Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: 2, 1. Welcome, everybody, to another wonderful episode of weekly wings a drone life.com podcast. Drone life.com podcast.
As always, I'm Paul Rossi, joined by Samuel Stansberry and Terry Neff. We have a great episode and first and foremost, apologize for last week's delayed episode release.
Pretty busy week. Lots going on. The number one most important thing was the World Series. Huge Yankee fan. So question I would ask is, leading into this is I went to game five of the World Series. So I was in the Bronx at Yankee Stadium a couple nights ago, and it'd been years since I'd gone to a Yankee playoff game. But I grew up going here with family, so it was like I've realized having gone back there now that people say you can't take money with you, right? You can't take things in possession. So what are we doing? We're just trying to, like, live this life. And I'm like, wow, going back to Yankee Stadium for a playoff game. I was like, that's what it's all about. Like, you watch all season, they get there and you're like, I'm just gonna sit at home on the couch, like, nah, get your ass to the game. Be a fan. Be around these other fans. The energy, it's electric. They ended up losing the game, which sucked, but, man, that was. That was so awesome. So sporting events or events, is there anything you did growing up as far as attending that you still do now? Maybe, like it's a holiday parade or something like that. Drone light shows. Go ahead, Terry.
[00:01:37] Speaker B: I've been to quite a few UFC events. Kind of started when I was like 16, 17. I've never been to anything else. I've been to maybe like a minor league baseball game.
There's no way anything compares to watching people. These modern day gladiators, dude. There's nothing better than it, if you like it, of course, but what's it like leading?
[00:01:59] Speaker A: Because you don't just go. That's the other thing. You don't just go the day of. It's like every UFC event is like its own little super bowl, right? I mean, typically you're trying to go like the weigh ins. Everything leads up to it. So it's that energy, right?
[00:02:12] Speaker B: Yeah. No, I mean, like, when I went to Miami this last time, there was people walking around Miami with, I think it was Ecuador, Ecuadorian flags, just screaming, like, just randomly, because that was the guy that was fighting Cheeto Vera. So it's electric. The UFC does a fantastic job at promoting their events and their fighters. So the Lead up to it, you can do. You don't have to spend any money. They're all free. Like you can go to the weigh ins, you can go to the press conference, you can go to everything. And then they have like meet and greets too that you can go to.
[00:02:43] Speaker A: So yeah, then people are out and about. You try to figure out what's that cool restaurant and get a little reservation there. Hope you might bump into somebody.
Samuel. What. What about you? Any. Any?
[00:02:52] Speaker C: I think I have a traditional answer in terms of like concerts or anything like that specifically, but going out, traveling, seeing friends, that's stuff to look forward to, stuff to make those memories and just kind of be able to be like, oh, this, this was awesome. Going out and going up to traveling to another city for a convention center, whether it's about maybe video games or something like that, you know, maybe on the bit more nerdier side of things, but go ahead.
[00:03:20] Speaker A: More, more bucket list type of a thing. It's not like repetitive, it's more of this, like, this like never ending list of adventures.
[00:03:29] Speaker C: I have a map. Google Photos has it. So there's a heat map of pretty much all the places you've been. So I like to look at it and be like, you know, where, where haven't I exactly been on the east coast so far? It' like I gotta eventually make my way over north of Boston, go west of Florida, something like that specifically. But see, certain places, I'm like, oh.
[00:03:50] Speaker A: You gotta hit up the group chat.
[00:03:52] Speaker C: And be like, guys, I think I know where we're going in a couple months, something like that.
[00:03:56] Speaker A: So you got to detail that and everything. Right? So then your children can kind of follow in those footsteps because otherwise they won't know where to go. Like my kids are going to know, just go to Yankee Stadium, because that's where dad always was. And Terry, you know, Terry's kids all know, hey, wherever the ufc, wherever the UFC is. So it's like, hey, where are we going this year? I don't know. Where's UFC 500, you know, 68? Oh, it's in Sao Paul. We're going to Sao Paul. It's more of like the UFC calendar. It's kind of like that's what Terry looks at. It's not like he doesn't have to pick the UFC picks for him. And Samuel's more like, nah, I'll just pick the place and then we'll figure out what's there.
[00:04:35] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, certain, certain things kind.
[00:04:38] Speaker A: Of bring me there, sort of.
[00:04:39] Speaker C: Yeah, I Was gonna say penny arcade. Expo 23, I believe, brought me to Boston, went with some friends. That was really fun. That was amazing.
Hopefully going back next year at some point because that, I don't know, met a lot of cool people, went to the convention center, got a walk around downtown Boston, found out later there was more stuff I wanted to do. So it's like, okay, maybe I, maybe we can go back at some point, 20, 25 maybe, you know.
[00:05:08] Speaker A: But yeah, yeah, right on.
We'll just kind of jump into these topics here. We'll get started with some light show stuff. We, the past week had had Halloween and then I learned that it wasn't just Halloween, it was Diwali as well.
