UAS News Podcast — 2013-04-17
Transcript
Alright, good morning and welcome to the latest installment of the UAS News Podcast Series where we broadcast news, commentary and views pertaining to unmanned systems and we do all of that live. This week's episode FAA Missomatic Part Quattro. I'm your host Patrick Egan and let's offer a warm welcome to our co-host Mr. Gene Robinson.
Hello Patrick, good day sir and how are you? Good and if you couldn't tell I've already been through a pot of coffee and now I'm moving on to the... You've been through a beer at the knee. Well you know, a pot of coffee will do that to you.
Now I'm on to the black tea. But alright, well you know before we get the show rolling today I just wanted to take a second and I wanted to say that to the folks out there in Boston, you're in our thoughts and prayers and everything else and I hope everybody is in speedy recovery and everything else. That's a real tragedy. Anyway moving along, let's discuss this week's news.
There's not much going on this week with the drones, right Gene? No, there's never much going on anymore Patrick. It's really, we're having a hard time digging up anything to talk about, right?
Oh, it's crazy. I can't find anything. I'm like a cow in a corn field looking for something to do. There is one thing that I want to bring up.
We've gotten a couple of comments and I'm sure that you have as well when you go out and do your speaking. Gosh, it seems like you guys are so negative and you're down on the FAA and this, that and the other thing. Unfortunately it's kind of like being Hammurabi's messenger for us. We want to bring the good news.
We'd love to bring the good news and if you've been in business, in this business, in the industry for as long as we have, I've been in 10 years, been incorporated, just solely doing unmanned aircraft, it's unfortunate that we can't say anything more positive about what's going on for the industry to get us out there. We don't make this stuff up and it's unfortunate that it is by its nature negative. It's not that we want to. It's just that that's the way it worked out.
Now that being said, I know we're going to try to move forward more positive things than there are. There are a lot of positive things out there that we could talk about. But anyway, with that said, I want to hand it back to you and we'll start out with our latest cherry note from the FAA. Well, it's like that old adage, you know, if you don't like the picture, bring me a prettier model.
There's lots of good news the rest of the world. I mean, I think we've touched on that with them flying the swarm over London for the Star Trek thing. I thought, I mean, that's gold, man. I wish we had more of that here.
I, you know, I don't know if I really went into details. Funny that story broke. You know, we're over London flying 30 to 50 of these things in a swarm at night, you know, Heathrow Airport, yada yada. And then, you know, oh, here in the United States, we're going to fly one at night in restricted airspace and study it.
I mean, I think that pretty much puts it in a nutshell. We're not making this up. That's how it works. It's beyond me.
You know, the rest of the world is doing it. And even as I put in the leader for the show, it's getting the like FAA leading the way thing is getting kind of obtuse. I mean, it's bizarre, really. So, you know, we'll launch into that as the title of the show.
So aptly put it, the FAA Mismatic part Quattro. The Mismatic for those don't know is a thing that Gary put up on the SUASnews.com website. And it basically has a running calendar or not a calendar, but a counter of when things were supposed to happen. And of course, I don't have that page pulled up right now, but I'm going to do that right now.
And we'll run some of those dates by. And it's kind of embarrassing in the sense that, OK, the Mismatic, the NPRM, we are one year and five months out. OK, the test site thing, eight months overdue. So this isn't, you know, like, oh, hey, we, you know, we're just going to be a month or two or whatever else.
The other thing to keep into consideration, too, the small UAS ARC recommendations were put out, let's say, four years ago this month. And no action on that. That's the committee that you served on, too, Patrick. And as I recall, the focus was is we're going to take care of the small unmanned aircraft first and get those out because small is easy.
Right. Right. Right. Well, what keeps happening is a reoccurring notion is standards groups and all the other work.
What happens, they keep talking about the small. Got to keep doing the small. Well, it's a small. And then the conversation five minutes later is talking about, you know, global Hawk and Predator and the larger systems.
