UAS News Podcast — 2013-08-08
Transcript
Hello everyone and welcome to the UAS News Podcast Series where we interview the newsmakers. This is episode 57 and it is the civilian drone documentary show. We're going to talk with the filmmaker. This documentary is interesting.
We'll go into that a little bit here but before we bring on our guest, I want to say hello to our co-host, late man Gene Robinson. How's it going, Gene?
Well, Patrick, I happen to be in a government building and apparently cell phones are blocked or something because I could not get through. I had to run to the window there to get in. So, you know, the typical kind of technical difficulties we all have to overcome. But yes, I'm happy to be here.
Thank you very much, sir. I know. We keep busy over here at SUS News because people keep saying, oh, geez, what's this and that?
And it's like, well, you know, we're trying. The staff is kind of light over here. Indeed. Indeed.
So, anything, any of the current news stories catch your attention this week, Gene? Well, you know, there's been quite a bit. I mean, I don't know. It seems to me that we're starting to see some more positive stories about unmanned aircraft use.
However, you know, I will have to say that I find it interesting that there were like a half a dozen drone flights in Yemen over the last as many days. So it's not like our government doesn't embrace the use of UA's. It's just kind of selectively applied. But, you know, there's been a lot of other things in the news like the guys over at CAA there, the resource folks getting their first unmanned license.
I'm tickled to death with those guys. Yeah. And there's another group, I guess, that's, you know, licensed by the CAA UK to certify people, which is good because the monopoly was kind of bugging me. But that's bad for business.
A couple other things going on. I went to the state capital here in California and they had a hearing and it was mainly on law enforcement. But again, it's still the same, you know, really broad brush of privacy in the Fourth Amendment and all the rest of that, which is great, you know. And my thing is, look, you know, if it constitutes a search, get a warrant, man.
You know, it's not that hard. I mean, there's already all the laws on the books and the Supreme Court has, you know, gone over the manned flights and you can fly over yards and yada, yada, yada. And I mean, really, to be honest, that's another thing I'm doing. The American Bar Association Expo Symposium in San Francisco on Friday.
So, you know, come on out because it's going to be a I think I'm going to be in. Well, I know I got some people from EFF, maybe ACLU, the same cast of characters. I think Steve Morris from MLB is going to be there. So I'll have a little bit of help there.
But I don't know. You know, after the whole NSA thing, I'm thinking that the privacy thing is kind of superfluous as they are all over our private stuff. We got a lot of wind noise or something back there. Gene, are you outdoors now?
I don't know if we were losing him or what the deal is. But anyway, so doing the ABA thing, that ought to be interesting. And I'll be posting the PowerPoint at our SUS News on SlideShare. And that's another thing.
We put all of the presentations from the small unmanned systems business Expo are now up there, sans a few. But I'm having a problem converting them, but I'll get those up there too. So you could go there. Look at the PowerPoints.
And then I'll also I'll be chatting around in DC. And I've got an appointment at the de-lousing station on Thursday. I'm leaving, but I will be around. So if you're out there, look for me.
Doing a presentation on Monday on lighter than air systems for space and missile defense command or space and missile defense needs should be pretty interesting. It's kind of salesy, but hey, it's I like to have fun with them. So I'll be doing that too. Working on a few more things around here.
We have already set dates for next year's Expo, which will be May 8th and 9th of 2014. And there is already a lot of excitement about people wanting to be at the next show. The feedback at the show that I've heard has been just people are just getting besides themselves. How good it was.
I think a lot of people thought that we're going to be some like, you know, real estate photographers in there just hanging around. Not that, you know, I'm deriding real estate photographers because I've seen some pretty good stuff, but it was actually people that, you know, Oh, I don't know, get some venture capital funding to the tune of twenty seven million or five million or ten million. So, you know, some serious folks in the room doing some serious things. A lot of a lot of networking.
My phone's been ringing off the hook on different technologies and different ideas and some really good stuff, really good stuff. People looking for some venture capital and I'm actually trying to get people some funding. So if you want to either, you know, throw money at somebody or you have a technology you think that is worthy of getting some venture capital, get in touch. How about you, Gene?
Any feedback on the show? You know, I've been kind of doing the same thing. I ran into so many people that have some really, really good ideas. And not that I couldn't use some venture capital, but, you know, I did an angle towards that one.
