presenting him with one of his drone photos!
Where to find Glen:
- Website: Glen Cairns Video Productions
- YouTube
Join our community at TDT Pro!
Join a support and strategy-focused community for commercial drone pilots who are ready to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth: Join now for free!
Please support the show:
- BTC: bc1qr2nzt7aanyj2j3qrtty7y5gn6l86kdngjp6ejd
- ETH: 0xBca1860E88A8239F779E553210bD9D21042702D9
- XMR: 87Jirm5GHkLEiuXFJVkdrfJo6e4RnAmH87H3PfmXDf3PbLGMJiWRWxy6fhAUbNw37j6RbA11b3BsnBCtxLY9ocNh5pd4Dmn
This afternoon we fired up the recorder and caught up with our friend, Billy Kyle! You may remember Billy from episode 111 where we discussed the new (at that time) Skydio 2.
Billy is a smart man who is really hustling with his drone business, as well as his online presense (that you NEED to check out!)
Listen in as we discuss twitter, instagram, youtube, tiktok, commercial ops, editing, etc etc. Trust me, this episode is worth your time!
Where to find Billy:
- Website: Billy Kyle
- YouTube
- TikTok
Join our community at TDT Pro!
Join a support and strategy-focused community for commercial drone pilots who are ready to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth: Join now for free!
Please support the show:
- BTC: bc1qr2nzt7aanyj2j3qrtty7y5gn6l86kdngjp6ejd
- ETH: 0xBca1860E88A8239F779E553210bD9D21042702D9
- XMR: 87Jirm5GHkLEiuXFJVkdrfJo6e4RnAmH87H3PfmXDf3PbLGMJiWRWxy6fhAUbNw37j6RbA11b3BsnBCtxLY9ocNh5pd4Dmn
In the second episode of Drones and NFTs, we're going to hear from Roberto Alcaraz! Roberto is from Mexico, and is flying back and forth between California and the Baja California (you know what I mean).
Listen in as we discuss his drone business, and about his adventure into the NFT world!
Where to find Roberto:
- Website: Roberto Alcaraz
Join our community at TDT Pro!
Join a support and strategy-focused community for commercial drone pilots who are ready to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth: Join now for free!
Please support the show:
- BTC: bc1qr2nzt7aanyj2j3qrtty7y5gn6l86kdngjp6ejd
- ETH: 0xBca1860E88A8239F779E553210bD9D21042702D9
- XMR: 87Jirm5GHkLEiuXFJVkdrfJo6e4RnAmH87H3PfmXDf3PbLGMJiWRWxy6fhAUbNw37j6RbA11b3BsnBCtxLY9ocNh5pd4Dmn
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Kara Murphy joins us to discuss how drones fit into the NFT space. You may recognize her from episode 19 (4 years ago!), where we discussed her drone business, and in this episode we take a deep dive into world of blockchain NFT assets.
Where to find Kara:
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Originally hailing from Mexico, Luis Escobedo is a drone pilot now based in New Jersey. Listen in as he tells his story of moving to the United States, purchasing an existing drone business, consulting, training, solar farm and wind farm inspections, and more.
Where to find Luis:
- Website: NJ Drone Academy
New theme music, short intro, and no outro... what do you think?
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Devin Clark is back to discuss his drone business growth, and his new income streams. Listen in to hear about how he's working with solar companies, as well as his new venture into multispectral agricultural work.
Where to find Devin:
- Website: Digital Mapping Consultants
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Lawrence Dennis is the owner of Aerial Technology International, and has been flying since 2007. He's flown around the world, and gets into detail about what he's found in the industry over the past 15 years.
Where to find Lawrence:
- Website: ATI
- ecalc
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Nayid Diaz is a drone pilot based in Houston, TX, and he's flying drones part time, but considering making the jump to full time.
Listen in as Nayid tells us all about how he's making $1000 a week part time, flying for Bees360.
Where to find Nayid:
- Email: Nayid_diaz@yahoo.com
- Mobile Phone: +1-832-641-6039
- Bees360 - The Future of Property Inspections
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Chris Robertson is a drone pilot based in Colorado who is the Drone Center Director at the Colorado State University Drone Center.
Prior to his current role with the university, he as a university police officer.
In this episode, Chris shares his drone experience on both the public safety side of things, as well as the educational side of things.
Where to find Chris:
- Website: CSU Drone Center
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Oli Dickinson is a drone pilot based in the UK, who has had a very fortunate journey in the commercial drone space.
Listen in as he discusses how he's flying for IBM and has also garnered attention from CNN. It's really a great drone story that we can all take inspiration from.
Where to find Oliver:
- Website: Different View Photography
- The IBM docuseries trailer
- The full IBM docuseries (registration required)
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
James Brindley is a commercial drone pilot based in Cornwall, England. In addition to flying under his own company, he's also a franchisee with The SkyCam.
In this episode James discusses the startup costs as a franchisee, as well as the fee structure.
He also discusses roof inspections, hotels, flying around animals, off roading in his VW Golf, and more!
Where to find James:
- Website: Above The Coast
- The SkyCam Franchise Information
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Shari Williams is a drone pilot based in Philadelphia, who is flying her drone for roof inspections, events, education, and also currently skilling up in the area of tower inspections.
In this episode, Chris mentioned a drone pilot that flew for the NHL, but couldn't remember her name during the recording. The good news is that we've located her after the fact, and you can check out the cool work that Nicole Abbett is doing right here.
Where to find Shari:
- Website
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Aaron McKay is a drone pilot from Sydney Australia who has been flying since 2017. He's been a photographer for 20 years, and in this episode describes his journey from pro photographer to full time drone pilot.
Aaron is flying a wide range of drones including the DJI Phantom, Mavic, Inspire, Air, and FPV drones, and really dives deep into his construcion progress process. The detail that Aaron provides is absolute gold, so this is an episode that you don't want to miss!
Where to find Aaron:
- Website: Aus Aerial Media
- YouTube
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
John Lee is a drone pilot based in Arizona, who is a drone mapping professional. In this episode we go into the depths of mapping, and explore all of the acronyms and what they mean to you and your client.
John preaches the following, and I think it makes sense for any kind of drone project...
"Start with the deliverable in mind."
Where to find John:
- Office Phone: 1-928-350-6096
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Parker Deuel is a commercial drone pilot and solutions engineer at Drone Deploy. He's bene flying for 6 years, and started off with the original DJI Phantom! We get into the nitty gritty of how to land recurring construction contracts, as well as what the best kind of deliverables are. In addition, we also discuss his role at Drone Deploy and tips and tricks for how to get the absolute best out of your mapping and modelling.
Where to find Parker:
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Gerrit Burke is a drone pilot from Hutsville Alabama, who has brought his photography and videography background to drones.
Gerrit has been flying drones in real estate, construction, events, restauraunts, dealerships and more. He's a big fan of Adobe Lightroom on the photo side, and Davinci Resolve on the video side of things. He drops an amazing Resolve export tip as well that I'm sure you'll find extremely valuable.
Where to find Gerrit:
- Website: Sparrow Digital Media
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Scott Shtofman is a lawyer and drone pilot based in Tyler, Texas. He has flown roof inspections, contruction, mapping, post-disaster and more with his drones, and in this episode he gets into what has worked well and what has been less than ideal. There are so many valuable takeaways that will certainly help you improve your skills and ramp up your drone business.
Scott loves the regulatory and policy side of drones as well, and brings his 10 year background in law to the drone world.
Where to find Scott:
- Website: Quad Axis LLC.
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
John Brainerd is a drone pilot from the Philadelphia, PA area, who is working hard on his full time drone business.
In this episode, we chat about pricing, how adding motion graphics to drone video can get you ahead of the competition, our mastermind group, and more!
Where to find John:
- Website: 400 Foot Views
- YouTube
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Blyde Neser is an Australian drone pilot, who is shooting and creating beautiful prints of the Australian coast. In addition to her fine art drone prints, she's also producing eco friendly yoga mats!
She currently pilots the DJI Mavic 2 Pro and Phantom 4 Pro. In addition to drones, she's also taking some of her shots from helicopters, and we get into the required camera settings to shoot from the air.
We also chat about real estate work, and you can can check out Real Estate Drone Training right here :)
Where to find Blyde:
- Website: Coastal Drones
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Brandon Herring is flying drones with two hats. First he's a high school educator, and has developed a 3 year program for students at two schools in the Fort Smith, AK area. Second, he's also flying for public safety, with the local Sheriffs office.
His high school drone program has been developed nicely, with specific tasks and learning objectives for each grade level. The students are also able to receive college credit while still in high school. What a head start!
On the public safety side, Brandon is a reserve deputy who is on call to help with a variety of investigations. Brandon averages about 1 public safety flight per week while also balancing his high school educational program.
Where to find Brandon:
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Don Wiley is a drone pilot from Florida, who has created a very successful niche drone business. Rather than focusing on massive construction progress jobs, he is working on individual residential home builds.
In addition to residential construction progress, he's also creating YouTube videos that cover a specific topic (such as golf cart parades for the recent US Election featuring Donald Trump and Joe Biden). Through those videos and simply via the power of the YouTube algorithm, he adds several hundred dollars a month to his bottom line.
Don is also a member of The Drone Trainer Pro. If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Where to find Don:
- Gold Wingnut Productions (Website)
- YouTube
Mentions in this episode:
- Going 4ward with DJI Go 4: The complete guide to configuring and using the DJI Go 4 flying app. (Don's Book!)
- CyberLink PowerDirector
- Availability of the DJI Phantom 4 Chinese New Year Edition.
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Grant Guillot, a drone lawyer practicing with Adams and Reese LLP in Louisiana, joins us this week for some legal Q&A. Here is the list of questions that we initially went through, and then there are a couple of bonus questions near the end from live attendees:
Intellectual Property Related Questions
- When working with clients how important is it to have a contract that assigns a license for imagery versus assigning rights, and can you share some examples of typical licensing language for drone services contracts? - Steve Diddle
- Is it possible / typical to have a contract or license that gives a client certain rights for a specified period of time or purpose and then have the rights revert back to the photographer / videographer / creator of the images/content? - Mark Allen
- If working without a contract, can it be expected that both parties have full rights to freely use the captured materials? - Chris Anderson
- When flying and capturing videos and pictures of a field, construction site, farming area or area in the woods, ie not taking videos of structures like buildings, are you able to use the footage without getting permission from the owner of the property? - Peter Matt
Non IP Related Questions
- So, I pay for legal shield program which is pre-paid legal services. Is there such a program for drone work? One reason for having it was to hopefully protect me if I were to need an attorney for anything in life but the drone issues is an uncertain area for protection. - Ken Elrich
- I mainly fly in urban or suburban environments. There are always non-subject people and properties in my shots. I haven't used waivers or permission requests so far.
A. Privacy: Do I always need to blur faces, license plates, addresses? Are there situations where I absolutely do need to? What are reasonable precautions to take to avoid violations of privacy? - John Brainerd
B. Rights/Waivers: If I'm shooting in public, do I ever owe someone the right to request I delete footage that they are included in, or of footage that includes imagery of a corporate entity's property, etc.? - John Brainerd
-
I'm interested in hearing some feedback on cases you've worked on that may seem obvious to some, but have caught drone pilots off guard with associated legal ramifications. In general terms, if you thought it was OK to do… you'd better think again and here's why. - Bob W
-
Is there access to the “tribunal” to argue a drone fine and it’s applicability to the situation under which it was given. Perhaps the situation was an accident and the operator was trying to correct it at the moment (say a brief link drop that briefly put the drone over people) operator fixed it and landed but then issued a ticket. - Nick Seemel
-
If using random music on my personal videos “was/is” ok would I then have to do something to my old posts if my YouTube channel gained some audience and could be argued to now be somehow commercial. Same question for flying without a Part 107 in the past, but now monetizing my channel. - Nick Seemel
- I am a Colombian citizen with living in France with the equivalent of a green card. I want to pass the 107 test and I would love to have the opportunity to fly in America, I mean, commercially. The question goes like this: Can I get my 107 licence as a Colombian citizen? If yes, am I able to fly commercially in the US? What are my options? - Antonio Gonima
- How do you see the laws changing in the future? Will we be able to fly drones indefinitely? Will there be further restrictions once Amazon starts using their drone service, or others? - Steve Martin
- Do you have a recommendation for minimum aviation liability insurance? - Ryan Beston
- How far do you think remote ID will go? I don’t have a problem with police officials the FAA knowing who I am and where I am at. I am however concerned about other people knowing. Also, how do you think they will address the issue of drones that do not have the capability of transmitting ID information. - Henry French
Where to find Grant:
- MarketScale: Drones in America
- Email: grant.guillot@arlaw.com
Shoutout to:
- Vic Moss
- DroneUp
- 51 Drones
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Fanie Kooij is a drone pilot from Botswana, who brings an extensive agricultural background to drones. He recently acquired a DJI Agras T16 aerial application (spraying) drone, and has been utilizing it in agriculture. Listen in as he describes how he plans his missions, chemical considerations, water transport, solar charging, and more!
In addition to agricultural work, Fanie is also utilizing the spraying drone to combat the Covid-19 pandemic. I won't go into too many details here, as he can describe the process far better than I can.
We too look forward to working with aerial application drones (sprayer or spraying drones) as they become more prevalent and can cover massive areas of farmland.
Where to find Fanie:
- WhatsApp: +267 72 520 814
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Joe is a two time Emmy award-winning Producer and Founder of Orionvega, Pittsburgh video production company. He has produced highly-visible projects for a variety of clients including Dove, Calvin Klein, Olympic Paints, and AOL. Networks that have featured Joe’s work include ChannelNews Asia, PBS, SPIKE, HGTV, DISCOVERY, and Comedy Central.
