Drones vs. Satellites & Elevate UAV | June 10, 2024

Paul Rossi (00:01) Welcome to Weekly Wings, your go -to podcast from DroneLife .com, where we soar through the latest in drone technology, regulatory updates, exciting innovations. Each week, join Samuel, Terry, and I as we navigate the drone industry, offering expert insights, interviews with key figures, and a bird's eye view of how drones are shaping our world. From commercial applications. recreational adventures, Weekly Wings delves into how these remarkable vehicles are impacting education, filmmaking, agriculture, delivery services, and so much more. Whether you're a professional drone operator, hobbyist, or just drone curious, tune in to stay informed and inspired as we explore the heights of what's possible in the world of drones. Subscribe now and never miss an episode of Weekly Wings where the future is looking up. How's it going Samuel today? No, Terry. Samuel (00:58) No Terry today, he's got some weekend plans and I say good for him honestly, you go live your best life Terry. Paul Rossi (01:05) Yeah, yeah, exactly. Samuel (01:07) gonna say I think between the two of us we can keep some conversation going but Terry will be missed hopefully we can have him on next week but Paul Rossi (01:17) He will. Yeah. My best life is here at home. No, actually he's pretty cool. Went to a soccer tournament yesterday here in Cary, North Carolina. 48 teams. The winner gets a million dollars. So that was neat. What have you been doing? Samuel (01:32) Hmm. How long is that tournament going on for? Paul Rossi (01:39) It is a six day tournament. That tournament started on Wednesday and it ends Monday. Samuel (01:40) man. And is that all outside? Paul Rossi (01:45) Outside. Yeah, the Wake Med Soccer Park. Samuel (01:46) Yeah, okay. Okay, man, it's gonna be hot, but hopefully it'll... Not too into soccer, it's fun. I've played it, I've watched it. It's good, but you know, I don't know if that's my first choice, especially in the heat right now, but it's a good way to pass time, so. Paul Rossi (01:52) You a soccer fan? Yeah, and for a million dollars, people, teams have traveled from all over the globe, seriously. And, you know, soccer is a pretty big sport here in the Raleigh, in the Raleigh area. So. Samuel (02:10) NEEH I kind of forgot about that one million dollar part, that's kind of a big deal, huh? Paul Rossi (02:30) Yeah, yeah. So people and the thing is, is there's, you know, it was like three games pool playing and then single game elimination. So definitely some emotions going there when you put a million dollars on the line. But we've got a great episode today. We'll be showing some neat videos to kick things off and talking about, you know, drone imagery or satellite imagery, touching on some neat stuff, horizontal drone landing. as opposed to vertical landing, which is really, really neat. An event that'll be coming up later this year in Miami, Florida that we wanted to mention in case there's anybody in that Florida or Southeast United States area looking for a drone conference to attend later this year. We'll talk a little bit about SpaceX and the Starship launch that recently occurred, got the Starship. right here that was really awesome. And then we'll end things up in the regulatory corner, just talking about some recent updates. But to kick things off in this episode, let's see. I've got the video here. I'm going to share this screen. This is just for the folks that end up watching here on the. on our YouTube with the visual coming up. I was watching the UFL football league here that's playing during times that the NFL is on break, folks still trying to get their football in. So this video right here, we've got a drone. The quality is terrible here because I've got it on a Google Drive. We'll work on getting getting better at that. But to play this again, what we're seeing is just like an Avada, I believe this is drone flying alongside a wide receiver as he catches a pass, slams into a defender running him over and then just absolutely scores a touchdown. What do you think about that video, Samuel? Samuel (04:51) I think that's, I can't believe I'm saying, a game changer in a sense because what did you think of when you saw that? I kind of thought of those NFL video games. I can't think of the name right now, but the football video games on consoles essentially, like it's following right behind the player. I can't think of another word because player, football player, video game player, sidetracking, but. I think that's really cool because it's showcasing the technology, the skill of the drone pilot, it's giving you a unique view you probably never ever really see in a real life like that before. Honestly, really excited to see that. Was that just like a one -off clip or were they doing multiple different versions of that throughout the playtime? Paul Rossi (05:38) So, so what? Yeah, so it's just it's one of the cameras. So basically the way they see it is it's like the drone video. They've got it. However, they're they're streaming that feed from the remote controller right into the production. So they've got camera one, two, three, four or five. And when you think about a football, a sporting event, any big event, you know, whoever's in there calling the shots, you know, bring up this camera, bring up that camera. Samuel (05:54) Hmm. Paul Rossi (06:07) That it's just the drone cam. So every play that drone lines up right next to that receiver and is just waiting and assuming that that individual is going to get the pass and follows it. Whether or not they're showing you that camera feed on each play really just depends on whether or not it captured anything worth showing. Just like a basketball game or. or a baseball game, they're going to get that camera that had the best angle and that's what they're going to show. And like you said, it's almost like the video. It's it's it's it's almost like augmented reality in the sense of you can now put the camera wherever and there is, you know, the drone got really close. So there is that risk, you know, talk about it's over the field. It's only the players on the field. Players are wearing helmets. They're hitting each other very hard to begin with. You know, it's it's somewhat of a violent sport. So. Should that drone happen to contact anyone during the play? It's got ducted props, but really cool stuff. So as I was sitting there watching, I saw this thing moving on the field. I was like, is that a fly? Is that a giant horse fly following that player? And then they cut to the feed and I was like, wow, I'm going to