I was really, as a manufacturer, I was more interested in the people that really had something that could contribute. And I spent the last week just trying to catch up with all those guys and touch bases with them and see how we could work together. And to be honest with you, I'm pretty excited about some of the few contacts that I have been able to get into touch with because of my schedule. And it's going to be a good year, I think.
I think so. And I do think, too, that people should stand by. There's a couple of things in the works, if we can get them together in our spare time. There may be some partnerships with other organizations that want to utilize this technology.
Of course, I mean, out there in radio land, somebody hatches a plan. And then the plan needs, you know, rounding out and sanity checking. And then, you know, start talking to people and build something out of it. It takes a little bit of doing, let's say.
It's not magical. It's not a minor undertaking, but it's well worth it. Oh, yeah. I mean, if we do this stuff, I think, you know, the whole premise behind the show is that I was going to try and we were going to try and change the narrative.
And the feedback is that the narrative, I think, has changed. And people have taken notice and said, hey, wait a minute. You know, the commercial sector is not just a bunch of guys out here horsing around doing small-time stuff. These people are doing some serious stuff.
And I think that that's built a little bit of excitement in the community. And I think that that's transferring on. I mean, we did a lot of firsts there. And I see that some of those are being emulated even at the AUVSI show.
So that's good news. Hopefully, we are turning the Titanic away from the iceberg. And, you know, I think the main thing that's good is that the mom and pop shop, the small entrepreneur is alive and well, and he is innovating. And the venture capital community has taken notice.
That's another thing. I mean, there were actually more venture capitalists at the show than I had realized. So they are interested. You know, the one other news story that did catch my attention and I've posted in a few places, and I think this is kind of, you know, talks about one of the reasons we don't have a lot of, we may not have regulation.
This is the Predator King story in the BBC News. And I know you saw that, Gene. No, yeah, yeah. And, you know, people wonder.
And I mean, I'm not, you know, the military thing or the DOD side of this, it has its place and, you know, it's great and all the rest of that. But when people ask how come we don't have regulation here in the United States and you look at, well, you know, the House Armed Service Committee and the chair of the Unmanned Vehicle Caucus, you know, and there's some other people that are on that caucus or whatever that says that they would help me get on the current arc.
So small business could be represented and, you know, which is only fair if we're going to have representation from all affected stakeholder groups, except for small business and the end user.
Out in the cold again. But we see why. You know, we see when, you know, someone is getting, I don't know, $830,000 plus in campaign contributions from the big DOD vendors. Hmm.
So, you know, is this a coinkydinkydoo or are we trying to, you know, lock this up for ourselves? I mean, I don't think it's too hard to just stretch it there, but it's definitely, that's the kind of money that we're dealing with. And when I talk about doing advocacy and people talk about, you know, well, $45 is a lot of money and, you know, I can't pay dues and everything. That's what you're up against.
I don't think, I'm starting to think that just as a whole social commentary in our country that, you know, it used to be the tin foil hat deal. But the thing is the monster is so big and the way that it works or our system works now is so far out there that I don't think people believe it or can even grasp it. Comment on that, Gene?
Well, it's, I couldn't agree with you more. It's gotten too big to eat. You can't wrap your arms and head around it. It's like standing at the base of a map and trying to see around it.
You can't, but you can, you know, if you start, you know, and it's the same deal with even this technology and people, oh, you know, you're the futurist or, you know, whatever. Just take two steps back and take an objective look at the whole thing and you start realizing, you know, there's big money at play here. There's big money, big influence, you know, all tied into the government. You know, when people say, well, gee whiz, you know, how could a company charge $225 million a copy for an aircraft?
You know, connect the dots, man. You know, if you're going out those kinds of contributions for the House Armed Service Committee, you know, coming out and checking for that project, you know, and I'm not even an analyst. I'm just a John Q. Bagadonis public guy out here, you know, looking from the outside in.
But they could see what the candy store has to offer. And you look at the other, you know, avenues of this deal and people off ramping to the DOD vendors and looking for jobs. And, you know, the whole deal in the government is, you know, if you've got three or four pensions, you're really a sharp cookie. I don't have one.
Yeah, well, understood. And I think that common sense is starting to prevail out here in John Q. public land and that common sense tells us that's exactly what you stated, that this thing has gotten back control. And if you're a small player, well, you don't even get to play.