Over the years, Joe has hired drone pilots to work with him on his video productions. In this episode he discusses what he was looking for when hiring a drone pilot, and also the greater knowledge that he has now since obtaining his FAA Part 107 license.
The plugin that Joe mentions is Neat Video Plugin.
Where to find Joe:
- Orionvega (video production website)
- Eyes From The Skies (drone website)
- Vimeo
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Sally French has been a drone journalist and commercial drone pilot for 7 years, and shares her industry insight and more in this week's chat!
We cover off how drones got into journalism, what works and what doesn't work, as well as her non journalism related commercial drone flight!
Where to find Sally:
- The Drone Girl (website)
- YouTube
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Michael Hill is a drone pilot from Dallas, TX, who is working in a wide range of industries with his drone. He's working in search and rescue, wind turbine and cell tower inspections, NASCAR, education, training, consultancy and more.
Listen in as we dig into SAR missions, including planning and search techniques, as well as infrared technology utilizing the FLIR XT camera on his DJI M210.
Where to find Michael:
- Cumulus Technologies (website)
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Steve Diddle has been flying drones for 10 years now, and was one of the early drone ambassadors for the Parrot Bebop.
Over the years he has been contributing stock footage to companies such as Getty Images, Shutterstock, and more. In this episode, Steve shares with us what works and what doesn't in the stock footage game. You're going to hear everything from how much you get paid, and what formats work the best.
In addition to stock, we also discuss camera settings to help capture the best photos and videos that you can. Everything from exposure and composition, to rule of thirds and panoramas.
Speaking of Panoramas, here is a preview of the one that I discussed during this episode:
Where to find Steve:
- YouTube
- Drone Outlook (Website)
Looking for drone insurance?
- Check out Skywatch!
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
You probably know Ken Dono as OriginaldoBo, right? Ken joins us on this week's episode to discuss drones in real estate, and his successful YouTube channel.
The real estate discussion doesn't just stop with drones, as Ken also gives us insight into how he shoots interiors and exteriors with his ground based cameras. Yep, we get into aperture, ISO and shutter speed, shooting wide, and more!
You can find Ken on YouTube, Twitter, & Instagram.
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Benjamin Ritt is a drone pilot from Texas, who has been utilizing a variety of drone technology to survey beaches and coastlines.
During our chat, Benjamin offered up a dataset for us to download and try our hand at coastal mapping. If you’d like to download that dataset for free, simply drop your name and email below, and we’ll send it to you ASAP!
https://thedronetrainer.com/map/ We’ve been drone mapping for a long time now, however since we are landlocked we don’t often have the opportunity to map shorelines or really anything to do with water. That’s where Benjamin Ritt comes in!
As we chat with Ben, he reveals his workflow, and how he overcomes the obstacle of mapping a moving body such as water. When everything sits still it’s far easier than when it’s moving, is reflective, sometimes lets you see through it depending on the angle, etc.
Some of the drones that Benjamin has used for this include the DJI Phantom 4 Pro, Phantom 4 Pro RTK, as well as the Wingtra VTOL fixed wing drone. Listen in as he describes the benefits of each when it comes to mapping.
Mapping anywhere from 1 to 10 miles of coastal beach is no easy task, and in this episode, Ben describes exactly how he does it. You’ll learn everything from planning and flight, to post processing technique. FYI, he is processing his maps with Agisoft Metashape and Pix4D, while capturing data with GSPro.
You can find Benjamin on his website, Unmanned Coastal Solutions.
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Sydney Lisignoli is an Oregon based drone pilot, who working on growing her commercial drone business. She obtained her Part 107 in 2019, and is currently flying the DJI Mavic Pro.
She's been keeping busy flying for automobile dealerships, real estate, agriculture, mapping, construction progress, and more. Shes editing in Adobe Premiere Pro, and mentioned that Peter McKinnon's video editing tutorials have been a great help.
You can find Sydney on her website, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Melissa Schiele is a marine ecologist from London, UK, who is flying in Belize, Maldives and British Indian Ocean Territories. She is flying beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) for mapping, animal detection, and illegal activity detection. Awesome, right?!
You can find Melissa on Twitter @explorer_mel
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Justine Hollingshead is the NC State University Chief of Staff, Vice Chancellor, and drone pilot. She is an AUVSI TOP Level 2 certified pilot, and we dig into what that means and what it's worth. We also discuss FAA Part 107 licensing and how that may fit with what AUVSI is currently doing.
At NC State, Justine and her team have been provided a grant from the National Science Foundation, and are working on 5G research with drones. She's also worked on projects involving assisting local police, missing person searches, and more.
You can find Justine on Twitter, email at jrhollin@ncsu.edu or call her direct at 919-434-4167.
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Corey is a drone pilot based in Indiana. He's a full time teacher, but is side hustling with his drone in construction, real estate, orchards, and more. To check out the photo printing video he mentioned click here.
He also describes a great sales tactic involving gifts that I think you'll really enjoy and can likely employ in your drone business!
You can find Corey on his website, Facebook, instagram, and YouTube.
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Bram De Ryck is a drone pilot based in Leuven, Belgium. He is flying indoors creating some amazingly smooth video with his custom FPV drones, Insta360 camera, and GoPro Hero 7. Once back in the studio, he edits with DaVinci Resolve and ReelSteady to smooth everything out.
It really is amazing work, and if you're not familiar with this style of drone flight and video production, you're going to be in for a surprise!
You can see his amazing work on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Tyler is a professional drone pilot that studied at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Since graduating, he has worked on major projects such as the PG&E Fire Prevention in California, utilizing drones everywhere from the Mavic Pro to the M210 with X5S camera system.
His work experience with drones extends beyond fire prevention, as he also has experience with insurance claims, real estate, construction, and more.
You can find Tyler on LinkedIn.
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Vashaun Henderson and his company, Rekon Solutions, are conducing drone LiDAR photogrammetry, mapping, inspections, and more in the Vernon, BC area.
His drone fleet consists of the DJI M600, DJI M210 RTK with X4S / Z30 / XT2 camera systems, as well as the Mavic 2 Pro. He's been flying since 2015, and went full time in 2018.
You can find Vashaun on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and his website.
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Working as a full time content creator for a home builder, Stephanie Alexis discusses how drones have helped compliment her work from an aerial angle.
Listen in as we discuss how a helicopter flight back in 2015 helped fuel her passion for aerial photography, the transition from FCPX to Premiere Pro, and drone work on a music video in Miami Florida.
You can find Stephanie on Instagram corporately and personally, as well as her website.
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Danny Elassad is a drone pilot based in Sydney, Australia. He is conducting roof and telecom tower mapping and modelling, and discusses how he gets detail down to the millimetre! In this episode, we're going to discuss differences in photogrammetry software, how to fly your mapping and modelling missions, and more!
Danny can be found on Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook.
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Bringing a 39 year agricultural background, Dan Swafford is a project associate at Virginia Tech. Dan is currently conducting flock management, including research with sheep health and how they react to drones.
Dan can be contacted via email at jswaffor@vt.edu
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Fiona Lake is an Australian drone pilot, that brings 30 years of agriculture, and helicopter based aerial photography. She's now working in drones, with a focus on tourism and agriculture.
You can find Fiona on her website as well as Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Hitomi Uematsu is the co-founder of Sky Magic, a drone swarm and autonomous technology company based in Singapore. Hitomi and her team have flown and put on shows all around the world, and have recently set a Guinness World Record!
You can find Hitomi on her website at Skymagic.show as well as Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook.
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Ryan Johnson is a drone pilot based on Fargo, North Dakota, and has been in business for 4 years. His first 3 years were part time, and he has now been full time drones for the past year.
Ryan's business consists of mapping, precision agriculture, as well as real estate and marketing.
You can find Ryan on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and his website.
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
I receive a lot of questions surrounding the FAA Part 107 drone exam and license, so I've brought on one of the premiere instructors to speak to you on this very topic. Alan Perlman is instructing at the popular Drone Pilot Ground School, and has a lot of awesome insights to share with everyone on the Part 107 exam and process.
And as we mention during our chat, you can save $50 off the course fees right here!
You can find Alan on LinkedIn, and at Drone Pilot Ground School.
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Billy Kyle is an avid drone pilot from Philly, and he was lucky enough to get his hands on one of the first issues of the new Skydio 2 drone. Yes, we have all seen the footage online from Skydio employees, but I wanted to hear from a consumer what the drone was all about instead. Yep, Billy gives us all the good and the bad when it comes to the highly touted Skydio 2 drone.
You can find Billy on YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook.
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
The FAA recently published a proposed rule making document surrounding remote ID for drones. This hot topic has been discussed around the world online since it's release, and we also discussed it during my Monday evening Drone Mastermind meetings. Here is a 30 minute snippet of our discussion...
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Darshan Divakaran is the UAS engineer with the North Carolina department of transportation, and has worked on a variety of projects including medical package delivery at WakeMed Cary Hospital. In addition, he is also with Airavat LLC, assisting with public safety mission planning and training.
You can connect with Darshan via LinkedIn.
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
While at InterDrone earlier this year, I captured a series of attendee and exhibitor interviews from the floor. Today we're going to hear from 6 guests who are going to discuss what they're doing with drones in agriculture, public safety, ParaZero parachutes, education, BVLOS, and drone swarms!
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Benny Shirley is a commercial drone pilot from the Chicago area, who is concentrating on construction progress, and residential real estate work. You can find Benny on Instagram, Facebook, and his website.
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Stephen Glaus is a drone pilot based in Pennsylvania. He has a military drone background, and is now working with Consortiq. Stephen also has his own drone podcast called Unmanned Uncovered!
You can find Stephen on LinkedIn.
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Rolando Gonzalez is a Jr. Systems Engineer at the University of Miami, who is designing, building, testing, and flying drones at school and in his personal time. Discussion of flight controllers, spying, and more are just some of the topics that we discuss in this episode.
You can find Rolando on Twitter @rolyexpress and LinkedIn.
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Today we're going to hear from Haye Kesteloo from DroneDJ, as he describes his experience and reviews an early release of the new DJI Mavic Mini!
As you heard me mention during the show, the Mavic Mini has been discounted to $349 (regular $399), and you can purchase it at that price right here.
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
The majority of the guests on this podcast are flying DJI drones, however today we're going to hear from Alex Riefenstahl who is flying Yuneec drones! Alex is from Texas, and is flying commercially for both real estate and construction.
You can find Alex on his website, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Jake Sloan is a drone pilot based in Anchorage Alaska, who is creating some beautiful aerial photos and videos with his fleet of drones. Flying in Alaska is fun and challenging, so listen in as Jake describes how he makes things happen, as well as how he's successfully marketing his drone business!
You can find Jake on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and on TikTok @JakeSloan5
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Amrita Lal is a drone pilot from Fiji, who is flying with South Pacific Flying Labs. Humanitarian and Environmental research, including highlands, village, and coastal mapping are just a few things that she is doing with drones.
Find Amrita on LinkedIn right here.
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Romeo Durscher wears a few different drone hats, including working at DJI in the Enterprise division, assisting public safety during a variety of disasters, and creative aerial photography when he has some spare time. I know you're going to enjoy this chat with Romeo!
Find Romeo on Twitter & Instagram
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Ben Skaar is a young drone photographer from Massachusetts, who is working towards getting his FAA Part 107. You can find ben on Instagram and YouTube.
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Derrick Ward is a LAFD firefighter, CEO of Hot Shots Aerial Photography, and also works with Enterprise UAS. He's created a variety of training, utilizing NIST standards, as well as mission specific training for public safety.
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Edward's main job lies in forestry, however he also has a drone based side hustle where he maps, and live streams events via his drone. You can find him over at http://www.aerialperspectivedrones.co.uk
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Devin Clark is a drone pilot based in west Massachusetts, who has been flying on his own and with UMass. Devin's drone work is heavily involved on the GIS side, as well as short wave infrared (SWIR). Listen in for tips regarding his workflow, and how and why certain drone technologies are superior to others.
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Prior to entering the drone industry, Tom Walker was in the military as a nuclear engineer. Since leaving the military, he has founded DroneUp, which locates, qualifies and deploys drone pilots to client requirements delivering on-demand drone services in-app alongside 24/7 manned, mission over-site.
Tom's InterDrone keynote is available right here: https://launchpad.interdrone.com/programs/tom-walker-keynote-2019
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Northern New Jersey drone pilot, Barry Houldsworth, has been flying recreationally since 2013, and commercially since 2015. He's flying for construction, film, golf courses, and more, and loves editing his drone footage in DaVinci Resolve.
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Brad DiMaggio has been flying drones commercial for about a year now. When he first started out, he had hopes of shooting golf courses, weddings, real estate, lakes and more. So far, he's found that the majority of his work has come in real estate, golf courses, and boats.
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Shelby Dennhardt is a commercial drone pilot from Illinois, who is the in house drone pilot at her engineering company. She works closely with surveyors to create accurate maps and models, as well as conduct infrared inspections of a variety of structures and land. You're definitely not going to want to miss this episode!
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Tim Schnitzler is a drone pilot from the Netherlands, who has been flying for about one year now. He started out flying the DJI Spark, and has since upgraded to the DJI Mavic Pro.
Tim's day job is at a digital creative agency, which has allowed him to master video editing, as well as get involved in some awesome drone shoots involving FIAT. Listen in to hear how he discusses how that shoot went, and how they utilized an influencer model to create some instant traction for the campaign.
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Fine art drone photographer Andy Leclerc is based on Connecticut and has been flying drones for about 3 years now. Since starting out, he's flown the DJI Phantom 2, Phantom 3 Pro, Phantom 4, Inspire 1 with X3, and now the Mavic 2 Pro.