So as we were going trick or treating here where I live in North Carolina, there's some designs, some art designs on the doorsteps and then the things that they do that a doorway. So it's nothing I have seen personally and experienced. So this year going around the timing of Halloween with this Indian holiday of Diwali was kind of interesting. And one person told me that they do like firecrackers during Diwali. But because it was Halloween and all these kids are walking around, they're like, yeah, we, we postponed the firecrackers till tomorrow. So apparently like things are going to be going off to tonight in my neighborhood. But there was a drone light show in Ottawa with 250 drones symbolizing and recognizing the celebration of Diwali. And it was done by the Christian Illumin, remember? So we've talked about Illumin drone shows, how they. The Canadian company.
So pretty cool here, you know, 250 drones. And in addition to that here we could have. We'll show this now. Let's see share here instead. So we also had a scary Halloween show presented by Sky Element drones. And I saw some of this, I remember where it was. But like they, yeah, it's. This is insane. But like they. There's like a production behind this. It's not just the drone light show, but it seems like they, they got.
[00:07:05] Speaker B: Like actors and stuff, right?
This is just a big ad. They took it as a liberty to just make an ad for their company.
[00:07:14] Speaker A: Can it. Yeah. Can a drone show be scary?
So here for the folks listening, we got the video and audio only.
It's funny how these sky elements, almost.
[00:07:30] Speaker C: Every fpv, FPV or excuse me, every drone light show video has an FPV element in the like promotional material. That's something I've always noticed. Now.
[00:07:45] Speaker B: Every time we see sky elements. They just do better and better.
[00:07:49] Speaker A: The pyrotechnics, the. I mean, this skeleton, like that's insane.
[00:07:56] Speaker B: I reckon if for audio listeners, please go out and watch this video. It is very well made. And the drone light shows, this is.
[00:08:05] Speaker C: One of the better.
[00:08:05] Speaker A: Yeah. If you Google.
And then from a videoing standpoint, they. They film this for like Terry was saying they take took advantage of the season.
But that is like just YouTube, just Google Halloween Drone show. And it's the sky elements.
[00:08:32] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:08:33] Speaker A: And the FPV side. I think it's because there's a combination. So you are seeing like that drone shot right there is more of your traditional, you know, gimbal giving you the big picture.
Drone. Wow.
Like right there, that's your FPV3D.
[00:08:58] Speaker B: That's insane, man. I notice a lot of drone light shows will just do kind of like 2D stuff for like one viewing angle. This is 3D.
[00:09:06] Speaker C: I guess with 1200 drones you can do that.
[00:09:10] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:09:15] Speaker A: Those legs, just the movement, it's.
[00:09:18] Speaker C: I can't imagine if you were completely unaware of drone technology, what you would imagine. This is, you know, like. That must be terrifying.
[00:09:27] Speaker A: Oh, and the return looks like this. Yeah, it's like the spider spitting out.
[00:09:37] Speaker B: Oh, those. And those are drones. I thought that was just like sparklers. That's insane.
[00:09:49] Speaker A: These cars are just cruising.
[00:09:50] Speaker C: I was gonna say, like, what? This has to be a demo, right? Because I don't see anywhere where the audience could be watching.
[00:10:01] Speaker A: Yeah, it does seem a lot like this was a.
Wow.
[00:10:04] Speaker C: It's a beautiful show though.
[00:10:08] Speaker A: Ghost Stories.
[00:10:09] Speaker B: This is filmed in an interesting location too. I cannot tell where this is at.
[00:10:13] Speaker C: Well, I'm wondering if they have like a situated area where they do all their drone light show testing, you know, because you can do all the. The software stuff and then it goes perfectly. But then what if you need to actually go out and test in the field before the big day?
[00:10:36] Speaker A: Yeah, I think like a prerequisite is like a co owner of the company who has land in space.
[00:10:45] Speaker C: A snake coiling itself with just by the drone movement. That's so smart.
[00:10:52] Speaker B: Yeah, no, that's.
I hope they're paying. The dude that animates these really well.
[00:11:00] Speaker A: I can't imagine he's making through that though, is just.
[00:11:10] Speaker B: We're at wall at all right now. It's just. It's insane.
[00:11:19] Speaker C: This is essentially the highlights too, right?
[00:11:22] Speaker B: Skeleton.
[00:11:25] Speaker A: No, I think this. This has got to be.
[00:11:28] Speaker C: Is it the full show?
[00:11:32] Speaker A: I think this is the full show. It seems like they May have like just cut like the in betweens a little bit maybe, right?
[00:11:39] Speaker B: Yeah. Probably cut the foot out a little bit.
[00:11:41] Speaker A: But it seems like this is just one continuous. There's so many angles, so much coordination.
Look how bright they get.
Look at this. Look at the light on the ground.
[00:11:57] Speaker B: And the animations flow really smoothly into each other too.