watch the UFL because who's the pilot too? That's what I was trying to figure out. Samuel (07:29) Yeah. What type of contract is that? That's a good question, you know? How do you - how does one even get involved in that? Gotta have a lot of history with FPV, I would imagine. Paul Rossi (07:40) Yes, yes. And then again, it's like someone who probably was doing it maybe for hobby and worked for whoever is responsible for the cameras. And they're like, hey, I have this idea. And then you bring it in. But next video here that we're going to take a look at just right back to light shows, right? Just right back to light shows again. And this time, sky elements. And what's crazy, when I was looking at the waiver thing, Sky Elements came up like eight times. I need to go back and look at the dates, but it's like, here we go. America's Got Talent. We're kicking the web, this episode off, not very first, but within this first segment, I believe this is a thousand drones. Samuel (08:30) I was going to say 800 or so. Paul Rossi (08:36) And so it's like. Samuel (08:43) Notably for those listening, it started out as four different layers of drones. Paul Rossi (08:43) I thought I had saw this. And it's a rocket, right? So here we go back to the space, right back to the space thing, right? Here's the... I mean, you can tell that's a rocket, right? Four, three... Samuel (08:59) Right, yeah. Paul Rossi (09:04) Wow. Samuel (09:04) It's massive too, it looks like it's almost the whole stadium of like the width and length. Paul Rossi (09:12) And then you've got the, the it's creating the flames and the smoke. And as this thing lifts drones are filling in. Like underneath. Underneath it. It's it is. Samuel (09:26) Yeah, a very talented group of people put that together. Paul Rossi (09:35) and going through clouds. Samuel (09:41) It's cool too, because it looks like as that rocket is passing by the cloud drones, the cloud actually turns off its lights. So it gives that impression of like, the cloud is behind the drone and then you have clouds in the foreground that make the rocket ship lights turn off. So you're giving that really cool vision of depth and perception and whatnot. I think that's really neat how they did that. Paul Rossi (10:05) And then they just showed like the boosters breaking apart the star that was on top. There's your space guy. Lanting a good old American flag Samuel (10:24) where was this, show? Paul Rossi (10:28) look at that, is that Simon? Simon's face, man. Samuel (10:29) I think that's Simon, yeah. A little uncanny, huh? It looks just as bewildered as us. Eh. Paul Rossi (10:42) Yeah. That is, that's pretty cool where I don't know. It's a, that's a good question. Samuel (10:51) I believe Simon's Australian, so I don't know if this is like his show. America's Got Talent though, so that's... Paul Rossi (10:58) No, this is in the US, though. I know they have a. Yeah, no, they have like a Australian version, and then I think it said there was a press of the Golden Buzzer and I. Don't know. Very cool stuff. Drone light shows. Samuel (11:18) One every week, huh? Paul Rossi (11:18) two days ago. So like, I'm pretty sure that just came out. But yeah, I thought I saw Drone Light shows on America's Got Talent like last year, two years, three years ago. So then seeing it on there again, I saw it on some shows. So when I was getting a text, like my mom's like, turn on America's Got Talent. I was like, what? First of all, I'm not even sure what channel that would be on, because I know it's not going to just pop up on my shows that I watch. So I was like, all right, you know, it's probably pretty cool, but then watching it, it's like, it's a rocket launching. So drone light shows, it's here. They're here to stay. And it's just, it's really incredible how we joke and laugh that, you know, what's the next, you know, between now and next week, somebody's going to do something with drone light shows. Hopefully it's nearby and I'll buy a ticket and go see it. Samuel (11:53) Yeah. Yeah, see what North Carolina has in store for drone light shows? What pops up? You willing to travel out of state to see one? Depending on how close you are, I suppose. Paul Rossi (12:25) Yeah, next kind of just diving into a topic here. There was a article that came out, Drone Life this past week. And it was... discussing drone imagery versus satellite imagery for utility grid inspections written by Caitlin Albert Toley, the co -founder and CEO of Buzz Solutions involved in infrastructure inspections, visual infrastructure inspections. But just one of those things that kind of stuck out. I think the quality of both is improving very quickly. constellations that have been deployed. So you're getting much imagery on a daily basis as opposed to a weekly or monthly basis. But even though we're getting imagery from satellites, you know, On this daily basis, the quality is still like what's noted here in the article as far as limitations, there's still poor photo quality and resolution when you compare it to drones. Drones, we've got drone in a box so you can put them out on these assets and we will see beyond visual on a site and remote deployments. Samuel (13:58) Hmm. Paul Rossi (14:10) for the last four or five years, someone's had to actually go on site. So even though the imagery is of lower resolution, you don't have to go there to capture it. So there's no physical presence. It is. Samuel (14:27) I was gonna say, I'm mostly familiar with Google Earth for satellite imagery. I'm assuming there's other more premium versions of satellite imagery you can buy as well. But I mean, even then, Google Earth updates probably yearly. So I can, I don't know, I guess it's kinda where your price point is at too. Like, do you want to just wait and get it for free with the next Google Earth update and kinda be out of date at that point? Paul Rossi (14:27) Go ahead. Samuel (14:55) Or do you want to just throw a drone up and kind of quickly get what you need at a rather nice resolution and what feels like a premium product? But I guess it's really kind of what the purpose is you're doing it for. That article was pointing out some really decent stuff in terms of like, hey, what are, like, are you looking for those fine details that you won't be able to see on the satellite imagery? Because that's a good point as well. Paul Rossi (15:21) And like infrastructure is the area that you're trying to view, right? How large is it? So the balance between the size of the area that can be covered, how quickly it can be covered, and then the level of detail that you need to see. Like