While Andy does the take the occasional request, he often heads out on a personal mission to create something amazing. He's open to weddings, real estate, construction, etc, but truly enjoys creating art with his drone.
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
New York City drone pilot, Anthony Cioffi, has been flying commercially for about 3 years now. He started off with the DJI Phantom 3 Pro, and has since moved up to the DJI Inspire 2 and Phantom 4 Pro models.
If you'd like to download a free drone logbook, pre-flight checklist, or even take a free course to learn how to fly your drone safely, head over to https://thedronetrainer.com and you can get it all for free!
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Rob van Elven is from the Netherlands, however now calls Sydney home. Up until about a year ago, he concentrated on ground based drone photography and travelling on the weekends to explore his new home.
One year ago he purchased a DJI Mavic Air, and since then has fallen in love with both drone photography and drone video.
Now let's listen in on Rob's drone story...
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Brian Kurtz is a Michigan based Realtor, that wanted to improve the quality and consistency in his listing's photos and videos. Logically he started taking his own, and has of course added a drone to his arsenal!
Listen in as he discusses how he uses his drone to supplement his ground based photography and videography, as well as how he markets himself to other Realtors in the area.
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Ed Salmon is a French drone pilot, who has been flying for over 3 years now. In the last 8 months, he has switched from hobby to pro, and tells us his drone story so far in this episode!
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Chris is the UAV coordinator at Ohio State University, and in this episode he shares what the school is up to with drones, and how he fits into the picture.
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Justin is a FPV drone pilot, who is creating some awesome corporate fly through videos. Check him out at @whofpv wherever you get your social media on!
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Marc Sandlhauser started Eye in the Sky Studios a few months ago, and has been working in construction, real estate, and events. His love for drones started off when he picked up a cheap drone on sale, and has since upgrade to the DJI Mavic 2 Pro. For the full show notes, head on over to https://thedronetrainer.com/drone-podcast-83-marc-sandlhauser/
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
As of June 1, 2019, anyone looking to fly a drone in Canada is regulated by Part IX of the Canadian Aviation Regulations (CARs).
The quick and dirty on the changes are:
Everyone must register their drones if they weigh 250g or more.
Everyone must obtain either a basic or advanced pilot certificate.
You must be at least 14 years of age to obtain a pilot certificate.
You must keep your drone within line of sight when flying.
You are permitted to fly to a max altitude of 400′ above ground.
Foreign pilots are required to obtain a SFOC before flying in Canada.
How to Fly your Drone in Canada
Here is a summary of the key changes that affect both domestic and international pilots that are looking to fly their drones in Canada.
Rules for Drone Flight in CanadaPilot Certificates – Section 901.53
All drone pilots are now required to obtain either a basic or advanced pilot certificate. You must be at least 14 years of age to obtain a pilots certificate, and those under 14 can still fly as long as they are supervised by a person that is at least 14 and possesses a pilot certificate.
Basic Pilot Certificate – Section 901.55
Basic pilot certificates allow pilots to operate in uncontrolled Class G airspace. In the basic category, all operations must be at least 14 years of age, and pass the basic exam. The basic category is great if you’re looking at flying outside of controlled airspace, at least 3nm from airports and 1nm from heliport, and 3nm away from DND aerodromes.
The basic pilot certificate is perfect for this that want to fly in the countryside, and away from people and controlled airspace. The basic permit allows you to operate as close to 100′ laterally (30m) from people not involved in the operation.
Advanced Pilot Certificate – Section 901.62
The advanced pilot certificate is for those 16 years old or older, that wish to fly in more complex environments, including controlled airspace, near airports/heliports/aerodromes, or near/over people. Like the basic certificate, the advanced requires passing an online exam and then an in-person flight review with a Transport Canada delegated Flight Reviewer. Remember the old SFOC applications? The flight review is like conducting a SFOC application in person, and then proving your flight skills.
While the advanced exam is standardized, the RPAS system that you operate will determine which category you can operate within. Transport Canada publishes a list of approved RPAS systems, and the three categories of operation are:
In controlled airspace.
Near people – not less than 16.4′ (5m) laterally from another person, and at any altitude.
Over people – at a distance of less than 16.4′ (5m) laterally from another person, and at any altitude.
Even with an advanced certificate and a drone that is allowed to operate in controlled airspace, you are still required to obtain permission from the airspace controlling agency (Nav Canada) prior to flying in that airspace. Failure to do so can result in a hefty fine.
Regardless if you’re in the basic or advanced category, you’ll need to carry your pilot certificate with you during all flight operations.
Drone Registration in Canada – Section 901.02
In order to be able to fly your drone, you must register your drone with Transport Canada. This applies to all drones above 250g, and the registration number must be clearly visible on the drone. Registration costs $5, and requires you to provide the purchase date, make, model, serial number, weight and type of drone. Once you have registered, you’ll immediately receive a download link to obtain your registration. Print that off and keep it with your drone as it’s required to be with your drone during all flight.
Flying your Drone in Controlled Airspace
Drone Site Selection Tool
In order you fly your drone in controlled airspace, you are required to obtain approval from the controlling agency. Nav Canada has created a RPAS Flight Authorization Request form that needs to be submitted and approved before you are allowed to fly. In addition to this tool, the National Research Council Canada has published a Drone Site Selection Tool to help you determine what kind of flight operations may be permitted. In addition this tool, I highly recommend a copy of the Canadian Flight Supplement, and ForeFlight or paper VNC maps so that you can most accurately determine which airspace you are in.
Visual Line-of-Sight Operations – Section 901.11
All drone flights must be conducted with either the pilot or visual observer maintaining visual line of sight at all times. Looking through FPV goggles or at your display doesn’t satisfy this. If you’re going to fly like that, bring someone with you that can physically keep an eye on your drone at all times. If you’re looking to fly beyond visual line of sight, you’ll require a Special Flight Operations Certificate – RPAS, as detailed under section 903.03 of the CARs.
Emergency Security Perimeter Prohibition – Section 901.12
Drone pilots are prohibited from operating over or within security perimeters established by a public authority in response to an emergency. Think of police, fire, search and rescue, disasters, etc. Just stay away and don’t interfere with their operations.
Bottle to Throttle in CanadaDon’t Drink and Fly – Section 901.19
Another change that affects both manned and unmanned operations, is alcohol consumption. Previously, pilots weren’t allowed to fly within 8 hours of consuming an alcoholic beverage. Under the new rules, no person shall act as a crew member of a drone within 12 hours of consuming alcohol, while under the influence of alcohol, or while using any drug that impairs their abilities to the extent of endangering aviation safety.
Maximum Altitude – Section 901.25
You are permitted to fly to a maximum altitude of 400′ (122m) above ground level. If you are flying within 200′ (61m) horizontally of a building or structure, you are permitted to fly 100′ higher than that building or structure.
Weather Minimums – Section 901.34
Previously, drone pilots had to adhere to high visibility and cloud ceilings, but that has been significantly changed. Under the new rules, pilots must operate in accordance with the manufacturers instructions, and always keep the aircraft within line of sight. Icing conditions however are still prohibited, as per section 901.35 (1).
Night Flight – Section 901.39
In order to fly at night, you require lights on your aircraft. The CARs reference, “remotely piloted aircraft is equipped with position lights sufficient to allow the aircraft to be visible to the pilot and any visual observer, whether with or without night-vision goggles, and those lights are turned on.” Most drones come with lights, and external lighting options such as Lume Cube can also be added for increased brightness.
Special Aviation Events and Advertised Events – Section 901.41
Drone pilots can’t operate at outdoor concerts, festivals, markets, sporting events, or special aviation events without a Special Flight Operations Certificate. SFOC details can be found under section 903.03.
Flying near airports, heliports and aerodromes – Section 901.47
Flying your drone near Canadian airportsDrone pilots are prohibited from flying in a manner that could interfere with an aircraft operating in the established traffic pattern. Additionally, pilots can’t fly within 3 nautical miles of the centre of an airport, 1 nautical mile from the centre of a heliport, or 3 nautical miles form the centre of a DND aerodrome.
Flight within these limits is possible under the right conditions. If you have your advanced pilots certificate, along with a RPAS that has been declared for operations within controlled airspace, and approval from the airspace controlling agency, you can fly within 1nm of a heliport and 3nm of an airport.
For DND airspace, you will require a SFOC to be able to operate within 3nm.
Flight Logging and Record Keeping – Section 901.48
You are now required to log all of your flights and maintenance. Flight logging requirements include name of pilot and crew members, and the time of each flight. Maintenance items such as mandatory and maintenance action, modification, or repair of the system must be logged. Items required for maintenance logging include the name of the person who performed it, date of maintenance, instructions to complete the work, and in case of a modification the manufacturer, model, and description of the part or equipment.
Flight records must be kept for 12 months after the day they were created, and maintenance records for 23 months after the day they were created.
If you need a drone flight and maintenance logbook, I have created a free one for you to download. It allows you to cover off all of the above, and is available for both Excel and Numbers.
When do you need a SFOC? – Section 903.01
Special Flight Operations Certificates are for the most part a thing of the past. However, there are still a few circumstances when you’ll need a SFOC to fly your drone in Canada.
Below is a list of circumstances in which you’ll require a SFOC, and details for how to apply can be found in section 903.02 of the CARs.
When you want to fly a drone that has a take-off weight of more than 25kg (55lbs).
To fly beyond visual line of sight.
If you are a foreign operator who has been authorized by your foreign state. Basically, you must be allowed/licensed to conduct the same operations in your home country, and have the documentation to prove it before obtaining a SFOC.
To fly at a height of greater than 400′ AGL.
To operate more than 5 drones from a single control station.
To fly at a special aviation event or an advertised event.
When the aircraft is transporting any payloads such as explosives, corrosive, flammable, bio-hazardous material, weapons, ammunition, etc. Section 901.43(1) goes into detail about this.
To fly within 3nm of an aerodrome operated under the authority of the Minister of National Defence.
Any other operation that the Minister determines that a SFOC is necessary.
Foreign Drone Pilots
All foreign drone pilots that would like to fly in Canada, are required to obtain a SFOC. In order to be eligible for a SFOC, you must be authorized to do so in your home country. An easy example is if an American citizen would like to fly in Canada, they must possess a FAA Part 107 prior to being granted permission to fly in Canada under a SFOC.
Fines and Penalties
If you fail to follow the new Canadian drone regulations, you could face a variety of fines and penalties. Examples of fines that can be issued include the following. The first number is for an individual, and the second is for a corporation:
Up to $1,000/$5,000 for flying without a drone pilot certificate.
Up to $1,000/$5,000 for flying unregistered or unmarked drones.
Up to $1,000/$5,000 for flying where you are not allowed.
Up to $3,000/$15,000 for putting aircraft and people at risk.
Approval of Canadian Drone RegulationsIn Conclusion…
I think that the new regulations, licensing, and categories of RPAS systems are a great thing for Canadian aviation.
In addition to safety, the allowances that we have been provided will allow Canadian drone pilots to continue to lead the way in remotely piloted aviation.
Fly safe everyone!
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Shane Adamson from Australia, has recently started Safe Droning Australia as well as a podcast to go with it. Here is his story...
Shane has been a licensed drone pilot for 18 months. Recently he identified that there was a need for drone specific safety equipment, and created Safe Droning Australia. Part of his offerings include high visibility vests, signage, barrier tape, first aid kits, fire blankets, and remote lanyards. His vests and signs are customized to say "Drone pilot, do not disturb" or to stay clear of the area.
In addition to his site, he's also started a podcast where he chats with a range of guests from the Australian drone world! So far Shane has published 5 episodes, and I've enjoyed hearing his take on the drone industry and hearing from his unique guests. And the beauty of it all is that Shane has credited me with being the inspiration to start his own drone podcast! Well isn't that awesome?!
Anyway I hope you enjoyed this week's joint podcast with Shane Adamson! If you like what you hear, head over to his show and download his episodes as well! :)
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Niels has been flying drones for two years now, both in France and New Zealand. His girlfriend is from New Zealand, so he's been lucky enough to spend time in both countries, while flying his drone for work. In this episode we get into the benefits of drone mapping on wind farms, and some of the cool little techniques that Niels is employing.
One of the concerns on wind farms is tree height. Previously before drones, Niels' team would have to measure tree heights by attending the location, and measuring individual trees. Now with drones, they are able to capture imagery of large areas, and quickly calculate all of the tree heights. Why does this matter? Well, it all comes down to financial efficiencies! Higher trees will block the wind, create fewer revolutions, and overall lower the value of the wind farm.
Niels is flying the DJI Mavic Pro, as well as the Parrot Bebop-Pro Thermal. In addition to the Bebop thermal, he's also had a chance to get his hands on the Parrot Anafi Thermal. I have had a chance to fly the Anafi, however the thermal is new and I think it's an exciting new addition to Parrot's fleet. If you're looking for a small drone that is durable and won't break the bank, be sure to check out Parrot's drones.
On the mapping side of things, we discuss the differences between Drone Deploy and Pix4D processing. There are benefits to each, and Niels does a great job of describing which tasks excel on each platform.
Finally we discussed the rules around flying your drones in national parks. Specifically, we get into an example where I saw someone holding their drone in Banff National Park. When I said that he can't fly that in the park, his response was, "I know." Anyway, make sure that you follow the rules when you travel (or even in your own country). For those that are looking to fly in Canada, I've summed up the Canadian RPAS regulationsfor both domestic and foreign drone pilots.
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
She's just starting her drone business, and is ready to share her story. Join us this week as we chat with Liesl Leonard from Hull, England!
Liesl Leonard has been interested in photography for a long time, and her love for drones grew as a result of Instagram. She started following a variety of accounts that were publishing drone related content, including Women Who Drone. Immediately inspired by the female drone community, she fully credits Women Who Drone for convincing her to purchase her first drone!
