Episode Transcript
Paul Rossi (00:00)
Welcome to Weekly Wings, your go -to podcast from DroneLife .com, where we soar through the latest in drone technology, regulation updates, and exciting innovations. Each week, join Samuel, Terry, and I as we navigate the drone industry, offering expert insights, interviews with key figures, and a bird's eye view of how drones are shaping our world. From commercial applications to recreational adventures,
weekly wings delves into how these remarkable vehicles are impacting delivery services, agriculture, construction, education, filmmaking, and much more. Whether you're a professional drone operator, hobbyist, or just drone curious, tune in to stay informed and inspired as we explore the heights of what's possible in the world of drones.
Subscribe now and never miss an episode of Weekly Wings where the future is looking up.
Welcome everybody to another great episode of Weekly Wings. How are you doing, Samuel?
Samuel S (01:07)
I'm doing well, doing well tonight. How are you doing, Paul?
Paul Rossi (01:09)
I am doing well myself. Had a great Fourth of July, a very busy week, very exciting. I know Terry had a trip out of town, so won't have him joining us on this episode.
Samuel S (01:22)
curious if you flew out to Denver to go see some drone light shows.
Paul Rossi (01:26)
I don't think he made it that far out, but speaking of. Yes, speaking of drone light shows this this week's episode will be diving into drone light shows considering it was, you know, the 4th of July this past week. Huge day for celebration, entertainment gatherings, fireworks, drone light shows, drone light shows and fireworks. We're going to dive into the.
Samuel S (01:26)
I gotta follow up with him on that.
Paul Rossi (01:54)
success stories and even one big epic fail. And then moving on from a light show topic, we'll talk about the Ukrainian drone industry. An article came out. We've talked about it a little bit, but a little more information has come out in the past week. So we'll dive into that and maybe discuss how it could be mirroring the United States. We have a pretty neat video we'll be able to show.
of the NASCAR Chicago Street course that was done by drone. So that's really epic. The visuals folks are able to get of these sporting events. And then we'll wrap up this week's episode in our regulatory corner discussing North Carolina repealing the NCDOT permit, as well as a TFR that went into effect that actually postponed a drone light show. So lots to unpack.
We'll dive right in. A follow -up here is what we're going to kick off with is the Denver Drone Light Show. You didn't go to Denver, Samuel, huh?
Samuel S (03:04)
I did not fly out to the lovely state of Colorado, not this time now, but it's great to see other people got some great videos and photos for us to take a gander at.
Paul Rossi (03:16)
Yeah, so huge gathering here. They were calling this Indie Eve. Like instead of Independence Day, it was celebrating Indie, Indie Eve. So this was Denver Indie Eve. And we've got the video up here in front of the Capitol building.
Samuel S (03:39)
that kind of looks sick. Just watching it go right now.
Paul Rossi (03:43)
As I was watching this video is amazing it gets blurry here. It's actually how it's been uploaded so it'll straighten itself out but when I was watching the video just the drones Launching and getting into position And then also when the drones land like the launch and recovery Process of the drone light shows is it's so epic. It looks like what soldiers
Samuel S (04:00)
Right.
Paul Rossi (04:12)
in a formation.
Samuel S (04:16)
It does, yeah.
twinkling red white and blue
Paul Rossi (04:27)
Big crowd. It's really neat. You know it's going well because things are going in a very neat, orderly fashion. They get up, hear everything, win up.
Samuel S (04:35)
Oof.
Paul Rossi (04:42)
That 3D visualization. And then the one thing I also notice is the air traffic. See right now going through the center, we're looking at a, what is that, a rhombus.
Not the shapes guy here, but you see the aircraft. You can see the tail light, the flashing anti collision light. The airport probably just about 30 miles from here. How about those visuals Samuel?
Samuel S (05:06)
Yeah, that's very impressive. Sorry, it sounded like there were fireworks going off, so I was a little distracted. But yeah, that looks very impressive. They have a, it looks like they visualized a line by pre -setting all the drones and just flashing the lights. It's very well synchronized.
Paul Rossi (05:26)
Yeah, pushing the lights through. There you got the Colorado.
Samuel S (05:31)
Denver, there we go. Love that.
That is a D, right? I know that's playing into the Colorado flag, but...
Paul Rossi (05:42)
Yeah, and that one drone, did you see it totally fall out?
Samuel S (05:47)
I was, I think I missed that part.
Paul Rossi (05:51)
Yeah, watch when the flag, when the flag, there's a, there's a, one of these right here, just gonna, right here. See it just dropped out.
Samuel S (05:57)
there you go, yeah. I wonder if he collided.
Paul Rossi (06:02)
Abort abort you could see it drop
Again, the safety factor here is operating these drones over a confined area where if they go down, it's low risk. Okay, BlueCipher. Here we go. Anybody who's...
Samuel S (06:19)
Damn, I had the pleasure.
Paul Rossi (06:24)
Yeah, right. Yep, Belucifer. So anyone familiar with the old Denver Airport Belucifer, right? The statue outside a good old Denver Airport there in Colorado. What is it? The story, the legend goes, there's the UFO. Is the artist who made... Just missed it. The officer... The artist that...
Samuel S (06:28)
What a guy.
They just missed UFO day.
Paul Rossi (06:52)
made Belucifer the statue outside the airport actually died because Belucifer fell on top of the artist and killed the artist. And they still put it out.
Samuel S (07:04)
That is so messed up.
Paul Rossi (07:08)
That's cool, Malin. So I'm just going to skip through here. This is really cool. You've got the flag, state flower, I believe that is, Liberty Bell. So 15 minutes here, USA, red, white, and blue.
Samuel S (07:20)
And these aren't just still images, these are things that are actually moving. Or they have some form of animation with the lights going on.
Paul Rossi (07:28)
Yeah.