[00:12:01] Speaker A: Look. Well, that's like a parking lot of some building that they see.
[00:12:04] Speaker B: That like little DC area where they're controlling the show. It's just like four laptops.
[00:12:13] Speaker C: Yeah, it's a fair bit.
[00:12:16] Speaker B: Yeah, they have a lot of lights down there too.
[00:12:19] Speaker C: But that's crazy though because that's supposed to be 1200.
[00:12:22] Speaker A: It's only 1200, which is like a lot.
[00:12:27] Speaker C: But it is a lot. But it just like from that photo there or the last little few snippets. It did not look like that was 1200 to me. But I mean I believe it especially.
[00:12:38] Speaker A: It's crazy because we see this and we see this and then it's like, so who is going to pay for that? It's just a question is like who's gonna. I just think of the sporting events. It's like something that you do but on like a Halloween.
How much? How big is the market? It's cool and it's amazing to watch but like the regulating of whose eyes can see it versus doing a show and having a controlled audience, it just. It's going to be really, really interesting to see how it, how it goes forward.
[00:13:10] Speaker B: But I mean cities already kind of pay for like fireworks and stuff. I mean, I'm sure fireworks aren't cheap at that scale. Why not throw some drones in there?
[00:13:20] Speaker A: Yeah, man. Here's jumping into some tech side of UAS here.
Drone with its own nervous system trialed by scientists. So an article from Tech Explorer.
What.
What are we looking at here, Terry? And this thing has like some massive connectors. It looks like.
[00:13:45] Speaker B: Yeah, so.
[00:13:46] Speaker A: Or is this even real?
Is that a rendering? That's real.
[00:13:50] Speaker B: That's real.
It. It looks a little low res, but what is it real?
[00:14:00] Speaker A: It's so weird. That connect. I don't know man. That doesn't.
[00:14:04] Speaker B: No, that's not real, man.
[00:14:06] Speaker A: This looks like.
[00:14:09] Speaker C: I mean the video is down below too.
[00:14:11] Speaker B: It looks like they put the original image in an AI generator.
[00:14:14] Speaker A: That's an AI. Like the writing on this piece of paper right here. And then these connectors are goofy looking.
[00:14:22] Speaker B: I don't know. The video exists. Yeah, right down below a piece of AI. Maybe they just got bored.
[00:14:29] Speaker C: It's so Backwards.
[00:14:30] Speaker B: But yeah, I was just scrolling, looking up drone news right before the show.
[00:14:35] Speaker A: Technology itself.
[00:14:37] Speaker B: But the reason this caught my eye is because recently I'm not sure where it happened. I think is that some type of college.
They replicated like, re. Like they found a way to replicate smell. So we have two ways of. We can only do two of our senses right now. We can do like sound and we can do like visual stuff with like screens and stuff. They've figured out how to like almost 3D print smell. So they replicated a smell across the room. So they took a sample of it, built a 3D model of it. So I don't know how any of this works. And then they made that smell on the other side of the room.
So.
[00:15:20] Speaker A: Well, it seems like when you have a drone that's looking for something, if you're looking for a certain smell, it's like sending.
[00:15:28] Speaker B: Well, this wasn't. This wasn't a drone. This was just technology. It reminded me of this because this has a nervous system. It can tell when things go bad. I didn't phrase that the right way.
You know, it's like you're making it almost living. It's a. It's an organism. It knows when it gets its finger cut off. You know, for an example, I think.
[00:15:48] Speaker C: This is a really good kind of quote. It sends back real time information using light rather than electricity, which avoids problems that electronic systems have with interference from radio frequencies. So kind of like how our eyes work there a sensor?
[00:16:05] Speaker B: Yeah, well, it's. It's using optic.
It's using optic cables. And recently, I mean, we talked about it, I think over. I think Russia is doing it where they're tying the optic cable to the drone so it can't be like jammed or anything. And they're just flying the. The optic cable to where they need to go.
[00:16:29] Speaker A: Yeah, that's.
That's really interesting.
[00:16:34] Speaker C: Did we talk about the drone jousting on the podcast?
Was that a topic? I. Okay, I don't think that was. I. I came across a video a while back of like Russian and Ukrainian drones. Basically.
I believe the Ukrainians were. Had a stick on a drone and they were kind of jousting the Russian drone, trying to knock it off course and make it spiral. And it was making me think of what Tony, or excuse me, Terry was saying.
I'm gonna find this.
[00:17:08] Speaker B: Are you talking about like where his.
[00:17:09] Speaker C: There we go.
I think this is.
[00:17:14] Speaker A: It.
[00:17:20] Speaker B: Is. I'm gonna send a link in the discord. Is this it? Is this what you're talking about? They're not. This isn't really jousting. This is like something else. But did they, like, agree each other drones?
[00:17:41] Speaker C: Yeah, that is the video. It's more just one drone chasing the other drone with a stick. So I call it jousting.