post storm, I think maybe post hurricane or natural disaster, tornado, these things are going to have significant. Samuel (15:40) Hmm. Paul Rossi (15:50) impact, the visual impact is going to be. readily seen from some of the easily accessible satellite imagery. So, Planet. Samuel (16:02) I mean that would be a key tool to have after a natural disaster, you know? Like that'd be incredibly beneficial. Paul Rossi (16:04) other ones out there. Yeah, absolutely. But now, but then being able to see an individual, right? Like, so knowing that the transmission lines have been impacted versus can you use that imagery as search? But again, this is specifically talking about critical infrastructure. And I think it comes down to kind of just those aspects which the article highlights. It's like, how are you trying to see the washer? Samuel (16:24) All right. Paul Rossi (16:40) Are you trying to count the threads? Or are you trying to see that the asset is still intact? Samuel (16:47) Right. Paul Rossi (16:48) And what's really neat is, and one of the more important things that the article highlights is satellites have advanced quickly, but once these satellites are deployed, they're pretty set in capability. There is some software stuff that can be done on the back end to improve functionality and user, but the hardware that's in space, you can't just go and say, all right, we're going to upgrade this to a... X megapixel or we're going to adjust the shutter or we're going to change the focal length or we're going to put a different processor in. All that stuff becomes very set and established. Whereas with drones, you can say, hey, we're going to buy a new drone. Samuel (17:32) I was gonna say once it's up there, it's kinda up there. Paul Rossi (17:35) It's up there and there are some things going on where people are like, you know, how can we create space vehicles where you can actually go and. collect these systems and how can you upgrade these satellites when they're in orbit or does it make more sense to just add a new system to the whole? network. So, yeah, really neat article. I think utilities and with part 108 and the beyond visual line of sight for, you know, the article highlights like 500, 700 ,000 miles of, of transmission lines in the United States. And those are significant numbers and no individual has ever covered all of them because some of it is super hard to access and maintain visual line of sight. right? Because you physically can't get there. So it'll be really cool to see how drones, not currently. Samuel (18:29) You're right. Not currently. Paul Rossi (18:36) So neat thing that we're introducing here in more of the tech spotlight for drones is when folks... think of drones, they think more like the helicopters, not like your airplanes here that are taking off horizontally, needing a lot of ground space to build up that momentum or in order to stop that momentum. It's the vertical takeoff. And we've seen, yeah, helicopter, quadcopter, hex, any of this where you're coming vertically. Samuel (19:11) That quadcopter takeoff. Paul Rossi (19:21) And it requires less space and allows you to clear obstacles. So you can come in and lower, but as right wind starts to push you left and right, how much ground space do I need and what happens if I do move left or right? So. Recently, this is the first time I had seen it, is horizontal drone landings. Samuel (19:53) Hmm. Paul Rossi (19:55) and In Japan, you've got the Japan UAS Industrial Development Association. They're helping recognize and drive industry developments, probably similar to an AUVSI, but more on a country basis. And there's a university, right? University in Japan that's doing research. Samuel (20:23) Hmm. I was curious if you're going to try to pronounce that. Paul Rossi (20:34) Sendai based to Hoku University's Tufts Cyber Physical AI Research Center recently announced that they patent and it is multi drone landing technology Eaglesport, which stands for efficient aerial aerial vehicle guide with landing, loading, leaving, enabling systematic port. Now that's a lot. Samuel (20:43) It's a mouthful. Yeah. Paul Rossi (21:05) and it significantly improved landing in wind tunnel testing at the Fukushima Robot Test Field. And it is like a rail system. So there are some images here on the screen. When we look in, it looks like we've got a Mavic 2, possibly based on the prop guards and the coloration here. And you can see they've added like a. It's like a hanger. You know, for lack of better terms, they've just attached a. hole to the top of the drone. And as this drone. Samuel (21:56) Alright, for the testing aspect. Paul Rossi (22:01) for the testing aspect and they're flying, the drone would just fly right into this kind of guide system. And so it's much like the the dock the DJI dock to where it has like that. that V shape so as the drone sits down it kind of forces it. into the cradle. This is like turning it horizontally and as you fly the drone in head first, it connects to this rail system. Motor shut off and then it just hangs like a shirt in a closet. Samuel (22:49) I think the article is also pointing out one of the really cool beneficial parts of it is just how much it can land more cleaner, probably safer too, as opposed to the vertical drone since it's flying the way it is. It's not going to be buffeted around, it won't struggle as much. So I'm curious to see a video of that. I don't think there are any just yet, but... Paul Rossi (23:10) And we've seen, no, and we've seen like, you could pull up videos we've integrated, we meaning the world has put landing pads on boats and rooftops and all sorts of locations in tight environments where these helicopters can come in, but you have those wind limitations. And by maintaining that forward momentum, right, you're flying in. It's just how much margin of error if you do go up or down or so. So I think like you're saying, it's getting at, as you're, as you're landing vertically, you're, you're bleeding off your, your thrust in order to come in order to descend and land, you have to slow the motors down. And as you're slowing those motors down, it leaves the aircraft susceptible to... turbulence, right, wind shear at the ground level. But with this horizontal landing, with this horizontal landing method, if the drone can, you know, lock on and target and maintain that forward, forward flight and thrusted. Samuel (24:18) All right. Roughly 35 % faster it seems to than a vertical takeoff going down Pretty impressive. Paul Rossi (24:40) just really interesting. And so, you know, that's exactly when you think