Her first drone was a second hand DJI Phantom 3 Advanced, and has since upgraded to the Mavic 2 Pro. She is absolutely in love with the Mavic 2 Pro, and its helped her take her aerial photography skills to the next level. As with many drone photographers, Liesl is looking at picking up a set of ND/PL filters. She currently has her eye on both Polar Pro and Tiffen, as well as another lesser known brand that is about half the price. Asking around in the forums, she's found that it's about a 50/50 split between Polar Pro and Tiffen, so she thinks that she's ultimately going to go with one of them.
After the shoot, Liesl is a big fan of editing her own work. She loves spending time in Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop. Her first step is Lightroom, where she occasionally uses presets to start the photo off. More often than not though, she ends up touching up the photos on her own and not being over reliant on presets.
Since she's just launching her drone business, she's looking for ways to market her services to prospective clients. In this episode, we chat about targeting potential clients via social media, specifically Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn. Ultimately Liesl wants to take aerial photos and video of a variety of places around the UK. She currently doesn't have an interest in surveying, as she truly enjoys creating beautiful photos for her clients.
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Randall Warnas started Drones Plus in Las Vegas in 2014, resulting in expansion all over North America. Drones Plus turned into the largest brick and mortar drone store in the world, which caught the eye of DJI. DJI was able to convince Randall to join their team, where he went on to start DJI Enterprise.
While working at DJI, Randall had his hands on the first 50 FLIR XT payloads off the production line. Similar to how he caught the eye of DJI by building the largest drone store in the world, his interest and prowess with the FLIR XT caught the eye of FLIR. The result? FLIR Commercial Systems took him on as their Global sUAS Segment Leader. During our chat I made reference to it being a natural progression, but Randall made a good counter point to the word "progression." Do you agree with his thoughts on his journey?
In addition to discussing what it's like working at FLIR and DJI, we also discuss infrared technology including MSX and motion blur. We also dive into a discussion about Drone Delivery Canada and Foremost Centre for Unmanned Systems in Alberta.
Randall is also a Part 107 pilot, but prefers to fly recreationally most of the time. He has DJI, Autel, Parrot, and Intel drones that he enjoys flying when he's travelling. That sounds like a nice selection, and a lot of extra cases in the trunk!
Anyway, this was a great chat with a real leader in the drone industry. He flies, he evangelizes, and is an awesome voice for the drone industry. If you want to hear more from Randall, be sure to check out his FLIR Delta podcast wherever you get your audio.
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
American drone pilot Brandi Papania is having a blast flying her drone in Hong Kong. Brandi is a copywriter by day, who enjoys flying around the tiny island at night. Let's hear about what it's like flying a drone in Hong Kong from Brandi!
Brandi Papania got into drones recently while watching her friend James fly his Mavic Pro. Loving what he was doing with drones, she decided to jump right in and picked up the Mavic 2 Pro! Not a bad choice for a first drone! And guess where she purchased it? Right at the DJI flagship store in Causeway Bay! She was able to test out the Mavic 2 Pro in the caged flying area, and walked out with the drone a few minutes later. Awesome!
She's currently flying recreationally, however she's honing her skills in hope of jumping into the commercial side of things when she returns to the USA. Once she's back home in Ohio, she's considering flying in real estate and a couple of other industries. Until then, she's going to continue honing her flight skills, and work towards perfecting her work.
During our chat, I struggled to remember the name of the BBC drone pilot that I chatted with a few years ago. Tania, I apologize, and here is a link to make up for it!
Now back to Brandi, she's going to be taking a 3 month vacation before returning to the USA later this year. She's going to be travelling around the globe, and looks forward to researching all the drone laws in every country she visits. First up will be Tonga, French Polynesia, Australia, and Papua New Guinea, and I can't wait to see her drone footage!
I hope you enjoyed this drone chat with Brandi, and if you like the show, please share it with your other drone friends 😊
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Wolfgang Weber (IMDB) is from Ottawa, but moved to Los Angeles 11 years ago to follow his dreams. Waiting tables led to a few acting gigs, then a few drone gigs, and then a few combo drone and acting gigs! Being a drone pilot, he was able to negotiate a few early roles based on his drone skills, while also inserting himself into the script. Since picking up the sticks, he's started AIRWOLF Drones.
Wolfgang started flying a DJI Phantomin 2015, and has since moved up to the Inspire, newer Phantoms, as well as the M600. He also drops a total bomb about the DJI Zenmuse X7 that I was shocked to hear!
So far, Wolfgang's favourite projects have been resort work down in the Bahamas, as well as chasing Ferrari around a track during the Ferrari Challengein California. He worked the Ferrari Challenge along with LA Drones, and their fleet of Inspire 2's, and where their work was broadcast live back to Italy. Talk about an awesome job, where you have you have to be on top of your game! Fellas, sign me up for the next go round!
Things aren't all roses though, as Wolfgang has experienced some trouble with his Inspire 2. He's had issues with a limp gimbal, batteries not connecting, gimbal vibration port, and a variety of other errors. He's tried refreshing the firmware, however it seems to be a constant problem for him. Luckily, he's part of a great network of drone pilots in Los Angeles, so if his drone has trouble, there is always another Inspire 2 nearby.
So, being an actor as well as a drone pilot, I had to ask for tips on how to get into the industry. Wolfgang doesn't hold back as he lets us know exactly what you should do if you're interested in becoming a Hollywood drone pilot.
If you like what you heard from Wolfgang Weber, get out there and take action! Maybe you'll even see him on set sometime! And, if you'd be awesome enough to share this episode with your other drone friends, I'd be ecstatic! Share away, and keep the spinny side up!
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
What do you do when you need a drone, but not from one of the worlds largest manufacturers? You go to a custom builder, that's what! This week on the podcast I chat with Bobby Watts, a custom drone builder from the eastern United States!
Bobby is the founder and CEO of Watts Innovations, based on Baltimore, Maryland. He's been flying radio controlled helicopters and other aircraft since he was 15, and has now branched into building his own systems. He discovered that certain organizations needed homebuilt systems, that didn't rely on commercially available systems. Part of the reason is for privacy, and the other is to allow for heavy payloads.
His part choices are ultimately up to the client, and he finds that the DJI A3 flight controller is the best in the world. Lately, government organizations have been requesting Pixhawk over DJI, however DJIstill makes up about 99% of his builds. Why not DJI? Well, it appears there is still concern about the possibility of DJI spying or sending information back home.
Another topic that we discussed was getting locked out of flight by DJI. It's important to check and follow through on the DJI unlocking page before heading out to your flight location. It's definitely a brutal feeling when you drive all the way out to a location, and then find out your drone won't let you take off. Yeah, that's a real possibility even if you have authorization from the airport.
During our chat, we also focus a lot on mindset, and marketing techniques. One of Bobby's mentors is Gary Vaynerchuk, who publishes a massive amount of content online. It seems like he's hitting every platform hard, so wherever you'd like, just search his name and you'll see what Bobby means about Gary. We dive even deeper into the facebook pixel, and other advertising and retargeting ideas as well. If you're interested in advertising your drone business or changing your mindset, this is definitely the episode for you!
I hope you enjoyed this week's chat with Bobby Watts, and learned a lot! If you'd like to be awesome(er), please share this episode with other drone pilots that you know and love, and I'll love you right back!
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Have you heard of Women Who Drone? They're a global community that inspires, educates and empowers women and girls with drone technology! Join in this week as I chat with founder and CEO, Elena Buenrostro!
Elena is a drone pilot with a background in video production. Her love of drones started with a trip to the Great Wall of China a few years ago. As she was planning her trip, she started thinking of what kind of equipment to take with her... and guess what? A drone quickly became one of her top choices! She picked up a DJI Mavic Pro, and successfully flew at the Great Wall! Since starting off with the DJI Mavic, she's also picked up the Mavic 2 Pro, Mavic 2 Zoom, and Mavic Air. Who else is envious that she's 4 for 4 in acquiring the Mavic line?
Elena prefers to edit with Adobe Premiere, leaving Final Cut Pro X in the dust a few years ago. She's still working on a MacBook Pro, and finds that Premiere works just fine on the apple platform. It's interesting as I've heard that the Adobe products work much better on windows computers. Either way, I still like Final Cut Pro and likely won't be switching to Premiere Pro anytime soon.
A few months ago I spoke with Camilla Dellion on the podcast, and she is the one that connected me with Elena. During the chat, I discovered that like high school teacher Erin Knoetig, Elena is also teaching children how to fly. I love hearing about the cool things kids are doing with drones and the Swift programming language, so I commend both Erin and Elena for what they're doing. Keep up the good work!
Drone project pricing is a common discussion point on my weekly drone mastermind meetings, and we also discuss Elena's pricing model during this chat. There are many different factors to keep in mind, so be sure to listen to what Elena recommends as it's some very solid advice. Also, if you're interested in checking out our weekly online meetings where we chat about drones, just send me a message and I'll invite you to next week's meeting!
Well hopefully you enjoyed this week's chat with Elena Buenrostro, the founder and CEO of Women Who Drone!
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Tom Noske is a drone pilot from Melbourne, Australia, that is creating beautiful pieces of art with his drone. Yeah, we're going to learn all about his shooting style and editing process during this chat!
Tom is currently flying the DJI Mavic 2 Pro, and absolutely loves the larger Hasselblad sensor. He was flying the original Mavic Pro, but since upgrading he's caught the bug for larger sensors. Yeah, that means that the Inspire 2 is on his list for his next purchase.
On the commercial side of things, Tom is working with sports teams and fitness professionals. He works with rugby teams, rowing teams, and wants to get into shooting music videos. He's also doing corporate work like real estate, but admits that he doesn't like it as much as the other areas.
His editing workflow starts in Adobe Lightroom and then moves into Photoshop. He starts with camera calibrations, tone curves, white balance, and some other basic adjustments in Lightroom. Once in Photoshop, he adds and removes new things, creates atmosphere, moves subjects around, and then returns to Lightroom. Why back to LR? Well, you'll have to listen in to get that detail!
One of Tom's biggest tips is that you should always shoot at sunrise or sunset. He loves using the natural light, and creating large scale photos. How about you? Do you like shooting at sunrise or sunset? Do you find that in the summer sunrise is too early to catch, so you find that sunset is easier to make?
Ok I hope that you enjoyed this week's chat with Tom Noske from Melbourne. As you can see from the photo above, and his instagram profile, he is creating some incredible art. Are you fired up to try and create something along the same lines as well? Show us what you've got! And if you liked the show, please share it with someone else who loves drones :)
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Cheyenne Laux is a drone pilot based in Kentucky, who is operating a drone business with his brother-in-law. His company is called AgDrone PRO, and they concentrate on providing actionable drone data for precision agriculture.
Precision agriculture is a farming management concept based on observing, measuring and responding to inter and intra-field variability in crops. Cheyenne and his company utilize drones to capture data, which they can turn into direct action for farmers. Long gone are the days of wasting resources on the entire field! Now you can simply apply to the areas that need it, instead of covering the entire field in the same amounts.
With large areas of land to cover, Cheyenne is utilizing a combo of multi-rotor and vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) drones to capture his data. In addition to the drone, he's also flying a variety of multispectral sensors to capture everything from RGB (red/green/blue) to NDVI (normalized difference vegetation index). So far he's been flying the AeroVironment Quantax, and has recently started working with the BirdsEyeView FireFLY6. Both systems are VTOL, and can carry Slantrange sensors.
Since they're running a team of drone pilots across the country, they need a management solution to keep tabs on all their equipment, pilots, and missions. Recently, Cheyenne was contacted by the Kittyhawk team about their drone fleet management software. They've just started using it, however love what they see so far. If you're also managing a team of drone pilots, this may be of interest to you too.
Anyway, we had a nice long chat about Precision Ag and VTOL drones. Hopefully you enjoy listening in, and if you have any questions feel free to reach out to us in the comments below. Also, if you like the show, we'd love for you to share it with another drone pilot! Thanks in advance!
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
David Rule is a globe trotting drone pilot, who calls Pinedale, Wyoming home. He got into photography about 2 years ago, and pulled the trigger on a drone just over a year ago. The drone was the no brainer addition to his toolkit, to help bring his passion for photography to the next level!
Being a full time pro, David is shooting both ground and aerial shots for a variety of clients around the world. He's recently returned from Africa, where he had a company reach out to him through Instagram to shoot a project with LifeStraw. During the shoot, they travelled around to schools and villages in Africa, and captured footage of the children using their new water filtration systems. Supplying clean water is one thing, but another awesome benefit is that he had a blast flying around the kids. Listen in as he describes how the drone was pretty much the star of the show!
When not travelling the world, David has a thriving business serving local real estate agents. Notice how I used real estate agents instead of the word realtor? I learned something new this week as one of my connections in the UK let me know that realtor isn't a word over there. Instead, they call them estate agents. So I guess as a combo of both, real estate agent is probably a good mix that makes sense to most? I can only hope! :) Anyway, David said that his agents have grown to expect drone shots, and pretty much demand them for every listing.
David's marketing efforts are almost entirely centred around his Instagram presence. As mentioned earlier, he has a lot of people and companies reach out to him via Instagram, which is entirely organic. He's not into faking what he's doing, and tries to be super real with everything he does. When I asked him if he would do anything different if he moved to another country, he said that he wouldn't change a thing. Instagram is a killer for him, and is obviously bringing in some awesome opportunities to travel the world with his drone.