Yeah, then here they like they like all come back together and then like the these ones. I don't know. Maybe they have like those ones go down quick, man. I don't know what that is. Kind of like maybe it just is like a super low battery. Like if the battery has just got to the point where it's because like these ones are just dropping, dropping off just a couple. Everybody else is like that one popped back up. He's like, I think everyone else falls into place and marches back.
Samuel S (07:35)
symbol.
There's a few of those. Yeah.
Paul Rossi (08:01)
To me, this is like one of the... Go ahead.
Samuel S (08:01)
And it's
Well, I was going to say it's crazy. We've consistently seen these shows and for each one, it seems like they never pop up a second fleet. It's always around 16 minutes or so for the time of the video. And I'm just kind of curious if, I don't know, if people are going to stay at just one fleet or if, I don't know, how well synchronized you can pop up another set of drones. But what were you going to say?
Paul Rossi (08:17)
Yeah. Yeah.
And right, so I wanted to play this video because what we've got here is right the company. Doing it, we got Graham Hill here right so Graham Hill. With higher UAV pro.
California, Delaware, Colorado, like four places, Chicago area within a few days.
Animation, blender, right, creating the show, the logistics involved.
So, Hire UAV Pro did that show we were just watching.
They did the show we were just watching, 500 drones. You got to get that, move those things, animate it. This is what you've seen in the past with fireworks. I believe it was Graham Hill with higher UAV Pro. But just really cool to also see this.
Samuel S (09:57)
That's crazy. Three different red, white, and blue stars interlocked in themselves, turning in different ways.
Paul Rossi (10:12)
And so it's kind of like when drones existed for photography and real estate and inspection battery flight times, there's 20 minutes, 22, 25 minutes, 30 minutes. Now it's 40, 42 minutes. So whether it's a second fleet, like you mentioned, which is kind of hard. Once you get 500 drones, it's kind of hard to say, well, we're going to do 250 and then 250 because the picture you can paint with all 500 up is just so much more significant.
Samuel S (10:42)
Right, I couldn't imagine adding another 500 to have to go and do all that.
Paul Rossi (10:42)
because it's more like people are paying for the qual -
Samuel S (10:50)
thousand in total.
Paul Rossi (10:50)
And so you're almost being able to charge right for the detail that you can provide versus the length of the show. Right. I don't think because 12 minutes is a pretty significant amount of time. That's like three songs, like a traditional four minute song. So going into a 30 minute drone light show, I think we'll get there. But just wanted to highlight again, higher
UAV Pro because I think everybody's saying, who's doing this? How are they doing it? And what these articles in the Denver show and what they shared about traveling and showcasing it and putting you could see each drone in that video had its FA registration number. I just thought that was really cool.
Samuel S (11:42)
I guess it - my kind of question is like what type of waiver you're going under because that's technically I mean how - what 500 drones under one pilot?
Paul Rossi (11:58)
So it wouldn't be one like if you go back, let's see if.
Samuel S (12:04)
I'm gonna have to dig into the 107 right now, huh?
Paul Rossi (12:06)
Not digging into one of the seven, I want to just go into this video because I think what you'll see is like a handful of folks.
If they show
They might, maybe they don't.
Well, here you'll see. Right, so here you can see you got one person, a second person, antenna here, antenna here. So it's not just one pilot. Most likely what you're going to see is the waiver is going to be written for this specific system. In this location, no people. The drones aren't moving across streets. They're not moving across populated areas. The people are staying here.
And then you're going to have, I think, one router, depending on the system, for every 100 drones. So if you have 500 drones, you actually have to set up five routers that you're then porting into not just a single computer, but two computers, because you're going to have two laptops side by side in case one fails or crashes in flight. It's all backup and redundancy. So it's kind of like two pilots, two GCSs.
Samuel S (13:03)
You're right.
Paul Rossi (13:25)
all in a very confined environment. So you're not beyond visual line of sight, you're multiple, right? Multiple SUAS is pretty much like the primary waiver.
Samuel S (13:30)
Right.
makes sense.
Paul Rossi (13:43)
at least for my just kind of going off the top of my head here. But in addition to the positives, there is also go ahead.
Samuel S (13:47)
for that.
I was gonna say with your personal experience getting a waiver, you know.
Paul Rossi (13:54)
Yes, some of that just going off the top here. But in addition to the positives, there are some negatives too, Samuel.
Samuel S (14:02)
Comes hand in hand. Can't have your cake and eat it too.
Paul Rossi (14:06)
Did you happen to look it up at all? I just typed in drone light shows around 4th of July. I was going to start counting just to say it'd be interesting to say, hey, in the year 2024, there was 47 drone light shows between July 2nd and July 7th. And then in 10 years, how many drone light shows are there going to be? How big is the market?
And if you actually look at how many light shows occurred.
Samuel S (14:35)
Who is keeping track of all these light shows that are coming around?
Paul Rossi (14:40)
the companies themselves probably if they're doing their business diligence. But also I was funny because you say 2024, can you believe in like eight years, 10 years, people are going to be like, remember in the 20s?
Samuel S (14:56)
Yeah, that's feels
Paul Rossi (14:58)
Holy shit, right? Like you think of the 20s and you think of like dabber me up, 20s, the roaring 20s. You know, everybody was buying stocks and reading newspapers.
Samuel S (15:07)
Yeah
It's very surreal to think that's literally 100 years ago and now we're in another set of 20s, but.
I can't shake that feeling now.
Paul Rossi (15:26)
Yeah, because you don't really say the teens. You're not like, remember the teens? Remember the 19s? The 19 teens? But you go, the 20s. What was the 20s? What was the 30s like? So we're years away from people actually referencing the 20s and not in the 19 ways. But anyhow, I just thought about that the other day. Back to the negative on the Drone Night Show. So as I mentioned, right?
You can see here this neat photo. So see the laptop, you got all the connectors and the plugs. And I think here, handful of drones. This looks like maybe a demo test setup, a little Seltzer water here, toolkit. But we're in Seattle.