of... Go ahead. Samuel (24:42) I wouldn't. I was going to say, I think one of the drone delivery companies is not weighing zip line using just how they kind of launch their drones, catch their drones. It's not a vertical takeoff. I believe it's just kind of slingshotting it out there and coming in. Go ahead. Paul Rossi (25:04) Yeah, that's. That's a really good point, right? They launch it, and then when they retrieve it, it's kind of like a fighter, like a jet landing on a... Samuel (25:19) It's kinda intense. Paul Rossi (25:20) on a carrier, you've got that. Yeah. But this does remind me of like, you know, people talk about the, you know, these drone hubs where the drones are flying in and out. And maybe as they're flying in, cause I always think like, you know, this drone is just going to come flying into this building. And then, you know, you're going to have to have like almost like a safety wall. So what if it doesn't stop? And maybe as these things are flying into the buildings, they're actually. Samuel (25:43) All right. Paul Rossi (25:50) flying in and being, you know, collected on a track and that track system could even provide the power for the recharge and then guide it through the building. Man, I need to, we need to get over there to Japan. Cause it's like, Samuel (26:03) Yeah, kind of like work off some of that excess energy that it's brought in, you know? Paul Rossi (26:08) Yeah. And then, and then if it's carrying it mentioned deliveries, like if it actually has a payload, it could just then bring the drone right over to either to the location that needs it, or it could bring it to the station where it releases the payload and then it gets cycled back to collect and then launch again. Yeah, that's, this is so cool. This industry is awesome. Samuel (26:30) I wasn't expecting that out of Japan either, I don't know why specifically, but it just... You wouldn't think they would have a whole lot of horizontal space to be testing something like that. You know, you would think it would be a much flatter, broader, spaced out area. It's not what I think of when I think of Japan. Paul Rossi (26:48) Yeah. Yeah, that's interesting. And even then, if you don't have a lot of space and you're trying to get into a vehicle, instead of on top of it, if you're trying to enter into a mail slot, I guess, it's just a way to really capture the drone. Samuel (27:06) Hmm. Right, yeah. Paul Rossi (27:12) horizontal landing. It's like, it's always has to happen where it's like the whole value you take, you take the whole benefit and then just flip it over. And maybe we're maybe maybe I say we're maybe I'm making a bigger deal of horizontal landing, but it's certainly got me. Samuel (27:22) Yeah. Paul Rossi (27:31) energized. Samuel (27:32) Well, when I think, you know, like kind of like how you mentioned before, when you think of drones, I think of a quadcopter, hexcopter, kind of like we said, I feel like it's a very niche part of the industry slash just in terms of our environment where people know of horizontal takeoffs with drones, you know, maybe for model airplanes and things like that. Yeah, that's something. But for the most part, people are just doing VTOLs. So to see some horizontal. Takeoffs be coming into the play and actually change things up that could be pretty interesting. Paul Rossi (28:06) Yeah, I'm ready for it. So before. Before I guess jumping into the next topic just to kind of For listeners wondering and curious if you could just Samuel Tell us a little about I don't know your background You know, what did you what are you gonna be when you grow up or like what? You know, how did you end up here or not necessarily? Samuel (28:46) Kinda some hobbies, some interests, passions, things like that, I'm assuming. Paul Rossi (28:52) Yeah. Samuel (28:52) Yeah, as you guys know, my name is Samuel, Samuel Stansberry. I've been in the drone industry for six years now. I got in around 2018, was flying. I technically, I don't know when you want to count it, but I got my license in 2018 and I was flying in 2017. And I got into it because I saw a YouTube video about it and I thought, hey, that's pretty neat. How do I do that? So I started reading up on drones and... Honestly, I kind of fell down a very small rabbit hole that turned into a much bigger hole. I found out about drone delivery. I found out about mapping missions. I found out about cinematography with drones and just all these different aspects. The initial pool was just like, Hey, you know, I want to, I want to shoot some stuff with drones. Cause at the time I was doing some photography and I was like, I want to up my game. What can help set me apart from other people? Seeing that kind of pushed me to go get my license for it. So got my license, kept rooting up on different things while also keeping up with my own creative endeavors such as 3D modeling, 3D printing, a little bit of code, things like that, not too much, as well as graphic design, a grab bag of different creative passions. But it's kind of funny because now with... some of those tools I have on my belt, I'm actually seeing those tools being applied with drone shows or light shows. And that's one of my reasons for being so interested in that. It's like, that's kind of applicable. Let me read up on it a bit more. So a little bit about me, kind of rushed through that a little bit, but wanted to share. Yeah, I'm currently working in the drone delivery field right now. So excited about that. Been doing that for since 2020 now, so a little bit about me. Paul Rossi (30:53) And yeah, and what... I guess for what made you the creative side, the interest side, where did you see it being just like a profession or how did you ever just kind of realize like, wow, this, this. Samuel (31:15) Like kind of what set it apart from being a hobby. Paul Rossi (31:19) Right. Samuel (31:20) Yeah, no, I think it's around 2018 -2019 is when I was starting to, like once I started to see the YouTube videos, it'd be like, okay, this looks a little like people on YouTube making very professional looking things. I'm like, okay, like a couple months ago, you were not doing this. How did you all of a sudden get aerial shots in your videos? How did you start doing different things like that, incorporating it? That's when I pushed to find out about it. That's when I understood like, okay, this is actually being widely used in the cinema industry and filmmaking and things of that nature. and that's, I think when it started to click into place that, Hey, people that might've been just, you know, a little down below are actually being