The conversation always goes there. I mean, they have an art going now with the big stuff. It's like, you know, you got four years, you didn't get the little stuff going. Now you're working on the big stuff.
It's kind of embarrassing. So anyway, you know, everybody's waiting. We thought we were going to see some light at the end of the tunnel. What is this?
What is this latest push mean? The latest push means that the it pushes us out to 2014. Really?
First quarter. That's what that's what this slide to the right means. Unless there's some, you know, other miracle. That's what that's looking like.
Now, I did call the administrator yesterday and I left a message. You know, they were I think they were a little surprised. They told them who I was and I said I was calling from our cap. And I was kind of concerned about the small unmanned aircraft systems as far 107.
And I'd be interested in talking to the administrator about how he plans to manage this program to move the ball forward. The the woman on the phone sounded a little surprised, but I'm still waiting on that. I did not get the call back yet. So if you hear the phone ring in the background and it goes silent for a little bit, Gene, that's me talking to the administrator.
I think you handle that call from the administrator and I'll take over from there. That would be that would be a good thing to do. I'm waiting right now. I got the phone in my hand.
However, nothing yet on that. I did call also to and left a message for the head of the new UASIO, Mr. Jim Williams. And he did call me back this morning, but it was six o'clock.
And that's before I had my first cup of coffee. And I don't like to talk on the phone until I've downed at least one cup. So to their credit, he did call me back. We'll have to I wish I got to talk to him because I'd like to get a little insight.
They do not really want to come on the show. I think some folks are afraid of the kid lighting them up. I don't know why. I'm always trying to be very respectful to our guests.
But whatever, maybe someday. So, you know, we went we went through that a little bit. You know, maybe you could give the listeners your take on the slide, Gene. From a small business perspective, it's just, you know, another lash with the whip, if you will.
Unfortunately, if you've been in business for any amount of time in this industry, you've probably gone through all the equity in your house and your line of credit is about tapped out. Your credit cards are reaching their max. And each as each one of these things takes place, it's another one of those situations of how long do you hang on?
Do you keep that dream alive to bring the UA to market that you've designed? Or do you go ahead and pack it up and see if there are any positions that you can go back to?
The positions at Wal-Mart that you can fill. And it keeps getting pushed. And it's like the death by a thousand lines. You know, it's just a small little cut.
It's not that big of a deal. You only move it a couple of months. But in terms of the Fed, like you say, if they don't release the NPRM until October, then we've got three months comment period and then probably a couple of months to assemble the comments before they do anything with it. So first quarter is optimistic.
Second quarter is probably more realistic before they even aggregate the comments. And then as far as getting the S-FAR out, you know that things like that move glacially slow. So a projection fourth quarter maybe of 14, you know, maybe pushing into 15. Of course, they said 15, you know, before they would come out with a small rule.
But I'm thinking with the process that's slid by about a year. Right. Well, I mean, you know, I'm at the – I've got to be honest with you. I mean, it is bizarre.
I mean, it's getting bizarre. I mean, really, I think – I don't know. I mean, sometimes I want to just throw my hands up and say, you know, I mean, if I worked there, the type of person that I am, I would have a hard time showing my face. You know, I mean, I just – what do you say?
After so many years of nothing, what do you say? You know, I mean, I don't know if people have noticed that I've been posting in some of the other like LinkedIn and some of the other forums or whatever because I haven't really had time to write stories because I've got a few things going on, you know, that I'm trying to do. One of the other stories that commercial or the business show that we'll talk about. But, you know, you got the CAP 722 thing going.
You got, you know, the SFOC thing in Canada. You've got, you know, Australia's – they've got a commercial association put together. All these countries, Japan, you know, 14,000 operators. It's definitely emperor's new clothes here.
I mean, it's just – it is bizarre. And to say, you know, hey, we're leading the way or – I mean, every excuse that I've heard, it just doesn't make any sense. So it's kind of bizarre. It's just telling me that there's nobody there that's ready to or has the will to do anything there.
