Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Well, welcome back to another episode of weekly wings dronelife.com podcast. Got a great episode here unpacking the military swarm stuff, counter uas, finding out what is actually the most effective military counter UAS system currently. And we will be looking at drones helping law enforcement find felons, as well as looking at some new regulatory announcements in regards to advanced air mobility and your heavy lift evtol, you know, future pilotless air taxis.
Going to be a really exciting episode. As always, I am Paul Rossi. Joining me is Samuel Stansberry and Terry Neff.
Samuel, how you doing?
[00:00:54] Speaker B: I'm good. It's.
I went and saw a movie over the weekend and I thought it was kind of funny because it had this. A few different drone shots and I felt like the Leonardo DiCaprio meme where he points at the screen and whistles and it's like, oh, oh, oh. Because every time I see a drone shot, it's like, drone, drone, drone, drone shot. But I wanted to throw that little tidbit in there because every time I see a movie, a TV show where a drone is used with a certain shot or something like that, it's like they used a drone. Look at that. That's a good shot. But just made me think of how integrated my life is with drones now. But I'm doing good.
[00:01:31] Speaker A: Yeah. Terry, how you doing?
[00:01:33] Speaker C: I've seen the same exact movie. Samuel, Smile too. Go watch it. I'm doing great, though. Thank you for asking.
[00:01:41] Speaker A: I saw the smile, folks, at the baseball game and that whole video, that one went out of character because they thought they were going to get hit by a foul ball.
[00:01:51] Speaker B: Was that recent?
[00:01:52] Speaker C: Did they do, like, the crowd stuff again?
[00:01:55] Speaker B: I know they did that for the first one.
[00:01:57] Speaker A: That was recently. It.
It was at the Dodgers, I think was the Dodgers game. So they had two people, they bought two tickets behind home plate and they had these people just sit behind home plate the whole game just smiling. And they were wearing, like, bright yellow shirts.
Yeah. If you look it up, one of them actually, like, broke character because a foul ball got hit, so he thought it was going to hit him in the head, so he like ducked and covered. And the other one was just sitting there just completely still smiling.
[00:02:26] Speaker B: Huh. I wonder where they recruited them from.
[00:02:28] Speaker A: So their marketing is.
Yeah. So their whole marketing tactic is photobombing, video bombing, live public events with a constant smile. So, real quick, just a question. What's the hardest thing that you've ever.
Yeah, what's the hardest thing you've ever done?
Is there ever a good Time to compare. Yeah. And then the other part is, is there ever a good time to compare yourself to other people? So what's the hardest thing you've ever done? And is there ever a good time to compare yourself to other people? You could do one or the other or both.
[00:02:59] Speaker B: I think it's definitely. I think it's a good thing to have comparison because that gives you an idea of what more you can achieve, in my opinion.
[00:03:09] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:03:10] Speaker B: Like to push yourself farther.
[00:03:12] Speaker A: Yes. Very hardest thing you've ever done.
[00:03:13] Speaker B: Took the easy question.
[00:03:14] Speaker C: Well, I kind of want to answer the comparing yourself to other people.
[00:03:17] Speaker A: Okay, go for it.
[00:03:18] Speaker C: I'm sorry.
Well, so you. You can compare yourself to other people, but you should never dwell on the fact that you're not doing as good as them. You should. I think you should be a sponge. You should learn from other people. You should take things they do, try to implement it into the way you do things. You shouldn't get, like, jealousy kind of, I guess you shouldn't get jealous. You should just live your own life. I don't know that this book I'm. The book I'm reading right now is kind of going over it, but.
[00:03:50] Speaker A: Oh, there you go. Okay. Samuel, anything to add?
[00:03:54] Speaker B: No, I think that's hard.
[00:03:56] Speaker A: Let me tell you this.
[00:03:57] Speaker B: Go ahead.
[00:03:58] Speaker A: Yeah. So. So leading up to this, I was thinking about what might I ask? And then as I was trying to answer this myself, it's just the 12 miles, right? A 12 mile ruck march. So part of army military training, one of the culminating events that is done is a 12 mile rock march with like 30, 40, 50 pounds. I don't remember the weight, whatever the hell it is. 12 miles. You ever walk 12 miles in a single day? In three hours.
So that may be one of the hardest things I've ever done. And I was thinking about how was I able to do that? And it's like, oh, because I was looking at the people to my left and right and thinking, my God, if that person can do this, there's no way I can give up. So that's what led to the second part where I was like, what's the hardest thing that maybe you've ever done? And that was physically hard. Like, I can remember the pain, right? The suffering, the physical pain in the feet.
But again, it was where I said, yeah, but I got through it because I was able to kind of look to my left and right and just think to myself, like you mentioned, Samuel, oh, yeah, you know, I can do this. If other people have been able to do this before or doing this at the same time. So I don't know if there's anything to add. And then another thing was a check flight. Like a hard thing was a check flight for getting the pilot certificate.
Physically, it wasn't hard at all. But the mental preparation and then the stress and the anxiety of having to do the flying with the instructor.
So the memory of that hard thing isn't as burnt into my mem mind's eye or whatever the hell my ram. Right. My hard drive, because it wasn't so painful. So I think, I think hard, painful things might actually stick with us a little bit more. But anyway, anything to add before we kind of jump into the drone stuff?
[00:05:57] Speaker C: I think not much.
[00:05:58] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, you kind of beat us with your answer, I think.
[00:06:02] Speaker C: Yeah, I can't. I can't say what my hardest thing is, but that's the reason I didn't want to answer it.
[00:06:08] Speaker A: Oh, okay.
[00:06:09] Speaker C: Yeah.
You can't waterboard that information out of me, Paul.
[00:06:13] Speaker A: We might have to say that's like, you know, maybe that's like season two or something. We'll have to.
[00:06:18] Speaker C: We'll see how far I come as a person before we do that.
[00:06:20] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm like, hell, maybe he hasn't had it. Like, anyway. Yeah, so tell us. Like, we talked last episode about these mysterious drone sightings and since have realized that these weren't recent sightings. These sightings were last year. Within the last 12 months, they were happening over a 17 day span. Watching the news and just a full disclaimer here, I realized that you don't have to turn the news on. So if you get done with a day's work, you can actually just turn on like a stand up comic. And listening to comedy at the end of your day might actually bring you more joy than watching any news. Just so folks know that watching the news though, like, after recording the last podcast, there was a politician that came out and said this was a Chinese drone ship and there was small drones that were deploying out of this larger aircraft. And this person said this like on live news. I've not been able to since, you know, find this again. I, in hindsight I was like, I wish I had recorded that to play and to show, but I'm like, what is this person talking about? How in the hell was there a mothership drone releasing other drones right off the coast of the United States and no one had talked about it until now? Is this making like, what do you.
