Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: All right, guys, welcome back to the drone on show. It's going to be a good one. We. We had a little bit of chat before we sat down here, but I'm Mike.
[00:00:08] Speaker B: I'm Clinton Cody.
[00:00:10] Speaker A: I'm Jason. All right, let's dive into it. Helicopter pilots in the military. Oh. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
That's got to be fun. Yeah. All right. We look at it that way.
[00:00:21] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:00:22] Speaker A: But it was probably a job. Or was it?
[00:00:23] Speaker C: I mean, it's. It was a passion. It was a passion and turned out to be a hell of a job, too, I bet.
[00:00:29] Speaker A: What did you fly?
[00:00:30] Speaker C: Uh, 60. Black Hawk.
[00:00:31] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh.
[00:00:32] Speaker C: Yeah, sorry.
[00:00:33] Speaker A: We're Amish kids over here. Like, like, oh, God, that's so cool. You guys fly over top of us for us.
[00:00:39] Speaker C: We see it and now it's just like. Oh, it's just another helicopter.
[00:00:42] Speaker A: Yeah. How long did you guys do it?
[00:00:44] Speaker C: I did it for 13 years.
[00:00:46] Speaker B: I did 26 years.
[00:00:48] Speaker A: Wow. Wow.
[00:00:49] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:00:50] Speaker A: Holy man. Thanks for your service. Appreciate you. Thank you.
[00:00:53] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:00:53] Speaker A: How old are you?
[00:00:54] Speaker C: I am 34 now, this month.
[00:00:56] Speaker A: 34. So you're my age. I'm 34.
[00:00:58] Speaker C: You're 34.
[00:00:59] Speaker A: When did you guys start? How old were you?
[00:01:02] Speaker C: 18. In fact, I, you know, I say I did it for 13 years, but I was a mechanic and a crew chief for a few years prior.
[00:01:09] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:01:09] Speaker C: On a Blackhawk. And then I moved, went to flight school and did that. A couple deployments, and we're here.
[00:01:15] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:01:15] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:01:16] Speaker A: That's awesome.
[00:01:16] Speaker B: Well, I.99 is when I joined, so I was 20. So I'm 40. 49 right now.
[00:01:21] Speaker A: So how many hours did you log?
[00:01:23] Speaker B: Close to 5, 000 hours.
[00:01:24] Speaker A: Jeez.
[00:01:25] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:01:26] Speaker A: That's awesome. It's so cool.
[00:01:27] Speaker C: Like, for me, which may not seem like a lot for. For a pilot, because commercial airliners, they have. Good Lord.
30, 000 hours.
[00:01:35] Speaker A: 15, 000. But.
[00:01:36] Speaker C: Yeah, but helicopters, there's a lot. That's a lot of time in a
[00:01:38] Speaker A: helicopter because they're not going as fast. How fast is a Blackhawk? Did you fly Blackhawks?
[00:01:44] Speaker B: Yeah, Blackhawks also.
[00:01:45] Speaker C: About 120 knots.
[00:01:46] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:01:47] Speaker B: 120 knots.
[00:01:47] Speaker A: How much can it lift? I know it's not drones. We'll get into drones and figure that out.
[00:01:51] Speaker B: Thousand pounds.
[00:01:53] Speaker C: Wow.
[00:01:54] Speaker A: How many guys fit in it?
[00:01:55] Speaker C: 11.
[00:01:56] Speaker A: Yeah. Wow. 11 people.
[00:01:57] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:01:58] Speaker A: And you. You have to have 2p. 2p. Yeah, correct. I. I seen Heavy D. Do you watch?
[00:02:05] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. Heavy D. Yeah.
[00:02:06] Speaker A: Yeah. He has a Blackhawk and he had to, like, do special training and Then he has to have a pilot with him. It'd be.
[00:02:12] Speaker C: It'd be surprised. His helicopter is actually pretty nicer than some of the stuff we've flown.
[00:02:16] Speaker A: Really?
[00:02:17] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah, much nicer. Wow.
[00:02:19] Speaker A: Yeah. H. What's. How long can it fly? Like full fuel?
[00:02:23] Speaker C: Right.
[00:02:23] Speaker A: It has to do with wind and stuff, probably.
[00:02:25] Speaker C: That's a good question. It's kind of like when some people say how long can a drone fly? It just depends on how much weight you carry.
[00:02:31] Speaker A: So let's give it a good scenario. No weight.
[00:02:33] Speaker C: Two and a half.
[00:02:34] Speaker B: Two, two and a half hours.
[00:02:35] Speaker A: Oh, is that it?
[00:02:36] Speaker C: Yeah.
360 gallons of fuel.
[00:02:40] Speaker B: Like you're burning what, average 900 pounds?
[00:02:42] Speaker C: Yeah. Eight, 900 pounds an hour. Yeah. Wow.
[00:02:45] Speaker A: Is that three engines or two?
[00:02:46] Speaker C: Two.
[00:02:46] Speaker B: Two gas turbines. You have a APU, which is a auxiliary power. You crank it before you crank the two engines. So it's just a baby.
[00:02:53] Speaker C: A baby engine.
[00:02:54] Speaker B: So it's technically it has three.
[00:02:56] Speaker A: Wow. Have any of you guys ever lost one engine?
[00:03:00] Speaker C: Nope.
[00:03:00] Speaker B: I have.
[00:03:01] Speaker C: You have? Yes.
[00:03:02] Speaker A: Huh. How'd that go?
[00:03:03] Speaker B: It's designed to.
[00:03:05] Speaker A: So do you guys use both engine at the same time?
[00:03:08] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:03:08] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:03:09] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:03:10] Speaker A: So it's like a twin, like you know, on an airplane.
[00:03:13] Speaker C: But I mean, under. Under certain conditions, like in Louisiana at sea level, you could fly the helicopter on one engine. It has the power to. Okay, but at a higher altitude or different.
Different.
[00:03:24] Speaker B: At a higher. Max gross weight. If you lose an engine, it's. It gets interesting. It starts coming down.
[00:03:30] Speaker C: You're not staying up.
[00:03:31] Speaker A: No way.
[00:03:32] Speaker B: Luckily my, My. My incident was. I was very light and light on fuel and it. It was just a. It was non event really.
[00:03:40] Speaker C: So.
[00:03:41] Speaker A: And you're trained to land it without it, without engines auto rotating?
[00:03:47] Speaker C: Yeah, that's. That's every. Every helicopter pilot is. Goes through.
[00:03:50] Speaker A: That's what I thought. But it seems like ridiculous that you could do that.
[00:03:53] Speaker C: Yeah. But it's actually if it's done correctly, it's pretty controlled landing.
[00:03:57] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:03:58] Speaker B: It's all about timing.