And we've got to change that. We've got to get back out into it. We've got to get the small entrepreneur and the small business person back out there onto that playing field where they can do some good. Well, that and, you know, small business and end user community, you know, the original concept for the RCAP.
But really what we need is money. I mean, anybody, I mean, that's another thing I'm talking about investment. People want to invest money. You know, you can invest all the money you want into this technology, but if you don't have regulation, those investments are not going to be very good because you're just going to get it be hard to get a return on your investment.
So, you know, that's that's going to be my next deal. Well, I am definitely my presentation at the expo was about trying to get the technology, computer, Internet people, circle our wagon and kind of try and get these people into the circus tent and have them realize that any any business that really thinks it's going to be a business needs some sort of representation. And that representation on the federal level takes money. I'm not saying we're ready to give some congressmen, you know, eight hundred and thirty five million or I'm sorry, eight hundred thirty five thousand dollars or whatever.
But we got to do something and we have to be heard. So and that I think kind of segues into today's guest. And that is my call to run who has a film that we showed a clip at the Small End Man Business Expo, the civilian drones, the documentary. Hello, good morning, Patrick.
Hi, Dean. How are you?
Hi, my. I'm doing good. Gene over there on the other hand. I don't know.
Running a little ragged in the hundred and sixty degree heat. But I think in my home state today and I think she got to enjoy some of the balmy weather that we've been going through. Oh, yes. Beautiful.
Absolutely. I can't believe I used to live here. No, it is a really nice out here, especially the night. Yeah, it has been pretty warm.
Well, now you we played a little clip of your documentary at the Small End Man Systems Business Expo. And, you know, subsequently we've ran a story about it on issues news and we've been getting a little. Well, a lot of feedback. But before we get into that, I would I would ask that you please introduce yourself to the audience.
Little bio possibly and how you got involved with the topic of unmanned aircraft systems. Thanks, Patrick. My name is Maha Calderon. I am a professional writer and photographer.
I have a degree in journalism from Texas State University. And I'm also an FAA certified flight instructor. Last August, I sat next to Gene's wife, Angelique. I'm sure a lot of people have met her.
We were on a Southwest Airlines flight from Austin, San Diego. We started chatting and she told me her husband developed UAS. And I have to do a double take because my husband is developing UAS. So what are the odds of that happening?
In our case, we were still filling out paperwork for the FAA. We had no clue that we had hit a wall at that point. So it was really interesting that it wasn't going to be the 50 to 90 days as we were going to be. So it was going to be the 50 to 90 days as previously thought.
So on the COA process you're talking about, right? Yes. So as far as the documentary itself is concerned, I was pretty shocked to hear about the FAA actively blocking certain rescue flights. Anyone with any sense would say, no, that can't be possible because you're helping people who are possibly dying.
So that's how that came about. I thought it was a story that really needed to be told. I agree. I think the story does need to be told and I know I just stepped on you there, so go ahead.
Just the fact that not only are they blocking, but you start looking into it and they make you feel like, jeez, the bad guy. Anybody who's trying to do this and not listen to the government who says, go away for now, is a bad guy because he's trying to help people who are, there are kids who are lost, people who are dying, but you're the bad guy for wanting to help. So you can see where the story just gets bigger and bigger. It is, well, I mean, that kind of goes back to what we had talked about in the first segment there.
It seems like if you're trying to help, if you're trying to get something done in this country, you're the bad guy. If you're sending us lots of campaign contributions, things like that, everything's hunky-dory. There was an old saying about money talking and BS walking, and we know what category I think that Gene falls into these days. Well, I think it's more the kind of no good deed goes unpunished.
Yeah, I can agree with that. I can agree with that. Even that Mount Hood thing is a perfect example of, and maybe Gene, if you could give the audience just a little bit of background on the Mount Hood deal because your search services were involved in that. That's correct.
That was several years ago when the three climbers went missing, our unmanned aircraft along with another manufacturer's aircraft went up there, and we were named in the COA, which the Air Force PJs were also named. We went up there, and the only time they would allow us to fly was a very small window, and the winds were at about 55 knots, and it was snowing. So that was kind of the way they looked at us when we came in with aircraft. Obviously, everybody knows by now that those climbers were not found alive, but we did manage to get our aircraft in the air, believe it or not, and it did fly.