[00:17:49] Speaker B: I was like, what?
[00:17:51] Speaker C: Terry found the video.
[00:17:53] Speaker A: Yeah, I think. Don't know how relevant I thought you were. I thought you were thinking more like picturing two people on drones charging at each other. Like, using a drone instead of a horse.
[00:18:06] Speaker C: We haven't gotten there yet.
[00:18:08] Speaker A: Drone with a stick attached to it.
[00:18:12] Speaker B: It reminds me of that. That basketball clip where the guy had, like, the.
He was, like, standing on what looked to be, like, a drone, and it was flying, and he bounced the basketball, hit the props, and he crashed.
Have you guys seen that?
[00:18:26] Speaker C: Yeah, I've seen that.
That's crazy. Well, it's gotta be a thing.
[00:18:34] Speaker B: I feel like that idea. Samuel.
[00:18:37] Speaker C: I've seen two people, like, fly their drones at each other and just kind of hit them until one goes down.
Does that count?
[00:18:46] Speaker A: Oh, my goodness.
[00:18:47] Speaker B: Paul's thinking about how he can sell this to somebody.
[00:18:51] Speaker A: No. Like, ready for this video? I just found this rabbit hole. You just got me in this rabbit hole. So then here is Ukrainian fpv. Drone brutally blows up fleeing Russian infantry at close range. Like this. This is eight minutes long. And then the video starts out with subtitles. And so it goes like this. Hello, everyone. Paul here.
This is terrible.
Oh, my goodness. Yeah. All right, well, enough of that for this week.
[00:19:26] Speaker B: You just. The moment you start talking about drones, you're like, oh, yeah, they're used for war crimes. I forgot about that.
[00:19:33] Speaker A: That's not what they were doing. It was jousting. The other person just didn't know to bring their shit.
[00:19:38] Speaker C: His drone, you know, he brought his.
[00:19:40] Speaker A: Gu to the drone fight.
And sticking on the theme, though, and going in a more positive direction, maybe.
What do we got here, Terry? Army coyote drone hunting drones. Scored 170 combat kills.
[00:20:02] Speaker B: Yeah. So the reason I brought this. This article up is they have a pretty good, like, diagram somewhere in the article that I seen. And recently we've been talking about, like, what does the system look like for detect and destroy? I mean, like, because you have to connect it somehow. And this does a good, like, job of showing what it stops and the other, like, defenses for it. So, like, if you could find that. There it is. This shows, like, kind of how it works in the system. So, like, there's different ways of stopping drone attacks.
[00:20:45] Speaker A: And then you got your Group so Group 1, smaller, smaller aircraft swarm. Like right now it's not huge drones that are swarming, it's small swarm. Like try to send in a lot and just if two can get through then that's, that's enough. You know, you can take out 98 of 100, but two getting through is, is certainly a huge threat. And then group two attack, UAS being, you know, a little bit larger, requiring a more capable counter UAS system. And then group three UAS being, you know, like the largest UAS operational.
And then beyond that you move into your rotary and fixed wing aircraft.
So here you can see all like how do you detect it? You can have vehicle mounted detection for kinetic engagement, EM towers for potentially deploying like an EM pulse, you know, melting the internal componentry.
[00:21:55] Speaker B: And something to point out, I mean it's obviously like working like they wouldn't be saying it did fantastic. You know, like it's deployed at over 30 different bases. I think it said undisclosed bases, but it's doing its job and it's doing it well.
[00:22:13] Speaker A: Buying 6000 block 2 and 7000 block 3 coyotes. So that's a lot of systems, the directed energy type systems from 10 to 50 kilowatts.
And so this is pretty interesting because you can see the projectiles that come out in order to disable your group 2 and 3. So they're basically firing a precise munition. Take it out the.
Let's see, we got a ton of volume here.
Approved for public release US army integrated fires.
[00:23:06] Speaker B: It's a crazy logo.
[00:23:08] Speaker A: This is a Coyote Block 2. Plus.
[00:23:20] Speaker B: Like how it just disappears.
[00:23:22] Speaker A: Yeah. And so that's kinetic hits target, causes explosion or explodes before target sloats before impact.
[00:23:39] Speaker B: It's like a grenade kind of surprised shoot shrapnel at it.
[00:23:42] Speaker A: Yeah. Oh yeah. You're not surviving that little thick little, you know, lightweight drone.
[00:23:49] Speaker B: It's probably.
[00:23:51] Speaker A: Go ahead.
[00:23:52] Speaker B: Sorry. You have to think if it's more like a grenade and it shoots shrapnel ever. And that's how it's designed to explode. You can take out like more I guess. So like if it was a swarm, the ideal way would be to like almost have a grenade that shoots out like very small pieces of glass and it just shreds the props and they drop, I mean just in a 360 bubble.
