We’re off to the races in 2021, and we see a spike in demand for our services across the board!
Of course, much of this is planning for work to be done when the season changes and even further out into the latter part of the year. Of particular interest is the push for premium inspection services requiring more advanced sensors and systems. We plan to use a loaner program as much as possible, and some clients are even going to provide us with primary and backup units for their jobs. But we still need more help from our network. In particular, we have the following needs:

• RTK equipped units in the western and southeastern US to support mining and construction sites
• M200 and M300 in the Midwest to carry multispectral sensors. We will provide for 3-month and recurring agricultural contracts in this region
• P4 Multispectral and UAS with Micasense sensors
• Thermal sensors for nationwide facility inspections

Scaling premium inspection data collection will be a challenge for the industry at large, but
we’ve developed a plan to make it a reality for our clients. We have even seen an increase for LiDAR, but not at the rate of those listed above. If you have an RV or mobile living solution, let us know! We will be employing a combination of local support and road warriors to tackle the work in front of us. Most importantly: Please read the write-ups from our team below carefully. The topics addressed will help educate you with knowledge critical to our sustained success in this hyper-growth industry. We wish you all the best for this exciting year!

• New December 2020 Part 89 and 107 regulations official publication in the Federal Register.

•  Night training becomes available on the FAA’s website: faasafety.gov
• Part 107 certificate recurrent training becomes available at faasafety.gov for free. You will no longer need to take the paid recurrent written exam (UGR). Remember, though, the rule becomes effective on 3/16/21 even though the recurrent training becomes available on 3/1/21.
• Initial written exam (UAG) questions will include Night questions.

•  If you want to fly at night, you must show completion of Night Training via either initial or recurrent options as applicable to your pilot status.
• Note all previously granted Night Waivers of 107.29 will expire 120 days after Federal Register publication (5/17/21). After this date, you must complete the FAA night training if you initially continue to use the waiver.
• The new rules for flying over people take effect. This is a gray area, especially with Categories 2 and 3, until manufacturers can provide a compliance statement.

• Drone Manufacturers have to comply with Remote ID.

• Pilots will have to comply with Remote ID (outside of FAA-recognized identification areas or FRIAs). Compliance will be via a Standard Remote ID drone or through using a Remote ID Broadcast Module. Remember, the public will only be able to see the drone’s listed serial number. Some Public Safety Agencies will see the drone’s serial number, registered owner info, relevant telemetry data, and the control station location.

• Remote Pilot Certificate
• A current photo I.D.
• Any Waiver or ATC Authorization required for the specific operation

There are simple pro-active steps a pilot can do prior to departure from home or office to a job site and after mission completion before leaving the job site premises. We at DroneHive, in coordinating client jobs with our pilots, have seen many repeated occurrences of pilots having to revisit the job site again to fly or refly their missions unnecessarily for reasons they could have avoided. In most cases they were not obligated by contract to be compensated for the revisit.  We always strive to support our pilots whenever reasonably justified to be articulated to the client. But in some of these incidents, pilot complacency was the root cause of these revisits.  Our job is not to tell pilots how to execute their missions. In the spirit of educating our cadre of pilots to become better pilots so they can have higher compensation and experience recognition, this is our motivation as a corporate philosophy to stand out amongst the plethora of other drone operators. We work along side our fellow RPIC’s and help them grow successfully in our industry.  The guidance here is a partial compilation of suggestions that pilots can take voluntarily to avoid unnecessary revisits.

The first and foremost reason for a revisit is not having the capability to recharge batteries on site.  Do not assume you will conveniently have access to a power outlet, but plan for additional flight time contingencies beyond the estimated total mission(s) flight time.  Bring a power source separately from your vehicle battery.  Instead of investing in extra batteries, procure a deep cycle marine battery and an inverter.  You can pick these up on the cheap, at Walmart and Harbor Freight, respectively.  I was able to recharge 7 or 8 Phantom 4 Pro batteries on average per fully charged source battery.  This investment carriers over to any drone battery type when and if you decide to expand your airframe models inventory.

The second advice pertains to DJI branded drones.  If your job site is near an airport, regardless of whether an FAA authorization is needed or not, be sure to check DJI’s website to see if an unlock license is required for your specific DJI model.  If so, get and perform the unlock prior to departure to the job site; too often pilots try to do this at the job site, only to find out they can’t access the internet reliably or if connected, don’t get a reply in real-time, or adequately in time, within their scheduled operating window.

The third and last, a no-brainer, at least for me, is if you can spare 15 or so extra minutes on site, routinely perform a simple cursory post-flight data quality check.   There are apps on both Windows and OSX that can verify the meta-data in the images and plots on a map only valid images by checking the geo-tag integrity for any missing or unusable images.  Any deviation from expected you can correct, if time permits, before leaving the job site.  Two free apps are “The Photo App” for OSX, and “Photo GPS Extract for Windows.

Give it a try!

Jamestown School Board approves aviation & drone curriculum