Samuel S (15:57)
Yeah.
Nice computer.
Aesthetically pleasing photo.
Paul Rossi (16:15)
Yeah, we're in Seattle for this one. It's hard to even say it, right? $40 ,000 drone show.
Samuel S (16:18)
And, but this is not the same guy, is it?
Paul Rossi (16:23)
Not the same company, different company. Different company. $40 ,000 drone light show. So of course some drones fail. It doesn't work out. Everybody's going to go, the city wasted $40 ,000 on a 4th of July drone light show. they voted and they decided not to do the fireworks. And there's this whole article here how someone wrote like, well, thank goodness that the privately funded fireworks still took place.
Hmm. Yes. What happened? Drones appeared to be attempting to form the image of an American flag, but before the image could fully form, the drones began falling from the sky. Many of the confused onlookers first thought the dripping effect of the falling drones was part of the show. However,
As more and more drones began to fall, it became clear the show was a technical failure.
You ready to see the video, Samuel?
Samuel S (17:31)
I want to see this video, I want to be enlightened with both possibilities, the good and the bad.
Paul Rossi (17:42)
You ready? This is epic. And it's above water. So here's the thing. Remember we talked about mitigating risk, right? Where would there be less risk to people property? Well, we could do the show over water and hope people aren't hovering in their boats. A little harder to kind of cordon off water, but let's just play the video.
Samuel S (17:43)
Hit me.
Paul Rossi (18:04)
So the dripping effect begins. Look at that one. That was like a two foot splash.
Samuel S (18:08)
god. Falling is not an exaggeration, that is... There's a splash.
Paul Rossi (18:16)
That was a significant splash.
Samuel S (18:21)
Well it's weird too because it's not, there's...
It looks like chaos, which is nothing like the other drone shows we've seen. The other ones had that... Like the last one we just saw, they were all going in this line and following where they need to go, but this just looks so chaotic. my -
Paul Rossi (18:40)
Thank you guys.
Samuel S (18:45)
like falling stars.
Paul Rossi (18:50)
I mean, what a show.
Samuel S (18:54)
Can you imagine having to go fish those things out?
Paul Rossi (18:55)
So.
Speaking of fishing those things out, so this happens, right? This happens and like you said, the chaoticness of it, the uncanny. Can you imagine the pilots, the operators?
Samuel S (19:19)
just trying to get the button to make it work right. I can only imagine what they're seeing on their end for the... yeah. It's not like everyone's watching.
Paul Rossi (19:21)
Just freaking out.
just freaking like like the operators. you get them off the ground because remember the show we went to? I wasn't even the operator, but I'm sitting there thinking like. Like, you know, time is really ticking here, so they're talking about how like. The time. The time takes by you get the drones in the area like, yeah, and then it's like, well, you know, small victory and I just could not imagine. The.
the pilots. And especially if the owner of the company wasn't on site having to make that phone call.
Samuel S (19:56)
Yeah.
Yeah. I don't even know what you would lead with.
Paul Rossi (20:12)
Well, you know how we put the drones over the water for safety purposes? We did it over water just in case. So I ended up on...
Samuel S (20:14)
So I have some bad news.
I mean, no one was hurt though, that we can see, right? I didn't hit anyone.
Paul Rossi (20:28)
No one's heard that we can see. And so 200 drone light show is what it was reported as with 55 drones being lost. That's what all the different articles and postings that have come out, 55 drones lost. That's tens of thousands of dollars. So as I'm trying to...
Samuel S (20:48)
That's...
Paul Rossi (20:51)
is I'm trying to find video of this. Where do I end up?
on Reddit.
Samuel S (21:00)
I thought you were going to say X.
Paul Rossi (21:05)
So I'm on Reddit and I'm reading this and I'm like, yes. And I'm going, okay, is this the same company that was the last couple of New Year's IIRC? They've had problems every time.
Samuel S (21:08)
under the Seattle subreddit.
if I recall correctly.
Paul Rossi (21:29)
I know the company name is up there and it's out. I don't need to say it. As I read to the comments, I'm like, all right, this is the world or not the world. This is America. Go fish them out and put them in a bag of rice. Just throwing trash into our waters. Hazmat considering its batteries.
It's a smaller scale analog for the Starlink satellites that are polluting our atmosphere and killing the ozone layer when they fail. So I'm reading through these and I'm just laughing. Yeah, a bunch of drones collapsing into the lake like dead birds is a great analogy for the state of America at the moment. And I'm like, this is the automated wall. These.
Samuel S (22:06)
their fans.
Oof. Oof.
They did not.
Paul Rossi (22:24)
actually take care of dead drones. They like Washington's unnatural decomposing. Yeah. So then I get to this one, finally, and I read this and you said fishing and I'm like, the fact that you said fishing, I'm like, all right. So the comment here is, what a coincidence. I was just recommended to the Reddit thread magnet fishing and
Samuel S (22:27)
I forgot about that plot line.
Paul Rossi (22:54)
Samuel I'm like do I click this so of course I click
Samuel S (22:58)
Have you been there before, right? You've seen the videos?
Paul Rossi (23:04)
Magnet fishing?
Samuel S (23:05)
Yeah. This is a big thing. No, you can find like guns. You can find all sorts of stuff in the rivers. Like it's crazy. People like throw whatever in there. I get like the algorithm understands my interests.
Paul Rossi (23:08)
No!
So when I just
Okay, so when I literally just said magnet fishing, you already knew what I was talking. This is not even new to you. So our audience is probably familiar with magnet fishing. All right, well, if you have kids, you just stop learning new things. I can't even remember what the thing was that I... It was like a song or a something. My wife said, that came out two months ago. I'm like,
Samuel S (23:27)
Yeah, yeah, it's a thing. Bikes, yeah. I bet Terry knows, he's gonna know.