[00:24:16] Speaker A: And on that counter UAS like I was in my current class for the, for my space operations program, the course project that I'm having to work on is a, is a space debris cleaning satellite. So a satellite that can Eliminate defunct satellites, deorbit debris. And so like, my selection was to use a satellite equipped with a laser.
So you can basically hit a piece of space junk with a laser for a certain period of time, like a short pulse, and it will cause the debris to slow down and basically fall out of orbit. And so when I was looking this up, I came across because it's saying what existing technology is already in place that you can deploy in space, you're not creating something new. So a lot of this counter UAS technology, again, I'm going, yeah, of course. See, this overlap is being either already researched for space applications and then applied, or it's being used in military defense. And they're now applying it to like, oh, hey, here's something for Earth that is used in a positive way to stop a negative thing. That's an attack versus, hey, there's a ton of stuff floating around the in LEO right in all these various orbits. And Kessler syndrome says if two things collide, they'll create a chain reaction and it will cause another thing to collide. And in space, every time something gets hit, it explodes into like thousands more pieces. And so if one thing gets hit, everything. And eventually in this chain reaction. So how do you mitigate space junk? Shoot it with lasers. Isn't this a neat photo?
It really puts into bullet hole. That's a laser.
[00:26:07] Speaker B: Oh, that's a laser.
[00:26:08] Speaker A: Yeah, that's melted. That was hit in flight by a directed laser pulse.
[00:26:14] Speaker B: Is that the laser next to it right there?
[00:26:17] Speaker A: That's a good question. I'm not entirely sure, but here's the. And again, this just was all into the counter UAS stuff. So here this came up. I'm like, this is crazy. We're literally talking about all this. This is from2022.
Look at that.
[00:26:33] Speaker B: That's insane.
[00:26:35] Speaker A: And so this was for work. You're not work. This was for, for school. I'm like, man, this is crazy. The podcast has school stuff on.
[00:26:43] Speaker C: It always has.
[00:26:51] Speaker A: Like, remember we just were like the Israeli Counter UAS tank machine that we had on here a couple weeks ago. It looked just like one of these. Look at that. Fortnight looking.
[00:27:03] Speaker B: I don't like that.
[00:27:06] Speaker A: Little pods, little.
That's some crazy looking stuff.
I don't have the cool graphics. Like the other link. And then you can see here's a plate of metal.
So there's the plastic, but then here's like a sheet of metal where it's showing this thing can just go through metal.
[00:27:29] Speaker B: That has to be the laser right There like that wouldn't be there unless it was.
[00:27:34] Speaker A: And so just so this makes sense. The Laser Patroller satellite. An elegant weapon for a more civilized age. So here's, here's where it all starts. Oh, we're going to put, we're going to put lasers in space.
And this is esa, European Space Agency.
But what happens when you turn that laser from a deorbited satellite, you know, piece of space junk to like a active. Hey, there's a spaceship. We don't like that country.
Scary, scary stuff.
[00:28:09] Speaker B: Mm.
[00:28:13] Speaker A: But been reading a little bit about lasers recently.
[00:28:17] Speaker B: Are you going to go buy one of the like high powered ones?
[00:28:20] Speaker A: The power of the sun in the palm of my hand.
Anyway, did you guys hear that we talked about DJI drones are being stopped at the, you know, they're not letting DJI drones come into the country at customs.
[00:28:48] Speaker C: Seeing headlines.
[00:28:49] Speaker A: I think we talked about that like a week or two ago.
[00:28:51] Speaker B: I heard you say that.
[00:28:52] Speaker A: Yeah. Cause we talked last, remember what's your name's the former do. The former Attorney general is suing the Department of Defense. So DJI is like, well you know, we've got, we got people who can't get their drones right. Departments, they can't be. People have gone, purchase orders, they've paid and they cannot get their drone to do life saving work. And so hey, that's great for an American company, right? Cause hey now you can. More like people want to buy your stuff. Well this, what does this turn into? Is China just going to sit back and be like, all right, no, you know, we're not going to.
It just is what it is.
Well, you know, what do we see just this past week in the, in the news?
Is China, right, has a sanction that temporarily or that prevents the exporting of the battery technology because the company Skydio, they're making a drone.
They got the motors, they got everything. Everything except the battery. The battery was still coming from China. So sanctions went into place and now skydio is unable to get batteries.
Skydio sold drones to Taiwan's national fire.
What is being said here is that skydio allegedly sold drones to Taiwan's national fire agency. And according to China, the way that they recognize all this stuff, and I'm, you know, not a geopolitical expert, apparently that violates, you know, their agreements.
So now skydio is having to ration its batteries.
They're only selling one battery per drone.
[00:30:54] Speaker B: That's.
[00:30:56] Speaker A: And they don't expect new sources to come online until spring of next year. That's six months in, in maybe six months you can get a second battery for your thirty thousand dollar drone.
Even if you had the money, they won't sell it to you.
[00:31:20] Speaker B: Yeah, I guess that's one thing we didn't really think of.
[00:31:24] Speaker C: I think some people.