[00:03:59] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:03:59] Speaker B: And training.
[00:04:00] Speaker A: So I'm a private pilot, fixed wing. And Jay always says that if I go get my pilot's license, he want fire rotor wing.
And I'm like, I hear it's a lot harder though.
[00:04:09] Speaker B: Get out.
[00:04:11] Speaker C: Yeah. I'd say I don't know many people who just do it. Get a helicopter's license for just recreation.
[00:04:16] Speaker A: No. Yeah, you'd have to have a.
[00:04:18] Speaker C: It's just too expensive.
[00:04:19] Speaker A: Probably go far. Yeah. I was looking at it. It's going to cost me between 25 and 30,000 to just go train and get the hours in the helicopter. I paid $1,000 to do a Discovery. Never done it.
[00:04:31] Speaker C: Not for you. Oh, you haven't done it?
[00:04:32] Speaker A: I haven't done it. I think I probably should do it. I should do it. But then when I do it you're
[00:04:38] Speaker C: going to want to.
[00:04:38] Speaker A: Yeah, I should have the time.
[00:04:40] Speaker C: You're going to want to finish it.
[00:04:41] Speaker A: Yeah, I should have the time to actually go forward. But then the next thing is even if I do get it, I probably don't have the financial means to actually truly own a helicopter. Yeah, I don't know. Do you own one?
[00:04:53] Speaker C: No, absolutely not. Absolutely not. Not that I wouldn't want to. It's just that. Exactly what you said. It's entirely too. Owning a private plane is very reasonable. Owning a helicopter, even a small one, very small one. It's not.
[00:05:06] Speaker A: Yeah, I was looking at like a Robertson R22.
[00:05:09] Speaker C: It's brand new, it's like 600 grand.
But the operational cost to maintain the
[00:05:14] Speaker B: blade or tbo so you have to change them out after so many hours.
[00:05:17] Speaker A: So yeah that and don't they have. You have to change them out at so many years no matter what.
[00:05:22] Speaker C: The Robinson is built on a 12 year 2200 or 2400 cycle. So a lot of the replacement components on a Robbie or it they've designed it so that it's, it's very maintenance friendly. So a lot of the components at that 24 or 2200 hour mark or 12 years like the aircraft basically just gets rebuilt completely. And so when you buy a Robby, let's say you buy a brand new one and it's 600, 650,000 like as it which would. Everything would do the same thing. But as the time goes by you put more time on the aircraft, it depreciates down to maybe 150, 200,000 and then you can have it completely rebuilt. And it's basically a brand new helicopter
[00:06:04] Speaker B: and basically starts over.
[00:06:06] Speaker C: Yeah, it just starts same airframe. But they'll probably replace the engine or and transmission and blades and all the line replaceable units on it. It's basically brand new again but wild helicopters.
[00:06:17] Speaker A: Are you guys still in the military or are you. I'm out. You're out?
[00:06:21] Speaker B: Yeah, I retired in December.
[00:06:23] Speaker A: You guys still fly helicopters?
[00:06:25] Speaker C: Not anymore, no.
[00:06:26] Speaker A: No how.
I mean you're probably going to lose that. Never lose it. Lose.
Doesn't make you sad to not fly helicopters?
[00:06:35] Speaker C: You know occasionally I, I, I feel as Though I might. It would still be fun to fly.
You get to a point after a while of, of flying that it, it, it becomes a job again. And everything you have to go through, it's just, it's time consuming, it's irritating. And, and as you get older, you start to realize, like, okay, you know, if anything happens, the chances of potential survival is slim.
So you start to become more conscious of that. And that's why I got started in the drone business for one of the reasons why is I started to see an opportunity to not only start a business, my own business, but get myself in out of a situation where if something were to happen, it's pretty determined that.
[00:07:16] Speaker A: And, and the type of helicopters that you were flying are super reliable. Blackhawks, right? Yeah.
[00:07:23] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:07:24] Speaker A: Imagine doing that as a, an applicator flying a, you know, an R66 or a bell or. Yeah, that is wild.
[00:07:32] Speaker C: We'll never do it.
[00:07:33] Speaker B: We've had some guys that, that were doing crop dusting with the booms and was it 206 aircraft?
[00:07:40] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:07:40] Speaker B: And it's just a matter of time because you, the cost of the aircraft, you have to, you have to work it hard to make it. Yeah, and fatigue and everything. One guy, young guy, clipped a power
[00:07:51] Speaker A: line, and it's so sad. Every year. Yeah, every year.
[00:07:54] Speaker C: Same thing with the fixed wing they have. They run them, they run them on the ground every year too.
[00:07:58] Speaker A: Yeah, every year.
[00:07:59] Speaker C: But you know what? A helicopter, you. These guys that are spraying with them, they're operating inside of a flight envelope that they are always at risk if something happens.
[00:08:07] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:08:08] Speaker B: If something mechanical happens, it's not going
[00:08:09] Speaker C: to like any three things. Airspeed, altitude, and power. And if you lose one of those in a helicopter, you got to make a decision. And they are always operating in an environment where if any one of those h things happen, they're going down. Yeah, they're a lawn dart.
[00:08:22] Speaker A: Yep, 100%. It's like the guy that gave me the opportunity to do the first 11,000 acres when I first started new ag is, he was a prior military, worked on Air Force One, flew helicopters, and then he came out as a civilian and was doing crop dusting with R44s.
And he had to experience like, what payload?
[00:08:42] Speaker C: 60 gallons.
[00:08:43] Speaker A: Yeah.
I don't know what it was, but he was saying exactly what you guys are saying. It's like, yeah, I might be good at this, Mike, but it could literally be over in a second.
It's wild to think what those guys are putting themselves through.
[00:08:58] Speaker C: I'll say this I don't know for sure, it's hearsay, but I'm pretty sure they don't treat those helicopters maintenance wise as well as the military or even a civilian company EMS or something. Does they treat them like tractors?
[00:09:10] Speaker B: Well, you're having to fly them so much.
[00:09:11] Speaker A: Well, I was going to say it's almost, you know, to make a living or you know, make the dollars that you need to got to keep it in the air pretty much. It's, it's crazy. Did you do any civilian flying outside of the military?
[00:09:24] Speaker C: I thought yeah, for a, for a year and a half for air evac as a EMS pilot.
[00:09:29] Speaker A: That had to be. How is that you like it rewarding in.
[00:09:32] Speaker C: Under certain situations?
[00:09:34] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:09:35] Speaker C: Getting to transport a child or something to a higher level of care, that was always very rewarding. There were times where, you know, we, we transported someone that maybe I felt as though didn't really need to be on a helicopter. But that's not my call. I'm just the pilot, so. But it was a rewarding job. But it was single pilot and there were a lot of occasions where wow,
[00:09:56] Speaker A: I didn't even know you.