Paul Rossi (23:53)
Holy shit. All right. So, but one really cool photo. I'm like, yo, this is such a thing when people are posting pictures and saying, hell yeah. And then the picture is just a photo of a box with a pan stuck to it. Like, yeah, look how strong my magnet is. This is hilarious.
Samuel S (24:15)
That's on brand.
I'm mad.
Paul Rossi (24:25)
So when are you getting your magnet?
Samuel S (24:26)
I'm not close enough to a river. If I was in a different place, I think I'd take it up. Because you can find some really cool stuff there. I mean, you could go find a drone now. Go check it in and reel it back and see what you get.
Cross my mind.
Paul Rossi (24:43)
That is so funny.
Samuel S (24:45)
Yeah, that's a very good...
Paul Rossi (24:45)
That is so funny. Well, and then I clicked on it.
Samuel S (24:47)
I was gonna say, go ahead. A very good representation of like, yeah, things can go really well and you can have a great show, but then things can, I wanna know what happened specifically. Was it an error with the software, the hard, it looks like software because that many drones failing? Like, do you think they lost connection? That's what I'm assuming, yeah.
Paul Rossi (24:49)
Very good what?
GPS so the articles that I read into said said there was an issue with the the GPS. Yeah But I tell you this and then the only thing is so then I end up on a Facebook group. Apparently there's a North Carolina mag magnetic fishing Group that is actually active
Samuel S (25:34)
Where, I'm out of curiosity, do they have a central location?
Paul Rossi (25:36)
So.
I don't think they have a central location. I did not. I just had to, I was like, all right, that's enough. That's enough. But one last thing, Sky Element, so drone company that got the golden buzzer at America's Got Talent, which we, I believe recently showed, put on quite a show at the PGA July 4th celebration. So really cool here, great video. Again, you can see that awesome box, right?
the formation that it launches from. Look how many people are out here. I mean, this is a gathering food trucks. This is a pop -up tents. This is the future. It's not the future. This is now. We got a drone videoing it, but just another great show by another proven company, Sky Elements. How these companies are going to scale and how much more cost
accessible to the systems become all that is yet to be told. But I just can't wait to see it. These things just take off and they go up and they do some really amazing.
Amazing stuff here, Sam. What are we seeing?
Samuel S (26:55)
I'm seeing, spelling out PGA. Yeah, Frisco. Frisco, Texas.
Paul Rossi (26:56)
in Texas.
Samuel S (27:01)
Texas is just popping off, isn't it, with all the drone stuff?
Paul Rossi (27:02)
Frisco little elm DFW
Samuel S (27:09)
that's beautiful. Looks like we have the Texas... I've never seen a drone animation that clean. Holy cow. I think it's because of how close they are together. It looks like one cohesive... image. Or animation, I should say. But that's beautiful. A waving Texas flag. And something else too, I think.
Paul Rossi (27:10)
You like that wave?
Samuel S (27:33)
That's very impressive. Yeah.
Paul Rossi (27:34)
I love how they go dark. I love how they go dark and then they form up and then like, this is cool. This is really cool. Especially as a golfer.
Samuel S (27:44)
the PGA guy. Yeah.
Paul Rossi (27:51)
and then watch the motion.
Samuel S (27:58)
no way, is he gonna like have a smooth animation?
Paul Rossi (28:15)
and it's almost like you want to say faster.
Samuel S (28:19)
Okay, yeah, I wasn't sure if it was gonna do a quick choppy kind of cut or if it would be a slow smooth, but yeah, slow smooth with a wind streak behind the club. That's pretty sick. he's even got the ball moving.
Paul Rossi (28:38)
That's and look how tight of a formation like they're not wobbling. It's like holding.
Samuel S (28:46)
I'm pretty impressed too because it looked... Wow! A whole other image ready to go that fast. Those things are moving. This isn't sped up, is it?
Paul Rossi (28:58)
No. No.
And then you've got the ball.
So the ball rolls into the cup and then they do this little thing at the end for like the kids.
Samuel S (29:10)
And from our perspective, the cameraman is moving the camera across the area, but you can still clearly see what the image is for the drone show.
Like there's not a substantial difference.
Paul Rossi (29:22)
Yeah, and that's sky element.
Sky elements out of North Texas.
So they're the AGT, America's Got Talent Company. So boy, of course, being that drone light shows are just so fascinating and it was 4th of July week, we had to go in with a solid 25 minutes of drone light shows. And we're not even done there, right? We're still going to talk more of light shows in the regulatory corner. What we do want to move into here is... Yep.
Samuel S (29:53)
I'm here for it.
One thing before we move on though, I was gonna say is like, I, most of the drone stuff that we see and have interacted with in my opinion has been prime for summer activities. I can actually see drone shows going into the winter with, you know, people do Christmas lights, you know, just walking through a Christmas lights area or driving in your car to see Christmas lights. I could see an animation thing with drone lights or like Santa.
flying through with drones, that would be sick. That would be so cool. Can you imagine seeing Santa Claus made out of drones? Would love that. Anyways, sorry, I was thinking about the possibilities. It's not gonna be just a summer activity, not just the 4th of July. I think it can translate to the other seasonal holidays, which is, that's pretty good.
Paul Rossi (30:38)
Yeah.
goodness or just like, not even the light, not even lights, but think of like the future of being able to. I just think of Dix, Dorothea Dix, Park and Raleigh, where they put lights all over everything and then you kind of drive through. Just think of the potential for like a drone reindeer, like a Rudolph the red nose drone. And it is built for that.
Samuel S (31:16)
Ruh -hu.
Paul Rossi (31:19)
purpose or it's a skin. What if it's a skin that you can put on specific drones that have 30, 35, 40 minute flight time and you could set it on a path and it becomes a part of that whole wonderland or the show, the Halloween scary, you can have a ghost shell that you can put on it.