[00:07:54] Speaker C: I don't know.
What is it? Is it, you could go wrong in this conversation. But it's just politics, man. I mean, they're probably just making shit up at a certain point.
[00:08:04] Speaker A: And so you, you know, like, like this, this video here, you say making stuff up. I'm going to click this. It's going to, you know, I'll share this, it'll start playing. It keeps popping up. But all this around Langley, in these areas. Terry's afraid that Terry thinks that the US government is listening in on our podcast and no, they're listening to me for sure.
[00:08:27] Speaker B: Always listening.
[00:08:30] Speaker D: 45 minutes after sunset, the show begins.
[00:08:32] Speaker A: Show begins long and flying at 100 miles per hour.
[00:08:36] Speaker C: Audio comes out a little clear for the audience.
[00:08:38] Speaker D: Raid of lawnmowers. And General Kelly jokingly calling it Close encounters at Langley. And they deployed a wealth of resources to catch them, but they vanish into night. So the Pentagon stump. Some think it's clever hobbyists, others think it's Russia and China. Local police in Virginia also attempted to crack the mystery by chasing the drones on foot and by car. But they eventually gave up. And this went all the way to President Biden who found out about it in the situation.
[00:08:58] Speaker A: And this is something they give up.
[00:08:59] Speaker D: Don'T believe it to be hobbyist because apparently the drones don't use the usual frequency off the shelf drones use, but also because the operation's too complex. Drones flew in a pattern. One or two fixed wing drones position more than 100ft in the air and smaller quadcopters the size of 20 pound commercial drones, often below and flying slower.
[00:09:15] Speaker C: I don't know, it's just shout out Philip DeFranco. That is the credit for that video.
It, it was, it was insane because like we had just, we just filmed the podcast and like the day after, I'm like scrolling, being mindless on Tik Tok, trying to de load from the day and I'm just like, I get hit with this video and I'm like, damn, this just answered every single question I had about what we talked about in the previous podcast episode. It hit every topic. I was like, Jesus.
[00:09:49] Speaker A: Well, it's like all these pieces of information like, like you can tell the video is pieced together. It's this, this, this, it's, it's edited where. So I'm trying to understand is this person pulling all this information from all these different articles and sources and which pieces of information is actually true? Because this person is not a journalist that I'm familiar with.
[00:10:11] Speaker C: He's pretty big.
[00:10:12] Speaker B: He's a big, he puts out a lot of news. But, I mean, I see what your point is with that.
[00:10:17] Speaker A: A lot of news. But what is news? What the. What the.
[00:10:20] Speaker B: What is news?
[00:10:21] Speaker A: My opinions are not news.
[00:10:23] Speaker B: Just because I. Terry, do you have, like, 100ft apart?
[00:10:27] Speaker A: The spacing is this. They're 20. This. How. How does he know where. Where is he getting this information that he's presenting the world?
[00:10:35] Speaker B: Right.
[00:10:36] Speaker C: I don't see any, like, reference articles.
[00:10:39] Speaker B: Because I looked up his YouTube and I can't find any video of it on there. You got me curious now.
[00:10:45] Speaker C: Oh, no. So I. I do find this guy to be usually, you know, saying the correct stuff most of the time, not.
[00:10:54] Speaker A: Saying it's incorrect, just saying again, it seems like it's pulling information from here and here and here. And some say it's this, some say it's China, some say. So it's. It's just throwing out every piece of what has been presented. So it's really weird. But it was interesting to see how the news just jumped on this so fast with little information. And again, I wish I had this video where this person said, this is China. They're sending this. These drones are coming out from the big drone. And I'm like.
[00:11:26] Speaker B: And you saw that?
[00:11:27] Speaker A: I was like, yeah, that was on live on the news. And I was thinking to myself. I was just thinking to myself, this is technology that. I mean, we've played videos just on here. We've only been making.
Recording a podcast for half a year, and we've shown flying birds. And, you know, China puts out all this stuff. And everyone's seen the fake Amazon delivery drone that has drones coming out of it, right? Like the blimp with the mothership. You've seen, like, patents and stuff, but not any real video. So then to be declaring that they are doing this right off, right in the United States, like, what the hell?
[00:12:11] Speaker C: Honestly, I wouldn't put it past the now, this is real conspiracy theorists, but, like, I wouldn't put it past the military. Just start making up the election, too, right?
[00:12:20] Speaker A: You have the election. So this whole idea that this happened a year ago during someone else's administrator, you know, during this administration, it just starts to make you question, like, oh, well, you know, what is our national security? Like, how do people not know?
[00:12:37] Speaker C: Super weird. Hard to believe, especially. I mean, they did. He. He referenced them catching, like, some guy that was flying around a drone or something.
And, like, the guy crashed his drone, and apparently, if this is true, he, like, crashed the drone. And he was like, all right, got a dip. And he Just started flying back to his home country over in China and they caught him at the airport. But he was taking photos of naval ships though, so you can't be doing that. We've been over that though.
[00:13:08] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:13:09] Speaker B: So Chinese national staying on the had gotten his drone stuck in a tree 11 miles from Langley. Neighbor called Newsport News Police. Just to clarify, man couldn't free the drone, so he took off, got on a train, flew to Oakland and booked a one way ticket to China. Is that what you mean? Yeah, that's a little crazy.
[00:13:30] Speaker C: Yeah, you couldn't be any more guilty.
[00:13:34] Speaker B: Immediately. Just gone. Okay, sorry, what were you saying, Paul?
[00:13:39] Speaker A: No, that's hilarious. Could have bought the ticket with like crypto or something. Probably used the credit card and everything was moving into counter uas. This is kind of interesting. I, when I saw this headline, we've been talking about counter UAs probably on the podcast for the last four weeks, maybe five. So I saw this headline for US army takes on most effective Counter Drone system yet, Red tape.