But it's still – it doesn't matter. I mean, like we've talked about before, you have – it's an underground, above ground economy. And, you know, I don't know if we've talked about this on the program. The thing that really kind of – well, one of the things that gets my goat – because I've got a whole herd of goats that have been gotten.
But the only people that the FAA can really come down on for operating are guys that know the rules of the road and have pilot's licenses. And I know you can speak to this, Gene, because you have a pilot's license, correct?
That is correct. And indeed, that's one of the things that's always mentioned as far as the punitive measures that can come down. Now, you know, we've discussed some of the other aspects of getting out into the NAS and discussed them with some of the FAA physios. And they do – they can actually fine individuals $10,000, up to $10,000, for careless and reckless flying in the NAS, regardless of what it is.
They can do that. Now, whether that's been done or not, to my knowledge, I don't think anybody that has flown a UA or is flying a UA has ever received a fine of that nature. And as far as I know, I don't think an unmanned aircraft operator has ever lost a pilot's license. I really don't want to be the first one.
But I don't believe that anybody has actually had this ticket pulled by the FAA for that. So, I mean, there are things that they can do. It's just that, you know, I think that due to the political commentary that you just made earlier, I think that the FAA knows that there are guys out there that are operating safely, and they really don't do anything until someone actually complains about it. Because by law, if someone gets a complaint, they have to react to it.
So, again, it's going to be one of those situations of who did you tick off? If you get the cease and desist letter, somebody was ticked off. And I think that you're going to find that in the current perception that the public has, you're going to have more and more John Q. citizens calling in with that complaint versus, say, a competitor or someone who is trying to do the same sort of thing.
Wouldn't you agree, Patrick? I would. And, you know, I don't know, it's kind of, you know, it's bizarre to me. But whatever, you know.
Hopefully they're learning some lessons. I mean, they've had plenty of years to collect some data. And I don't laugh out loud, you know, on some enforcement ideas. But anyway, all right, well, you know, enough of that one.
It's unfortunate. But, you know, this isn't the only country on the planet. There's lots of action in other countries and things are happening. And we're hearing a lot of good stories from around the world about this technology being used in positive ways.
I mean, every day now at DSUS News, there's some story. It's either anti-poaching or, you know, firefighting or whatever else. And then so what I want to do now, let's, I want to, I had the schedule of the segment three, but I think it's a better segue and it's the Berkeley Drone Town Hall meeting. Oh, yes, this is extremely interesting.
Yes, this one's going to be good. The dynamic duo referenced in the title of what I wrote and put out there is none other than Chad Partridge and myself. And I kind of see this as a real opportunity to forge a sort of working with the community type of effort. Many folks have apprehension and concerns about privacy when it comes to unmanned aircraft.
And I, you know, even making, when they made contact with us, I talked to them and I told them that my hat is off to Berkeley as they are actually trying to bring together all of the interested parties into the conversation. I commended them for that. It's kind of what I've been espousing on the show and in my writing and on the SUS News and in the forums and whatever else. Bring all of the interested parties into the conversation.
So everybody knows what you're talking about. I think that you are about to go into the breach because, as we know, the folks out at Berkeley tend to be pretty passionate in their views. And the fact that you're going to go in there and discuss and to engage these folks and something that we know in Berkeley has been a very spirited debate, I think is commendable. I think that you're going to get some really interesting comments and I hope you're wearing your stainless steel underwear when you go in.
Well, you know, we talk about some of this stuff here on the show weekly. It's not just all problems, you know. That's another thing is I don't want people to think that we're just caught up on the problem. We're actually out here being proactive and putting these notions espoused to the test.
You know, this isn't a science yet, Dr. Livingston. I think that me and you and others are, I mean, we're going right into the wilderness, you know, and we're hacking out a future for this industry. And that's how I feel about this Berkeley thing.