Samuel S (31:44)
Well, it's kind of funny. I think Universal is actually doing stuff with that. They're talking about their new theme park and whatever. They're incorporating all this technology. I think they're going to incorporate drone and autonomous machines in one of their new rides just for it looks like an actual creature coming up to get you. And it's like, that's so cool that technology is doing that. But yeah, sorry. That's crazy. A lot of possibilities.
Paul Rossi (32:09)
Yeah, and once you add the lights, once you do add lights, if it is at night, so you can still have these moving rotors. But because the object, it's blended in, so I don't know. That'll be neat here for it. Ukraine, I think it was just last week's episode, we were talking about... Yes.
Samuel S (32:31)
with Darwin.
Paul Rossi (32:35)
Yes, with Darwin and how there was those folks. I think it was that that woman who is making like five drones a week in her house. So this article came out, foreignpolicy .com, how Ukraine's drone industry took flight. A state campaign that rolled back red tape and regulation inherited from its Soviet
past. So.
The
You know, why is this interesting? Well, we're trying to see a...
industry, drone industry stood up in the United States, but struggling. So this article comes out talking about this individual working for the Ukrainian government as a financial analyst by day, but in the evenings and on his weekends, him and his friends are making drones for the army.
So now I'm like, a million drones and here's this. So they're volunteers. They're an enthusiast collective. Yeah. You're good. 12 volunteers, their time. They raise money for the components on a crowdfunding platform. And they have a volunteer with a 3D printer.
Samuel S (34:02)
with a 3D printer.
Paul Rossi (34:25)
They make these in a Keev workshop and then they send them using commercial shipping to the front lines. So they're crowdfunding. They're getting people to donate money so then they can volunteer. And where are they buying the components from? Alibaba, Tmew.
Samuel S (34:48)
I wonder how many of those components they can actually craft in house, because I mean, yeah, you can make certain parts with 3D printer, but I mean, PLA plastic is very, it's not, I don't know, it can get the job done, but it's not the most precise thing, you know?
Paul Rossi (34:49)
China.
But you've seen these drones, they're going to go and they're going to fly and they're going to get to Darwin. These are drones that are going to Darwin. And so unlike large Ukrainian producers, this amateur collective receives no government funding, but is benefiting from the government's campaigns that says, hey, support small businesses. And so as you continue to go through here, it's just...
Samuel S (35:09)
Yeah.
Paul Rossi (35:32)
Right. 200 registered companies are making drones in Ukraine. And industry insiders count more than 500 producers if you include the smaller firms and volunteers in garages who are supplying troops with hundreds of thousands of drones a month. So is this a... What happens? Is this an industry that's being stood up?
Or is this like a lesser developed country trying to fight at all means necessary? Because when you're reading this and you're saying, well, they stood up this industry. Why can't the United States?
Samuel S (36:21)
Yeah. They really, they went to town on it, didn't they?
Paul Rossi (36:28)
And they're saying here a handful of manufacturers before the war made drones for agriculture uses in the IT sector.
Samuel S (36:40)
You mentioned the whole where are they getting the... Yeah, I was gonna say you mentioned where are they getting the supplies part, I mentioned the printing, but even with the printing you're still buying the plastic from somewhere else, typically Chinese plastic.
Paul Rossi (36:40)
They're a major, so it's trying to say, well, they were doing lots of drew.
Like all this.
Samuel S (36:58)
Yeah, it's a pretty finely crafted journey.
Paul Rossi (37:01)
If we had to stand up, do you know that I... Yes, but do you know how many people that you work with probably could do the same thing? Like if the United States had to... But we have Rogue One, we have these drones with warheads that are five grand, we have like... The people listening to this could be making these things.
So if we had to, this is like, again, I think I said it, this is like going back to the American Revolution when you were cobblers and farmers and like, like everybody had a day job and was doing something else. And then overnight we had to fight for our freedom and we didn't have the resources and we were melting things down using our own firearms, right? Taking our own metals from our houses in order to create.
Samuel S (37:44)
Hmm.
Paul Rossi (37:54)
and things of that nature. And if we had to use FPV drones, I could crank five of these out in a week.
Samuel S (38:07)
You gotta say you gotta... you... It's kind of crazy, isn't it? Nah, I was just gonna say you gotta teach me how to do that.
Paul Rossi (38:07)
Could I crowdsource money and all of a sudden now I have a company?
Go ahead.
And so it goes back to our, you know, we got to bring Tony on. We got to get Tony on this next episode really. Because again, this is the type of thing that...
Samuel S (38:31)
He's going to tell you some stuff. I was going to say he's going to tell us stuff we probably had no idea about. You know, I bet he's into magnet fishing. He will know about magnet fishing.
Paul Rossi (38:41)
She had a couple of magnets in the car. And so as you read further into this, you realize that...
Samuel S (38:44)
Yeah, I'm probably just ready to go.
Paul Rossi (38:55)
that their corporate taxes for Ukraine companies doing drones is 9 % instead of 18 % where other companies in Ukraine are paying the 18%. If you're an employee that works for a drone company, right?
these defense companies, you're only paying 5 % income tax instead of 15, 16, 18%.
They're doing all these things in order to incentivize folks to manufacture these drones without just handing them money because there is an initiative, Brave One, providing grants to drone manufacturers.
And so it's capped at $25 ,000, which is not a ton of money. I mean, if you think of US companies at 25 grand, they might laugh. It's kind of, you know, it's crazy.
Samuel S (40:00)
You're right.
Paul Rossi (40:04)
And then these photos pop up in the article and you look and you're like, that's a DJI drone. Someone didn't make that. All these photos that end up popping up of not these here, but like the news, the main pop ups are DJI drones.
Samuel S (40:18)
Yeah, but.
I do feel like DJI has been the poster child for the drone image, you know?
Typically that's what people associate it with anyways, from my experience.