But it's just one of those things where, gosh, you get out there and you try to do it, and even though you've got the tacit approval, when you get out there to fly, they put you in some of the worst conditions you could ever hope for, so you're kind of set up to fail. The other manufacturer did fail. They launched eight times and crashed eight times. Yes, yes.
And while I was on the small UAS arc, and I may have told this story, but somebody from ATO was relishing that everybody that launched crashed. Well, it was futile. I remember stopping the meeting right there and saying the same thing, because I had heard from you that you guys weren't allowed to fly until the winds were at 55 or 60 knots. People have to understand a hurricane at 70 knots.
It's a hurricane. So even in the meeting there, I said it's just genuis, telling everybody the whole story, and thank God it wasn't any of my family or loved ones that were up there on Mount Hood that were left to die because you wanted to play games. That's how I see it. Sorry, and how do you go back from that point and say, oh, well, there's no rewind button.
They're dead. You can't go back and find them now. Exactly. I mean, yeah, your family gets closure.
Closure or found alive. So you want to play games because you think you've got a little bit of power up there. This is going to make me more popular. I mean, it's getting so bad with the Christmas cards.
I'm thinking about just buying a menorah to put up there on the mantle so people don't think I don't have any friends at all. But to me, when you have the bureaucrat is sitting in a place of power, and you have an opportunity to save people's lives, there's obviously not a lot of air traffic up there, and you choose to sit in your cloistered little office over there in D.C. inside the Beltway and think I'm powerful enough where people are going to respect my authority like that kid on the South Park thing, and these people died.
And I'm not saying, you know, I will be fair, and I have to say, well, you know, I can't say that the unmanned aircraft would have found these people for sure. But when it's life or death like that, you want to put these things out there. Same with Katrina. Katrina, they wouldn't let anyone fly.
You know, they were ripping wings off of these deals and duct taping them to helicopters to look for people, use the sensors. You know, you have life or death situations, and I think it was the same, wasn't it?
Where did they have the earthquake? Was that in Puerto Rico or Haiti?
Haiti. Yeah, so you have a chance to save people's lives. Anyway, I think I'm getting out there a little bit, but these are some of the things I'm sure that kind of spawned the documentary, Maha. They did, indeed, and, you know, the fact that someone has already probably gotten paid to be in charge of rescuing people when something goes wrong, so we have to justify the expense.
So we can't let a little foam airplane go up there and find them for very little to no cost. Anyway, back to the documentary. That's pretty much it. You know, people could be alive.
We don't know. We'll never know, and that's the worst part of it. Well, all of that stuff, I mean, even that Mount Hood deal was, I mean, you know, I saw the pictures, the guys riding the snowcats, and the, you know, I mean, it was, you know, made-for-TV movie stuff, but is that, I know that, you know, from the clips that I've seen of the documentary, which we should probably give the website right now. Some people, if they wanted to, could check it out.
Would you do that for me? Absolutely. It's civiliandronenovie.com, and it is drone plural. civiliandronenovie.com.
Yeah, and we'll give that one more time at the end, but just if you wanted to run over there while you're listening and check that out. Now, it's kind of interesting to take, you know, I actually am in the, I was interviewed for this documentary, and one of the things I did notice when being interviewed is you talked about, well, you know, let's keep the perspective for the lay person and whatever else, and I don't really understand all of this, or, you know, how are we going to break this down?
And that is one thing, that we don't have a lot of women in the unmanned aircraft systems world. And so even from that perspective, I think it gives you something, a little bit of a different perspective. Can we get a high-altitude view of the technology and industry from you?
Sure. First of all, I'm a huge fan of technology all around, and VAS is just, it just seems to me, the logical next step in evolution. I mean, whether it's cost, safety, efficiency, and then, yeah, being out there saving lives. I don't know how you could possibly put a price on that.
I've gotten a lot of emails from supporters of the documentary telling me how there are actually a lot of incidents and human casualties that could have been prevented if they had been in UAF. Those conditions where aircraft were used at low altitudes when, you know, you should only be in low altitude if you're taken off a landing, and it's usually helicopters who end up meeting the ground a little too soon.