I was like, oh, that's funny. So apparently an army official told Breaking Defense that soldiers are hesitant to fly small drones because of the mandatory paperwork and potential loss of pay that comes with losing one.
And so I'm like, what is going on here? You know, okay, the excuse is they're not flying drones because they don't want to pay for losing it or damaging it.
And you know, I was like, all right, let's just keep reading on getting into this. And the army is looking to reclassify its small drones because of concerns that affect that hinder the effectiveness in combat and training. Regardless of the size or the price tag of the drone, there is the same type of reports.
And so there is a colonel that mentioned, you know, they're treating a small unmanned aircraft system that's 30, $40,000, the same as they would treat a helicopter, an Apache or a Blackhawk helicopter.
So a financial liability investigation and property loss is something that would dock the soldier's pay.
So especially think about it. If these systems aren't as reliable or effective as other systems and you're kind of, you know, the smaller systems, you're trying to learn them. If you damage it and you're liable for the cost, how likely are you to want to actually use it?
[00:16:00] Speaker C: Yeah, they definitely, this is the right step, removing red tape. This for some reason reminds me of a story that one of my friends told me about when they were in the military. Somebody would lose something after I did like a parachute drop. And they were just you they would all have to not go home and they would just have to scan the field for multiple hours until they found it. But it's similar, kind of.
[00:16:25] Speaker B: But one thing that's killing me here. And they do a full investigation and a report to determine if the soldier is liable and if the soldier, dot, dot, dot, has to get docked pay. It's like you're just kind of hesitating on to say that because they don't. They, they don't like that. It sounds like. But honestly, changing that could sounds like it would very much encourage people to get on board and learn a system and be more interactive with it, as opposed to potentially.
I mean, it sounds like there's not much grace there. You know, it's either trying to transfer the same rules from what, the Apache straight to this little drone. Is that kind of the mindset?
[00:17:12] Speaker A: Yeah. And as I read further got down, it did kind of make sense when it got to where it's explaining it's a army supply policy problem.
And he said one drone was known as the flying Flipple. And they never. Soldiers never wanted to fly it. If you lost it or crashed it, you had to go do a Hands Across America to go find it. Or you had to do the Flipple process, which was the investigation process, even if this was in a combat zone.
So you're operating this system and there's a higher likelihood that it will go down while it's collecting its data because it's replacing. Right. A larger aircraft system that isn't supposed to be easily replaceable. So how likely are you to operate it if you have to literally find it or pay for it?
[00:18:13] Speaker B: I'm not familiar with someone handing you.
[00:18:15] Speaker C: A gun, telling you it's unloaded. Yeah, I'm not sure what that is.
[00:18:20] Speaker A: Well, just the process. It said it here earlier. It's the financial liability investigation of property law. So it's just a military investigation. So do you want to do that? Would you want to do that for your company? If you knew there was a good chance that the drone was going to go down and you had to do, would you fly the drone?
[00:18:39] Speaker B: Probably a good chance the drone is going to go down. Do I want to fly? That's. I don't think I do.
[00:18:47] Speaker A: Or if it goes down, it's in an area where it's going to be threatening to go recover it.
[00:18:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:18:53] Speaker A: What would be the likelihood if you had to recover it? Not that it would go down, but if it went down? Not the high likelihood, but I think.
[00:19:01] Speaker B: That'S a Fair point. In the combat zone, it's like, yeah, you still gotta go get it. I know it's combat, but go ahead and get it, you know?
Yeah, nah, I'm gonna pass.
[00:19:11] Speaker C: Yeah, become a mercenary. Go get the drone.
It's like, it's like somebody, I was trying to say secondary. It was like somebody's handing you a gun and they're, they're claiming up and down that it's unloaded and they're like, check and see if it's unloaded by pointing the barrel straight towards your eye and pressing the trigger. It's just like nobody in their right mind would do that. Sorry for cussing.
I'm a sailor today.
[00:19:46] Speaker A: And so I thought that was funny though, that like the, the most cat, the most effective army counter UAS is not a technology, it's just red tape.
It's all the paperwork that the soldiers have to do. So it's a counter, our own technology. I was like, with all those headlines coming across for counter UAS testing and everything going on, I was like, someone at Breaking defense had a sense of humor and so kind of like following the counter UAS theme. What I also saw is that counter UAS is now becoming a pretty much a standard in basic training, at least from what Military Times is reporting. So I'm going to try to play this without blasting out our audience ears.
[00:20:43] Speaker E: Drum being taught to counter drone threats as part of their recruitment, recruit training curriculum. Drone training, which will take place during the Army's capstone field exercise known as the Forge, aims to prepare recruits for combat scenarios where unmanned threats play a significant role. The 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, which completed a deployment to US Central Command in April, experienced 171 way drone attacks over a period of nine months. That trend has pushed army officials to get all soldiers going through basic training, regardless of mos, up to speed on identifying, reporting and reacting to these rapidly evolving threats.
[00:21:22] Speaker C: Makes sense.
[00:21:23] Speaker A: Gotta adapt 171 way drone attacks, meaning basically a kamikaze drone. So a counter UAS is becoming like, you have to learn how to fire a rifle. You have to have basic marksman skills to be in the military.
So if this is a threat that's going to be coming at you, whether you're at a fob, forward of a fob, out on a patrol, you know, you could be almost anywhere now in the, in the contemporary operating environment, right? And the threat of a drone is real. So that's crazy to be going through basic training and you pretty much do right at basic training. You're learning the basics of most technologies.
Machine gun, right? You're firing that, you learn to throw a grenade, right? You're pretty much learning about most munitions and UAS technology. And then I feel like UAS technology is, you know, as easy to operate as a firearm. Counter. Counter uas.
[00:22:28] Speaker C: Yeah. It's just, I think it's more based towards like how to identify it, maybe not like how to stop it. It'd be like, oh, that's not a bird. You know, like how can I scan the sky most efficiently? And you know that that's what I'm thinking. It is more or less like.
[00:22:49] Speaker A: And the other thing too is from an outforce standpoint because we're seeing the red tape being removed potentially on allowing more unit small UAS operations because you're not going to have to, you know, treat the loss like a downed helicopter.