[00:31:25] Speaker A: No, then nobody thought people thought of this. But the people who made the decisions aren't thinking. And so they just are like, oh, we're just going to do protectionism, let's just ban, let's just stop these from coming in and let's make it easier. They don't think, these people aren't thinking 1, 2, 3, you know, steps ahead. They're not thinking of the collateral impact that one decision has. And so this idea that like the Chinese government will use the supply chain as a weapon, I think the first weaponization of supply chain through trade war was not allowing their drones to come into the country. I mean that to me looks like first step, follow the legal, you know, process, add a tariff if you want to make it a little bit more. Dude, this election is really causing things people to just, I don't know. But isn't that crazy? You buy a drone, oh, we're only going to give you one battery until spring of next year.
[00:32:27] Speaker B: But are they saying they're going to give another battery or is it just like you buy it, this is what you get?
[00:32:33] Speaker A: No, they're selling you the kit, the three battery kit without the extra battery. So you're paying for the kit, you're paying for the batteries, you know, you're buying them early, you're reserving them, but you don't get them until maybe spring of next year. And so they said, well, we're going to, you know, we'll offer people free software access and you know, we're going to make up for this. And it's like, how does that work when you only have one battery and you're trying to find a missing person and then you fly and then your battery is dead and then you're like, all right, well let's wait for our battery to charge. That is crazy.
[00:33:06] Speaker C: That's crazy when you say they're not allowing batteries specifically, they're not allowing the materials for the batteries.
[00:33:15] Speaker A: Or is it straight at the sky?
[00:33:18] Speaker C: They're not selling skydio. Skydio batteries.
[00:33:20] Speaker A: They're not the supplier, whoever manufactures it under skydio. Because when you look at a skydio battery, if you look at it, it will say made in China.
[00:33:28] Speaker C: Right?
[00:33:29] Speaker A: So they have a distributor, they have a vendor in China that manufactures their battery that is exported to the United States for them to pair with their kits and they sell it from the United States. And so now, because that company is based in China, China is basically saying, all right, you want to stop this Chinese company stuff from going into your country? We're not going to, you know, you want to play hardball or whatever the hell people say, then we're not going to, you know, help you. Because that's the way stuff's worked is globally, as you kind of look at it like, hey, you're good at batteries, you're good at this. All right, take it and bring it all together. Somewhere along the lines this idea of, you know, the prc, the peoples of Republic of China is going to, is going to request and force DJI to give them all their information and in their information includes your flight logs. And it's just crazy. It's, you know, it's.
I don't know at this point now at this, I'm like, dude, I just need to pop some popcorn and just sit back because it's, it's getting funny. You know, it's literally starting to become entertaining. And unless you're like an absolute political economist geographist like you, how else would you be able to just stay on top of everything? You really can't. So we'll see what happens. And in the meantime, so we're kind of coming out last two more things here to discuss more on a positive and regulatory note. We'll go with, we'll go with regulatory first. Pueblo sheriffs. Playbo Sheriffs.
I want to say Playboy Sheriff's not play. We're going with the bad news first.
[00:35:20] Speaker C: This is good news.
[00:35:21] Speaker A: We'll get to the sheriffs. This is the Pueblo developer who made drone videos mocking homeless people has been hit with a $270,000 fine from the FAA.
And I am not on any real thing where they do scrolling videos. So I haven't seen any of these. But Terry, I think did you. Are you maybe familiar with.
[00:35:46] Speaker B: Yeah, I originally seen this on YouTube. Man, this is something people have been doing for a while.
[00:35:51] Speaker A: Oh, okay.
[00:35:52] Speaker B: Yeah, so that it's a little dehuman. It's a little dehumanizing in my opinion, but just a little funny, you know, It's a little funny, but yeah, they'll do it. Like people that they think they can get like a big reaction from, they'll like fly the drones up to them and they'll like get real close and then they'll like pull back when they throw something at it, you know, so.
[00:36:14] Speaker C: They just harassed Them all day.
[00:36:16] Speaker B: Trolling, I guess, is a good word for it. Yeah, they heard. They harass them. That's another good word.
[00:36:21] Speaker A: Bums and drones. So he has a social media page called Bums and Drones.
[00:36:26] Speaker B: You know where that name comes from?
Maybe not maybe. I'm.
[00:36:32] Speaker A: I don't. I'm not into the phone, if you would like.
[00:36:38] Speaker B: You don't need to look it up.
[00:36:42] Speaker A: This is funny. So I know Vic Moss personally. I know to a person, I have over330,000 drone pilots in my group. I cannot think of a single one that will think this is funny, said drone expert Vic. So don't laugh. Okay?
[00:36:56] Speaker B: I think it's too late, man.
[00:37:03] Speaker A: Yeah. I don't know. And then just.