Now that's an image.
Paul Rossi (40:43)
right, Ukraine service members. See all them in the box right there and here and here and here and...
Samuel S (40:49)
Those zip ties I see on the far left.
Paul Rossi (40:51)
And so it's volunteers.
Samuel S (40:57)
Looks like, no, I think those are antennas. I was looking at the box behind him.
Paul Rossi (41:03)
yeah, those are all antennas.
Samuel S (41:05)
Yeah, had to take a closer look. I think you can actually see one of the 3D printer spools in the top right near the window. That's crazy. I think that's what that is. Or it's some type of wire. Huh. Very. That's crazy.
Paul Rossi (41:07)
So, so it's.
Yeah.
reasonable bomber drone and yeah in in
And so then you find out things like, well, they can't export these drones. And so some of these companies want to start exporting the drones that they're manufacturing.
It's pretty intriguing and interesting and it talks about overcoming GPS jamming and how much is being learned and Ukraine is on track to produce 2 million drones.
And then you say, how do they do it? What are they making? How is this significant? And they're getting R and D and...
And then you just go, well, it's people like Vlad Zivlov, Ripco's volunteerism and crowdsourcing. It's all very, it's all ties to the war and the conflict. And I think we've seen that in years past, in decades past with our own government, where you have conflicts arise and then dollars
get spent because every troop that goes down range
You know, every soldier, every US soldier that goes overseas down range in a combat zone, you have a packing list. You have to have all these items. You have to have your, you know, bulletproof armor vest. You got to have your, the inserts that actually stop the bullets. You got to have your Kevlar helmet. You got to have your
X number pairs of pants. And so like when you break that down, you say that's dollars that costs something. So a company that makes the Kevlar inserts knows, well, if X number of troops get deployed, then X number of things need to get issued out to those soldiers. So it's huge dollars. Every soldier.
is not just being paid, but the cost associated with the equipment and the food. And it's crazy. So we're seeing a Ukrainian drone industry take off, but the massive amount of what they're manufacturing isn't going to support a commercial.
Samuel S (43:47)
funny moves.
Paul Rossi (44:02)
aspect and you say, well, we could manufacture different drones, right? And in reality, making those FPV drones that, you know, fly that Darwin can fly precisely with, you know, not made for video or imaging is different than creating software infrastructure, IP for a drone that's going to compete globally.
with DJI and that's what's trying to be done in the US. So, I thought that was an interesting article.
Samuel S (44:34)
definitely shine some light on kind of what their lives are looking like over there, at least for some of the folks.
Paul Rossi (44:44)
And then it ties in that Darwin.
the
Darwin aspect, right? Like where it's kind of funny because we last week we talked about this individual.
flying these drones and where are they coming from and how are they getting there to now be able to see this other part of the picture and it's like, it's volunteers and some other folks that are not all volunteers, companies manufacturing stuff. But I'm curious to try to peel things back and say, well, if these people weren't volunteering, how much would that drone actually cost and could they afford it? Because if they couldn't, if the answer was no, then that industry isn't for real.
Samuel S (45:29)
Alright.
Yeah.
Paul Rossi (45:36)
Switching gears here. Did you know NASCAR is racing in the streets of Chicago this weekend, this week?
Samuel S (45:45)
I did not. I do know that NASCAR introduced an EV prototype, but that's a little different than what we're looking at.
Paul Rossi (45:58)
Yeah. So street racing NASCAR now in recent years has...
become more consistent in the street racing and not just the oval tracks that most people think of NASCAR as. I think it has to do with formula racing, Indy, all racing just gaining a lot more momentum.
this drone video.
Samuel S (46:29)
Some insane shots, to be honest.
Paul Rossi (46:35)
Yeah, videos.
You ever flown in Chicago?
Samuel S (46:42)
I am not.
Paul Rossi (46:46)
playing this video again.
Samuel S (46:48)
I was gonna say, I think I had a little bit of buffer because, like, just because of the camera movements, I'm like, that has to be animated, but no, that was FPV, wasn't it?
Paul Rossi (46:49)
Fortunately.
That was the real deal. That was some FPV going over the cars there, showing off the track itself. And then there was also some more probably stabilized, could have been a Sony Airpeak, could have been a Mavic 3, could have been one of many other drones that was showing some stabilized footage there.
And let me pause this.
I'll share it up here again.
But yeah, like right here at PB, that is real deal. They're racing right there on the streets in Chicago. I did have a chance to fly in Chicago once with a Mini. I actually flew over the bean. I took some pictures of the bean and the skylines. The bean, right? Tires galore. Yeah, this is all real deal drone video right here.
Samuel S (47:47)
The Bean.
Paul Rossi (47:59)
It's kind of cool because if it's all drone video, you can get so many angles. I love this above straight down to deer shots of all this activity. You can time hyperlapse it, speed it up. I mean, you can go anywhere. You can get on the end of these areas where you just wouldn't normally want to go show off that American flag. It's epic.
Samuel S (48:21)
I just finished watching The Bear, so I'm kind of romanticizing Chicago right now, so this is perfect.
Paul Rossi (48:22)
All right.
Yeah. And so like the Avada to these new drones, the FPV drones, they've they've come to the point where you can combine GPS with speed and stability and video that doesn't lag and you got digital. So with almost one drone, you can do so many different things and people are like, what should I do as I'm getting into drones? And it doesn't matter what sporting event you're turning on. It doesn't matter what TV show you're turning on. There's just some cool, creative drone.
So in addition to consuming, not necessarily consuming a lot, but when you're consuming, being aware of the shots that you're seeing, like what did that person just do? What are they doing on Fox for the races? What are they doing on CBS for the football leagues? What are they doing in this show that I watch? Copy that. See the great things that other folks are doing.
and then go out there and learn how to do it yourself. And then create that content and just put.