able to boost themselves up by understanding how to utilize this skill, this tool. And. bring their passion, their project up to another level is because they understood that, hey, this is a new tool I can use that it can help set me apart. Honestly, in any movie, most movies I should say that you see nowadays will incorporate a drone. Like we talked about earlier, it's being incorporated into sports media, which I think is pretty awesome. I've talked about on the podcast before, people utilizing drone racing to fly in... And some of those races as well, trying to think of some other cool examples like that. But yeah, it's definitely. Paul Rossi (32:50) And so do you think drones, you'll be involved with drones for the rest of your professional life? Samuel (32:58) I think they're always going to be involved in my life to some extent. I don't know if it's going to be with delivering food, if it's going to be doing light shows, if it's, if I somehow take up FPV racing and get really good at that. I think, I don't know if that's still in the cards for me, but I'd love to be able to get my hands on them and at least try to get some really cool footage because I've seen some really cool stuff come out of that. I think they actually do one of the new mission impossibles, but I could be wrong. no wait, I think it was one of the James Bond movies, but... Sorry, go ahead. Paul Rossi (33:28) Until when? And so when are you, and then so I say, when are you going to go skydiving? Like have you any, is this your, has this created any interest in you to actually go up there yourself or even do like discovery flights or private piloting? Samuel (33:35) I'm going to go to bed. That's one of the crazy things. Yeah. Yeah, no, that's one of the really cool crazy things is like I was looking at 107 couple of four or five, six years ago and just be like aeronautics. Why do I need to know about that aviation, all this stuff? And then I'm looking at sectional charts and understanding like, OK, this is how planes fly. I've been up in passenger planes with other pilots now and be like, OK, this is next level. This is cool. Understanding like terms like CFI and. I'm like, that's weird. Why do I need to understand about that stuff? But no, it's, it's definitely kind of pushed me into more so the aviation industry as well. And just having a newfound passion for like, wow. I maybe not necessarily as related to aviation, but yeah, I kind of do want to jump out of a plane at some point and just like, get that feeling and understanding that experience. And that just sounds really cool. So it's on the list. I don't know when it's going to get done, but it's on the list. What about you, Paul? Have you jumped out of any planes? Paul Rossi (34:46) Cause I'm, I'm no, no, no, I don't know. I don't know. I just, the, there is a. Samuel (34:49) Yeah. Paul Rossi (34:56) My mind is just, well, it's mostly regularly thinking about what could go wrong, right? And like the risk mitigations that, yeah, like, like the degree that my mind recognizes risks in order to not be afraid, but like, how do you mitigate that risk? And, and when it comes to like the jumping out of the plane part, you know, the risk is your, right? Your parachute doesn't. Samuel (35:03) You're right. Right. Paul Rossi (35:25) open your main parachute and you've got your reserve chute for that and then that's it. So, and then other than that, what is the risk? But it's a very significant, it's like... Samuel (35:35) Right. I mean, I just one question. heard of the term YOLO? Okay, okay, cool. Paul Rossi (35:40) Yeah. But again, it's like the likelihood of the double shoot failure of low severity, if it happens, is just like guaranteed death. Right? There's... Samuel (35:55) I think it's also, it's like, I do want to preface that I'm not quite at that level of a PPL private pilot license. I, I, I've been up in the plane in the cockpit with other pilots before and I'm like, wow, this is definitely next level. It also, I will say the first time it freaked me out a little bit, but it was, it was really cool seeing that, but you yourself have gone up and flown you. Paul Rossi (36:19) And so when you're flying the plane, right, as a pilot, when you're flying even a small plane, there is a lot of things that could go wrong and there's risks, but there's the mitigation. And barring your wings ripping off, you can always glide, right? So once you take off, there is this period of time where like, hey, you just got off the ground, you know, the Sully captain, you know, Samuel (36:35) Hmm. Paul Rossi (36:45) Sully landing in the Hudson. It's like you have this point of where a failure here is almost catastrophic. But once you get enough altitude, you can glide. So an engine failure, a system failure, your aircraft can still move forward and land, even if it's in a grass field or on a road. So yeah, I don't know. my wife has, has gone skydiving before. So me not going, it does, it makes me feel like, well, she's, you know, but, yeah, there's, there's a lot of other things that she's capable of doing that, that I'm not. So I'm like, you know, you don't have to skydive just because of that. And, yeah, I was just curious and you, you have no excuses, Samuel PK air park, right? You know, it's right there. And I'm like, so scratch. Samuel (37:32) right down the road. Paul Rossi (37:35) scratch that itch, do a discovery flight, go over there, because I'm sure they do, I wonder if they do flight lessons, they might, but yeah, it's something I'm going to, on this now, I'm going to say I hopefully can finish up my school stuff within the, I think about eight months or so, and once I'm done with school, I certainly want to get back into flying, so. Samuel (38:01) Hmm. Paul Rossi (38:02) Awesome, man. We'll appreciate that. You know, just, just trying to make sure as we grow this show and then talk more that people are like, who, who, you know, are these people, where, where, where they come from and where, where are they trying to go? Right. It's cool. Where we, where we, where we've all been, but a lot of folks are tuning in here in order to, to gain insight and information into what direction they could head in. And so I think it's important to realize like, yes, we also, or at least I, you know, want to retain or. Samuel (38:14) right. Paul Rossi (38:32) I want to retain, I want to remain in this industry, but also continue to grow and learn more as well. That's really cool. Speaking of learning more, the Elevate UAS Miami, so folks tuning in, you ready to go to Miami, Samuel? Samuel (38:53) It's too bad Terry's