And so with more drones being operated, it opens up, you know, more arena for the counter uas. So you, you know, when you're training, you have to have both sides the op for the opposing force. So you have to be able to simulate that drone attack in order to train and test your counter UAS capabilities. So that was, it was really interesting to see that really moving away a little bit from military. We're looking at a Mitsubishi patent. So in drone life.com this past week article came out. Mitsubishi Electric develops UAV based wind detection system for optimized wind farm placement.
Drones and AI combine to create predictive wind models for improved renewable energy solutions.
Seems like scientists have struggled to accurately predict wind conditions.
And a Japanese company, Mitsubishi is working on fixing that problem. So they were.
The U.S. patent and Trade office received an application from Mitsubishi for. Yeah, go ahead.
[00:24:39] Speaker C: This is so interesting. This reminds me of the Bosch patent we had. Not telling us like what is midday?
Kind of quote Kanye West. What does Mitsubishi know about when like how to track wind? Dude, this is crazy.
[00:24:57] Speaker A: It's surprising with their automobiles, right? They've done automobiles. I think internationally you might find that Mitsubishi Electric Co. May even be manufacturing components of wind turbines. If I had to guess.
My guess is they're somehow already involved in the manufacturing or production of wind turbines.
[00:25:24] Speaker C: I bet they have everything. Oh my lord. I'm looking at the website.
They do have everything.
[00:25:31] Speaker A: Because it comes down to the motors, right? It's the electric storage, the collection.
How do you harvest the wind energy? And I think Mitsubishi is, they've always been into that appliance space power generation.
And so the UAV that they submitted a patent for is able to maneuver through a wind stream to gather location, geodesic and wind speed data which can be fed into their AI, which is used to create accurate and predictive wind models. So they could pretty much fly this drone that will allow them to determine optimal positions for wind farms.
[00:26:34] Speaker C: That's insane technology. I don't even know how, where to start with that.
[00:26:41] Speaker A: A wind. The full text of the patent abstract reads as follows.
A wind condition learning device, according to the present disclosure, comprises an input unit that receives input of a training data set in an arithmetic unit with an AI that performs learning on the basis of the training data set.
So it's a smart drone that is optimized for wind farm surveys.
That's pretty awesome.
[00:27:19] Speaker C: Yeah, it's good technology. I mean, might as well get into the drone space. If you're Mitsubishi, you have everything else.
[00:27:27] Speaker A: Yeah, you could use that at an airport. Like, if you're ever going to find out, like, you got to do wind surveys for airports and stuff. I'm sure there's other applications where measuring wind and trying to determine, you know, what the.
[00:27:38] Speaker C: I bet there's a ton of different. Just random applications this would be extremely useful for. So.
[00:27:53] Speaker A: Espace wind condition learning device. They call it a wind condition learning device and drone system.
It's pretty.
[00:28:02] Speaker C: All the legal terms in there in case somebody copies them.
[00:28:09] Speaker A: That's just so cool. Like, we've talked again, it's. It's easy. You know, ideas are easy. Execution is everything. So I just feel like we've talked about that before. I feel like I've had conversations with people who are in universities and like, oh, you know, if you had a drone and you could, you know, use it, it'd be great for this. And here they are actually applying it. But again, they must have.
If you're going to make something, if you're going to produce something, there's got to be a market. And again, this is just the patent. So it doesn't even mean that they haven't even made this yet.
But it's an idea.
It's a neat one. I'm a farmer. What do you farm? Solar wind. No, sun. Solar wind.
Wind farmer.
All right, well, here this popped up in the news as well.
Newsweek is reporting Chinese drone firm DJI is suing the Pentagon, and they're represented by the former Obama Attorney General.
So how interesting is America?
The former Attorney General, Loretta lynch, who served under President Barack Obama, is representing dji, the world's largest drone manufacturer, in a lawsuit against the US Department of Defense.
Who better to sue the US Government than the former Attorney General.
[00:29:56] Speaker C: Well, so they're, they're suing, saying that it's unjust, that they're just banning their products, basically. Is that what's going on here?
[00:30:04] Speaker A: They're challenging the Pentagon's designation that DJI is a Chinese military company.
[00:30:12] Speaker C: Are they classified as attorneys? Military company?
[00:30:16] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:30:19] Speaker C: I guess I don't know enough about DJI to lead. I don't know. I don't think they are.
[00:30:24] Speaker A: Well, that's what I'm saying. You don't think they are, but they're classified as one. And because they're classified as one, it means federal agencies can't purchase it. So there's already this federal ban because of this classification. But at the state level, states can still buy it. So even though they've done this classification, it hasn't had, you know, an impact that, that folks probably would have liked it to. And so there's all these other things happening at the same time, but the fact that this classification exists, it gives a lot of weight to the countering CCP drones act. So this is just one piece, and with this piece, it makes. It strengthens an anti Chinese drone case going forward.
So it's kind of interesting again, because you have a former Attorney General who is knowledgeable of the ins and the outs and to.
[00:31:34] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, it seems like they have somebody pretty good representing them. I don't know much about this person, but.
[00:31:39] Speaker A: Well, either she needs. Either she, like, really needs money. Right? I can't imagine that would be the case. Or, or this person might feel like this is a legitimate argument. It's just crazy because with protectionism, it's hard.
Yeah, you're gonna go over there to China and see if they're using slave labor or not.
What is proof, you know, what's enough proof?
How do you prove they're not a military company?
[00:32:09] Speaker C: Yeah, it's interesting.
[00:32:19] Speaker A: Half the commercial market, so.
So it sounds like DJI tried to just connect with DOD directly and that didn't work out. So they're taking it to federal court.
[00:32:35] Speaker C: I mean, it does seem like they're being bullied, like, directly.
Like, I. Again, I don't know if DJI is a military company. Maybe these, these people up in the government know more than me. They probably do.
I don't know. I just. It seems a little unjust, in my opinion, to just say, no, we're taking money out of your hands.
[00:33:01] Speaker A: Yeah, well, you know, it looks like Elise Stefanik, who's been a part of the countering CCP drones, ACT has come out and on October 21st and mentioned that Barack Obama's former Attorney General Loretta lynch has turned her back on her nation selling out to our greatest adversary, Communist China, by suing the United States on behalf of CCP owned drone company dji.
[00:33:30] Speaker C: Such a. Just a front page article right there. I don't know. That's such a shallow way to look at it, I think.
[00:33:39] Speaker A: Sell out, she says. Sell out. Because she's now a partner at a legal firm.