I don't know enough about the story. I mean, obviously I laugh here first, because I'm just thinking, here's a developer who. It seems like he's using drones. I don't know if it started out where it was. Like, all right, we've got this land that we're developing, and I'm going to take some photographs of it. And then all of a sudden, it's like, hey, here's these homeless people on this land. And I don't know if you can hear my phone ringing, if that cut in or not.
You know, here's my land, and these people shouldn't be on my land. So, like, yeah, everyone is talking about their rights and don't laugh at them, but, like, you're on my property, so I'm going to video with my drone. Right. It's not.
I'd have to look more into this, but my understanding is it's like this person is just going. Maybe. Is maybe the fact that he's a real estate developer.
[00:38:01] Speaker C: I mean, he did think he's probably specifically.
[00:38:07] Speaker A: So if it's. If it's harassing. Yeah. If it's going around just to find these groups and then getting out of your car in order to fly at them, then that is. That's. That's just harassment, right? Whether someone owns land, a home, they're in it, they're out it. That is. That's not acceptable.
And so to have the 232 alleged violations, like, that's crazy. That is not just like, one. Like, I'm like, how did he get to a $270,000 fine? Like, think about that. Like, you're fining a civilian $270,000 for. For what violates harassment.
[00:38:52] Speaker C: I'm curious, though, if that's like 232 different incidences which is kind of what it sounds like to me. Or do you think they kind of stack some of those encounters on each other?
[00:39:04] Speaker A: Oh, so among the violations. Because here's where it probably gets fun. Like, if dude profited off of it. Right. Because what is part 107, you're using your drone to collect imagery that you will then use for compensation. So now that as we're diving into this in real time, it seems like there were 99 flights approximately without a remote pilot certificate.
And this account must have been getting, like, a lot of views. And that's my guess here.
[00:39:39] Speaker C: Oh, it does sound like he was trying to, like, make that his gimmick, you know?
[00:39:43] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:39:44] Speaker C: Making a whole page about it.
[00:39:46] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:39:48] Speaker A: The commercialization of it firing guns at the drone like this.
And it was not registered. So that's the other thing is if they found.
[00:40:01] Speaker B: Yeah. Oh, my God. I have the video of the guy shooting a gun at it.
I'm on his Twitter. Okay.
[00:40:07] Speaker A: He didn't consider the risk to persons or property.
Yeah. So, yeah, this dude was just doing some terrible stuff.
[00:40:24] Speaker B: By the way, I don't seek out these videos.
It just kind of showed up. I don't think it was even hit. One of his videos. I think it was just like. It may have been the one that started it.
[00:40:35] Speaker A: It says bums.
Oh, like someone else's. He reposted it or something?
[00:40:40] Speaker B: Well, no, like, I think he's seen somebody do it. Like, I think the guy that originally did it was just do it, like, once. And then he's like, I got him. I can make money off this.
[00:40:51] Speaker C: Well, this person on X, like, is. What is this avatar I'm looking at, Terry?
[00:40:56] Speaker B: That's. I think that's his. I'm not sure he has a logo.
[00:41:00] Speaker A: Yeah, we'll check it out. With bums and drones where it's like, it's. It's not a good thing. Right. Whatever he's doing, don't do it. Don't harass people. Don't be an ass. And clearly, this guy is just. This is what happens though, right? Things go viral. So even though he knows it's wrong, it's like, hey, is the Juice like, oh, you know, now I'm. Now people know who I am, and who cares about those people over there? So this. This whole. The social media stuff is what drove this, the fact that people watched it. You know what I mean? It's. That's. Yeah, that is. Who has time for that? How many views does this have, though? All those people that watch this and Engage, like slap them, right? Like, have a hand that comes out of the phone, slap that person and be like, don't you have something better to do? And sorry, we're gonna give Terry a slap because he said he watched these videos, and if you watch those videos, that's fine. That's fine. I. Yeah. I don't want to tell you. You're watching us, and what better could you do than engage with us?
[00:41:57] Speaker B: But it's like, never seek these videos out.
Okay.
[00:42:01] Speaker A: And so again, then I would just echo. It's like, it's like that. That could have not been a thing if people didn't consume it, but because people consumed it is what actually gave it the idea to keep going.
[00:42:13] Speaker B: But platform.
[00:42:14] Speaker A: So last thing here, just jumping in. We'll finish on a more of a success side. And of course, we're here in North Carolina, Irdale County, North Carolina, during active shooter drill. So active school shooter called in, and the Irdell County Sheriff's office had to respond, doing something that it never hoped to have to do, but was able to use the drone to record the response during the drills. So it does seem like I got excited and this was a drill, right? So clearly not as.
[00:42:59] Speaker B: I think you got click baited by the photo.
[00:43:01] Speaker A: Dude, I got click baited by the photo.
And so I have spoke as a drill. Spoke to this before it was a drill, so there wasn't actually an active shooter. The positive note to this is that something like this is even being used and integrated because the time to integrate it is during training. And then the fact that people are speaking about this is super important.