not here for this bit, because I think he's pretty familiar with Miami. He's given me a few suggestions of places I need to check out next time. Paul Rossi (39:01) That's. Well, you guys might have to, you know, hit up Miami. Samuel (39:10) next weekend trip or something like that. that's actually very far away though, or within the year, so I wasn't sure if this was popping up in the next month. Paul Rossi (39:15) No. Yeah, and it says October 8 to the 10th, so 8 to the 10th. No, not next month. Florida's Coban Center, so Elevate UAS, drone nerds. Many folks in this industry are familiar with drone nerds, drone sales company. They, last year, I believe it was last year, they launched their Elevate UAV conference. And this takes place in Miami, Florida. Drone Nerd's headquartered in that part of Florida. So October, check and mark your calendars, Samuel. So not something you got to do immediately. You can put in your vacation days. But October 8 to the 10th. Samuel (40:05) Maybe I can go skydiving in Miami, huh? Paul Rossi (40:10) Yeah, with Terry, he probably knows the spots, networking, or even not just skydiving, just to go back. Anything, because now that you're going to go to Miami, you could get on the back of one of those boats, you know how they have a crank on the boats, and they slowly lift you up. So it's like they drag you along. But just the aerial perspective, it's cool to see from a drone, but to like... Samuel (40:10) Ha! Paul Rossi (40:40) And then here's the guy who's not been skydiving. It's like, I'm talking as if I've flown through the air, like, like just put in a small aircraft flying around at a thousand feet, 2000 feet. It's, it's a, it's a really neat experience. So just, yeah, you know, paragliding, anything, anything. Samuel (40:55) I think it's also worth noting too is, I don't know about you Paul, but I am definitely afraid of heights. So I do want to do it. I want to have that experience, but yeah, just a little nervous too. Paul Rossi (41:08) There you go. And now look, so going back to early bird, right? Get your tickets, use this code early bird, not sponsoring this, but again, a lot of this, you know, what we said this podcast is just to share with the audience what is happening in the industry. Also what events are taking place. You know, if you're in California, maybe you're, you know, this probably isn't, isn't, may not be worth the trip, but if you're in Georgia, Florida, You know, in southeastern United States, 45 % off. I think it's like 200, 219. So if you're getting half price, I mean, it's like a hundred bucks. You're getting snacks, lunch, networking time. You got a VIP pass. I don't know if this is 45 % off, but, live demos, workshops, the networking aspect, I think is the most important piece. especially for folks in the local area, it's getting together with other people and having those conversations. but really, you know, something folks should totally, look at and consider, Hey, is this something that I should. Samuel (42:19) I don't think I've seen a drone show like this on the East Coast before. I think that's really neat. The fact that it's kind of in our home turf per se. Paul Rossi (42:28) And so with AUVSI is the one big one that travels. They were in Atlanta. So I think the first exponential I went to was either in Atlanta and then one was in Orlando. So a few years ago, yes, well, three, four years ago. And then the last year it was in Colorado. Samuel (42:44) Was that creason -ish or was that kind of like... Okay, yeah. Paul Rossi (42:58) And then this year it was in San Diego and then it's going to be in Houston. And then, and then it's going to be, we said on the first episode, it'll be in Detroit, but then it's coming back to Miami. So you will be like, AUVSI will then be in Miami. And then you're going to have this event, which will be later, but this is going to serve a consistent local audience. AUVSI is going to bring in. So, but you're right. There's not like. Samuel (43:00) Okay. Okay. Paul Rossi (43:27) a consistent annual event that takes place on the East coast. We had the North Carolina drone summit 2018 and like that's what. propelled myself into doing more. Cause I went there and learned and networked and got insight and information and then grew from it. So. Samuel (43:44) I think that's one of the really cool things is when you realize how much bigger the world is once you kind of get out there and meet all those people, you're like, my gosh, it's much bigger than I thought, you know? Paul Rossi (43:55) Not. Well, it's it's big, but it's small. If you go out one time, you're like, my gosh, the world is so big. But if you regularly go out, you start to realize like. Anyone can be doing things, but. Most people are at home, right? Most people not like like most people are just going to. You know, take a path of least resistance. Samuel (44:09) Familiar faces. Right. Paul Rossi (44:24) You know, take a path of less energy. You know, it's the outliers are the folks getting up early on the Saturdays, you know, doing a little extra to get the ticket to go to the conference, you know, finding a reason to make it happen versus an excuse to not go. And that's the mentality. That's what I've learned as I've continued to go and go. And I think that's what. Samuel (44:37) Hmm. Right. Paul Rossi (44:50) When you're trying to get involved in a network, in an industry, you're probably, you're trying to demonstrate to people like, I'm not just here today because I heard drones are cool and I want to make a little bit of money. I'm here because I'm committed to the growth and development of the industry, my business, myself, and I want to help others along the way. And I want to work with others along the way. So you're right. I mean, the world is big, but. At the same time, it's kind of small in a sense. Samuel (45:24) Small in the sense that like you will continuously see some of those familiar faces as you continue this journey. Like I think some of the people that I saw AUVSI last year, I'm going to see again in five years if I continue this path. You know, if I continue going down, being as involved in the drone industry as I am now, they're going to pop back up and it's going to be like, yeah, like it feels a lot smaller, but I mean, you realize how many players there are. It's like, okay, you know. At least that's how I'm kind of thinking about it. Paul Rossi (45:59) Yeah, yeah, it's really cool. But check that out. Elevate UAS. Definitely the place to be for second week of October if you're a drone person on the East Coast, especially if you're in