Now, I've told them, you know, I'm ready to go there and I am ready to talk about all subjects. Nothing's off the table unless it is deemed classified secret and I can't talk about it. But besides that, I'll talk about whatever. These people, though, the thing is, is I think what's wrong with the industry spokespeople that usually go out there, these folks, they're not going to buy the canned goods, you know.
They're not going to. If there's even a whiff of disdain for them, they're going to smell it and they're going to be all over you like, you know, some hyenas on a zebra carcass. They know that. Going in, you know, I'm under no illusions that I'm going into the friendly zone.
People are looking for some perspective on where I'm going and what I'm going to do. I would suggest that you go back and listen to the show. I forget which exact episode it was, but the drone law takeaway episode. And that was me and Chad Partridge.
We talked about our experience at UC Berkeley Law. I had about 20 people sitting up front with the no drone stickers on. And, you know, not to say that this is going to happen again, but I was able to, I wouldn't say win those people over because they still have apprehension about, let's say, certain aspects of drones and mainly the one that's with the bullets nose with the missiles on it, which I'm not there to defend. I'm not going to defend that.
And anybody at this point in the game who's defending that is really kind of setting themselves up for failure. What I'm out there, I'm not even defending. I don't really feel like I'm defending. What I'm out there doing is proselytizing and espousing the positives that I know from real world experience.
This type of technology can do in its applications. And I think that that is where if you go in and you're genuine, I'm not trying to hide anything. I'm not really trying to sell anything. I think that's kind of been the shtick all along for me.
It's very strange for people. My, let's say, association with the advocacy effort, people are always asking, what's this Egan guy's angle?
What's he doing here? What's he selling?
What's he got? And to be honest, I'm not selling anything but a future for, you know, small business people to get into this business. Gene, would you agree with that or you see it something else?
You have always said that line pretty well, Patrick, and I've kind of wondered about that myself. And that's one of the reasons that I'm here actually is because of that no-strings kind of advocacy. And you're right. When you engage these people and say, what's it going to take?
What do you mean to feel comfortable with this technology? That's the approach to take. I mean, if you speak to these people and let them vent their frustrations and vent their fears and you can comment intelligently on their concerns, then they become educated. And as they become more educated, they become more accepting of the uses, the positive uses, of the unmanned aircraft technology that we have been talking about for the last 45 shows.
Yeah, well, go ahead. I'm sorry. Step down. No, I'm just saying.
I mean, there's a ton of information there. And maybe some of these folks will go back and pick up some of these other podcasts and listen to them and get a little wider understanding. And that's what it's all about. I commend you for that.
I really do. And I wish you the best of luck. I will tell you that being from Texas and everything, I've heard from Berkeley, I'm kind of in fear for yourself there, but I commend you for doing that. Well, like I said, there's a certain way that you have to deal with these folks.
I think you have to be open, you have to be honest, and you can't have contempt for them. I mean, they have obvious concerns. But I will say, people have – I was talking to a reporter from Florida yesterday, and they have this notion about California and everyone's driving a Prius and they're all open-minded and all the rest of that. Not so much.
You know, I was in an election a couple years ago, and I put – I had out on my lawn, let's say the Republican candidates' sign out there. And every day when I'd come home from work, it was gone. I'd take up doing cardboard and spray paint. But anyway, so it's not as open-minded as we would think.
I went to another drone protest on Saturday, and actually I was on the phone with Eugene before I went into the lion's den there, and it was pretty interesting. Again, I actually had some of the postcards for the Small Line Man Systems Business Exposition, which is the next segment, and I said, hey, you know, not all drones are bad, and you should keep an open mind. I was looking at the – or giving these to people, and some people didn't want to hear it, but I could win them over and say, hey, you know, you have a problem with feeding a hungry world?
Well, no. Okay, science?
No. All right. The only one that I couldn't convince was an older lady with a walker who was mugging me hard. I was telling her, I'm like, not all drones are bad.