[00:09:56] Speaker C: It was a Bell 407. So those helicopters, the way they're designed, they, they can be piloted. Single pilot.
[00:10:03] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:10:03] Speaker C: A Black Hawk, the way it's designed cannot be. It's not even just the military that's requiring to. It's the way it's designed. You need two pilots. Oh yeah, yeah.
[00:10:11] Speaker A: Is that like. Because the hydraulic system is on the one side and you can't reach button
[00:10:15] Speaker C: the power control levers on how you manipulate the engines and stuff. Like they're in a, they're in a position on the aircraft that the one person who's on the controls can't control them. Can't, can't actually reach and manipulate those controls.
[00:10:27] Speaker A: Oh geez. What happens if he gets incapacitated or something?
[00:10:29] Speaker C: Crew chief in the back.
[00:10:33] Speaker B: And that's all regulated through the faa.
Like when I started it was Huey's and those were technically single pilot aircraft because they were smaller and you could reach just. It goes down to just reaching a switch and same thing, you know, planes. But yeah, those were technically, you know, single pilot aircraft and the pilot up front would put a crew chief in the left seat off the record, so he could get a feel if he
[00:11:00] Speaker A: wanted to go to flight school.
[00:11:01] Speaker B: So that was pretty interesting. That's.
[00:11:03] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:11:03] Speaker B: Called pirated stick times.
[00:11:05] Speaker C: Whereas in the Bell helicopter I was flying for ems, my power control was on my collective. So I'M I always have my hands on it.
The power to the aircraft.
[00:11:14] Speaker A: Okay, I know it, but maybe the viewer doesn't know it. Like drones and helicopters, how close to the same are they? Like the drones that were flying, spraying crop fields.
[00:11:23] Speaker B: They're getting closer.
[00:11:24] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:11:24] Speaker A: Oh, you think?
[00:11:25] Speaker B: I think so.
[00:11:26] Speaker A: Like, I'm talking about the complexity.
Yeah, yeah. Like you guys, like.
[00:11:31] Speaker B: No, it's not even.
[00:11:32] Speaker A: You have to know how to, you know, fly with your feet.
[00:11:36] Speaker C: That's a good question.
And for a while, you know, I thought about how could we potentially make a drone that is combustion powered. And you know, we have somebody here that has a hybrid version, but it's still generator electric fed to those motors. But I was wondering, like, could we put like a little mini turbine engine or a combustion engine on a drone and have mechanical linkages through a transmission with drive shafts to each arm actually turning props? The problem with it is with a, with all of that now, you have more weight from all these linkages, but you also have a, the torque effect from an engine. So with an electric motor on a drone, the power curve is linear. You know, you always have it instantly. With a combustion engine, if you require power, it's not instantaneous. That engine either has to spool up and put more, put more fuel in and power up. And if you do it too fast, you can over torque something. So that's where a helicopter's power management and how to manipulate controls in flight is a huge deal because you could destroy the helicopter. You could over torque the engine, overspeed the rotor system.
[00:12:37] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:12:38] Speaker C: But in a drone, it's just, I mean, it's limited, just a lot simpler. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:12:42] Speaker A: I feel like the drones are so dumbed down. Like it's, it flies itself for the most part. Yeah.
I, I just wanted to bring up because some guys that might be watching or listening, they are intimidated by these drones because like I, I, they might be thinking, I can't figure out how to fly that thing. But.
[00:12:59] Speaker B: Well, they're having a healthy respect for it because, I mean, yes, that's very important.
[00:13:03] Speaker A: 100.
[00:13:04] Speaker B: It's easier to train a person that has the fear than to somebody that just, you know.
[00:13:09] Speaker A: Yeah, we had that before.
Guy was like ignorant, too confident.
[00:13:13] Speaker C: Yeah. And don't get me wrong, these drones are still like, as far as complexity. They're, they're very easy to fly, in my opinion. Very easy. But they're still a very dangerous machine. I mean, those props will destroy.
[00:13:26] Speaker A: Did you, did you ever have a situation where you felt like your Life was in danger with one of these spray drones.
[00:13:33] Speaker C: Yes. Yes. This past season, we had an instance where I showed up to the job site. They. He and the other crew was on the trailer spraying. And I showed up just to check on everything. And the drone came back from spraying, and one of the motors was just locked out. Blades were just locked out in place. And I was like, man, all right, well, there goes another motor.
[00:13:54] Speaker A: It was flying.
[00:13:55] Speaker C: It was flying back to us. It was empty and it was flying back to us. And it came and landed on the trailer. T50 motor just locked out. Motor 8 landed on the trailer. And I was like, well, we had a hangar queen, is what we call it. Another. Another T50 components we're taking components off of. And we swapped a motor over and got it put back together. And I had my. Which this is my fault. I had my back turned to the drone, but I was still probably 10, 12ft away from it. But he. Either he or I initiated the drone to. To fly. We refilled it with chemical, full payload, everything, thinking everything was going to be great.
[00:14:29] Speaker A: So you did not do, like, a little test flight.
Okay.
[00:14:34] Speaker C: Because we've had instances where motors lock up and you just replace it and it's good to go. Didn't think much of it. Yeah. And I had my back turned to it. And when it took off, thank God it was in the position it was in. And it was the motor that it was. Because it took off immediately, banking over at an angle and flew away from us. It could have flown towards us because
[00:14:53] Speaker A: the motor wasn't spinning well.
[00:14:54] Speaker C: Because the es, because the ESC was over. Was given too much voltage. It was an ESC error.
And so that immediately came sideways off the deck, started spinning and orbiting over us.
[00:15:07] Speaker B: Yeah. Now, it wouldn't descend, but it was just.
[00:15:10] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:15:10] Speaker B: Out of control. And I. Initially, I was on the controls and it wouldn't.
[00:15:15] Speaker C: You.
[00:15:15] Speaker B: You could hold it left or right. And it just did a slow, lazy circle.
[00:15:18] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:15:19] Speaker B: So then I handed it to him.
[00:15:20] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:15:21] Speaker B: And I evacuated all our guys.
[00:15:23] Speaker C: Everybody just started driving off the trailer. And I was like, I'm up there and I'm trying to, you know, make my way somewhere where that's safer. But I'm just, like, fixated on this thing. Orbiting and it's just orb, like I said. Orbiting and spinning like Earth.
[00:15:37] Speaker A: But holding altitude.
[00:15:38] Speaker C: But holding altitude. But it wouldn't. You really didn't have any. Much, much control over it. My. My hopes was that I could have somewhat enough control at some point that I Could either ditch it in the. In the sugarcane or somewhere away from us.