Florida. Now, yesterday, pretty awesome. Seven, six, five, I got the Starship right here. Got the Starship torch. This is the fourth. test flight of the Starship. So a little not entirely drones here, but right this vehicles, you know, there's no pilot on board. So. Samuel (46:38) It feels kind of like out of the uncanny valley just seeing this video. Paul Rossi (46:45) It's... It's like... Samuel (46:49) Like this doesn't feel real just kind of seeing this take off. Paul Rossi (46:52) Just... Samuel (46:55) It's crazy. Paul Rossi (46:55) The starship with a full one engine, 32 out of 33 engines fired, one did not, still easily propels itself into space. Samuel (47:08) Hmm. Paul Rossi (47:09) Starship largest rocket in the world. This is its fourth Tesla. Look at that imagery. You can see the failed engine. I mean, that is. That just reminds me of the old car cigarette lighters. Samuel (47:23) Alright, yeah. This is launching out of where? Paul Rossi (47:30) Texas. Samuel (47:31) Texas. Paul Rossi (47:35) Yeah, so massive. This is the fourth flight of the Starship, the first three. Lots of information was learned by SpaceX, but all three previous flight tests ended in rapid unscheduled disassembly. Yesterday, watch this, had the kids, and it was like, Samuel (47:35) Definitely impressive. Paul Rossi (48:01) They kept pushing it back, kept pushing it back. I'm like, you know, it's right in the middle of take the kids to, to school. So I'm just like, they can wait. I was like, they can wait. Samuel (48:13) How often do you get to see that happen, you know? Live, I should say. Paul Rossi (48:17) Right. So I'm telling them like, I'm like, this is a, this is a rocket and they see it on the TV's the countdowns going and they grabbed their little rocket, you know, toys they have like, this is so cool. And they're doing it. So it was like, here we go. So they kept pushing it back, but. positive separation. The booster separates successfully. You see here it floats back, it lands back in the ocean, it does, right here, perfect click, you can see it's all situated exactly as it's supposed to be. This is a giant, look at this thing, it's right above the, and then it... touchdown and it just tilted and fell over. And so I'd imagine on the fifth test flight we should see an attempt to actually land that booster back onto a surface. Samuel (49:08) Mmm. Paul Rossi (49:22) Unless I should not speak yet. Maybe the intention is to always land it back in the water, but... Starship continues on. I mean how fascinating is this vehicle? Samuel (49:37) Definitely feels unreal, but I think that's one of the really cool aspects about this is like that's where where we are at right now is Also think about the Tesla Roadster floating around in space too, but that's another topic Paul Rossi (49:54) And then you've got these heat shields, like these are a bunch of tiles. And it's part of this mission. They actually removed one of the tiles from one section and added some thinner materials. They're testing. They're basically trying to get data to see, you know, these tiles work, but how can we improve them or, you know, what is it experiencing without it? So lots of cool stuff going on. Samuel (50:21) Can you imagine having that as a souvenir once it finished its flight? Or it's complete... I don't know, once the vehicle is completely done and it's out of commission, having one of those tiles? That'd be something. Paul Rossi (50:36) And then the imagery that ends up coming from here, you can see it's using its fins in order to kind of steer and manipulate the vehicle. But the imagery that comes off of it is just incredible. Samuel (50:57) Hmm. Paul Rossi (51:03) And then this is, you know, the vehicle's re -entering. So it's never done this before, this vehicle, this size, the Starship itself. It's always disassembled itself, unscheduled, rapid unscheduled assembly, right? A little explosion there. And so huge information being collected here. as the vehicle re -enters there its atmosphere, the lens ends up getting hit. So for the remainder of the return, it's kind of looking at it through a very broken lens. Samuel (51:53) And how long is the total video here? Paul Rossi (51:53) seeing some flashes. This is about an hour and seven minutes, I think. We're here at an hour and five minutes. And so now you can see it's the speed, it's right, well, here, right, six kilometers over Earth, five kilometers, the speed slowing way down, and then the vehicle attitude. So you can see it's basically falling on its side. Samuel (52:16) Hmm. Right. Paul Rossi (52:24) back to Earth. And the lens here was struck. So now it's three kilometers. You can see the speed's really slowing down. And then on the screen, we're looking at the telemetry. So it's really cool. It is neat. You're looking at things that pilot, drone pilot, your speed, your altitude. What is your attitude? And you can see now that you can see the nose oscillating. Samuel (52:46) seeing all your stats. Paul Rossi (52:51) and it's a kilometer over the ocean right now and it's going 368 kilometers an hour. Samuel (52:54) Okay, so that's like an accurate depiction of where like how the gyroscope for the vehicle is. Paul Rossi (53:01) Yes, yes. And see now it's pointing itself nose up because when it touches down, when this thing's going to land back and so it's right over the water. This thing is nose up. It just situated itself and now you can see very, you could see the little water. Really hard to tell with the lens there. Samuel (53:05) Wow. That's right. Yeah, I kind of wish there was another camera we could... Yeah. Still though, just watching that telemetry, that's super impressive. Paul Rossi (53:29) Gotta have that. Gotta have that backup camera, gotta have redundancy. So a minute and six, an hour and six minutes from takeoff to touchdown. And it's really neat because like he says and mentions here is this vehicle, the largest rocket in the history right here. You know, this is Starship and then the booster attached to it. It took off from Texas. went into space and then came back and touched down in the Indian Ocean. This massive object moved itself from Texas to the Indian Ocean. And so cool, just really, really neat. On the fourth time, it's flown. So really, really exciting there. Thoughts, space. Samuel (54:05) Hmm. One hell of a way to move things, that's for sure. Take this object and just. Paul Rossi (54:27) Yeah, one hell of a way to move things. Yeah, and then fill it up. They're like, you know, we're just going to go half full on this one. It's like, no, we're going to, you know, if we're