But really, from what I've seen at the Expo, at the SUAS Expo at San Francisco, I was incredibly impressed with all the capabilities, whether agriculture, mapping, all the applications, and I really applaud everyone who's still persisting in research and development despite the FAA.
As a woman, you know, we get emotional about stuff, but it was really sad to think that some companies would cease to operate or exist altogether because of what the FAA has done. I mean, not only did they kill a good portion of US business during a tough economy of all time, but they've killed ideas and future concepts, like, from within. I met some people who were really amazing in this field, and now they're working minimum wage jobs. So I don't know.
I just feel really compelled to tell this story. And so it sounds like that was the impetus for the documentary, which you just explained, which I think is a fair topic to examine. I concur with you. It is really, I've got to be honest, sometimes going through this process, there's times where I just want to feel like I'm physically sick when I think about the inanity of where we're at in this country with technology and new technologies that have the promise to feed a hungry world or whatever.
And you've got, again, the bureaucrats sitting over there in the fiefdom, more friends, friends from the fiefdom, are sitting there and basically just saying no, because I said so, or I don't have, I don't know, I don't want to speculate on why I can't make it happen, but there's a lot of different ways, but I agree with all of that. I'm willing to bet you, if you were to ask these guys why, and these guys are asking why, make an argument that makes sense, explain it to me. They don't have anything to say except no, shut up, and go away.
That's all they want to say, so we're not going to shut up. Sorry. That's okay. And the funny thing is too, again, back to the Christmas card thing, you can have a lot of, this documentary is not fair.
I mean, there was even an instance at the Small UA Unmanned Systems Exposition where it was kind of funny, I kind of played a trick on Maha, because after we played the clip, the gentleman from DHS came over and he was like, hey, you know, I want to talk to you about your video, and I'm like, my video, what video? And he's like, your video. Video?
He's like, yeah, the one you just played the clip of. I'm like, oh, that's not my video, that's her video. So I came over to Maha, I was standing there, and I go, this gentleman from DHS would like to speak to you about your video. And I walked off.
I thought you were kidding. I swear to God, I thought you were kidding. You know what's amazing about that whole conversation?
I won't bore you with the details, but five minutes of this movie was Gene's face plastered on a huge screen. I mean, you could not have missed Gene's face. And this guy didn't have a clue that it was about Gene. What was sitting next to me?
You know, it's like, what were you listening to? You only saw FAA bad. That's all you saw. And you're trying to say, oh, no, my buddies are good people.
You can't say that about them. Well, yeah, no, I've heard, I've had several people go, your movie is really kind of unfair, and it's going to, you know, make people. Well, it is your movie, Patrick, isn't it?
I know, everybody's trying to lay the blame for that movie on somebody, because there's another guy that will remain nameless when I first saw the clip. This is my movie. She made it. Oh, yeah.
And I think in the distance I heard a horn, a bus horn tooting. We were next to the bus depot. That's right. Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention that I had a buddy that lived right there.
That was always great. The buses started at like 530 in the morning. Oh, geez. Yeah.
A lot of fun. It's the ambiance, the San Francisco ambiance, but you could have had the Tenderloin ambiance that Gene enjoyed. I got to be more on that. What happened?
That was a little culture shock for this Texan to be in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco. Well, let's put it this way. There tend to be a lot of folks living an alternate lifestyle down there. Yes, that is true.
Now, all you need is a cowboy hat and a sidekick named Ratso, and you'd have ended up down there. Yeah, yeah, the cowboy hat and the boots down there just made me a magnet. I was just like, oh, God, run, run. That's pretty funny.
Now, back to the documentary. Yes, the folks have said the same thing. Oh, that's not fair. You know, there's some folks at the FAA that are really trying and yada, yada, yada.
And I'm not going to say that there aren't folks at the FAA are really trying. You know, you got to give, I got to give. I have to give some people the benefit of the doubt. Some people are beyond doubt because I've talked to them on several occasions.
And, you know, the term empty suit in some cases really fits junkets. You know, I want to go traveling. I want to go to the symposiums. It's great.
You know, it must be nice to travel on the taxpayer's dime to get nothing done. If you're getting something done, I'm okay with it. But if you're just, you know, junk it after junk it after junk it and we don't have any progress, I don't like that. It bugs me as a taxpayer.