[00:15:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:15:51] Speaker C: My thought process was this thing's going down, but it's not going down on top of us on this trailer.
[00:15:55] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:15:56] Speaker C: But after what seemed like an eternity, maybe it was 15, 20 seconds, that same motor, it just locked up again and fix. Fixed pitch. When it.
[00:16:05] Speaker B: When it failed, it gave back control.
[00:16:07] Speaker C: Oh, it was limited control, but you actually had some control.
[00:16:11] Speaker A: So it's full.
[00:16:12] Speaker C: Full tank, full time.
[00:16:13] Speaker A: Did it go down or.
[00:16:14] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:16:15] Speaker A: That's actually impressive. Yeah. I know. If it could handle it with a.
[00:16:18] Speaker C: Yeah, it had a full tank. It locked that motor out and I was able to control it. And I just eased it over to a headland and just sat it. Sat it back down on the ground.
[00:16:26] Speaker A: Wow. Well, I'm glad it went that way. Yeah.
[00:16:28] Speaker B: We do like the quad motors. So in that instance.
[00:16:32] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:16:33] Speaker B: If it would have been just four motors.
[00:16:35] Speaker A: Yeah. Did you guys see? DJI did the test of stopping all four top motors on the T100, and it still flew.
[00:16:42] Speaker C: Really?
[00:16:42] Speaker A: Yeah. Full tank?
[00:16:43] Speaker C: Like just empty or full tank.
[00:16:45] Speaker A: Yeah. But they did tell us. All right, so guys that are listening, if you lose all four motors and you have a full tank, you have to land immediately. They said it will get so hot it will melt.
[00:16:57] Speaker B: I can imagine.
[00:16:58] Speaker C: Yeah, I bet. But I mean, the redundancy built in. What's the chances of losing?
All on top or all on the bottom? Like, I never heard. That's crazy. But. Yeah, that's. That's cool to know that.
[00:17:08] Speaker A: Yeah, that's.
[00:17:09] Speaker C: That's why, you know, I mean, I see a lot of these. These drones that are just quadcopters, and that's great. I don't know. I don't know how I feel about it. The octocopter, you know, there's more components, it's more complex, but at the same time that instance happened, and I saved that. Yeah, we saved that drone.
[00:17:23] Speaker A: Yeah. It's like I've heard more issues about the T40 and the. The T50 losing a motor. Maybe the motors will just get so good you never have a failure. But then it's like it's man made, like.
[00:17:35] Speaker C: Yeah, it's going to wear out sometimes. Like, it has a. It has a cycle count to it, like a battery.
Eventually the windings are gonna wear out.
[00:17:43] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. On the T60X, we've sold a lot of them and many hours on them. We haven't had a motor failure yet from that we're aware of now. We had motor bearings Starting to go bad. But he, you know, change it out as soon as that happens.
[00:17:59] Speaker C: Is that just like a pre flight that you can feel the bearings going on?
[00:18:02] Speaker A: No, usually you'll hear a squeal.
[00:18:05] Speaker C: Speaking of a squealing on the T100, do you hear like a, like a, when it first cranks up and spins up like a squeal?
[00:18:11] Speaker A: Yeah. So what that is is the props, how they, how the clamp works on top. It's basically making a squeak between the aluminum and the carbon fiber propeller.
[00:18:22] Speaker C: I didn't know if it was just, just mine, but.
[00:18:24] Speaker A: No, they all do.
[00:18:25] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:18:25] Speaker A: Yeah. So before dji we can walk over there things a little bit and it'll squeal. Yeah, just the prop, like the motor stays still. You move the prop. Yeah, yeah. So before DJI sent us any drones, they that in an email you're going to have people ask you about this, you know, the squeal and battery heating and stuff. But they're, they're aware of it, but so far it's not been an issue. Yeah. How many hours do you have on your T100?
[00:18:51] Speaker C: We just got it this past October and I only put, only put about 300 acres on it.
[00:18:57] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:18:57] Speaker C: I haven't done any testing with it. My intent is to partner up with our local AG extension office and do some spray pattern testing, try to figure out what it's, what it's capable of.
[00:19:07] Speaker A: I'm actually.
Well, I haven't, but I, I'm going to be doing it and making videos about it.
[00:19:13] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah.
[00:19:15] Speaker B: We're trying to figure out, you know, if it can work with the T50 on the same field and how to split that field because I mean, you got a faster, bigger aircraft.
[00:19:23] Speaker C: Yeah, that's true. Because when I did, when I sprayed that acreage, I actually partnered a 50 with the 100 and that, that 100 had like 30 acres done and the 50 was at 9.
[00:19:34] Speaker A: I know, it's wild. Yeah, it'. Wild. And I wasn't twice as much and
[00:19:40] Speaker C: I didn't have it maxed out yet. I was just being cautious. So I had it like at 50ft per second or so and I was like, good lord. Yeah, yeah, good lord.
[00:19:49] Speaker A: Doesn't that swath look awesome though?
[00:19:50] Speaker C: It does. It, it does.
[00:19:52] Speaker A: Insane, I think, right? You probably heard in the videos, but I'm like, I'm convinced that's the best looking swath on a spray drone that I've ever seen.
[00:20:00] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:20:00] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:20:01] Speaker C: I start to worry though about, because of that speed though, the, the Purpose and intent for the drones was because of that induced flow, the chemical penetration in the canopy of the crop. So I kind of, I am a little bit concerned about in a situation being able to fly full speed, whether or not I'm actually getting penetration. Penetration.
[00:20:18] Speaker A: Penetration. Yeah.
[00:20:19] Speaker C: Because now.
So like in a helicopter, above a certain airspeed, all of your, your airflow at a hover is straight down vertically.
[00:20:27] Speaker A: Glad you're bringing this up because it's always like, guys want to tell me, no, the helicopter's blowing it down there. So you have the experience?
Yes.
[00:20:34] Speaker C: Yeah. So I'm in a helicopter and he'll back me up. It's called induced flow. So the rotor system is, it's sucking air from the top and bringing it down and against the ground. As you progress forward, that stream of air coming through the rotor system starts to become more and more horizontal.
[00:20:52] Speaker A: Like your rotor that's spinning becomes almost like a wing, right? Yeah.
[00:20:56] Speaker B: It's like it's in cleaner air, which is, it's not getting the push.
[00:20:59] Speaker C: So what you see the chemical coming off of a drone, how it's making these vortices on the back, that's a great representation of the airflow in a helicopter.
It's these vortices through the rotor system that's creating this buffer of air supporting the helicopter. Well, as you progress forward, those vortices start to disappear and you, you become, you start to see more of a streamlined flow of air horizontally to the ground. And that actually occurs in a helicopter like right around 20, 24 knots.