Go ahead, Samuel.
[00:43:33] Speaker C: Well, I was just gonna say, I mean, I don't want them to be utilizing it for the first time during an actual event like this practice is exactly when you utilize it the first. The first time, you know, they. It. God forbid, like the article said in the quote, he's literally verbatim, but God forbid that ever happens, you know, they'll be ready. They've done the training. They actually got to go out in the field, utilize that technology. They hopefully feel comfortable with it now that they've used it. And I can't imagine that's the first time they've flown, but first time in that quote drill, you know, go ahead.
[00:44:09] Speaker A: And I would say, is that what I could bring up is there actually was a shooting at North Carolina Central University. So that's where I might have actually. I'm like, where did. Where did this come from? And I'll pull this up real quick.
North Carolina Central University had their homecoming this past weekend. And so they had an active shooter that occurred. It was not like a student. It wasn't necessarily on campus, but the campus, because everything is located right next to them, they. They were able to respond. Right. And this was at like 7:45 at night. So everybody knows the sun's going down like 5:30, 6:00. So it's actually pretty dark at this point. And they were able to use the department's drone. I don't know if it was in this article or not, not sure. But from what I heard, they were able to use the drone to actually aid in clearing the incident.
[00:45:27] Speaker B: It's always nice seeing drones being used for something good rather than watching homeless people and blowing up other individuals.
[00:45:38] Speaker C: That's a fair point.
[00:45:39] Speaker A: Yeah, like the hashtag. Hashtag drones for good versus hashtag drones for attention.
[00:45:46] Speaker B: Well, we kind of using drones for attention right now, Paul.
[00:45:49] Speaker C: I think the ethical. This is ethical, you know, kind of boundary, like we're in a good spot, you know, as opposed to harassing the unhoused personally. That's where my head is.
[00:46:01] Speaker B: I know. I'm just as.
[00:46:02] Speaker C: I think we're good, we're good. We're doing a good service to the industry by putting out the news, engaging with the community and just talking about what's going on as opposed to like, hey, this guy doesn't have a house. Let's zoom in on him. You know, like, oof. Anyways, I wasn't comparing you.
[00:46:19] Speaker B: I wasn't comparing you, don't worry.
[00:46:21] Speaker A: And it's better to be like, this person used the drone to find out this person's not at their house. They're at the wrong house. Yeah, good episode. A little shorter today in order to fit this into the schedule out of time. So we covered some, some really neat, interesting topics. Drone light shows popping up. It's the, it's the holiday season, so we're seeing Halloween. Probably see some neat stuff for Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's.
[00:46:45] Speaker B: I'll be excited for the New Year's.
[00:46:47] Speaker A: Yeah, it's going to get big. It's going to get exciting. Jumped into some of the tech stuff. Don't know why that company was using like an AI generated image, but that was weird.
[00:46:56] Speaker B: That was weird.
[00:46:57] Speaker A: It looked strangely accurate. I don't know if they took a real photo and they said like, you know how you can like filter it? You can turn photo.
[00:47:05] Speaker B: I wonder if the editor like, of the article was like, I wonder if anybody's gonna catch this, that maybe that's why they did it. Just, it's like a little Easter egg kinda.
[00:47:14] Speaker A: Yeah, well, we caught it.
Talked a little about the dji, Chinese batteries, Skydio. You know, if you're buying a skydio nowadays, you get one battery until Easter, you might get the egg. See what I did there?
See what I did there? Eggs. Easter eggs. Buy your skydio drone and you might get an Easter egg battery six months from now, which is one more than you can get from DJI right now because you can't even get the drone. You gotta go to the U.S. customs. Maybe if you pay a custom agent enough, you know, like, hey, you know, can I get a drone? Give me a four, a couple hundred bucks. Don't do that. That's, that's, that's not right.
And then, and then we kind of wrap things up here. Just looking at the positive use of drones in public safety planning, prepping, training, you know, whether you're in the commercial space or in the public safety space, you know, training is the most important. You're only going to get good at the system if you're using it on a regular basis. So training, training, training. Thank you everybody for joining us today. Appreciate your time and attention. Oh, we talked a little about lasers too. The counter, uas, laser, space debris removal. So hopefully everybody learned something, gained a little insight. Maybe they're inspired to go read up and learn, learn even more. Remember, if you have any questions, always reach out. Leave us comments in the YouTube and thank you Terry. Thank you, Samuel. Another great episode of weekly wings dronelife.com podcast. If you're interested in joining the show, if you have an idea that something we should talk about, a topic, an article, certainly you can email that to Paul Rossi. Rossi10drones.com Also, if you ever want to be a guest, maybe there's anything you want to share or present, you can always reach out. And if you're interested in sponsoring the show, you can always reach out as well. So again, thank you everyone. Thank you, Terry. Thank you, Samuel. Everybody fly safe and do not harass anybody, not just homeless people.
[00:49:22] Speaker B: Have a good night.