Elise Stefanik was also trying to become candidate for vice president. So she was on the news. She was not the one saying that it was Chinese drones over Langley. Some good news at that point.
[00:34:05] Speaker B: Specifically not her.
[00:34:06] Speaker A: No, it wasn't her.
[00:34:09] Speaker C: Somebody not her.
[00:34:12] Speaker A: Yeah, I don't know. This is, this is there, there was articles that came out. They're holding Chinese DJI drones at the, at customs right now because accusations of slave labor. So there's, there's really, really fun funky stuff going on right now with DJI and accusations. And I just, I don't know how like I know what I believe.
I know I have an opinion, but that doesn't change the legal process.
And so I just think from a standpoint of how do you present the documentation, who do you present it to? It's just a, you know, people know the system and it's about getting caught up in the system and people are just trying to like weave the system. So that politics. Yeah, yeah, the political system. Looking at fun facts. This, this was interesting.
This article came up NBC News.
I had like this morning was talking about this Silk Road.
I had started a conversation about cryptocurrency and bitcoin. And so naturally the Silk Road came up and somebody was like, thought who had no background in crypto was like, oh, the Silk Road. And they literally started talking about the Silk Road from way back when that was used for traveling and the transportation of things along the literal Silk Road.
And we were talking about Silk Road bit.
[00:36:17] Speaker C: Glad I'm not the only one.
[00:36:18] Speaker A: Yeah, whatever it was.
Onion torrent or bit, whatever the dark web. The dark. Yeah, yeah, whatever the dark web was. And so it's funny because then looking up, you know, what are we going to talk about? I was like, holy cow. Silk Road came up. I was like, what the hell is going on? People are selling drones, drugs with drones. The Silk Road revival, like what is happening here? And what we are looking at is lost. For centuries, Silk Road cities are revealed by drone technology. So groundbreaking research in the mountains of Uzbekistan could shift understanding of the Silk Road, a vast network of trade routes that span from China to the Mediterranean. And that Silk Road from China to the Mediterranean carried not just silk and those goods, but it also carried the other goods as well. And so that's where the star web, right? Yes, spices. That's where this dark web got its name here. What's happened is researchers have used LiDAR technology to go in and map some of these regions.
And what they have found with the LiDAR technology is outposts, watchtowers, fortresses, and some plazas in areas that they hadn't been able to fully investigate before, areas of dense vegetation.
[00:38:17] Speaker C: And then the Silk Road was traveled by, like, everybody over there. I know the Vikings were on it at one point. I mean, this is going to. If they can use this data, I mean, it seems like they've already found quite a few things here. This could be, like, a groundbreaking for this type of exploration.
[00:38:37] Speaker B: I didn't quite catch where this was taken.
[00:38:42] Speaker A: So.
[00:38:43] Speaker C: No, yeah, Uzbekistan.
[00:38:45] Speaker A: Uzbekistan, I think. Right, yeah, Uzbekistan. And so they found these two locations that they're calling tugging block and something else. And so they're about. What are you laughing, Terry?
[00:38:59] Speaker C: Sorry, Funny name.
[00:39:00] Speaker A: It says that they're about three miles apart apart, and each is roughly 7,000ft above sea level.
And so, again, just the ability to really see with the LIDAR technology, to penetrate vegetation, to see just disruptions in the earth that could have happened hundreds. Hundreds of years ago.
You're now able to see. And with drones, right, you're able to easily get to areas that you just couldn't hike to. You're able to map, you know, the areas, you know, a thousand acres in a day, half a day. You know, you can. You can map thousands and thousands of acres in just a week with some of the current drone technology.
And you don't have to physically be there on foot. Right. As long as you have visual, line of sight, and hell, in these other.
[00:40:05] Speaker C: Countries, you probably do anything you want. Uzbekistan, completely honestly.
[00:40:12] Speaker A: Yeah. So there. Add that. You could always add that Samuel to the list.
[00:40:16] Speaker B: I'm actually in Google Maps right now trying to see where exactly use. Use became. Is.
I'm not too familiar with that part of the world.
[00:40:27] Speaker C: So this is right under Kazakhstan, is it? See, Terry, countries. Not very.
The UFC has taught me more about geography. Geographical. Yeah. I shouldn't know this, but I do.
[00:40:42] Speaker B: Got one on me.
[00:40:44] Speaker A: Yeah, there's.
There's some Uzbekistan fighters, right, Terry?
[00:40:49] Speaker C: There's a few. There's like, one.
Kyrgyzstan, especially Kyrgyzstan, Kurjaksan and Kazakhstan. They all Produce insane fighters for some reason.
[00:41:05] Speaker A: Who is it right now for this weekend? No, just like the.
What's his name just kind of retired. Right? The one that was just kicking everyone's ass and he just walked away.
[00:41:17] Speaker C: Yeah, that would be. So that's like the Dagestan area.
I don't know where that is and relation to.
[00:41:25] Speaker A: They're all names like Hamashad, Kamashad.
[00:41:28] Speaker C: No. Well, Hamza fights this weekend, you know, so it's Islam Makachev. That's the. Is like Dag Dagestani dude.
I don't know where Dagestan is.
[00:41:39] Speaker A: And his coach was. Wasn't it Islam's coach who was.
[00:41:42] Speaker C: Yeah, that would be Khabib. Khabib Nugra. Madov.
[00:41:46] Speaker A: Yeah.
Samuel's lost right now.
[00:41:49] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:41:49] Speaker B: I'm sure trying to get a good idea of what like you see where.
[00:41:54] Speaker A: People names.
[00:41:57] Speaker B: Like where are we?
[00:41:59] Speaker A: Silk Road. Yeah, that's like I. And that's like cradle of civilization right there. I'm pretty sure.
[00:42:06] Speaker C: Yeah, that's a lot going on on the Silk Road, that's for sure.
[00:42:10] Speaker A: Jump into another topic. And speaking on dji, this is the importance of this technology. Right. So we can see what the pilot has every time we play these clips. What are they always flying.
[00:42:26] Speaker C: The thing we're trying to ban and destroy?
[00:42:29] Speaker A: Yeah, the drones can't get. So we got a story here. A drone was deployed to help locate a convicted felon who was threatening family members with weapons.
[00:42:48] Speaker F: One of Nelson County's five drone pilots.
[00:42:50] Speaker C: We're gonna increase our altitude.