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Steve Adcock is a drone pilot from Adelaide, in South Australia. Actually, he's not right in Adelaide, but he's 30km to the east. Regardless, he's flying all over the area, and is having a blast with his drone business. He's currently flying a variety of drones, including several DJI drones from the Spark all the way up to the Inspire 2. He thinks that he's had 13 drones so far, with 3 of them being written off. Good ratio I guess? haha
He's been flying in a variety of industries, including real estate, construction, military, and agriculture. Most of his work self described as "pretty pictures and video." He's also done a lot of work with production houses, and enjoys the pressure working in that environment. For a lot of his work, there is only one chance to get the shot, so he makes sure everything is ready before the shoot. Listen in to the podcast to hear how he describes a shoot where a large ship was leaving the dock. Yeah, that's one of those operations where you can't press pause and have the boat start all over again!
Being from Australia, Steve isn't familiar with what it's like flying in some of the freezing temperatures that we get here in Canada. If you're looking for winter and cold temperature flying tips, have I got the answers for you! Check out the link in the previous sentence, as well as my tips during our discussion.
Beyond the weather and stressful shoots, we also discuss marketing ideas, video editing, and advantages of dual vs single operator flight. We also talk about the massive advantages of practicing ATTI mode flight. Be sure to listen in and subscribe to The Drone Trainer podcast, wherever you get your audio!
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Filippo Canepa is a 35 year old drone pilot from Turin, Italy. Along with his brother, he is operating a real estate business, concentrating on renting, sales, and a new builds. And guess what? He's looking to use his drone to promote his real estate business! Filippo is flying the Mavic Air, Inspire 2, and is looking at picking up a DJI Spark.
Before he gets going in his real estate business, he's working on studying for and passing his drone license exams in Italy. One of the hurdles that he has to overcome is passing the practical flight exam. This exam is a hands on flight test, where he has to fly with and without a GPS signal. The test even takes things a little further by not allowing use of a screen during testing. Yeah, you have to fly 100% by keeping your eye on the drone, all while in non-GPS mode. If you're looking for training for how to fly in ATTI mode, I have just thing thing for you right here.
We also discuss the commercial and recreational drone flight rules in Italy. Currently there is a division between what you can do as a licensed vs non licensed operator, and we go over all of it during our chat. If you'd rather read about the Italian drone rules, check out this resource for everything that you need to know about flying in Italy.
Filippo is running a few instagram accounts, both personal and a collaboration with his friend Ben Skaar.
I hope you enjoyed this week's drone podcast with Filippo Canepa! Once you've had a listen, feel free to leave a comment below so that Filippo and I can hear what you think!
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
This week while the temperatures were hovering just above freezing, I decided to conduct a IMU calibration on my DJI Phantom 4 Pro. After completing the calibration, I wondered what the rest of the drone community was up to, and reached out to find out all of the best practices!
What is a drone's IMU?
IMU (inertial measurement unit) calibration is one of those things that is critical to keeping your drone straight and level. The IMU is a sensor that detects motion along a horizontal plane, as well as increases and decreases in altitude. Having a tightly calibrated IMU is critical to having the drone know what zero motion feels like. Without a good IMU calibration, your drone will potentially think that it's drifting off in a certain direction, and then create an opposite input. Yeah, it's going to become very difficult to control and won't be stable in flight at all!
My IMU calibration
This week with the temperatures just above zero, I conducted a IMU calibration in the middle of a wide open field without any interference. It's important to do them without any interference, as a bad calibration can lead to disaster once in the air and away from the "calibrated" interference. Same goes for the compass, but I'll leave that for a separate discussion.
During the calibration, the DJI tutorial showed the drone with the props removed, however I did mine with the props still attached. There are three reasons that I can think of that they'd recommend props removed during the calibration. First is if the drone was to somehow start up during calibration, you likely wouldn't have control. Second is that you may not get the drone totally level during calibration. And finally, depending on the composition of your props, there is a possibility they could interfere with a clean IMU calibration.
Anyway, even with the props on I was able to precisely calibrate the IMU. I was further able to confirm this by taking the drone to another location with a lot of interference, and was still able to fly it without any issue at all. Thats a good thing to remember if you're looking for a place to calibrate your drone's IMU. Choose a location without any interference, or as little as possible, and then move to your area of higher interference to fly. Don't do it the other way around, as I mentioned above, it can cause all kinds of problems.
What does everyone else say?
Knowing that it's always best to share information so that we can all improve, I decided to ask my drone community what their best practices are when it comes to IMU calibration. There are a variety of responses and techniques, and I'm sure you can pick up a little tidbit of info from each one. Let's see what the community has to say in this week's episode!
Final thoughts on drone IMU calibration
As can you see by the comments above, there are some varying opinions when it comes to calibrating your IMU. Some say if it's not broke, don't try and fix it, while others are suggesting doing it before every flight. I think that doing it, over not doing it at all is a good idea, but make sure that you do it in an interference free area. Keep it away from all metal, bluetooth, watches, cellphones, power-lines, vehicles, rebar, and anything else that you think could cause interference.
Also to answer a few of the above questions, yes temperature can play into your IMU calibration. I'm not 100% sure about high temperatures, but colder temperatures definitely have an effect on calibration and allowing your drone to operate in cooler weather. I have a full article on winter drone flight tips, where I discuss the benefits of calibrating in a cooler environment. As I don't live in a screaming hot place, I'm looking to you to let me know if you've experienced differences in calibrations in high temperatures.
What do you say?
After reading all of the opinions above, what do you think? Are you going to modify the way that you conduct your drone's IMU calibration? Or are you going to keep on keeping on? Regardless, let us know below in the comments so that we can keep on learning from each other! When you're finished leaving your comment, get out there and fly! Have fun, and be sure to keep the spinny side up!
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Danny Engesser is an IT professional who has been running his drone side hustle for the past year. He started off with a Parrot AR, and has since moved up to the DJI Phantom 3 Advanced and now the Inspire 1. So far he's been working in a variety of industries including energy, car dealerships, and corporate group photos.
Utilizing the LAANC system (Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability), Danny has been able to fly missions in a variety of controlled airspace. So far he's found the system to be fairly straightforward, and hasn't had any issue on obtaining airspace permissions. While in the air, Danny prefers to use the DJI Go app, however has been tinkering with Litchi as well lately. I've used litchi myself, but we also discuss my personal preference of Hangar's Autopilot.
Danny mentions that he had some trouble with the Inspire 1's firmware, and figured out a way to downgrade it to the original settings. It takes some work, but he has posted instructions for how to make this happen. I haven't had to try something like this, but it looks like a good option for drone pilots that are having issue with their firmware and want to start over from scratch. Alternatively, you can use my method of refreshing the firmware to keep things up to date with a clean install.
For insurance, Danny choses Verifly to cover him on a flight by flight basis. So far he's had pricing ranging from $10 up to $130, with the increase likely based on the operational airspace. There may be a few other factors that cause the price to jump, but in his tests he's found that small adjustments have caused significant price changes.
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
El Paso drone pilot, David Angulo, has been flying for the past two years. David was experiencing some heath problems, and in attempt to make a few extra dollars, he decided to pick up a drone on Black Friday. While it was risky to just pick up a drone and then learn how to use it, it's really worked out for his family as he's now making some great money flying drones.
So far David is working in real estate, commercials, and short films. When he does some real estate work, he flies the mission with his drone and then edits with Photoshop and Davinci. Speaking of Davinci, if you're looking for a great piece of free video editing software, make sure to check them out! On the other hand, when he shoots for short films or commercials, he captures the footage in D-Log, and then hands it over to the production company so they can work their magic.
David is looking to get into mapping and modelling, and we had a good discussion about my Drone Mapping 101 training course. If you haven't had a chance to check it out yet, take a look as I cover off everything from start to finish to create highly accurate maps and models. In the course, I cover off the big 3 photogrammetry processors, Pix4D, Drone Deploy, and Maps Made Easy. If you're interested in learning how to create high resolution drone maps, be sure to check it out!
One of David's favourite projects has been on We Will Not Be Tamed: Xochitl Rodriguez which was featured on Texas Monthly. The other that he really enjoyed shooting and then taking about on the show was over at Spaceport America. David is also taking part in International Drone Day, so if you're in the El Paso area, be sure to hit him up and join in on May 4, 2019!
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Marc Le Cornu is a drone pilot based in the Channel Islands. He's currently a full time firefighter, but as of next week he's going to be retiring from public safety and taking his drone business full time! He's been running his commercial drone operation for a few years now, but once he retires from fire, he will be able to really hit the air and take on everything that comes his way. Speaking of that topic, Marc made comment that he's had to turn down a few jobs and opportunities due to his day job getting in the way. That's all going to change next week though!
Marc's current drone fleet consists of the Mavic 2 Pro, Phantom 4 Pro Obsidian, and Inspire 2. Quite the nice fleet, and his current favourite is the Phantom 4 Pro as he says it performs better than the Mavic 2 Pro in low light. He has plans to tackle the low light even more with a future purchase of the Zenmuse X7 for his Inspire 2.
Back to his public safety drone operations, Marc's team had been flying the Matrice 210 series. Had is the keyword there, as they've since taken it out of service. Can you guess why? They were unfortunately victim of the DJI TB50 and TB55 battery firmware failures, and their drone fell out of the sky. Marc went through all of the regulatory followup after their incident, and everything has been administratively cleared, however they've lost all faith in their M210 unit. It's truly unfortunate as the M210 is a beast that suffered a major flaw. Anyway, here's hoping that they get their systems back in the air shortly.
So how did Marc start out with drones? Well, he wanted to make enough money to pay for his ski trips. Since he's now in a position to retire, I bet you can imagine how things have gone since then! Anyway, I won't reveal the entire conversation here in the notes, so head on over and have a listen to this week's chat with Marc. You can listen right here on this page, or wherever you get your podcasts by searching for "The Drone Trainer Podcast" :)
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Sandor Otvos is a Hungarian drone pilot, that is currently living in Austria. He is a chemist, and is currently working at one of the Austrian universities. He's been lucky enough to live and work in several countries, allowing him to consistently fly his drone in new places!
Sandor has been flying for a few years now, and started off flying the original Phantom 1 drone! I started with the Phantom 2, so we discussed what it was like flying without a video downlink. Lots of trial and error, and not know what you really had until you got home with your SD card. The best part? When you found something that worked, you had to try and remember what you did with your settings, and try and replicate it the next time you went out to fly!
He's currently flying the DJI Mavic Air, and loves the portability. He's also made the switch to FCC mode to allow for greater range. He said that if he doesn't fly in FCC, he is limited to a few hundred meters of distance, but once switching to FCC, he's been able to take full advantage of the Mavic Air's range.
Photoshop and Lightroom are his photo editors of choice, and for video he prefers Sony Vegas. He prefers shooting still over video, and highly recommends adding Camera Raw to your workflow if you're going to be editing in Photoshop.
When I asked Sandor what his favourite place to fly is, he said that it was Montserrat in Spain. With all of his shoots, he likes to check the internet first to get some ideas for where to fly and what to capture. He also stresses that you follow the rules in the country you are flying in. He mentioned a case a few years ago where a Singaporean man crashed his drone into a car, right in the middle of Budapest. Another was a Hungarian guy that decided it would be a good idea to fly his drone near the Prime Minister's house. In both of those situations, the pilots were arrested and interrogated. Remember to stay safe, and don't get in trouble when you're out flying your drone!
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Clay Sweetman, based in New South Wales, Australia, is a drone pilot who also sells drones for a living. Two and a half years ago, Clay had a hip replacement, and during his downtime he pulled the trigger on his first drone. He chose the DJI Mavic Pro as his first drone, and has had an absolute blast flying it ever since.
The biggest Mavic Pro feature that Clay likes, is the camera's portrait mode orientation. If you have a look at his instagram, you can see that he loves it as all of his shots are straight down in portrait mode. If you're not flying a Mavic Pro and want to shoot portrait mode, you have three options. First, you can take a series of photos and stitch them together, or crop them into a portrait orientation, or lastly just rotate your drone 90 degrees if you're shooting straight down. Easy!
Clay loves shooting during the golden hour, and always shoots raw. When it comes to editing, he likes to bring down the exposure to bring the blacks down, and then the whites up as much as he can. He emphasizes tropical greens and blues, while keeping images as sharp as possible. He also gives some of his credit to Merr Watson and Emily Kaszton's editing style, and their awesome Lightroom presets. In addition to his instagram gallery, you can also check out Clay's print store over at Riptide Prints.
I hope you enjoyed this week's drone podcast with Clay Sweetman! Once you've had a listen, feel free to leave a comment below so that Mike and I can hear what you think!
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Mike Pehel is the newly appointed chairman of InterDrone, a massive drone show based in Las Vegas, NV. While Mike isn't a drone pilot himself, he has vast knowledge and can provide a 20,000' view of the drone industry. Why isn't he a drone pilot? Well, he lives on Long Island, and is unfortunately dominated by controlled airspace. Yes, there are ways around it, but as a recreational pilot it can be too much tape to deal with just to get off the ground.
The good news for us is that Mike is concentrating his efforts on InterDrone. InterDrone is the largest commercial drone event in North America, and will be held at the Rio in Las Vegas, Sept 3-6, 2019.
In this episode, we chat about everything from drone delivery, to drone pilot licensing. Licensing is a topic that I'm fond of, as I feel there is room for improvement in countries that aren't conducting flight reviews. Why is it good enough just to complete a written exam, but not show your flight skills in the field? Some might say it's not a big deal, but think of a comparison to your automobile drivers license. Can you imagine just writing the test, and then being handed your license? Right? I think that every country should employ flight exams, to ensure that they're handing the keys over to capable drone pilots. Transport Canada recently added this requirement to their new licensing system, and I suggest that the FAA should follow suit.