So there are some people that are, yes, that are trying. I've heard they're trying. Let's not lose perspective. To me, it's so black and white.
It's hateful words versus human life. In this particular instance, you know, go back and explain to someone who lost their kids, who may or may not have been rescued, I don't know. We'll never know. But tell her it's because of this paperwork sitting on my desk and I, you know, I'll get to it sometime that your kids are no longer alive.
Put it in those terms. Right. And that's, you know, there's, you know, you can't, I mean, if you've been in the, had the experience to meet, you know, a mother who's lost a child, it's pretty rough unless, you know, you're made of stone. However, I do want to say, you know, the point I was getting to while I was, you know, talking about the people at the FAA is any participation from the FAA to give their side of the story and how they're working on this issue, Maha?
Well, when this started, of course, I sent them a list of questions. I sent it to the UAS Integration Office. They referred me to Mr. Les Dorks.
Apparently the FAA doesn't speak for itself. They need spokesperson. And this was September of 2012. He said he will not be interviewed, but he promised to send answers.
Again, 2012, today is 2013, August. I'm not holding my breath anymore. I did approach random FAAs, people that I know who are air traffic controllers, safety inspectors, all kinds of fields within the FAA. First of all, they had no idea that commercial operations with UAS were forbidden.
And then they kept saying on whose authority are they doing this? But of course, they want to be off the record. So, yeah, we have rumors. Yeah.
And then you have the common view. Some people think, well, the FAA has been hijacked by special interests. And it's no longer the FAA you used to know. Yeah, not your old grandfather's FAA.
Oh, my God. That's true, yeah. They said just send out for Jean and they'll come and rescue them. Well, you know, it's interesting that you say that because, you know, I've people say, oh, well, you know, you're not giving the FAA a fair shake.
We've invited them to come on the show. So standing, you can come on the podcast, tell people what's going on. You can give us press releases for the SUAS News. You can, you know, whatever you want to do, we're here to help and help disseminate information.
That's one thing the SUAS News brand, we are about disseminating information and, I mean, getting it out there and educating people and safety and all the rest of that. And we, too, talked to Westdoor and we, too, submitted questions and we, too, are waiting. So, you know, on one hand, it's kind of I don't think that it's disingenuous, but it bothersome when somebody says, oh, well, you can't beat up on the FAA because they're trying. Well, if you're trying, you got to, you know, tell the public that you're working for what you're doing.
Yeah, communicate. Absolutely. That's one thing I think that we've kind of realized in this effort is this is a one-way street. That's my view, Gene.
Pretty much that's the case. And we have invited them to our flight ops. We have asked them to, you know, review our SOPs, our community-based procedures. And we've gotten, you know, kind of back-channel accolades on the things that we've done in the past.
And it's frustrating to get those back-channel packs and then the official, you know, sorry, guys, it's against the regulations or there is no regulation and sorry, you can't do that. So it's unfortunate that that has occurred. And one thing I do want to say, when Maha approached me about doing this, I saw it also as an allegory for the rest of the industry, to be honest with you. And it was very important to me that nothing but the facts, you know, to coin the old phrase, we wanted to put nothing but the facts forward.
And everything that I've seen so far is just exactly what has happened. This is no embellishment. This has been, you know, these are documented events that have occurred. And they are terribly frustrating and terribly important.
And it is. It's an allegory to the farming industry, to the other places where an unmanned aircraft could fly over and corn could care less whether it's being photographed, you know, whether it's privacy is being invaded. Yeah, because, you know, our privacy, our privacy has never, you know, we have so much privacy right now. That's basic.
We don't want to give any of that up. I'm seeing another documentary here. You know. But I mean, just one last point I'd like to make and I promise I'll be quiet after that.
No, we're interviewing you. People keep saying the government's worthless. And I disagree. I really do.
Because go back to when they decided you couldn't take water on an airplane. Remember how quickly they were snagging your water away from you?
I mean, it made my head spin. And now they've, good or bad, whatever your feelings, they've repealed Obamacare 40 times. They've had time to do this 40 times. But they don't have time to deal with the integration of UAS.
I mean, come on. Well, you know, it's the age old. We don't have the budget. We don't have the manpower.
You know, I don't really buy that. You know, you really need to. I've said this before. When you come out of the private sector, the amount of stuff that you have to do to make a living, and anybody who's been in business knows this.