[00:42:52] Speaker F: Captain Casey Pyle with the fire department helped lead law enforcement to a fugitive who only hours before allegedly assaulted a family member and led police on a high speed chase.
Authorities say they knew 19 year old Ashton Rogers was armed when they got a tip he was at a relative's home on Woodland Road.
[00:43:10] Speaker E: We found a weapon in the vehicle.
We were told there was more weapons possibly on him.
[00:43:18] Speaker F: Sheriff Raymond Penarowa says on Saturday Rogers had threatened to not only shoot himself, but shoot officers who by now were covered in darkness. That's when he changed the plan. Now after 20 minutes on the ground, the decision was made to move the search to the skies. They put up two drones that night. One to keep an eye on law enforcement, the second to try and find their guy. And that didn't take long. They were up there less than five minutes.
[00:43:44] Speaker E: Yeah, it was pretty quick. Our pilot, he was excited when he said I got a hotspot, a bunch.
[00:43:50] Speaker A: Of fist bumping and heck yeah, you know, we got him and stuff.
[00:43:54] Speaker F: Like that Rogers was taken into custody without incident. And the sheriff says he's grateful not only for the officers, but the first responders who were able to put their training to the test in a matter of minutes.
[00:44:05] Speaker E: Not just flying the drone for just to be flying it. It's a successful mission when they get called out and somebody's going to jail.
[00:44:14] Speaker F: And a mission where every one of his guys made it home safely in Nelson County. Lorne Adams WLKY oh, I bet that.
[00:44:23] Speaker C: Drone pilot's so happy that all those hours just doing nothing finally paid off.
[00:44:30] Speaker A: Doing nothing, man. Nelson county sheriffs shout out to them Nelson County Fire. How about it's like were fist bumping.
[00:44:38] Speaker C: Well that's why they were fist bumping though. You have to think it's. They, they've been wanting this to happen and they've been trying to, but they haven't found like oh right.
[00:44:46] Speaker A: Telling people how great this technology is, convincing people to spend the money. But it's crazy. Like I, the folks in public safety, it's, it's you, you still have to get this certificate. I don't understand. It's very challenging. You have to be certified. You're, you're, you're supposed to my understanding from what I've been told, from whatever you have to get to part one of seven so some people are voluntold to do this and it's not until like how do you get an officer pumped up wanting to pass this exam when they haven't used it yet? Like everyone knows like this weapon is, is going to do this and you have to have this helicopters in the military, the motto, the motto of the aviation branches above the best, right? Because the, they are above the best. The best is the fighters on the ground. And because of those aviation assets, those people on the ground have a better chance of getting saving lives, eliminating threats and going home to their families.
And so our law enforcement officers do the same thing. Those men and women, right, are trying to save people, eliminate threats and go home to their families.
They don't need helicopters, but why the hell can't they have drones that can do exactly what that did?
Way more nights should be ending with damn fist bumps and high fives after five to 10 minutes with the bad person being found. Not five, six hours and the person gets away. Especially when the technology only costs 10 grand. It's crazy.
[00:46:35] Speaker C: Yeah, I definitely agree with you. Like I've said before, it's going to be very hard to be a criminal in the near future, probably next 10 years. You better Pack it up. You ain't running.
[00:46:46] Speaker A: So it's like, how do you get these folks to want to get certified and to be motivated to take the test as you communicate to them that, like, dude, you.
You will be the reason that someone goes home and doesn't go into a backyard and get shot in the. In the face. Because this is what happens.
[00:47:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:47:07] Speaker C: You have to make them feel almost like a key piece of the operation. And I'm sure it'll get better over time, but this is a great step forward. I mean, seems like they just. They used it, like, fast and effectively.
[00:47:21] Speaker A: Like, it's not a toy. Right. But it looks like one. If you treat it like one, it is. Does anybody treat a gun like a toy? Right.
[00:47:29] Speaker C: A few people.
[00:47:31] Speaker A: I mean, but even in public safety, Right. You don't treat that tool like a toy. Other people do. The public might. But to that individual, that is a serious tool that is going to eliminate a threat. Right.
And potentially save lives.
So these drones are the ability to identify a threat. And what I thought was really cool in this video that I hadn't heard, not that people aren't doing it, but I hadn't heard communicated is he said, we put two drones up, one to protect our own officers and two to search. Because when you are in an isolated area, you know the cops are easily recognized, so you're trying to pull security around yourself. So I was like, damn. They put the drone up just to watch their own back. They were using it for their own security perimeter. That was really cool. And in five minutes. And then. And then I just said it like a week ago or something. The county that we've worked with and helped, they found the. The missing child in 15 minutes after putting the drone up. It's. It's. You know, you could waste hours, you could spend hours, and you might not even find this individual on foot. Put a drone up within. It's not.
It sounds too good to be true. Right? Oh, within minutes, this person's found that. That sounds too. But that is what this. This tool can do. Wow. I could talk about that forever.
So it was. It was a good week of news, of drone news. It was a. It was a variety week. And it's not. It's. We still have a couple stories here, and this is not a positive one, but this is an important one.
Drone crash. So apparently basketball's back in. In business, Right. So the Celtics won the NBA championship. So there was a big celebration for the Celtics, and they were doing some outdoor events, and it seemed like Somebody had a drone that they were flying. And I will tell you that this is operator. Well, from what I extracted, this is operator area. This isn't like a drone failure.
This is human error.
[00:50:04] Speaker F: Getting a drone crash at Boston City hall plaza last night during the Celtics party. As WBZ Christina Rex shows us this is what happened. And new at 6, she looks at the rules surrounding drones in crowds like that.
[00:50:20] Speaker G: As the crew breaks down from a huge Celtics watch party on city hall plaza last night. Two people are recovering from injuries from a drone crash.
[00:50:28] Speaker B: If I'm standing up, I only had my hand like this.
[00:50:32] Speaker A: If I had it like this, I.
[00:50:33] Speaker B: Would have had my hands cut off because the blades.
[00:50:36] Speaker G: Derek Skrima was grazed by a falling drone during Tuesday night's festivities.
[00:50:41] Speaker B: It was like a mini panic attack.
[00:50:42] Speaker A: I was like, this is crazy.
[00:50:43] Speaker G: Are you doing okay?
[00:50:45] Speaker B: Yeah, just my fingers.