As for drone delivery, we discuss what it could look like, and my prediction for what industries are going to be the winners. Currently everyone wants their toothbrush delivered by Amazon, however I think that medical services will be the ultimate beneficiary of drone delivery. Now, we just need the UTM to catch up to the already capable flying tech.
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Adrian Jones is a drone pilot from California, who has recently started his drone business. He's working full time in the IT industry, but is looking to make a break and start working with his drones full time. Since starting out with drones, he's flown the Mavic Pro, Phantom 4 Pro, and now the Mavic 2 Pro.
When he gets the ball rolling, he's looking at creating a unique system on his site to let Realtors choose their shoots. His plan is to shoot a series of movements and scenes, and then allow realtors to pick which shot they'd like to employ. He's also knows that some Realtors will allow him creative freedom, and won't use a system like that, but he hopes for those that are hands-on this will be a great system.
Since he's new to the drone world, I asked Adrian if he wishes that he would have done anything differently. His recommendation was to not spend too much too early. It's easy to spend, thinking that you're going to be making bank at the start, but it's better to wait. He regrets purchasing an expensive iMac computer and some other equipment, when he should have been out concentrating on creating content and developing his business. Great advice Adrian!
We also discuss the possibility of certain drones sending information back home. I wrote an article covering off my thoughts on it, and think it's time to make an update based on some info that Adrian provided. I wasn't aware, but apparently there are app developers working on blockers to ensure that your data stays with you, and isn't transferred back to an unintended server. What are your thoughts?
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Tim Eccles is a drone pilot from Cape Town, South Africa, who had an interesting start in the drone world. He was gifted a drone in January 2018, but wasn't able to fly it at that time due to a bad battery. He let it sit for a while, but once getting it going he's been having a blast flying and selling his prints.
Living near some beautiful beaches, Tim is almost exclusively taking photos at the beach and waterfront. Lately he's been experimenting with umbrellas and desaturating his photos. I find this is a great technique as it really lets the photo speak for itself, rather than relying on some crazy oversaturated colour.
Hilariously enough, Tim has self declared himself as a terrible drone pilot! For that reason he sticks to photos and doesn't do much on the video side of things. If you're interested in learning how to get out of the "terrible drone pilot" side of things and learn how to fly with precision, be sure to check out my free drone training course. I'll get you and Tim going in no time at all!
Even though Tim isn't flying commercially yet, he has some experience with instagram marketing. He recommends using a service called Social Info, that gives you hashtag recommendations. In addition to recommendations, it also shows how competitive each hashtag is. As he describes it, it's the instagram game!
He's been selling his prints on his own so far, but after hearing both Merr Watson and Michael Brown talk about Riptide Prints, he's likely going to move his business over there. As fun as it is to shoot, print, and ship, it's also nice to have someone else take care of the back end of the business for you.
I hope you enjoyed this week's drone podcast with Tim Eccles of Cape Town, South Africa! Once you've had a listen, feel free to leave a comment below so that Tim and I can hear what you think!
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Ryan Walsh is the CEO of Valqari, a drone delivery solution based in Chicago, Illinois. Ryan and his team have developed a drone delivery solution to solve the last mile or last meter problem. I have to admit, before speaking with Ryan today, I had been very skeptical of drone delivery as a whole. I could predict it's success in rural environments, but the urban environment was where I predicted it would be difficult to impossible. Now after speaking with Ryan, I have a different outlook on drone delivery as a whole, and think that we're going to be there sooner than I or many expected!
The key to Valqari's success isn't flying drones beyond visual line of sight, or navigating between distribution centre to the general delivery area, but rather the last few inches of delivery. Ryan and his team have developed a mailbox receiver system to "handshake" with the drone, and ensure a safe and successful delivery. Since his team isn't spending time on the other aspects of flight, they are mastering the close proximity last few inches of drone delivery, and their solution works with both DJI and PX4 powered drones. In addition to those systems, Valqari has also developed their own drones.
So what does this mean for drone delivery? Well, I encourage you to listen to the whole episode, but just quickly he predicts that drone delivery will be a reality in 2020 or 2021. I bet that is sooner than you thought with how things have been going!
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Erin Knoetig is a high school teacher from Nashua, New Hampshire, teaching her students about all that is drone. It started off as an idea with one of her co-workers, and is starting out as a part time program until the end of this school year. So far the program has been a great success, and starting in the fall it will be a full time credited class at Nashua High School North!
When she first started brainstorming the program, Erin jumped in and got her Part 107 drone license. During the show she didn't divulge which school she used for that, but as many of you know my recommendation is Remote Pilot 101. Everyone that I've sent their way has crushed their FAA Part 107 exam, so if you're looking to get yours, check them out!
Back to Erin's drone program, she discusses how she is creating the materials, as well as what's easy and what's difficult for the students to grasp. If you're reading this before listening, do you have any guesses as to what the students find easy and difficult? Erin also lets us know that she has a shooting star in her class that is really grasping drones, and may even give Erin a run for her money when it comes to drone knowledge and skills! ;)
The biggest tip that she has for teaching children about drones, is to gain confidence yourself. If you're not confident, you're going to have a hard time teaching the students. Get out there and fly in different situations, so when your kids ask you a question, you can answer with confidence as you've been there before! Makes sense, right? In addition to that, Erin is also working on getting her program FEMA certified, as they have plans for the students to work with public safety in Nashua.
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Phil Alder is a drone pilot based in Victoria, Australia, running Gippsland Drone Services. While Phil doesn't have his commercial licensing, you'll hear that he is still able to work as long as he is obeying all the Australian drone rules. He is obviously limited in what he can do, but he's still making it happen while operating legally in rural areas.
Working mostly in real estate and property work, Phil is flying his drone for a lot of large farms and rural accommodations. He's concentrating most of his work down in southeast Australia, but has also recently been contacted to complete a large farm shoot in Queensland to the north.
Commercial work aside, as you can see on his instagram account, Phil is a wicked aerial photographer. Phil shoots a lot of his stills for pleasure, but as you can see it has translated into a lot of commercial opportunities. Not only does he choose the correct locations, he also has a wicked editing touch. The photo to the right is just a sample of his work, so be sure to head over and check out his entire gallery. I'm sure you're going to love it!
I hope you enjoyed this week's drone podcast with Phil Alder! Once you've had a listen, feel free to leave a comment below so that Phil and I can hear what you think!
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Sparky Sorenson is a drone pilot form Dallas Texas, currently fling the DJI Phantom 4 Pro and DJI Inspire 2 models. Sparky has been flying since 2014, when he was in a band and taking a lot of cross state roadies. During these trips he started to explore video editing, and eventually added on a drone! His first drone, like mine, was the Phantom 2.
Flying mostly cinematography, and mapping missions, his choice in the P4P and I2 is obvious. The quality and calibre of footage you can get from the I2 is exactly what his film and television production clients want. The P4p and it's global shutter is also perfect for his mapping missions.
Speaking of mapping, Sparky is utilizing the Propeller Aeropoints for many of his jobs. If you've taken my Drone Mapping 101 course, you'll recall that I also use Aeropoints during the training to show you how easy it is to mark your ground control or manual tie points in post processing. If you haven't checked out the course yet, be sure to head on over for all the details!
I won't get into too many details in this blog post, so be sure to listen in to hear how Sparky flew at an airport. Yeah, I know many of us have flown in controlled airspace, but Sparky flew right in the middle of an active airport. Very, very cool stuff!
I hope you enjoyed this week's drone podcast with Sparky Sorenson! Once you've had a listen, feel free to leave a comment so that Sparky and I can hear what you think!
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
What is CES 2019?
CES 2019 is the world’s gathering place for consumer technologies, and I will be there to check out all of the new and existing drone tech. The show runs from January 8-11 at the Las Vegas Convention Center (and many other venues), and I'll be hitting the exhibitor floor every day to take in all that is drone. With 4500 exhibitors, and over 180,000 attendees, this is going to be massive!
What I'll be doing at CES 2019!
Throughout the show, I'll be providing live updates via social media, including photos, videos, and possibly some interviews and demos of the latest drone equipment. Be sure to follow along on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn to get all the latest drone news from CES 2019. Also, if you're going to be at the show, be sure to reach out to me via social media so that we can meet up for a chat about drones, or a beer, or both!
Drone Companies I'll be checking out at CES 2019!
Now, the show is 4 days long, however I've heard that it's almost impossible to check out everything due to it's sheer size. I've done my best to create a plan using the CES 2019 app, and have so far located the following drone related companies. I'm sure there are more that I haven't come across via the CES app, but I'm sure I'll come across them while at the show. Anyway, here is my list in alphabetical order:
4S Mapper
Aeva, Inc
AirSelfie
ALX Systems
Amazon HS3C
Astral AR
Autel Robotics
Bell
Chasing-Innovation Technology Co., Ltd.
Dandelion Air, LLC
Deseret UAS
Digital Trends
DJI
Drone Act
Drone Analytics
Drones for Work
Dronistics
eCapture3D
Edgybees
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
FLIR Systems Inc.
Fluidity Technologies
Global Energy Transmission Co.
GoPro Inc.
Hardware Club
Higher Ground LLC
Hivemapper
Hoversurf
JOYDRONE Co. Ltd.
Kunshan Pugongying Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd
Light&Magic Technologies
Lume Cube LLC
Motion Pilot
Navatics Technology Ltd.
NewBeeDrone
Powervision Robot Corp.
Sejong University
Shenzhen High Great Innovation Technology Development
Shenzhen LeveTop Technology Co., Ltd.
Shenzhen Simtoo Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd.
Sony Electronics Inc.
STEM
Sunflower Labs
The Tiffen Company
UVify, Inc.
WindShape
XDynamics
Yape S.r.l.
Yuneec USA Inc.
Eureka Park!
Many of these exhibitors will be in the LVCC, however many of them will be in Eureka Park, the startup hub at CES 2019. I'm looking forward to seeing all of the existing giants, but am totally excited to check out all of the startups in Eureka Park to see what is on the horizon in the drone industry. If there is anything that you'd like me to check out at Eureka Park, or anywhere else for that matter, just let me know and I'll see what I can do!
Let's meet up at CES!
In addition to checking out all the new tech, I'll also be at the Canadian Delegation on Wednesday from 9am - 1pm ready to discuss anything you'd like about drones. The Canadian Delegation is located at Tech East, Westgate booth 1021, so come on by and say hello!
CES 2019 is going to be awesome, and I can't wait to share all the awesome drone content with you. If you're going to be there, reach out via my contact form, or via any of my social media channels, as I'd love to meet up!
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Walt Snider is an IT professional and Office 365 trainer based in Miami Florida. He is a photographer that has a lot of interest in drones, and has a LOT of questions! In this episode we're going to turn the tables a little as Walt will be asking most of the drone questions, and I'm answering them off the cuff. Yeah, no prep so you can hear me fire off answers in real time instead of having a lot of time to prepare. As you'll hear, I love talking about drones and have a good time in this podcast episode with Walt.
Anyway, we cover a lot of drone related topics, and get into everything from definitions to specific drone behaviours and how to choose which drone to purchase. We start off talking about return to home features, and quickly get into drone mapping and modelling, photogrammetry, drones with and without GPS, and much more.
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
7 Essential Winter Drone Flight Tips Flying your drone in the winter can be one of the most rewarding times to fly, however you must be adequately prepared! We fly our drones in the often brutal Canadian winters, so have decided to share our top winter flight tips with you! Yes, these tips come from experience, not just what we've read on the internet 😉
Keeping Your Hands Warm I'm a big fan of flying without gloves, as I feel that I loose dexterity and the "touch" required to fly with precision. However, the first thing that I'd experience during winter flight is cold hands. In addition to the lack of dexterity, I found that many gloves that were "touchscreen friendly" were anything but that. Many would somehow stop working when they got cold (go figure), or just not work at all.
After months of trial and error, I finally found a pair that kept my hands warm while working great on touchscreen devices. The Under Armour gloves are by far the best of anything I've used, and I highly recommend their Storm ColdGear Infrared Elementsseries.
They're made out of soft fleece, so you can move your fingers easily while you fly your drone. They are also lined with some kind of magical technology which absorbs and retains your body heat. The biggest benefit though is their "Tech Touch" which allows you to use your touchscreen devices with both your fingers and thumbs. I've found that I can tap and move my iPad or iPhone with ease when I'm wearing these gloves, and only experience touch failures about 10% of the time. That may sound like a lot, but most of the gloves that I tested only workedabout 10% of the time, so these babies are a huge improvement! Anyway, they come in a variety of styles and colours over at Amazonor your local sporting goods store.
Keeping Drone Batteries Warm The biggest challenge in winter flight, is keeping your drone batteries warm. Lithium polymer (LiPo) batteries pack a lot of punch in a small and lightweight package, but require proper care to be flown in the winter. Simply carrying your batteries around in a backpack or standard drone case isn't going to work, as they will cool off too much. If you're flying in milder temperatures you may see a warning on your device that the batteries need to warm up before the drone can take off, but trust me if you're flying in anything below freezing temperatures they simply won't warm up enough to let you take off.
I've found two foolproof solutions over the years, and the first involves keeping everything inside a warm vehicle until the moment that you're going to fly. I absolutely don't mean keeping your drone and batteries right in front of your heaters, but rather just within your vehicle to soak up the ambient heat. You can damage your drone batteries by quickly heating or cooling them in front of your heat/ac vents.
Warm Drone Batters via the Cooler Method If you're not going to be near a vehicle, the best option is to use an insulated cooler to keep your batteries warm. The key to selecting a cooler to keep your batteries warm, is to choose one that is appropriately sized. You want to ensure that your batteries stay fairly close to each other and the heat source, otherwise they will cool down the second that you open it up. I prefer something like the bag to the rightwhich has a 9 can capacity. This allows you to store several drone batteries along with your heat sources, all while remaining lightweight and easy to cary around with you.