Samuel S (49:31)
Analyze what you like and see as yeah, I was gonna say just like analyze that that's my biggest thing is when I'm When I'm watching one of my favorite TV shows, I like to think why do I like this? Why do I like this shot? Especially with the drone shots that you're talking about some of those shots are pretty hard to get looking at those FPV pilots specifically Yeah
Paul Rossi (49:54)
Going through the, like you add that to your bag, it's like watching somebody else play golf. You see something they did and then they mentioned why they did it or, I'm going to steal that, right? In the sense of in a positive way. You're not actually taking something from that person. You're taking that frame.
Samuel S (50:16)
You're gonna break it down and you're gonna rebuild it as yours.
Paul Rossi (50:20)
you're going to remix that thing, right? And you're going to ingest it and then make it better and apply it to whatever application or whatever shot, whatever story you're trying to tell. So I'm always seeing neat stuff like that. I was doing two weeks ago some outdoor photos, big company. They've got in
indoor manufacturing. And as I was looking at it, I just thought, wow, there's probably a lot going on in there as they're manufacturing these construction pieces. I said, that would probably be really cool to put a drone up inside during the hustle and bustle with everything moving and get some pictures or video. It's certainly not Madison Square Garden, and it's not an NHL event.
But it's seeing the way it's applied there where you've got tens of thousands of people and all this commotion and one shot, one take, and applying that into a more commercial application where you can be more thorough and detailed in your planning. And yeah, it's really exciting. So I think for folks to be able to really start to think indoor, outdoor, precision,
the technology is getting there. Because five years ago, FPV drones existed, but everyone isn't toning. And hiring a Tony and getting a Tony to come and travel. Now the technology has gotten to a point with the newest FPV drones that we're seeing this great point in time where the folks that had
The folks that were flying on evenings and weekends and like people, family members are like, what are you doing playing that, you know, mess around with that thing. Now you're traveling the world, flying some of the most significant sporting events.
you know, just events in general.
Samuel S (52:23)
be a really cool thing to say, yeah, I got invited to go to Chicago to fly for NASCAR, you know. That's pretty cool. At least I think so.
Paul Rossi (52:32)
Or yeah, my or yeah, next. Where are you going? How is work going for you? next week I got to go to Chicago.
Samuel S (52:42)
Just kind of drop that.
Paul Rossi (52:43)
And then last year, we're into the regulatory corner. Yeah, for the regulatory corner here for the last couple minutes of this week's episode of Weekly Wings, DroneLife .com, North Carolina repeals the drone knowledge test and permit requirement. So for anyone in North Carolina, whoever's visited North Carolina, wanted to fly your drone in North Carolina,
You're probably familiar with the UAS knowledge test in order to get your operator permit, your North Carolina Department of Transportation operator UAS permit. Kind of crazy that you take and get a federal license, federal certificate, and then you have to do it. It's like, if you're a pilot, if you're a private pilot in the United States, North Carolina, all you need is your private pilot certificate. You don't have to then take a North Carolina test.
So it was very strange that after passing and acquiring your federal aviation remote pilot certificate that you then had to get a North Carolina permit. You familiar with this, Samuel?
Samuel S (53:55)
Yeah. Yeah.
Paul Rossi (54:02)
So it looks like.
June 27th is when this was enacted. Every year, two years, folks in North Carolina living here, traveling to North Carolina, you don't have to worry about this DOT permit anymore. How does that make you feel, Samuel?
Samuel S (54:19)
I'm kind of relieved, to be honest. I mean, not a big relief, but I mean, I think it's going to make that barrier for entry for some people just a little less challenging and less... I don't know. I think once you get past that 107, it's going to be relatively smooth flights.
Paul Rossi (54:40)
Yeah, it was kind of like an I gotcha like for some people that did pass and then they didn't realize you needed to have this additional certificate. Kind of.
Kinda neat here, looks like I just totally clicked out of that.
Yeah, I think it's neat. One thing from a training standpoint, when you're working with new pilots, it's one less step that you have to explain to people. It's like, hey, you passed your test. Congratulations. Now you can fly safe instead of having to say, you passed your test. Now go take this exam that is you can't even fail it. Right. It's retest until you pass. So we'll get a yeah. Clap, clap, clap for that. That's a that's a two thumbs up.
Samuel S (55:07)
Right.
That's a gold star.
Paul Rossi (55:31)
Delaware Park, that's a gold star. That's that's yeah, Delaware Park postponed Saturday drone show so Drone show that was supposed to happen July 6 Saturday was postponed. Why?
FAA closes airspace for VIP. Who's the VIP?
Samuel S (55:58)
And the president?
Paul Rossi (55:58)
President Biden. President Biden and the First Lady were hosting a barbecue Thursday night with military service members and their families on the south lawn of the White House. According to the White House, it's not yet announced its travel plans for the weekends, but between this time and this time, all aircraft are prohibited from entering this airspace. So it is believed, right, that because of this location with this TFR going into effect, that it's possibly due to the president traveling. So.
Success drone light shows, non -successful drone light shows. At the end of the day, or at the beginning of the day, whether or not you can even legally fly,
sometimes is not a guarantee. So as we talk about these drone light shows, you invest a ton of money, you get a contract, you make plans, and then all of a sudden,
Right.
Samuel S (56:57)
I wonder how you broke that news to people, you know?
Paul Rossi (56:59)
The sudden VIP visit was communicated at 2 .57 p on July 4th, grounding all aircraft from July 5th to July 7th.
Samuel S (57:15)
I believe we paid like 20 bucks to get to the DroneLight show we saw, so I mean not a huge loss but I mean that's still pretty... I'd be pretty bummed out if I traveled an hour or two hours away just to see it.
Paul Rossi (57:17)
and they were.