It's nothing big, but it was definitely.
[00:50:52] Speaker C: A.
[00:50:55] Speaker B: Very eventful night.
[00:50:57] Speaker G: That crash injured two people, sending one woman, who Derek described as elderly, to the hospital. According to a Boston police report, an on duty officer observed the drone crash into a light pole after it flew between two trees.
That moment briefly stopped the show. According to witnesses, the drone operator was a CNN employee who was working shooting video for partner station TNT during its inside the NBA live show. An event spokesperson tells WBZ the company's investigating and wishes all involved in the incident.
[00:51:31] Speaker B: Well, you're required to have a Part 107 Remote Pilot License.
[00:51:36] Speaker G: Chris Rudolph is a drone pilot and instructor.
[00:51:41] Speaker A: All right, well, thank you, Chris.
[00:51:44] Speaker C: We'll take it over from here.
[00:51:45] Speaker A: Chris Terry will take it from there. Terry is a drone pilot and friend of the show. No.
What thoughts?
[00:51:57] Speaker C: Stupid. The first thing that comes to my brain, just think that's. I don't know.
[00:52:03] Speaker B: Crazy Boston.
I was gonna say crazy Boston's come up like two times in a row now. Just on unrelated stories specifically, but because that was last week, we talked about the convention in Boston.
[00:52:22] Speaker C: I think so.
[00:52:23] Speaker B: Okay. Yeah.
So they said two people, but it was just one guy that was shown.
[00:52:32] Speaker A: Yeah, just the one guy was on, I think. Was it Maine or New Hampshire? The woodland men. The woodland guy who was driving.
[00:52:40] Speaker B: But I was talking about, like, there was a convention that I mentioned Miriam might go to.
[00:52:47] Speaker A: Yeah, that was the marathon.
[00:52:49] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:52:50] Speaker A: The company. No, the company announced what you would call it acquired Flock safety, acquired Aerodome. And they had the convention in Massachusetts, right?
[00:53:11] Speaker B: Yes, in Boston.
[00:53:13] Speaker A: Pretty sure that's what it was.
Yeah.
So one person was bleeding heavily in his right hand. That's the guy that Was talking and said. He kind of said like something. And then you could tell like he was like, I shouldn't have said that because he made it sound like it wasn't that bad.
And it's like, if you're trying to get money from cnn, you should be talking about how awful it was.
The second person. Yeah, the second person said she felt significant pain on her head, neck and the left shoulder.
And that guy said, that guy said, he said, he said I wanted to make sure I get a good screen here. He said if my hand was, was like this, but my hand was like this, it would have been cut off. He said his hand would have been cut off if it was, if it was this way and not this way.
[00:54:10] Speaker C: And I'm like, how big was the drone? What was it like an Air2? I've been hit by the props of a drone.
It would hurt. Might cut you.
[00:54:21] Speaker A: Yeah, I saw a guy try to catch an Inspire one one time and Inspire one has like huge props compared to a phantom even. And it slashed his hand open pretty good, but he tried to catch it with his bare hand. So he said, it would have cut my hand off. I'm like, I don't, I don't think it would have cut your hand off, but.
[00:54:45] Speaker C: Well, he's trying to get at cnn. Paul, come on.
[00:54:47] Speaker A: Oh, they love that news. Yeah, that was great for the recording.
But I just think, like, I don't know, opposition in this instance. I just don't know how the, the operator, like, it just seems like, you know, drones, we have the recent ops over people rule go into effect, right? Like you have parachute systems, kinetic energy.
If you're going to operate, you either have over people, you either have to have a parachute or it has to be under 250 grams. So there's, there's regulations in place and it seems like this person operating definitely wasn't following those regulations or if they had a parachute. If you have a parachute and your drone hits a tree or a light pole, if you hit a light pole, your drone's not high enough for the parachute to be effective.
So pilots probably flying too low, not maintaining good enough visual line of sight. I mean, hell, how are you going to argue you had good visual line of sight. If you hit something, probably shouldn't.
[00:55:54] Speaker C: You flew between two trees to get to the light pole.
[00:55:58] Speaker A: Probably should have had a visual observer. Right? But it's probably some, you know, I don't, I don't know who the hell it is, but they're probably love their job, they probably thought it was sick. They're doing whatever CNN asked. They're not saying that they need another person.
This sucks though. That's, that's, that's, that sucks for them.
[00:56:18] Speaker C: Seems like, seems like CBS could not wait to make an article about cnn. I feel like this was posted like right after it happened.
[00:56:29] Speaker A: And then I like the part where it was like, oh, neck pain, pain in my neck, shoulder and shoulder.
[00:56:36] Speaker C: It's believable for an elderly person to be fair. To be fair.
[00:56:41] Speaker A: And, and does this incident have to be reported according to part 107?
[00:56:46] Speaker C: Yeah, it's bodily harm. I would say so.
[00:56:48] Speaker B: But were they hospital serious injury?
[00:56:50] Speaker C: The one lady got took to the hospital.
[00:56:52] Speaker B: Is that what that said it did?
[00:56:55] Speaker C: I thought it said that.
[00:56:56] Speaker A: I think it said that. But the interesting thing is the FAA states that it's either 500 worth of damage or level three serious injury. So serious injury would be broken bone laceration that requires stitches or heavy bleeding.
[00:57:15] Speaker C: Usually implies.
[00:57:16] Speaker B: We saw his knuckles though I'm not.
[00:57:18] Speaker A: Sure that guy showed. Dude, there was no stitches on that hand.
[00:57:23] Speaker C: Well, I thought it said the older lady was the one that was heavily bleeding.
[00:57:29] Speaker A: No, I think it's.
[00:57:31] Speaker C: Oh no, sorry, you're right.
[00:57:34] Speaker A: He was heavily bleeding the hand and then she had head, neck and shoulder and shoulder pain. So it may be like grazed her head, hit her head.
[00:57:46] Speaker C: If I was that dude, I would definitely be pulling up my pocket knife as soon as it hits me in the hand and just maybe doing a little extra.
That's a little psychopath tip.
[00:57:55] Speaker A: But in case there's any folks on their way to. If there's any people on the psychopath, here's a tip for you. Carry a pocket knife.
[00:58:06] Speaker C: I mean, hey, nevermind.
Learned a lot of bad tips in my life.
[00:58:14] Speaker A: Oh, that's good.