The first heat source that I recommend are the typical hand warmersthat you would shove in your gloves on a long winter excursion. This time instead of putting them in your gloves, you'll toss a couple of them into your cooler bag along with your drone batteries. I find for a 9 can capacity bag, that 4 to 6 of the standard size hand warmers does the trick. Make sure that you don't get the adhesive type though as you don't want them sticking to your batteries or cooler liner.
The second heat source that I recommend is filling 355ml water bottles with hot water. You don't need to boil water, just take the hottest water that you can get out of your tap and that'll do the trick. My house's taps pump out 60 C (140 F) and I find that filling about 3 or 4 bottles will keep the bag warm all day.
Just remember that warm air rises, so it's important to place your hand warmers or bottles at the bottom of your bag to radiate the heat up, and not the other way around. Also, make sure that you seal those bottles up tight so that they won't leak on your expense drone batteries!
Touchscreen Device Warming Just like your drone batteries, you need to keep your iPad, iPhone, or other touchscreen device warm or it'll die FAST! What works with your devices, but not with drone batteries, is simply keeping them inside your jacket to warm via your body heat. External pockets don't work, and probably aren't big enough for your iPad anyway, so be sure to keep them inside your jacket.
Speaking of touchscreen devices, I prefer larger devices like the iPad over smaller ones like the iPhone due to their increased battery capacity. You're going to drain your device quickly when flying in freezing temperatures, so may as well bring along the most battery capacity possible. Another benefit of a larger screen is that your touchscreen gloves will actually hit the right target. Trust me, there is nothing worse than tapping a million times on a small screen when it's freezing out!
ND and Polarizing Filters In order to combat all of that bright reflective snow, I recommend using a good set of lens filters on your drone. Both PolarProand Tiffenmake awesome options for a variety drones, and should be used during almost all winter flight. As I often discuss on my podcast, ND filters are great for slowing down your shutter speed, and polarized filters are excellent for removing glare when flying over snow and water.
Camera Settings for Snow Shooting Shooting in snowy conditions can play tricks on your camera's auto exposure settings, so I recommend switching to manual settings to combat dark or strange coloured snow. If you've ever shot in the snow and found it to be quite grey instead of white, you'll want to make a few adjustments to how you shoot. Our friends over at B&H photo have a great article with their 7 tips for taking photos in the snow. 5 of those 7 tips are excellent for drone photographers, so I recommend heading over there for the quick read.
Asf for me? I make sure that I adjust for each scene that I'm shooting in. There aren't any surefire settings that will capture each winter scene the same, so I'm always making small tweaks to my white balance and shutter speed to ensure that I get white snow that isn't under exposed. Remember, a faster shutter speed will under expose the scene, so manually slowing it down will start to brighten things up for you. Make sure that you don't go too bright though, as you don't want everything else to get washed out too.
Calibrate Your Drone in Cooler Temperatures Often when you fire up your drone in cold temperatures, you'll receive a warning that it needs to warm up before flight. One way to satisfy the drone that it's operating in suitable temperatures, is to calibrate the IMU in cooler temperatures. If your drone was last calibrated when its was hot out, it's going to think it needs to be near that temperature before allowing flight. If you calibrate the IMU in something cooler, then it won't try to warm up to something unnecessary before allowing takeoff.
I don't recommend calibrating the IMU when it's -10C (14F), but instead try and do it around freezing instead. That will provide your drone with a good baseline, and won't put you in the impossible situation of the drone thinking it needs to warm up to +25C before it's going anywhere.
Minimum Drone Flight Temperatures Most drones have a lower temperature limit of 0 C (32 F), however some of the newer drones such as the DJI Inspire 2and Mavic 2series are rated below freezing. The good news is that if you keep your drone and batteries warm before flight, you can start above the minimum temperature, and the drone will keep itself warm during flight. That said, there are extremes that you won't want to fly in as you're going to ruin your batteries. Speaking from experience, drones that are rated to 0C (32F) are totally fine to fly in temperatures around -10C (14F). Once you start getting colder than -15C (5F) then you run the risk of ruining your batteries.
I know there are hero drone pilots out there that have claimed flights in -1,000,000 degrees, but seriously you are not doing any good for your drone. In 2014 I flew my old Phantom 2 in -17C, which resulted in the battery freezing up and almost not having enough power to land the drone safely. I ended up damaging the battery due to the temperatures, and it had to be taken out of service. With how expensive drone batteries are, make sure that you keep them warm and don't fly in anything too cold. My recommendations are listed here, however I'll leave that final temperature decision up to you!
Now get out there and have fun flying! I hope that you've enjoyed these winter flying tips! Now that you're prepared to stay warm, get out there and hit the winter sky!
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Houston Brown is a luxury real estate photographer and drone pilot, who has carved out a niche shooting multimillion dollar ranches in the Dallas area. He started off as a ground based photographer, and branched out into drones once realtors started expecting aerials added to their marketing materials. In addition to just shooting luxury real estate, Houston is marketing himself as a luxury photographer.
How do you market yourself as a luxury real estate drone photographer? Well, he starts by providing premiere services to his clients, and spending upwards of 2 or 3 days at each property. Yeah, you read that right! He isn't spending a few hours there, he is spending multiple days from sunrise to sunset to ensure that he captures everything in the best light. When properties are selling in excess of $20,000,000, this kind of effort is definitely appreciated by the realtors and their clients.
I asked Houston if he has heard of any specific sale that was driven by his photo and video productions, but he didn't have a concrete example to refer to. What he did have though, was examples of other realtors commenting to his realtor client that the work was excellent. In my mind, that is HUGE, as when other realtors are noticing his work they are definitely going to have that certain property at front of mind and bring their clients to see it. It also helps Houston, as those other realtors are going to call him next when they have a luxury ranch listing! Thats a nice cycle for all involved!
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Camilla Dellion is a currently living in the Maldives, flying and capturing some dynamite ocean shots. She is originally from Sweden, but as you hear in this interview she's a world traveler who already has her sites set on her next location. She is currently selling her beautiful prints back home in Sweden to help support her lifestyle in the Maldives, and taking every opportunity that she can to go to Indonesia for projects.
Camilla is currently living on an island that is about 1km long, and 200m wide, so she has an abundance of oceanfront landscape to shoot with her drone. She is cognizant of the drone rules in the Maldives, and is luckily living far enough away from the closest airport that she can legally fly her entire island.
She's one of the lucky ones that has both the Mavic 2 Pro and Mavic 2 Zoom drones, and switches back and forth between them depending on the scene that she is working with. That's quite the luxury isn't it? She started off with the Phantom 4, but obviously enjoys the portability of the Mavic series when she is trekking around the islands.
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Tony Gardiner is a drone pilot and director on the Australian television show, Home And Away. Tony has been working on the show for a few years, and has worked his way up to director. Don't let that fool you into thinking that he's just directing all the awesome drone shots that you see on the show though. He's also on the drone controls, flying and capturing all the shots that they need for the show!
Tony is currently flying the DJI Inspire 2 and Mavic 2 Pro, after upgrading from the original Mavic Pro. When he's not shooting footage for Home and Away, you can find him on the beach at sunset flying and shooting his own personal projects. If you're a fan of checking out awesome drone photos on instagram, be sure to check out Tony's page over there!
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Mika Kurkilahti is a Finnish drone pilot based on Turku. He is one of the partners at a digital agency, and is incorporating drone flights and footage in his creative work. He has been working in his digital agency since 2002, and has been working with drones since 2014 when he picked up a DJI Phantom 2.
Since starting with the Phantom 2, Mika has upgraded to the Phantom 3 Pro and now the Phantom 4 Pro. He discusses how well the P3P worked for him, and how beneficial DJI Care was when he had an unfortunate crash. DJI care starts at only $59, and can be well worth it in case of a crash. I didn't purchase it with my last drone, however after speaking with a few others like Mika recently, it seems like a no brainer for my next purchase.
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Mike Poore is based in Pembrooke Pines, near Fort Lauderdale and Miami in south Florida. He's a drone pilot, and the brains behind Mike's Aerial Photography LLC. Mike has been flying and operating for about a year now, and started off with a Phantom 3 Standard that he picked up on Amazon. Since then he has upgraded to the Mavic Pro, and recently to the Mavic 2 Pro.
Working primarily in real estate, Mike is creating photos and videos of his client's properties from a variety of angles and vantage points. He's shot for high end condos (check out that picture on the right!), and also a variety of waterfront properties. Mike stresses that when you're creating materials for realtors or real estate marketing purposes, a quick turn around is essential. With how fast the market can move, and the difference that drone footage can make, it's important to provide your clients with the final materials quickly.
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Keith Perry, as you may remember from a video blog post that I shared a few weeks ago, is flying a Mavic 2 Zoom. He was one of the first drone pilots that picked up a Mavic 2 Zoom, so with how passionate he is about drones I wanted to chat with him on the podcast as well!
Keith's company is Hudson Valley Drones, based in upstate New York. Keith is concentrating on real estate, but is also working in solar panels and surveying for solar companies. If you're interested in solar panel work, be sure to check out episode 38 with Sinuhe Montoya as well.
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Michael Brown is an Australia based drone pilot, who identified a need to help drone photographers get their work on walls around the world. Michael found that there are creators that are producing some excellent materials, but don't have an easy way to market, print, and ship their work around the world. His response? He created Riptide Prints!
As I mention in the introduction to the show, this is a follow-up episode to my chat with Merr Watson in episode 42. Merr spoke positively about her interactions with Riptide Prints, and was a huge fan of taking 80% of the profit for herself. Seriously, 80% profit!
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Tyler Leipprandt is a Michigan based drone pilot, who is working in real estate and also shooting landscape photos with his drone. Tyler was a teacher for 5 years, and then made the transition into instructional technology. From there his love of drones and tech grew, and the rest has been history.
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Kyle Ventler is flying out of the Seattle area, flying construction sites to capture progression footage. He has been taking standard photos and videos of construction sites, and has now come up with a new technique to count anchor bolts at construction sites. He's developed this technique based on a drone mapping combination of Drone Deploy and Agremo. Yes, Agremo is marketed as an agricultural product, however Kyle has found a way to utilize it in his construction drone work. Very cool and innovative!
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Chris Brisendine has developed an augmented reality solution for drones, that he envisions will be used heavily in public safety response. He has a connection with emergency management in Paris Tennessee, which has allowed him to access useful data to utilize in his app. There is 911 information, home values, colour of houses, and more, but the real value comes in his ability to create overlays. Roads, dropping pins, and damage assessments can be done in real time using Chris' augmented reality solution.
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Merr Watson was born in the Philippines and moved to Perth about 8 years ago. She is a content creator, who is using her drone to capture stunning photos and videos at the beach.
Merr was approached by Mike at Riptide Prints who offered her the opportunity to easily sell her prints online. Riptide takes care of all the printing, framing, and shipping, while still providing Merr the majority of the profit. Think she is a fan of that? YOU BET!
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Ryan Hargraves has been a photographer for 10 years, and has now added drones to his arsenal. He takes a lot of real estate photos, and adding the drone to his business has been very financially beneficial to his business.
Ryan owns the DJI Mavic, Inspire 1, and Phantom 4 Pro, and discusses why he chooses one over the other based on the type of job that he's doing. Since he has a few smaller capable units, you're probably not going to be surprised to hear why his Inspire 1 is mostly sitting around collecting dust.
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Evan Garmon is an insurance agent based in Indiana, servicing drone pilots from all across the United States. Evan has been working in the insurance industry since 2013, and started to specialize in drone insurance in 2015 with Harpenau Insurance. His description on their website says that Evan loves drones, reading, fitness, and pumpkin carving. Rest assured, we're only going to talk about the first point in this interview ;)
Evan and I discuss trends in the drone insurance industry, as well as the brand of drones that he's insuring. I'm sure that most of you aren't going to be surprised when you hear which drone company is taking 95% of his business, but may be surprised about the other 5%.
We also chat about what different kinds of coverages mean for you, and the type and frequency of claims that he has had.
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Ella McKendrick is a recreational drone pilot who is also using her drone to promote her lifestyle brand. Listen in as she discuss her editing process, Instagram advertising strategies, and why she is shooting JPG instead of RAW photos!
When speaking about Instagram ads, Ella gives us tips on how to best target your ads so that you're not just throwing your money into the wind. Strategies discussed include age, gender, and location targeting based on your desired audience.
If you're already promoting your drone business via Instagram or Facebook ads, how's it going? Do you find that you're getting the desired results from it? Have you thought about utilizing brand ambassadors? If you're not sure what that is, listen in as Ella discusses how she uses brand ambassadors, and how much it costs to have someone else promote her product.
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Who else was excited with the announcement and immediate release of the DJI Mavic 2 series drones! We all knew it was coming, but now that it's finally here we can get some real world reviews of the new series as they've already started landing in people's hands around the world.
Elijah Browning, a commercial drone pilot from Michigan was one of the lucky ones to get his hands on a DJI Mavic 2 Pro right away after release, and he's been awesome enough to hop on the show and share his thoughts on this new drone!
Sinuhe Montoya is a drone pilot who saw an opportunity to use his drone to help get solar panels installed. How does that happen? Well, he actually doesn't invite any of the installers with him, but instead he runs everything through his business DroneQuote. How does that work? Well without giving it all away, he saw a need to eliminate painful in home solar panel sales calls by pre-shooting with his drone. Once a home has been shot, he sends the opportunity out to other installers who then bid on the job! Pretty awesome idea, isn't it?
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
The tables have turned a bit in this episode, in that I'm not the host but rather the guest as I have a chat with Max and David over at The UAV Digest! The UAV Digest is a great podcast for finding out the latest industry news, and I wanted to share it with all of you!