She didn't want to hear it. So I didn't press it, but, you know, some people are open-minded, other people are not open-minded, but it's our job. You're not going to win everybody over all the time, but I think if we go there, the town hall thing, you know, as I heard the setup was people had come to the city council, and they said, hey, you know, we want to ban the drones. Well, any drones here.
And the fire department came and said, oh, no, hey, wait a minute, you know, we don't want to do that. We want to use this. And same with the police. They came there and they said, hey, you know, wait a minute, we want to use this.
And, you know, we still, we have UC Berkeley there, and there's people there that want to use these for science and everything else. So those people will also be part of the conversation. And I have to say that even getting the brief on that, they were even, even my affiliation, and this kind of, this came through, they invited AUVSI, and then since I'm the local guy at Silicon Valley Chapter, they were asked me if I was interested in doing this, and I made contact with the guy and, you know, I'm trying to feel him out.
I don't, I really don't want to be thrown to the lions. If you don't want to have a conversation, then it probably wouldn't be worth my going. But they were a little apprehensive about my stance, like if I was going to be the pro-military guy, which, you know, the military does have its uses for it and everything else, but primarily what I want to talk about are the commercial and civil uses domestically. I don't even really think that the military part of it has a part in this conversation because we're talking about a municipality or city using it.
And I do think that I will also have an opportunity to speak to some of the uses, and it sounds to me that even, let's say, the firefighting and the police are not sure of all of the applications for this, from feeling that out in the conversation and talking about things that could be done. So I think it's going to be a chance to educate everyone, and I will say that I did, and I hope you don't mind, Gene, but I did send a copy of your book to a piece of Justice Foundation there and to the basically fire rescue and also disaster relief people.
And I said, well, maybe you can look at this for some background. We do have a caller. Well, I'm glad, you know. I appreciate that, Gene.
That's another thing, you know, you're helping out the industry, you're helping out the community, and I appreciate that and all your time here on the show. We have a caller. Should we take one?
Sure. Go ahead. All right. Caller.
You're on. Caller, are you there?
Hello. I don't understand this. What, do people get on there and they can't hear?
I don't know. All right. Well, we'll leave that mic hot. I don't know.
Maybe they just got on there and I don't know what they were doing. We'll try one more time. Caller, are you there?
I'm not hearing the caller. Okay. Well, then I'll throw out one quick thing here as far as the book is concerned. Yeah, I think it's been, you know, a good, positive tool for us to throw out there.
And then I threatened it after the last book, but my editor beat me up so bad on that one, and it was such a traumatic experience that I had to wait a while before I could forget that whole thing and consider writing again. But I think that I've got enough material down that I'm going to do the second installment of the book, which is going to be more of the missions. Actually, it's going to be nothing
but missions because, as you know, we've been doing this since like 2005. And there are a lot of missions that I think that we could detail and write out some of the things that we've had to contend with and overcome and the people that we've had to deal with and, of course, the politics and the legal aspects of it as well.
So that's in the works now. We're going to try to get that put together, and my editor is chomping at the bits to be able to flog me some more over my writing skills. I think that's going to be a good book, and I think it'll be probably even more entertaining than the dry kind of technical stuff because in my own inimitable style, I'm going to have to give my view of the things that went down on these searches. And, you know, most of them are – they don't have happy endings.
Unfortunately, that's the way it goes with Search and Rescue and Search and Recovery. But I think from a learning standpoint, I think that there's a lot of folks out here that could relate and look at it and read it and say, you know what, we'll avoid that one this time by having this knowledge. So with that said, there's your official announcement. The first to deploy, second volume will be coming out here in the next few months.
All right. Well, that's exciting and informative. You know, I've heard some feedback about the book, and it just blows people away. You know, some folks, you know, if you don't want to reinvent the wheel, you get it here.