going to launch this, let's make sure we fill it all the way up. Samuel (54:40) Right. Paul Rossi (54:41) And so really, really great episode today. Push and time here cover a lot of great topics. The last thing, you know, we have this regulatory corner where we try to just touch on things that are happening on the regulatory side. Over the last few episodes, we have all this legislation and lawmaking and trying to have these country of origin bans. We had the FAA Reauthorization Act. So. This week, something not as huge, a little more local and connected to us here at the weekly wings, but 910 drones, I had the opportunity since end of March when we got the DJI Dock 2 to start operating it and dive into the ins and outs of the hardware and software. And over that period of time, was helping work on a beyond visual line of sight waiver so that 910 drones can help public safety agencies, schools, facilities, construction companies, folks within North Carolina and this region of the US help them integrate these doc solutions and operate under some more advanced procedures. So the waiver that 910 drones received yesterday is a 10731 operational waiver for beyond visual on a site of the remote pilot using visual observers for airspace deconfliction. So it's really neat. We'll be able to take that and help police departments, fire departments, schools, businesses. in North Carolina acquire this same operational waiver, using these systems to help with life -saving operations for public safety and then just help businesses better capture all the value that drones have to offer from a scalability, efficiency. standpoint. So really excited to be able to share that with folks and know that we're helping advance the industry. Samuel (57:11) Congratulations on that. Just kind of listening to what you had said, that's not specifically just for emergency services that you're providing, it's other businesses as well? Paul Rossi (57:22) Yeah, so 910 Drones is working here in North Carolina, primarily working with schools, high schools, universities, community colleges, public safety, police, fire, emergency management, and then folks in the construction, surveying fields, but also helping folks across all industries integrate this technology. So anyone or any organization. looking to integrate drone, drone dock systems and acquire those advanced waivers beyond visual line of sight, ops over people. Yes, we are, we are here to help. Samuel (58:05) excited to see that. It sounds pretty exciting. Paul Rossi (58:08) Yeah, it's going to be really neat with everything light shows and horizontal landing. It's really cool. I'm really just excited. Samuel (58:20) TL, DR, everything we talked about today. Paul Rossi (58:23) Yeah, 100 % just really excited to see because in eight years, it's just week after week, month, day, year. It's just like one thing is it just continues to develop and improve upon the previous. So in five years, 10 years, it'll be really, really cool to see what sorts of systems and these dock and beyond visual line of sight. You know, the hardware, the software, the regulations that are coming out, it's going to enable and facilitate things that we haven't even thought of yet. I mean, that's just history and technology and development of any society is people are going, well, we didn't think of it. Well, you couldn't have thought about it because the means to make it happen didn't even exist. It's not until you see something for the first time and now you go, wow, we could do this with that. So. Samuel (59:09) All right. Paul Rossi (59:15) Really cool. It's been a great episode here. Played some really neat videos. The UFL is integrating drones into their footage for capturing those big passes. UFL is definitely doing some things. You always got the new entrant that's trying to change the game, right? And, you know, mix things up. versus the incumbent. So I was also thinking, how long until we see this in the NFL and will we see it in the NFL or do they see it more as a risk and something that they don't have to use because they already have viewership. So it will be neat to see that. Drone Light Show's made it on the agenda again. America's Got Talent. Sky Element Drones, congratulations. Nope, drones, drone. Samuel (1:00:00) I didn't even do the story this time. Yeah. Paul Rossi (1:00:08) for satellite imagery for utility inspections, transmission, power and energy. It'll be really neat to see how both drones and satellite imagery work together to make sure that our power and our lights stay on. With all this advanced capabilities, there's really no reason for the utility companies to not be keeping our power coming to our houses. So horizontal landing drones that can enter in like the Starship or whatnot. you know, your star wars type of capabilities, you know, check that out. Elevate UAS drone nerds happening in Miami in October. Look it up. If it's something you can attend, do it great network, learn, educate yourself. Check out SpaceX. They're launching things into space, Starlink capabilities. Folks are using what they're putting into space in order to advance drone operations. So just, just really cool. And. inspirational to see this technology advance and for them to win because, you know, anytime they have a successful flight, they're employing people here in the United States, lots of jobs, lots of hardworking folks. So congratulations to SpaceX and the Starship launch. And beyond visual line of sight, 910 drones helping folks do BV loss 1 .0, DFR 1 .0, leveraging visual observers. Have any questions, reach out info at 910drones .com. And your questions, any questions, drop them here in YouTube. I know we've got the videos posted on there. So if you have any questions or comments, leave them below in that section. Shoot an email to miriam at dronelife .com or you can email paulrossi at 910drones .com. We really appreciate everybody tuning in. Thank you for listening. We appreciate your time and attention and really hope that today's episode added some value and insight and information into your development as a drone pilot and individual working within the drone industry. Because we know folks tuning in may not be pilots, but. very closely connected to the industry and all the great things happening. So we appreciate everybody tuning in. Check out DroneLife .com and be sure to subscribe or follow or whatever it is on whatever platform that helps you get notified that our next episode is available for viewing and listening. Thank you everybody and have a great week. Thank you, Samuel. Samuel (1:02:57) Stay safe.