Here we are again, it is the beginning of fall already, and I finally have time to finish my projects. I am celebrating two and a half years of flying, and still know I have so much to learn and practice. Yes, practice, practice, practice.
Grossmont College’s new class
I am going for seconds. I commend Skip Fredricks for finding leads to keep placing drone pilots in jobs. In this session, some of the people of the group I belong to will be steered toward tower inspection. At the same time, the group I am adopting will be getting their hands on FPV. Maybe this will be the time I finally get to fly manually—and this time without crashing, right?
Almond harvest – invite
After I went on my February pilgrimage to the annual almond bloom, the same ag management company invited me to witness the almond harvest. I am still very humbled by their acceptance and for letting me talk to them and acquire media footage.
August is when it all starts. My June call with the manager set the visit for August 20th, depending on which ranch would be ready. Seeing on LinkedIn that the harvest had started early, I reached out to the manager, and with no response, on my last day of vacation, I called Alex, the young worker who had been my almond guide. Little did I know the manager passed away, and I’d better hurry since the equipment contractor was doing all the region harvest as we spoke.
I looked at my spouse, letting him know if we could spend an extra day returning from our vacation. All expenses paid was a winner. As usual, meet me at this corner, and you hope you’re not near an airport, or out of cell phone reach. The evening at the hotel was one of charging every drone, updating if needed, checking Skyvector, possible nearby airports and obstacles, and weather. At this time of the year, it is more about when will it be too hot to fly.
The equipment contractor saw me flying around while filming over the almond orchard. He then asked Alex if I would like to go to another orchard where other equipment was running. Hell yeah! I was hoping my spouse would be OK with it. After all, he was my VO, and I felt like I was pushing the limits. Actually, I am not sure who had more fun between him and I!
This was a large lot – between 600-800 acres – and the trees had enough space in between, which made it easier to fly while remaining in VLOS. One of the workers even asked when he would be famous on social media. The equipment contractor also asked when the footage would be available so he could show it to his workers. It doesn’t get any better than this…
And I got amazing footage. Now that I know my way around, I hope to return next year with a better plan to get the footage I want.
Dragon Delights
If you know me by now, you know I grow over 150 thorny and demanding dragon fruits. The plants need a lot of care, pruning, fertilizing, and require keeping pests at bay. By the look of it, I think we’re up to about 700 fruits this year (0.5 to 1# average) – 2.5 times the amount I grew last year. We also added a new fridge to preserve all the fruits.
Over the last few years, I have made friends in dragon fruit farming. I know that Dragon Delights in Ramona, CA, pulls 50% shade nets over their dragon fruits during the summer to protect them from harmful UVs. How could I resist asking, “Please let me fly over when you pull your nets?” And I did. Once I told my friend Desi Ekstein about the project, I could only hear, “ I want to be your VO!” And there she was; what a great time to spend with an experienced friend.
Pulling in on a foggy day – more foggy than usual – we needed to wait until the fog rolled off. With Desi in tow, we situated ourselves on the highest peak of the property for the drone take-off base.
Weeks later, I went back to fly under the nets with my Avata to get additional media. Little did I know that my spouse, Brad, and I would be back a week later to help gather 350 pounds of dragon fruits for a well-known local store.
A week later, the same thing happened with my friend Neva, who needed some help with her 15 acres of certified organic dragon fruits. Neva told me that it was 112 degrees Fahrenheit at her house before she came to check on us, she also said that it was warmer where we were. Yes, you know it: there was no drone flight that day. And please appreciate the farm workers; they may sometimes work under crazy weather.
Agriculture drones
The hallmark of the last few months was the round table graciously organized by Commercial UAV. The roundtable was moderated by Ashley Hanson who is the Unmanned Aviation Systems Manager at John Deere, and Valerii Iakovenko, a Ukrainian from Drone UA. The roundtable was an attempt to learn about the experience working with agriculture drones and get the pulse of this particular sector, which has seen leaps and bounds in adoption in the US. However, trailing behind the UE.
I also asked drone operators, college professors, and companies about the interpretation of crop imaging. It was clear that not too many agronomists know. When I asked our Ukrainian visitors, I was told that European agronomists must do some drone imaging classes.
It was awesome to see Adam Gittins, from HTSAg, a company based in Iowa, explain simply how drone imaging can provide farmers with easily digested information.
I hope to see more classes, workshops, and webinars on the basics and usefulness of imaging in agriculture, both multispectral and hyperspectral.
Bees
They keep me beezy. I am still waiting to gather some time to fill out the demands to fly on university grounds. Networking is paying off as I am meeting with sustainable food product companies to discuss possible commercial drone and photography opportunities.
Miscellaneous
Vic Moss, it is your fault that I bought a parachute for my Mavic 3 at the Commercial UAV show. It was hard to resist, though. Thanks for the updated flying-over people waiver update.
I got to do food photography at a significant catering event – which has been known to service NASA. Well, I did see a Mavic 3 hover over people (no prop guards OR parachute, so I know this person did not have a proper waiver), and I wish I could have said something. You do not want to be a party pooper. However, it is wise to inform the flying party nicely that they might endanger people.