And that is one other thing I want to touch back on. You know, I suggest that people go back and listen to the drone law talk takeaway. But to be honest, you should listen to all 45 of these programs because – Oh, yeah, there's some really good information in there. Oh, there's gold.
There is gold in every episode. You got to know where to look. You know, I mean, I'm not just doling out the gold. You got to look for the gold.
But we got gold every week. I mean, people – I get interviewed, and I'm not big time, but I get interviewed several times a week for different publications or websites or whatever. And I tell people they want to know about drones. Have you seen the podcast?
Oh, no, I didn't know there was a podcast. There's a podcast. I got every topic that you just asked me about. There's probably a podcast on it.
Go over there. Get the gold. I mean, that's the other thing is people say, oh, you know, this guy is a visionary, and you guys talk about the stuff out in the future and blah, blah, blah. You know, having offline conversations with Eugene and talking about some of the show matter or the show subject matter, I'm just like, man, I mean, we've given, you know, predictions of the future, how to go about this, how to get into this industry, what to think about, what to do.
And people will say, oh, well, I hired a consultant to do this. You know, who's this?
Oh, you know, it's so and so. I've never heard of them. Did they tell you to do this?
No. You should listen to the podcast because you're going to get more gold over there for less money. But it's hard, I think, to be plugged into the right circles for people that are doing certain things. And also, I've found a lot of people in this industry are a little bit, they're mavericks, for sure.
I could say that without hesitation. And they think that they've got it figured out. And that's fine. Whatever.
You know, but you want to be a heavy hitter. You want to come out here. You want to be a player in this thing. I mean, we've talked about offline.
I think that there's a couple of potential dominators that are ready to jump into this market. And there are ways that they, yeah, I mean, even that short conversation we had, there's ways that they could just jump in here, assuage all of the misgivings, jump in, dominate, take over, and we would be on the outside of our industry looking in. So, you know, it's all a first to market thing. So, you know, whatever you want to do.
I don't know. But one other thing I want to do, before we get into the last segment here, which is going to be another part of the bright side of the podcast, is the Small Unmanned Systems Business Exposition. I want to, it's time to pet the pooch here and pay the rent. So, we'll hear from this week's sponsor, Hood Tech.
Alright, and that segues us right into the Small Unmanned Systems Business Exposition, which is coming in San Francisco on July 25th and 26th of 2013 at the Tech Shop in San Francisco. That's www.techsh.com. That's to see the venue. This show is being produced primarily by SUAS News.
There are some other people involved or other entities involved, but primarily it's SUAS News that's doing all the heavy lifting on this. And this show is being produced primarily by SUAS News. And this show is being produced primarily by SUAS News that's doing all the heavy lifting on this. And this show, basically we believe, because we're all about business and small business, we believe that it's time.
The time has come, and this is going to be the first of its kind on the planet. We're going to have people there that have made money in this field, that are making money in this field, and other folks will be talking like, say, insurance industry and lawyers, talking more about indemnifying oneself from liability and the other trials and tribulations of business. And I know we've talked a lot about this, me and Eugene and Gary and Angelique and Emil and the whole gang, about what this means to the community.
And maybe you could give your perspective on what it means to the community, Gene. Well, I think the unique perspective of it being strictly civilian and small business, well, not necessarily small, but small to medium business, is going to be the big draw. And I think you mentioned something about gun protesters getting in prey or something like that, but anyway, that's another deal. But again, this is going to be something that the small business can sink their teeth into.
It can be something that civilian entities can sink their teeth into and see what's out there, what can be done, and how they can utilize it. And again, informational, educational, it's going to be all of those things. We've got some great speakers going to be coming in, excluding myself, but it's going to be a good show, I think, and it's going to be a lot of stuff out there that people are going to be drawn to, and it's going to be very powerful, I think. Well, you did bring up a good point.
You will not see any air superiority gray aircraft. You're not going to see, it's not that I want to exclude, let's say, if Company X makes a product that's used for farming, then they wouldn't be excluded. But if you want to see air superiority gray aircraft or pictures of sandy places or whatever, there's a million shows, well, not a million, but there's multiple shows that you could go to. And that's great.