Well, we're kind of wrapping things up here on a regulatory side. Drone Life article came out just recently. The FAA issues final rule for powered lift aircraft. This is a major milestone for EV tall and advanced air mobility.
Industry leaders react to this new pilot and operational standards as the US takes a critical step towards scaling EVTOL and AAM innovations.
Final rule for the qualifications and training that instructors and pilots must have to fly aircraft in this power lift category which have characteristics of both planes, of both airplanes and helicopters.
So what training is required for instructors? What qualifications and training for instructors and pilots. So if you want to be a pilot of one of these future EV tall, possibly pilotless air taxis, this rule, this regulation, this legislation, this, this piece of the pie is Going to help you get there.
[00:59:36] Speaker C: Lays out the groundwork. That's what it's all about.
[00:59:43] Speaker A: Integration of powered lift pilot certification and operations.
[00:59:50] Speaker C: It's a crazy certificate.
[00:59:55] Speaker A: Powered lift. So it's not just like a private pilot or a commercial pilot certificate. A commercial pilot certificate is what a fixed wing air pilot would get. If you want to fly and make money flying fixed wing airplanes, you get a commercial pilot certificate.
If you want to fly helicopters, you can get your commercial rotary pilot certificate.
So a powered lift pilot certification would. Would be your step in.
[01:00:31] Speaker C: That'd look nice on the resume.
[01:00:38] Speaker A: And so this is.
This is just really cool. You've got Beta Technology speaking on that. Aliyah. Alia Ev Tall is what Beta is producing.
Sam, did you have a chance to see the beta sim or. I don't think so.
Beta had been. Has been involved in the Georgia event where we did the demo, the Innovation Exchange. Do you remember going to the Innovation Exchange in Augusta?
[01:01:20] Speaker B: I remember it. I just don't have the. The fine details.
[01:01:24] Speaker A: Yeah, they were there. They were there and had a chance to. They. I was like, over probably two. Two what? The innovation.
[01:01:34] Speaker C: The one you gave me the. The hoodie from. That's.
[01:01:37] Speaker B: Yeah, that was 11 months ago when we went to Georgia.
[01:01:41] Speaker C: No, no, it's because I. This. It was after I stopped going to New York.
[01:01:46] Speaker B: Okay. I just. I remember one of the trips being very significant for me, so.
[01:01:52] Speaker A: Well, no, then.
So Augustus. So this is in Georgia. This is like Georgia, South Carolina. Yeah. This is like two years ago probably.
[01:02:02] Speaker B: I didn't go two years ago.
[01:02:03] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:02:03] Speaker B: Terry's confused.
[01:02:04] Speaker A: Yeah. Oh, Terry has no idea. Terry's never been or seen where we're going.
[01:02:10] Speaker B: I got the hoodie.
[01:02:11] Speaker A: It was too big.
[01:02:12] Speaker C: We.
[01:02:12] Speaker B: We gave it to Terry. That event.
I thought that was like 11.
[01:02:16] Speaker A: That was the.
That was the A B S I Atlanta chapter.
[01:02:22] Speaker B: Oh, 10 months.
[01:02:23] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. No, that was no that. You're. You're. No, you're right.
[01:02:27] Speaker B: You're gassing me.
[01:02:28] Speaker A: 10 months ago.
[01:02:30] Speaker B: Wasn't it. We went in like December.
[01:02:32] Speaker A: It was not.
[01:02:33] Speaker C: I knew I wasn't crazy. I knew I was talking about something. I.
[01:02:36] Speaker A: No, but that's. That was. No, you're right. That was the. That was. That was Florida, though. That was when we went to.
[01:02:44] Speaker B: We went to two places. We drove from North Carolina straight to Florida. And then we hit up Georgia on the way back. And then we hit up North Carolina. Like we quit essentially.
[01:02:57] Speaker A: Like we quit. Like we finished our grand tour.
[01:03:02] Speaker B: It was a trip.
[01:03:05] Speaker A: Is that you're talking About Terry, we went to, we went to two places.
[01:03:11] Speaker B: It was a big trip to me, man.
[01:03:13] Speaker A: No, but, but now I know. So Samuel and I have gone all up and down the 95. No, that was when we went to FIT. We went to Florida Institute of Technology and then we went to Atlanta to the AUVSI event.
[01:03:29] Speaker B: Okay, now remember the other Georgia event you're talking.
[01:03:35] Speaker A: The other Georgia event was with Greg, who was a shorter fella. And it was like a one day event where there was a couple presentations, a little more formal, but August. Anywho, Beta has been involved with that. That's in March. That was Innovation Exchange is in March.
[01:03:56] Speaker B: Okay.
[01:03:57] Speaker A: That's with Augusta Regional Airport.
So anybody in that southeast area, in the Georgia area that's listening. Google Innovation Exchange. It's the sixth annual Innovation Exchange happening in March of 2025. Well, that brings us to pretty much the close of this week's episode. We covered such an amazing range of topics from the recent drone swarms to the Army's most effective counter UAS technology red tape, the introduction of counter US Training at the Army's basic training. And it just seems like whatever feeds me news knows that I'm an Army veteran and it's giving me mostly army stuff and then the occasional Marine stuff. But keep that Air Force and Navy garbage.
No, no, it's not garbage. We love all branches. All veterans are great.
Yeah. Dove into a few topics. We talked about DJI and they're bringing on Loretta Loretta Lynch, a former Attorney General under the Obama administration, to try to help them relieve themselves of some of this political pressure that's making it very difficult for these products to get out into the hands of Americans.
We also looked at the Silk Road discovery, how drones helped find and locate a convicted felon, while also looking at the drone crash in Boston, which is certainly not a good image for cnn. And the FAA has recently published some very, very interesting information for the certification and training for instructors and pilots who will be flying the next generation of EV tall vertical takeoff aircraft that fly like airplanes.
So really, really great. Appreciate everybody's time and attention. Hopefully you learned something and gained some insight from this week's episode. And always remember, if you're doing something tough, don't give up. Keep going. You know, look around, remind yourself that there are other people probably similar to you who have been able to get through that same type of tough situation. So we appreciate you and we appreciate everybody. Thank you, Terry. Thank you, Samuel, for as always, being wonderful co hosts and bringing great insight to our episodes. Everybody Have a wonderful week, and we will see you on the next episode.
