The Drone Trainer Podcast

Latest Episodes:

064. Hungarian Drone Pilot Sandor Otvos Mar 13, 2019

Show notes

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!

063. NSW Drone Pilot Clay Sweetman Mar 06, 2019

Show notes

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!

062. InterDrone's Mike Pehel Feb 27, 2019

Show notes

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.

061. Starting a new drone business with Adrian Jones Feb 20, 2019

Show notes

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?

060. Flying Drones in South Africa with Tim Eccles Feb 13, 2019

Show notes

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!

059. Drone Delivery with Ryan Walsh Feb 01, 2019

Show notes

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!

058. High School Drone Teacher Erin Knoetig Jan 23, 2019

Show notes

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.

057. Flying in SE Australia with Phil Alder Jan 17, 2019

Show notes

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!

056. Flying in the middle of an airport with Sparky Sorenson Jan 09, 2019

Show notes

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!

055. I'll be at CES 2019 checking out all the new drone tech! Jan 04, 2019

Show notes

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!

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