It's fun to look at all the hardware and all the rest of that, but that's not really what the deal is here. What the deal is here, the whole ethos behind this show is you're going to come here, you're going to hear from people like Tad McGeer, okay?
Tad McGeer, for folks that don't know, is the guy that came up with ScanEagle. ScanEagle was designed to spot tuna fish, okay?
Also, Aerosond, there's a great picture, and I lost it on my hard drive crash, but it's Tad's garage, you know, and they got a bench in the garage, and there's an Aerosond on the bench, you know, and there's the washer and dryer, you know, with the box of Tide on it and everything else. And that is really, that picture for me kind of solidifies the small business part of this industry. You know, people are talking about, oh, you know, it's magical and all the rest of this. A lot of this came out of the RC world.
You know, I think that some of the manufacturers, like let's say, in situ with the Integrator is they're moving away from RC and making their own parts and designing their own parts, and they're having teething problems, but as you could probably attest to, Gene, a lot of this stuff is available off the shelf. True, Paul?
And there's even some more higher end stuff available off the shelf than RC gear. We've got servos and actuators that are available from Germany that are made of titanium and all metal to help things, and you know, they have the seal pox in them. There's stuff out there that even on a civilian basis you could get to very easily and upgrade your aircraft significantly just by making that switch. So, you know, it's out there.
Well, and that's what you're going to hear about at the show, you know. Again, you know, the AeroSonde was developed to do science. It's a sonde. Okay, it's still out there and people are using it.
So that's Tad. You're going to hear about that. He's got a new product out and it's actually the FlexRotor, which is on the cover of the flyer for the show. We've got Rory Paul, who's doing a lot of ag work.
He's going to talk about agricultural applications for unmanned aircraft systems. We've got Chad Partridge, who is part of the dynamic duo. You know, we're trying to do this, assuage some of the privacy fears, which one other thing I want to say about that. If we are successful, which, you know, I'm not under any delusions of grandeur where I think we're going to just march in there and, you know, sell people that drones are great,
but if we can build on a template in Berkeley and come to some sort of an agreement there, I think Chad and I could probably take that show on the road and help communities around the world.
But he'll be talking, he'll be talking about his business. He does, he works for 2D3 Sensing, and they do a bunch of geolocating for video, some 3D stuff, interesting stuff. You're going to learn about that. We've got Chris Anderson from 3D Robotics, and he's always a lively speaker.
He loves to come out and whip the crowd up into how these things are going to be everywhere, delivering pizzas and tacos. We've got Dr. Lemieux from the Unmanned Vehicle University, people all the time. Oh, tell me about the Unmanned Vehicle University.
What's going on over there? You know, he's got as much going on as anybody else. So, you know, this is a new industry. Not all of the rules are written.
People keep saying that, you know, but we see stories about RTCA, and it's been 10 years, and they don't have anything, and ASTM. It's been, you know, what, eight years?
They don't have anything. Nobody's really got anything. The standards over here in the United States, you know, we've got CAP 722, and people are flying swarms of drones over London at night, but that's another story. I don't want to rub salt in the wounds.
But anyway, those are the types of things you're going to hear about at the show. Also, we're hoping that we're going to have the people from Hill and Usher come out. I talked to them about speaking, about the insurance. Still, you know, a lot of people don't know that insurance is available.
It is available, okay? Or Unmanned Accident. Exactly. Interesting note on that, I did talk to Mr.
Usher about that. Only been one claim. They've been, now, you remember, we did this, we got the insurance thing with our CAPA going, with our test and everything else, and that was what, back in 2006?
I think that was about six years ago, yep. Okay, so even with that, okay, they've had one liability claim, and it was one bumped into a car door, and they had to pay to get the car door body work or whatever. That has been the only liability claim in all those years. So there's an interesting tidbit for you.