[00:21:26] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:21:26] Speaker C: Roughly.
[00:21:27] Speaker A: That slow.
[00:21:28] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:21:28] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:21:29] Speaker C: Yeah. So it, I mean, on these drones, the 50 was flying at 20, about 20 miles an hour full speed, which is right at that sweet spot. Right at that sweet spot of, of having these vort spinning and penetrating the ground. But when you get 30 miles an hour, 40 miles an hour. Well, now that stream of air is like a, it's just horizontally to the
[00:21:50] Speaker B: ground as you said. It's like turning into a, you know,
[00:21:53] Speaker A: crop duster because it's, you know, that's interesting. I'm thinking about, but I wonder if there's just maybe a little section in the middle of the drone that is still getting any. Because my theory, when I flew it over me at full speed, it's like you can kind of feel wind go, but it's not like a push down effect.
[00:22:13] Speaker C: Yeah, right. Yeah. You're just seeing that, that, that disposition of air airflow where it's flying. My theory is that because the spray nozzles are still underneath the Rotor system is that the airflow coming through is still coming through the rotor system of the drone. So it's still creating these vortices that are, that are pushing the chemical down.
[00:22:35] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
So when, if you look at that picture, so we've flown a drone behind it, and even though, you know that center looks like it's not getting anything, it's doing exactly what you're saying it. The whole thing, that whole row there is rolling and it's rolling in on each other.
[00:22:53] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:22:53] Speaker A: So there might be some penetration, but of course, not nearly as deep as going slow.
And that's probably vital on sugarcane.
[00:23:02] Speaker C: Well, sugar cane can be 12 to 15ft tall. Like corn. What is corn? Yeah, 12ft, 12ft tall. So with our situation in Louisiana, where we do a lot of herbicide applications, contact is a big deal.
So being able to penetrate down into the canopy better and get that chemical dispersion amongst all the plant is vital.
[00:23:25] Speaker A: Yeah. I would like you to share that, that, that with us once you, you know, because obviously if you're doing herbicide, you're going to know it's going to work or it's not going to work.
[00:23:35] Speaker B: Right.
[00:23:36] Speaker C: And so far with the 50, we've
[00:23:37] Speaker A: had great results at 22 mile an hour. But like you're saying once you're ripping at 45 miles an hour, how deep is that kind of guys doing the swath on the 50.
[00:23:46] Speaker C: So typically for most applications, we were around 25, 26ft. You know, on sugarcane, I can't fully elaborate. It's a little bit proprietary, some of the stuff that we've done. But our swath was much narrower. Like, like sub 20. Really? Yeah, yeah, for certain reasons. But that gave the best on the sugarcane for the, for the application we were doing that gave the best coverage and penetration for that crop.
[00:24:13] Speaker A: That's cool. How long did it take you to get that dialed in?
[00:24:16] Speaker C: A day? Oh, yeah, we, it was, yeah. We partnered with, with one of the formers. I'm sorry, no, yeah, one of the formers, we, we spray for, for in the sugar cane. He's like the guru of it.
[00:24:27] Speaker A: That's awesome, dude.
[00:24:27] Speaker C: Lives, lives, eats, breathes it. And he, alongside the Louisiana State University Ag Extension office and ourselves, got together one day and did a bunch of spray pattern testing and dialed in exactly where we need to be.
[00:24:40] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:24:40] Speaker C: To do this, this ripener process in cane. Because that, that process is extremely sensitive and, and a lot of precision to it. You can't, you can't overspray or, or overlap. You'll kill it.
[00:24:53] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:24:53] Speaker C: You get one. You get one chance to fly it, and that's it.
[00:24:56] Speaker A: Wow. Oh, geez. That sounds like a high pressure situation.
[00:25:00] Speaker B: We've had a lot. I mean, we get a lot of support from, like I said, LSU and. And the farmers themselves.
[00:25:06] Speaker A: So if it's such a high pressure situation. Do you do swath testing every morning before you go flying to make sure that you don't have an atomizer going bad and you get big, heavy drops?
[00:25:17] Speaker C: We make sure.
That's a good question. We don't do swath testing, but what we try to do is make sure that all the lines are primed and that the. And that the nozzles are spin.
We don't want to have any air in the line. And the drone gets out to the edge of the crop and goes to start spraying. Now it progresses into the field 15ft, and then chemical starts coming out. We just lost that edge of the field because you can't really. Can't really come back and hit that again without potentially overlapping over spraying. Overspraying.
[00:25:46] Speaker B: Dang.
[00:25:46] Speaker A: So that. That sensitive.
Wow. That is cool.
[00:25:50] Speaker C: I mean, maybe I make it make it out to be, like, more than it is, but it really is. You really do get one shot. Like, you can't. There's no boundary passes on these fields. We don't program boundary passes.
[00:25:59] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:26:00] Speaker C: We actually try to program the fields where the drone flies through the edge of the crop a little bit and then spins around on the headland.
[00:26:07] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:26:09] Speaker C: And we don't do single side spraying. Okay. Or anything. So it stops. Turn. Makes its pass. Turn. And then it gets going again and kind of picks up enough speed so that that swath is wide enough.
[00:26:19] Speaker A: That's good.
[00:26:20] Speaker B: And we get immediately feed. Immediate feedback from the farmer, too, when. When it's harvested.
[00:26:24] Speaker A: So. Okay.
[00:26:25] Speaker B: So we.
[00:26:26] Speaker A: But there's no physical way of looking. If. If.
[00:26:29] Speaker C: Yeah. And about. With that process on cane, after about 30 to 45 days, the cane will actually start to yellow.
[00:26:35] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:26:36] Speaker C: And you can see. You can see how good of a job you did.
[00:26:39] Speaker A: Is it something like, say, you missed something. Can you clean that section up? Or it's done.
[00:26:44] Speaker B: Nope, it's done.
[00:26:45] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:26:46] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:26:46] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:26:47] Speaker C: It's done.
[00:26:49] Speaker B: No pressure.
[00:26:49] Speaker C: So sugarcane is a routine crop. So it's planted, and then depending on the variety, most of the time it's every four to five years, it's tilled up or it's plowed up, and then it's replanted. So every year from. From year one of planting that cane in August through September, October. They won't harvest that cane until the next August or September or October. So it has a full year of growth now. Actually, from the time they plant it until, let's say they plant in August, it'll. It'll emerge out of the ground. It might be a 1, 2ft tall. But come May timeframe between May and the end of July, that sugar cane will put on like a foot of height every week.
[00:27:26] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:27:27] Speaker C: Yeah, wow. So when we spray that cane, if it's not plow up cane, they'll give us a little bit higher dosage of chemical because it doesn't matter if we kill it, they're plowing it out.