I mean, even the expo thing. I mean, the last month and a half of that, it was all day. You know, wake up, go to bed, eat, sleep, drink, expo. But it got done.
And not that I need a brownie medal or anything. But you know, if you have a passion, and that's one thing that I think that's missing here, is there's nobody that, on the regulator side, or there's few people that have the passion for this technology. And those that do have the passion are sent off to some obscure office somewhere. They've lost some good people because those people would not go along with the program.
They were passionate about science or passionate about the technology, and they were summarily replaced. You know, so, you know, I don't buy those excuses. When there's a will, there's a way. When there's a will, there's a way.
Things get done. You know. Absolutely. There's a zillion examples of that.
The other thing I want to talk to you about, Ma, is now I know that you made this film, and you were like, yes, we're going to make this film. And I had asked you, you know, where are we going to see this film?
So can you tell us where this project is going to debut? Well, we're looking at between end of August, beginning of September. We've gotten a lot of interest from news outlets. So we're still trying to make sure it's a complete work first before we put it out there, although, you know, obviously anyone who sees the trailer has kind of a clue of what it's going to be about.
But, yeah, we're looking for fall of 2013, no later than end of September. And it's going to be video on demand. And it's really going to be out there for everyone to see, and it's going to be free. So there's no charge.
Everybody can come check it out. And we'd love to hear feedback from everyone. Well, you have been getting feedback from the story that we did. And I've been kind of putting it out there too, you know, in some places that this is going on.
And feedback's been good? Maybe you're getting a full email now?
Well, the last time I checked, I think it was yesterday, the original clip that we showed at the expo has been up there for just about two weeks, I think, in Omaha. And it's had over 1,200 views?
It's a little over a week. Oh, okay. A little over a week, one week and 1,200 views. Wow, that's not too shabby.
You're out in front of my TED Talk video. Damn it. No. Just kidding.
Well, I think it's going to be good. And I think, you know, I know I'm looking forward to it. I know you've interviewed some experts. And some of those experts have been on this show.
And one of them is Mr. DeFore, who was a great guest. He's been in law enforcement for a little while now. I noticed he's got a tagger on his uniform that says, Master Peace Officer.
I guess that takes you got to be there for a couple of years to get one of those, eh? What an impressive, impressive man. Ken is an absolute delight of a person. I mean, you could see how he would scare the hell out of you, but you want him there to help you.
See, I mean, he's on both ends. He's just amazing, extremely well outspoken, as you can see. And a little plus, there's more to come. Yeah, he's a – you know what you're getting with him.
Yeah. You know what I mean?
He's a really nice guy. I agree with everything you say. But man, you know, as a boss, I know what I'm getting with him. Yeah.
You know what I mean? Step outside of the lines and you're going to have problems. Same thing being on the other side of the law. Probably not.
He sounds like – or he impressed me as a fair man, but you know, you have to get up pretty early in the morning to try and get some chicanery by that guy. Yes. Yeah. But he also reinforced the point – I'm sorry.
No, go ahead. But he was just saying that what are victims supposed to do?
Well, the bureaucracy figures out what it's going to do today or where to go to once. I mean, first-in-rescue operations are volunteers. The reasons I volunteer is – I mean, people are just dying again, and they're not commercial operations. So why are they prohibited by the FAA?
And it doesn't make sense why they can't just offer an immediate exemption or some kind of blanket exemption for first-in-rescue. If life are in the balance, it doesn't seem like it would be that hard. It's not that hard. And I hope that your film gives those – the regulators, and not only just in the FAA, but federal, state, and local, a view into the downside of the bureaucratic snowstorm.
So let's have that – can we have the website address one more time, please, Ma? Of course. Of course. It is civiliandronemovie.com.
Excellent. Okay. Well, you know, we're out of time, and every week we do the same thing and say, oh, we're going to be able to stretch this one out. But, boy, you know, it went long.
We appreciate you being on. I wish you the best of luck with the film. I can't wait to see the whole thing. Thanks for having me, Patrick.
All right. Well, and we will hear or listen to everyone again next week. So, Gene, until next week, Ma, we'll see you in the future. Yes, sir.
Everyone else, have a good one. Have a great day. All right. Thanks.
Bye-bye.