Yeah, you know, it's not bad. Other thing is I've got some lawyers, they're actually aviation attorneys that are talking about coming out, and they definitely want to speak to this. They see this as the future of aviation, a lot of work to be done. So it'll be good for business people to come out and say, hey, you know, what types of things do I need to know?
I mean, you know, we talk about a lot of the application stuff all the time, but we don't really dive into the, let's say, the boring stuff of being in business. But that boring stuff is going to allow you. Yeah, if you have a lawyer, isn't that kind of a sign of a validation or something?
It is, but it's also, you know, hey, I make a joke about, you know, do you have a house, are you married, do you like your house, do you like your wife? Because when that, you know, if you don't have liability insurance and you don't indemnify yourself, you don't have your business set up correctly, and God forbid something happens, you know, and the sheriff comes and takes your house and, you know, your wife's probably going to be hot under the collar and split, and it's going to be you in the pooch, you know, going down that lonesome road.
So, you know, that's what we're trying to educate people. Now, the other thing I'm trying to do is I've already invited staff from my congressperson's office to come. We're also going to go down to the Capitol here in California, and we're going to hand out postcards and invite policymakers. I want policymakers, I want business people, I want this cross-pollination.
I have invited the Rice Growers Association and Cattlemen's Association, send a representative out, what I would really like. This is what I, this would, for me, this would be a show of success, is to have someone say from Cattlemen's or Rice Growers come out and say, this is an issue I have, Mr., you know, Unmanned Aircraft Systems Operator, what could you do for me?
Okay, great. Here's what we could do. I could come out, I could fly, I could give you this information, I could do this, you're going to up the yield, lessen the inputs, blah, blah, blah, you're going to make more money, and it's really not going to be anything out of pocket because it'll come out of the profit that you're making. Oh, that's great, you know, then sign me up.
Okay, Mr. Cattleman, well, you know, I need to do this, and I got this problem with my cows, and what can you do?
Oh, I could do this, and then I could tell you how the grass is going to be, and blah, blah, blah. That, to me, would be the success. And, you know, I guess everybody has their own version of success, but to me, the cross-pollination of ideas, and then to have policymaker people in the room to go, wow, you know, I didn't know that, I just thought, you know, you think about a drone, it does this, blah, blah, blah, you know, wow, that's amazing. So really, this could be a boost for our economy.
Does that sound like that makes sense to you, Gene, or am I nuts? No, education. The more people know, the better they are at coming up with great new ideas, and that's what this industry is all about, is get those folks involved, and get them to thinking about how a UA can help them do their job better, or to increase yields, like you say, or to crack down that lost calf, or whatever. And that's what this is all about.
And hopefully the expo will get those people in there, and they'll start thinking about that. Exactly. And there are sponsorship opportunities. If you want to email me, I will pass you on to the right people, patrick at suasnews.com.
Sponsorship opportunities. We got a deal going where students with student ID get a reduced rate to get in. We also have a few tables for businesses, micro or small businesses, that will be low cost. There's only a few of those, so they'll be drawn out of a hat.
But we want to give everyone an opportunity to come, hear, show. This is your chance to get out there and talk to the pros that have already been in the business. It's also your chance to come out and showcase what you have. We're also looking for some speakers, which will be drawn out of a hat.
So if you're interested in that, again, patrick at suasnews.com, and we'll get you to the right person or take your name. You know, you give us the five points, which you want to talk about, because there are people, oh, I want to talk about my product or whatever. I'm looking for something a little bit more global, let's say. But it'll be up to the committee to pick.
But a great opportunity for everyone to cross-pollinate and see what we got here. And as always, Gene, you know, every week I'm like, oh, 45 minutes, can we do it?
We're out of time. So all I have to say is thank you, sir. That's one more high quality show in the can. And we will see everyone next week for another conversation, captivating conversation.
Sounds great. Everyone take care.