[00:27:37] Speaker A: Okay, okay.
[00:27:37] Speaker C: But if it's a. If it's a ratoon year or if it's the first year, you have to be very, very careful because.
[00:27:44] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:27:45] Speaker C: He'll get his crop for this year. He'll get a good, a good yield from it. But you just affected next year's ratoon. Yeah.
[00:27:52] Speaker A: Huh. This sounds so precise. How. How do airplanes and helicopters do it?
[00:27:57] Speaker C: Helicopters, they do it in South Louisiana a little bit. I would imagine they do a little bit better job. It's funny you say that. A former who has his own drone. I'm not going to say which drone he has. His went down and he called us to come.
[00:28:09] Speaker A: It may have been blue or red. Keep going.
[00:28:14] Speaker C: Yeah, it's actually neither.
[00:28:16] Speaker A: Oh, okay.
[00:28:17] Speaker C: It was something that's not even here today.
[00:28:18] Speaker A: Oh, nice.
I wanted to ask you guys. So Guardian Ariel. Are you guys not with Guardian? Nothing to do with the Guardian drone?
[00:28:26] Speaker C: No, no.
[00:28:27] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:28:27] Speaker C: No, actually, when we were establishing that name, I said, hey, there's a website for Gordian. Is that the one with the Mercedes Benz logo or something on the front?
[00:28:34] Speaker A: I don't remember.
[00:28:37] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, I saw that. No, getting back to it.
We came in to. To spray a field for him, and it just so happened that in the same geographical location not far from one another, we sprayed this field with the drone. And he called an airplane to spray this field. Same chemical mixture, same soil content, same day, same everything. Yeah. Conditions, same everything. And when he harvested that crop, he actually got the numbers back from the sugar mill. And the, the fill that we sprayed with the drone was produced 20 to 30% more sugar than the field that the airplane sprayed.
[00:29:08] Speaker A: Wow. Wow, that's impressive.
[00:29:11] Speaker C: So the sugar mills are actually advocating and pushing for drone usage.
[00:29:15] Speaker A: Why do you think it's that much better?
[00:29:17] Speaker C: My assumption goes back to the penetration of the chemical down into yeah. So that's the T100, that chemical process in sugarcane. It's. It's literally like two and a half ounces of glyphosate, like roundup per acre that you're applying. But that chemical, that chemical reaction, it. It basically just tricks the plant into not producing energy for foliage growth, and it puts all of its energy into sugar production. Sugar production. So it'll like, it'll give like 100% more sugar in that process.
[00:29:50] Speaker A: Wow. Wow.
[00:29:51] Speaker C: In 30 to 45 days, huh?
[00:29:54] Speaker A: That's wild. That is nuts. But I am thinking about the T100 because. Right. US row crop guys, we always want to go fast and cover acres. But if, if it's about penetration, what you're doing, like you just said a little bit ago, flying forward faster, you might not get that.
[00:30:10] Speaker B: So we just want to fly forward safer. Like, you know, power lines and trees and obstacles.
[00:30:15] Speaker C: Maybe in soybeans and cotton and, and rice and stuff. The fast speed would be fine. Rice, we have a lot of rice too. And that application tends. The farmers tend to want to have a higher volume, like five gallons per acre. That's what they really want. But so maybe that situation a 100 would be good for.
[00:30:33] Speaker A: So will you be able to take the 100 out there with the guru again and do the testing? And then you'll know, you know, it's 37.
Five is actually what you can do to get that penetration that you guys need.
[00:30:44] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:30:44] Speaker C: Yeah, we're gonna. Prior to even getting into that, that ripener season, we're going to do a bunch of testing with it so that we're. We're geared and ready to go for it.
[00:30:53] Speaker A: But you have to test it in, in the sugar cane. Right. You can't test it out on flat ground because you need to know about penetration.
[00:30:59] Speaker C: Right? Yeah. So there's, there's, there's still some cane that are at a mature growth level that we could use water droplets with dye to test on.
[00:31:07] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:31:08] Speaker B: He's got in a flan. He sets aside spots for us to test on.
[00:31:12] Speaker A: So that's cool.
[00:31:13] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:31:13] Speaker A: How is it proprietary or how does he do that? Just put.
[00:31:17] Speaker C: He uses a.
What's the. What's the system?
Yeah, yeah, It's a man made one though. He just has like a track that he built with some sheetrock.
[00:31:29] Speaker B: Sheetrock tape.
[00:31:29] Speaker C: Tape, yeah. And he built his. This own little mechanism with a laser and a camera and, and he just reels it in with a, with a dewalt drill each. Each segment of it. And Then he'll bring it back to the lab and use a camera and it'll analyze through AI all the droplets and wow.
[00:31:44] Speaker A: He is using the swath gobbler or. No, he's, he's got his own made version.
That guy is techie too.
[00:31:51] Speaker C: He, he's, he's responsible for the drone development slash R D for Louisiana Ag department.
And so they have a couple of homemade drones that they've built.
[00:32:04] Speaker A: Is it an aluminum one?
[00:32:05] Speaker C: It's an aluminum frame drone. And it literally, you know the clear like cake pans that you put a cake in the clear top, that's the dome of it to keep all the electronics like so you can just take the cake lid off and like take the components apart.
[00:32:21] Speaker A: That's cool.
[00:32:22] Speaker C: But it works, I mean is able to do testing.
[00:32:24] Speaker B: Yeah, it's not a bad looking draw.
[00:32:27] Speaker C: So that's cool. It's interesting.
[00:32:29] Speaker A: That is okay. So you were a medic, right?
Pilot. What clicked about doing spray drones?
[00:32:40] Speaker C: So when I was flying for an EMS company, I was working a 7 on 7 off shift and I had 7 days of just boredom because I'm, I'm the kind of guy that doesn't just want to sit around, I always want something to do. And I was going to buy a, just a camera drone.
Like since I have a pilot license 107. I was like, well this would be easier to get into. And I just. Everybody has a camera drone.
[00:33:01] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:33:02] Speaker C: I was like it's going to be really hard to try to make any kind of side hustle or money with it. And I remember that a buddy of mine who the one I was talking about flies the helicopters up in Kentucky spraying. He's been doing it for years. He had mentioned to me about spray drones and I like, I'll be honest, I didn't give it, never gave it a thought that a drone would actually be spraying crops compared to airplanes and everything else.
And it just so happened that I researched, I looked it up and I was like, this is at the time the T40 was like the go to. That was the drone to go to. And I started asking questions, calling co ops, calling forming consultants and just chatting with them about, you know, is this something that they see viable in our area and it the stars align. Every box just got checked and before I knew it I had, I bought one and filed all my paperwork and started filing paperwork in January time frame and got approved and everything was good to go about April.