Have a listen as I'm on the other side of the table, discussing trends in the UAV industry, as well as our predictions for the future. I really think that you're going to enjoy the episode, so when you're finished listening be sure to subscribe to both this podcast, The Drone Trainer, as well as The UAV Digest!
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Halil Berisha is a drone photographer based in Belgium, who is looking to turn commercial. In this episode, Halil discusses the difference in drone licensing in Belgium, and why he is looking to obtain his license in a neighbouring country instead.
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Paula Sullivan is in the fortunate position to be able to fly under contract for NBC news in the Boston and Connecticut areas! Listen in as she discusses how she flies her gigs, and also how she connected with her company, Photo Flight Aerial Media!
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Benjamin Holmes has been working in the drone industry for about a year now, and has been really putting his nose down over the past 4 months. So far he's been working in real estate, shooting top down photos of his client's properties, and is looking at getting into mapping and modelling in the near future.
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Scott Summer caught my eye as he's shooting a lot of golf courses, and I wanted to find out how he's making his connections and shooting all his footage. When you listen to this episode, you'll hear that he has a lot of connections in the industry due to his prior work, however he also goes over how to develop new business within the golf industry!
Scott started off flying the DJI Phantom 3 4K, but has now made the move to the DJI Phantom 4 Pro and Inspire 2 models. Why the change? Scott goes into detail to talk about the differences between WiFi connected drones such as the P34K, and the benefits you get from Lightbridge connected drones like the P4P and I2.
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Joshua Foo is an Australian drone pilot, based in Melbourne. He is currently flying a DJI Mavic Air, after loosing his DJI Mavic Pro. The full story on that loss is available by listening to the show.
Josh has a massive instagram following, and in this episode he discusses how he grew to over 27,000 followers, and the keys to success. I know that instagram is a very popular platform for many drone pilots, so this is some juicy info that you're not going to want to miss!
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Federico Barra is an Italian surgeon working at the Milan Hospital, who is also a photo enthusiast in his spare time. Checking out his gallery, you can see that he's a master of both ground based photography and aerial drone photography.
Fede is flying the Mavic Pro, as is shooting a Sony mirrorless camera for his ground based shots. He loves the stability of the Mavic Pro in the wind, as well as the low light capabilities of the Sony mirrorless cameras when he's not flying his drone.
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
I came across Sandrine Hecq's work on Instagram a few months ago, and absolutely love her photographic drone style! Sandrine is based in Perth, Australia, however she's one of the lucky ones that gets to travel the world and bring her drone with her along the way!
Speaking of traveling wth your drone, Sandrine has some tips for how to fly with your drone and best way to check or take it as carryon luggage.
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
On this week's show I have a special guest, Randy Goers from the Drone Radio Show podcast! Randy has been podcasting and promoting the drone industry for over 3 years now, and I wanted to introduce his awesome podcast to you as well. Why not share the love of the drone podcast world, by having another awesome advocate on the show, right?
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Mitchell Clarke is another awesome drone pilot that I came across on Instagram a while back, and have been dying to have on the show. If you check out his gallery, you'll see that he has a combo of some awesome photography skills combined with access to some world class locations!
As we chat about drone photography, we get into shooting AEB (auto exposure bracketing) mode, and Mitchell's workflow after the shoot. A quick preview is that he's a big fan of Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop, and impressively doesn't use any of his own presets! He works through a photo from start to finish until it looks right, and will only break down and use a preset if he's completely strapped for time. Check out this beach shot for an example of his edits.
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Alexander Cervin is a drone pilot from Helsingborg, Sweden, who operates the Mavic Pro and Inspire 1 drones. Even though the Inspire 1 is an awesome machine, Alexander's go to drone is the Mavic Pro simply due to it's excellent portability. Even though he likes to fly the smaller drones, Sweden's drone rules are fairly relaxed and you can fly something up to 7kg without a permit!
In this episode we chat about creating drone maps, for use in real estate and construction progress, as well as his favourite Polarpro filters. Alex is also working on building his own drone! He has an engineering background, so I asked him if designing and building a drone would be something that anyone could accomplish. If you want the answer to that question, you're going to have to listen in!
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Thomas Greer is currently flying the Mavic Pro as his main machine, after starting out with the Phantom 3 Pro. He's flying in Portland, capturing images of the bridges, river, downtown buildings, stadiums, etc... all while dodging beers being thrown at him by homeless people! Yes, I'm serious! Listen in to the episode to hear that ridiculous story of a drone pilot dodging a flying beer!
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Gracy Lace is based in Los Angeles, but is currently traveling all over the USA capturing drone footage for a wide range of productions. Currently, she's up in Alaska capturing some drone footage for a wicked virtual realty production featuring bears during the salmon run.
Gracy is currently flying the DJI Inspire 2, with her fleet also including the Mavic Air and Phantom 4. Listen in to see why she's flying the X5 camera system instead of the X7. She's also looking to get into drone search and rescue with LA County!
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Cord Christian is based on north Texas, and has been flying for just over 2 years now. Cord has been creating demos and sample work, and is now trying to figure out how to drum up drone business. Cord was inspired by listening to previous podcast episodes featuring Danielle de Leon and Jerry Fletcher, and wanted to get on the show to discuss how things are going with his drone business.
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Tom Cochrane is based in Newfoundland, Canada, and is creating some amazing photos with his drone. Tom's background was in ground based photography and videography, but once he picked up his first drone he was hooked.
Tom started off with the Phantom 4, but since switching to the Mavic Pro, he's been able to take the drone everywhere. As Tom says, if you like to explore new areas, and want a drone that you can take with you almost everywhere, the Mavic Pro is the drone for you!
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
We've all seen beautiful drone photos of the beach and ocean, however Jackie Dujmovic and her company Hover UAV is taking it to the next level by conducting shark surveillance! When you check out Hover UAV's website, the first thing that you'll see and what immediately caught my eye, is shark footage captured by drone! How's that for an attention getter!
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Ty Audronis is an established drone pilot, that has worked with Discovery Channel, and even worked on the Hurricane Harvey relief effort in Texas. Listen in as he describes how they were there to help during the disaster relief, and the steps that he and his team took to ensure that they didn't stress the already scarce resources in the disaster area. I can't stress enough how important this part of it is, as it may be tempting to race into an area to get some footage, but you need to think about the damage that you could be doing.
Are you going to have enough food? Will you be taking food away from those that need it? How about fuel? How about water? Sometimes it's best to stay away unless you can truly make a difference and not just capture some fancy footage. Listen in to hear exactly how Ty and his crew accomplished this!
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Kara Murphy was one of the lucky few to be able to fly sky high in the dead centre of San Francisco, and has captured some dynamite photos of the cityscape. My personal favourite after checking out her site is this photo of the Salesforce Tower while it was under construction.
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Jerry Fletcher mentions that he's doing a lot of real estate work with his drone, and is looking to get into more construction work. Listen in as we discuss how he's proceeding with his drone inspections, and some ideas to help get his business flying even higher! Ps, Jerry has been working with Allstate for his insurance inspections!
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Spencer McDonald is an established real estate photographer from Washington, who has recently added a drone to his photography arsenal. Listen in as Spencer discusses how drones have helped him get some property shots that he wouldn't have been able to capture with standard photography.
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
As soon as I saw that Danielle had shot the drone work for The Revenant, I knew that I had to get her on what show. How many people can say that they've flown their drones on a blockbuster featuring Leonardo DiCaprio? Not many! Anyway, I don't want to wreck the movie for anyone that hasn't seen it yet, but be sure to check it out and watch for Danielle's drone shots!
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
I was referred to Jason and Blake from BoE systems by Ryan Murphy, who some of you may remember from podcast episode 5. Ryan has recently started working with BoE Systems and their drone LiDAR solution, and recommended getting them on the show to help spread their good word.
Jason and Blake have developed an affordable drone LiDAR system, where subcontractors can lease their equipment rather than forking over the full price for a very expensive drone LiDAR system. I'll save the costs associated for the podcast episode itself, but I'm sure after you listen that the wheels will be spinning about your own business opportunities!
This is definitely one of the most technical episodes that I've had so far, as we get into the differences between drone LiDAR and photogrammetry, overlap, and how to capture power lines with your imagery. Want to learn what a .las file is? This show is for you!
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
I came across John on Facebook after reading a post about how he and his wife were able to save up enough money to pay for In Vitro, and grow their family. Yeah, drones are now directly responsible for some little twins that are going to be coming into the world later this year! Congrats John!
Anyway back to what John is doing with drones! He's shooting a lot of real estate, as well as doing video hyper lapses of new construction projects, and even mapping and modelling! Listen in as John talks about how he's working on getting several recurrent clients to keep his income flow!
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Guilherme Goinhas is one of the very few operators that I've spoken with that is conducting indoor industrial inspections with the Flyability Elios drone system. I remember seeing the Elios on a few videos online, however it's great to hear from someone that is actually using this unique drone for a commercial purpose.
Show notes: https://thedronetrainer.com/podcast-013-guilherme-goinhas-portugal/
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Want a sneak peek into the coolest thing that Shawn Hileman mentioned on the show? Well, it's that he is also an Uber driver, and has managed to get some drone jobs by talking to his Uber customers!
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Bill takes us through his adventure of creating a YouTube show, where he reviews drones and speaks about the industry as a whole. The best part? Bill is buying these drones with his own money, not being paid by any of the specific drone manufacturers.
One of the coolest things that I found out after talking to Bill, is that Autel paid for his Part 107! They apparently sent him a gift card after he purchased the drone to pay for the exam. Talk about a great way to entice your pilots into flying legally! Excellent work Autel!
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
This week's episode features Chris Dantonio, a drone operator from Philadelphia. Chris has a wicked eye for photography, and has some excellent photos on his Instagram account. Listen in as Chris discusses how he markets his business via Instagram, as well as tips for who he tags and mentions in his posts to get the most reach possible. In addition to marketing via Instagram, Chris is also selling prints of his work through his website and in person photo shows!
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
You can tell by listening to this episode that Yanga and Kai are passionate about their drone business Drone Ltd. Liberia, and are getting involved in some very cool shots such as Monkey Island! After hearing my podcast interview with Tania Esteban of the BBC, Yanga and Kai reached out and offered to share their experiences with working in a country without any drone regulations. Want to hear what is like flying 7km away, at 1000' above the ground? This is the episode for you!
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
This week's episode features Dan Edmonson of DroneGenuity, who is providing drone services nation wide. Listen in as he discusses how he selects pilots, what he looks for in a good pilot, and other tips for the industry!
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Today’s episode features John Francis, a commercial drone operator from Massachusetts. Listen in as he discusses the lessons that he’s learned starting his drone business, and tips for getting your business going!
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Today's episode is a very cool one, as I speak with Tania Esteban with the BBC! Listen in as we discuss her wildlife work with the BBC, as well as her own personal drone projects and what her plans are going forward with her commercial drone business.
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
In this episode, we're going to hear from Ryan Murphy, a commercial drone operator from Arizona, as he discusses the various marketing techniques he's both failed and succeeded with!
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Welcome to the fourth episode of The Drone Trainer Podcast! In this episode, we're going to hear from Daniel Waton from the Bahamas, as he discusses the benefits of drone photography in his real estate business! Listen as Daniel says that he has seen property and homes in the Bahamas sell off the internet, strictly off the drone photos!
Also, if you haven't done so already, now would be a great time to subscribe to the show!
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Welcome to the third episode of The Drone Trainer Podcast! In this episode, we're going to hear from Ryan Music from Louisiana, as he discusses his new commercial drone business and gives you some ideas as to how he heavily markets himself via social media!
Ryan is a new drone operator, establishing his business in Louisiana via a heavy social media presence. Ryan is leveraging Instagram to get his work out there, and believe it or not he's marketing himself without a typical website! Listen in as Ryan discusses how he cold calls, creates up-sells, and does most of his video editing right on his phone!
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Welcome to the second episode of The Drone Trainer Podcast! In this episode, we're going to hear from Charles Canady of Miami Florida, as he discusses his commercial drone business and lets you in on some ideas for how to market yourself to local influencers!
Charles is a commercial drone operator working in a small team, consisting of ground and aerial photographers and videographers. Charles and his team shoot and create videos of a variety of events, creating music videos from both the ground and in the air!
If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you!
Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here!
Welcome to The Drone Trainer Podcast! Wow are we ever excited to be bringing you our brand new weekly podcast, featuring interviews with other likeminded drone pilots around the world! As the episodes go forward, Chris will be interviewing drone pilots in a variety of stages of their business, to try and learn their tips and tricks to help make you a better drone pilot and commercial operator!
This first episode is a little different than the rest as it’s a quick rundown of what to expect from the show, as well as Chris answering the same questions that will be posed to each of the future guests!
This is a brand new venture for us, and we’d love your support and feedback on the show! Please feel free to leave a comment below with your comments, and also if you could do us a huge favour and subscribe to the show in iTunes that would be a massive help. With all new shows, we’re going to need listeners right from the start in order for others to find us, so please be kind and hit subscribe in your podcast player of choice.
Anyway, here are the questions that you can expect to be asked in each episode going forward:
- How long have you been working in the drone industry?
- Are you going at this on your own or do you have a team?
- What were you doing before you got into drones?
- What drones are you flying?
- How did you choose that/those drones?
- What industries are you working in with your drone?
- What benefits do you think drones have in that industry?
- What is your favourite project so far?
- What is your favourite piece of drone software?
- What is your favourite business tool or software?
- How do you price your services?
- If you had to start all over again in a new town or country, what would you do to market yourself?
- If you had to start all over again, what do you wish you would have done differently?
- Where can people find you?