In Denver, they spent $40 ,000. So the contract was 40 grand for this light show. And that day was planned on that day because of the significance of it. And then imagine if that had to get postponed. So here they're saying, I think July 20th. Yeah, so July 20th. So maybe it's a free show, right? Because it says the casino, Delaware Park Casino. They got money, Casino's got money. So they're, Delaware Park Casino's paying.
Samuel S (57:42)
Yeah, that's pretty different.
Yeah.
Paul Rossi (57:57)
for the light show, probably not charging for attendance. It's just a way to get people to come to the casino. So no big deal. They just check their calendar and they talk with the light show company. And they're like, what's the next day you have available? well, how about Saturday, July 20th? Sign us up. Let's do it. So nothing lost there completely. But
Samuel S (58:15)
Yeah.
Paul Rossi (58:22)
Certainly, again, even when you plan everything, you check your boxes, you make your sale, you get your waivers, you get everything in place, boom, two days before the event, TFR pops up. Can't fly.
Samuel S (58:34)
That is kind of a weird thing to have to anticipate, you know? Like, there's no way you can really anticipate this specific event just happening. It's like, well.
What can you do except reschedule?
Paul Rossi (58:44)
And so I've joked about it and you write that, you have to write that into a contract, right? So not just for Drone and Light Show companies, but just for any business, any company in general, when you're talking big figures, not a hundred, 200, $400, you know, do your due diligence. But when you're talking 10, 15, 20, 30, $40 ,000, you have to say, Hey, there's, you know, all these, you know, God like
You know, if there's a storm or disaster that's outside of our control, we're not liable for that. Right. So as an aviation company, you have to say, Hey, what are the risks that could cause weather? You got to have your weather clause. You got to have your TFR clause. And if you're operating in the state of Delaware right now, you definitely have to have your VIP presidential. Cause I've joked, you know, we teach part 107. We talk about airspace and TFRs. And I always say, Hey,
Wouldn't that be terrible if you owned a drone company doing flight services in this community and then all of a sudden your neighbor or someone in your town becomes president? Because now every time they come to visit, boom, up goes the TFR. So it is so, so, so funny how for folks in Delaware...
Samuel S (1:00:01)
That would be pretty frustrating.
Paul Rossi (1:00:10)
You know, trying to navigate this, it's so challenging. Business, you know, the ups and downs of businesses when I got into drones and what I've done and tariffs and COVID and all kinds of, you know, there's always the good with the bad. And if things were easy, everyone would do it. And the more challenging something is, the more rewarding.
So that's this whole idea of the lucrativeness of drug light shows. It's not guaranteed. It's not easy. You got to move things. Hey, sometimes with the weather clause, you're like, well, we traveled here. We had everything in place and the wind and the rain was outside of our control. So we're not charging you a hundred percent, but we're going to charge you 30%. And we're going to cover the cost of our airfare and our shipping and
You're still covering your costs and that's why it's drone as a business operator and a drone business, just drone business company. You have to think the same thing, even if you're just doing photography and video or something. Hey, if you schedule your time to be somewhere and you show up and there's factors outside your control, hey, you're still charging for that. If you want to keep business and work and have a good working relationship with a
With this company or person then that's when you have to decide how much am I willing to eat? You know, like what am I willing to sacrifice in order to make sure that we can work again tomorrow or next week? You know so So as these drone light show companies, you never want to walk away and say well we charge them Full price and the drones didn't get off the ground, you know, how can we walk away and not have lost anything and
Samuel S (1:01:45)
Right. Yeah.
Paul Rossi (1:02:02)
still come back to maybe have another customer again.
Samuel S (1:02:06)
Yeah, that's a really good perspective to have it from that business aspect of what costs are you looking at? Well, I mean, you got to be able to walk away and still not be completely maimed as a business just because you had one bad rainy day or a TFR suddenly pop up. So it's a good thing to point out.
Paul Rossi (1:02:26)
Yeah man, it was a great episode. It was a great episode of Weekly Wings by DroneLife .com this week, wasn't it?
Samuel S (1:02:33)
I think that was pretty good. I loved all the drone light shows to be honest. Leave it to the fourth for that to happen.
Paul Rossi (1:02:37)
Yeah, we got like a month's worth of drone light shows in. But hopefully, again, if you go and you look, you're going to see all over the country there was drone light shows. Not all of them, as we saw, were good to go. But I think there's going to be a lot of momentum coming out of this year from the successes and then going forward. At least I hope so. I enjoy them. We talked.
Samuel S (1:03:04)
All right, yeah.
Paul Rossi (1:03:05)
about the Denver Drone Light Show. We talked about Indy's Indy Eve, as they call it, higher UAV Pro, one of the operators at the Denver. We talked about the light show fail, drones going down in the water, Ukrainian drone industry, got some opinions on that and how that's moving forward from a volunteer slash for hire perspective. Millions of drones are going to get made.
don't know if it's sustainable. Cool video we saw from Chicago, the NASCAR street course, really, really neat stuff happening with drones and sports and just real time video. This crossover of FPV and cinematic capture, it's really changing things up for sports and for video production. And as always, we ended up
this episode in our regulatory corner talking about the repeal of the NCDOT permit and how TFRs can impact your operations and a little bit of a business of how to CYA and make sure you're coming to agreements with your clients that make sure at the end of the day, you're able to cover your costs and be able to come back and continue to provide good quality service.
Another fantastic episode of Weekly Wings. Even though Terry wasn't with us, certainly miss Terry. We're going to get Tony on. Yes, sir. As always, Samuel, really appreciate your time. To our viewers, our listeners, thank you as always for tuning in. We appreciate your time. Drop any questions or comments on our YouTube channel, DroneLife TV.
Samuel S (1:04:34)
Miss you, Terry.
Paul Rossi (1:04:54)
Also, editor at dronelife .com. You can send any questions, comments that you might have. And as always, we appreciate you tuning into Weekly Wings and we will see you next episode. Thank you.
Samuel S (1:05:09)
Stay safe.