[00:33:57] Speaker A: Wow, that was back when the FAA was doing stuff.
[00:34:00] Speaker C: Yeah, I got my 807 exemption in about two months. Right around two months.
[00:34:05] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:34:06] Speaker C: So and then the 137. Now it seems like it takes still a while for that. That. That came back in a week.
[00:34:12] Speaker A: Ours is.
So to get a 44807 is looking like nine months and then the 137 is looking like four weeks, six weeks.
[00:34:22] Speaker C: Which makes no sense because it's an application.
[00:34:24] Speaker A: Yeah, it makes no sense. Now I will say the FAA is getting absolutely inundated with requests because that's
[00:34:32] Speaker C: why they changed it, that you have to have the drone now.
[00:34:34] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:34:35] Speaker C: Yeah. They want you to be serious about it.
[00:34:37] Speaker A: Yep. Yep.
[00:34:38] Speaker C: How long has it taken to get aircraft registration in numbers?
[00:34:42] Speaker A: That's 90 to 120 days.
[00:34:45] Speaker C: Is. They're particular about that paperwork, aren't they?
[00:34:47] Speaker A: It is.
[00:34:49] Speaker B: That's the military.
[00:34:50] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:34:50] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:34:51] Speaker C: They'll send it back for. Yeah, they'll send it back in a heartbeat.
[00:34:55] Speaker A: Yep. You didn't put a. A period behind llc, period, or whatever?
[00:35:00] Speaker C: I put Gordian, Ariel, SL, Clinton, Giglio, and they're like, well, who is it registered to? The company or you? And I'm like, I am the company.
[00:35:06] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. It is wild how they want it dialed in. Okay, so you get going, you buy your drone.
I tell people this business, yes, it can go. But probably the. The hardest thing for somebody that is not in agricultural is getting your first clients. How'd you make the connection?
[00:35:26] Speaker C: I was extremely lucky. I was the only one in the area that was spraying with drones or about to spray with drones. And I walked into a local co op. In fact, the road that I would drive down to go into the air evac flight facility, I was still flying helicopters, had a co op at the end of that road. And I went in there to start buying equipment, cone bottom tanks and, and hosing and fittings. And the manager asked me what I was doing with that and I was like. I started explaining to him and he was like, well, come sit down with me. Let's. Let's talk. And we started talking for a while and he was like, well, I can. I can connect you with these guys in the area. I know they might be interested. Oh, wow. And it just started. I mean, everything just started falling in place. Like. Like when I went spray for one client, two or three more clients came from that. Just through, just through word of mouth, good referrals. Eventually it got to the point I was getting calls from people who said, I got your number from so and so. Who got your number from so and so. Who you Sprayed for three weeks ago. And I'm like, okay, that's awesome.
[00:36:23] Speaker A: So as far as, like, marketing your
[00:36:25] Speaker C: company, I've had to do no marketing. There's no Facebook ads or.
[00:36:29] Speaker A: Wow, good for you.
[00:36:30] Speaker C: Really? Anything good for you. Now, could I. Could I have created even more business by doing those things? It got to a point where I think it was this past year I created some roadside signs to put in the areas that I've already sprayed. And that helped out a little bit. Actually, people got my number from it. But word of mouth, this industry, word of mouth, it was like.
[00:36:49] Speaker A: For us.
[00:36:50] Speaker C: Yeah, it was just.
[00:36:51] Speaker A: Yeah, you can't be afraid to talk to people is what I tell people. Like, if you're not a little bit of a talker or a salesperson, it's probably not going to work for you.
You gotta go talk to those people. How do you guys become business partners?
[00:37:05] Speaker B: We flew together.
Yeah, we.
What year was it? I forget. We flew in the medevac in the army together. And I was getting close to retirement and he went ems. And I knew I was kind of interested in drones. It's keeps you in aviation, but it's a lot safer. Yeah, that's just it. And I was coming to the end of my, you know, time in the military for my 20 years to retire, and we. I went out and helped him one day, I think it was, what, two years ago?
[00:37:34] Speaker C: That's so.
[00:37:35] Speaker B: And just I saw the potential.
We'd worked together before.
It was, you know, it was structured aviation wise, so it. It made sense to me. So we just kind of got together and.
And that's how it happened.
[00:37:50] Speaker C: It was funny because the. The third business partner who wasn't able to make it, he built a cybersecurity business. He's about same age, I guess.
[00:37:58] Speaker B: Yeah, Me and him grew up together.
[00:37:59] Speaker C: We're saying he built a hell of a business, cybersecurity business, and has now sold it off. And he's still working for the company he sold it to, but he's kind of on the back door of leaving that now. So he knows what right looks like in building a business. He's built other businesses that didn't go so well. So he knows what wrong looks like.
[00:38:17] Speaker B: He keeps us straight on that.
[00:38:18] Speaker C: Yeah. And he's. He's really like, you know, we follow an entrepreneur operating system. We have weekly meetings and discuss things that we need to fix and things that have been going good and big ticket items, rocks, things to fix or do. And he called me one day and said, hey, My friend Jason wants to buy. This is, before I knew him, said he wants to buy a couple drones. And I was like, okay. And then before I knew it, Jason called me and said, hey, I need two. I want to get two T50s and two M30Ts. Where can I wire the money to? And I'm like, this is like $75,000 worth of equipment.
I don't even know you yet. And I was like, what are you, what are you planning to do with the T50? That's not something you buy just to, just to play with.
And I think if I remember correctly, he said, I want to do some R and D with them and you know, test some things out. And I just politely was like, well, would you. Because I knew a little bit about this Jason from him prior to. And I was like, would you be considered. Would you be open to maybe looking at a partnership and like really building this business up? This is what I'm doing with it. And he was like, yeah. So we came together, talked for several couple months about it and put some plans together and went from having two T50s to seven T50s and.
[00:39:34] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:39:35] Speaker C: Yeah. And three M30Ts through three M. Three Ms. Or just two.
[00:39:40] Speaker B: I think we have two.
[00:39:41] Speaker C: Two M, three M's.
[00:39:42] Speaker A: What do you do with your multi spectrals mapping?
[00:39:45] Speaker C: Pre mapping for the fields.
[00:39:46] Speaker A: Okay, so everything gets pre mapped prior to you flying it?
[00:39:50] Speaker C: Yeah, try to.
[00:39:51] Speaker B: We try to. I mean that's, we having crews and stuff. That's the best way to do it. Have it. Have a mission before.
Because we're mission oriented, you know, in the, in the military.
[00:40:00] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:40:00] Speaker B: So if you can map it and give it to the guys the next morning, that's, that's the best way.
[00:40:05] Speaker C: It's been really vital for the sugar cane.
[00:40:07] Speaker A: What software do you guys use to. To do that?
[00:40:10] Speaker C: So I was being a little cheap with it. I didn't want to buy Pix4D or something, so I just relied on DJI Smart Form. I'd map it and I would just upload all the data to it. It would take hours.
Yeah. Since it's cloud based, I guess that's the reason why.
But it's. It still worked and it was cool because I could just load all the data into it. It would start to process it and, and restitch all these images and I could go about my business. I could go open up the drone remote and look at this. The imagery is now populated.
[00:40:37] Speaker A: That's what's so nice about the system. When I talk about the whole system. It's like. It's not just the spray drone itself.
[00:40:45] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:40:45] Speaker A: It's how you can have fleets of guys out there and manage them through the app.
[00:40:50] Speaker C: Yeah, Management app makes it. So that's what we use. And for the sugar cane, it was really vital to get those precise boundary points of the field in real time.
[00:41:00] Speaker A: So did you build the boundaries then on the computer or just on your controller?
[00:41:04] Speaker C: On the controller. I mean, sometimes I would plug the controller into a computer just to have a bigger screen, but I always use.
[00:41:10] Speaker B: It's very intuitive. I mean, it works.
[00:41:12] Speaker C: I always use the DJI remote, whether it's plugged into a computer or I'm just holding it to do my maps on.
[00:41:17] Speaker A: Gotcha.
So how many acres do you cover with seven T50s?
[00:41:22] Speaker C: So we have that many drones. How many do we actually employ at a given time? We have two trailers reprie, two per trailer. And this year we didn't have our second trailer until last year in the military.
[00:41:33] Speaker B: So I could owe you part time.
[00:41:35] Speaker C: I would say this year we covered just over 20,000 acres. And we did that, that with mainly two drones.
[00:41:41] Speaker B: But we came in really just one crew. I mean, there was only a few days that we were.
[00:41:46] Speaker C: There was probably about four weeks out of the year that we actually had two trailers, two crews spraying at the same time. Yeah, most of the year was either or, or just one.
And yeah, we did just over 20,000.
[00:41:58] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:41:58] Speaker A: Jeez.
And what state are you guys in?
[00:42:01] Speaker C: Louisiana.
[00:42:01] Speaker A: Louisiana. What, what's your trailer look like? Like, as far as, like measurement wise,
[00:42:06] Speaker C: it's been modified so many times. So I meant to say this too. The first year when I did it by myself, some great guidance. I'm glad I did it this way. I'll even give, even give a shout out to him for Sam Rosa Ag. He told me to keep it simple the first year. Just get a utility trailer, get a cheap generator. Just keep it simple because after your first year, you're going to learn what you want to do and how, how it works for you in your environment and then you'll be able to go from there. And that's exactly what I did. Kept it, kept it cheap. Predator pump, all these different harbor freight things. Predator generator, no issues with them until I got to the paraquat. It fell apart in 15 minutes.
Literally. Yeah, actually I had a brand new one in the box. The first one. Plugged it up to it. 15 minutes later, the. The pump housing just fell off.
Then I put a. I just. Well, I said, well, maybe it's Maybe it's due to all the chemicals throughout the year that's been through. And it just so happens it's now brand new out of the box. Plug it in. Fifteen minutes later it just falls apart.
[00:43:07] Speaker A: Why? What the.
[00:43:08] Speaker C: The chemical that, that paraquite chemical is a really high salt based chemical and
[00:43:12] Speaker A: it just corrosive that quick roads at that.
[00:43:15] Speaker C: I mean the chemical has skull and crossbones on size. One sip will kill you.
I'm not joking. It literally says that.
[00:43:22] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Didn't he say just 1 teaspoon? 1 teaspoon will kill you?
[00:43:26] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:43:27] Speaker A: We were talking to a guy on the podcast before that said that he, he just has no interest.
[00:43:33] Speaker C: He really don't want to do it.
[00:43:35] Speaker A: Yeah, he said it's a great product but for his business he's just not gonna touch it.
[00:43:41] Speaker B: That's a good idea.
[00:43:41] Speaker C: It just tears up the equipment. I mean even, even the pumps we're running now, a Pacer pump on a Honda motor. I can tell that when we run paraquat through it, the seals in it swell up a little bit. We'll start to get a little bit of seepage from it. Wow.
[00:43:54] Speaker A: I was gonna ask you, how did the drones do with that stuff?
[00:43:56] Speaker C: Surprisingly well.
[00:43:57] Speaker B: Yeah, we, we keep them clean though
[00:43:59] Speaker C: after we flush out with ammonia. Unless it's a chemical that doesn't react well with.
[00:44:04] Speaker B: There's.
[00:44:04] Speaker C: There's certain chemicals that actually ammonia will create a different compound and could cause issues. But most of them ammonia and water at the end of the day and flush everything out a couple times.
[00:44:15] Speaker A: What, what exactly is that chemical doing to the plant when you're spraying it?
[00:44:21] Speaker C: The paraquat. Paraquat, It's a contact herbicide and it basically just. It's. If it's a hot day, you can spray it in about four hours later that plant is, is brown. Like brown. It's just, you know, I don't know. I'd be lying if I told you because I don't want to say the wrong thing. I'm pretty sure it's just drawing out all the moisture and just the quickest
[00:44:42] Speaker B: way to kill it, I guess.
[00:44:43] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. They'll use. But it's not systemic so like it won't kill a plant. It'll just burn it up for that period of time.
[00:44:51] Speaker A: Huh. Okay.
[00:44:53] Speaker C: So some of them, some of these guys at. During the burn down season in the beginning, if it's late and they need to start planting, they'll do a, they'll run some paraquat just to try to Kill the weeds and stuff.
[00:45:02] Speaker B: And then they plow it under, Right?
[00:45:04] Speaker C: And then they plow it out. So our. Plow it under. So they don't. Not all of them do it and they don't use it that often, but it works. But I don't like dealing with it. It's so bad.
[00:45:13] Speaker A: Yeah, that sucks. But if it pays the bills, right?
[00:45:16] Speaker B: Yeah, well, yeah, we're concerned, you know, with the safety and the, you know, just.
[00:45:20] Speaker C: I have a picture wearing like big mask and. Yeah, like a big heavy coat with some big rubber gloves up to here and stuff. And sweating.
Just sweating. Just. I look like a. I hate to say I look a meth lab. Like just pouring chemical into a tank.
[00:45:35] Speaker A: How hot. How hot does it get down there when you guys are normally spraying?
[00:45:38] Speaker C: I mean, the humidity is 100%.
[00:45:40] Speaker A: The humidity is what kills you, does it?
[00:45:42] Speaker C: Yeah, humidity is 100% and. And it's over 100 degrees. I mean, 100.
[00:45:46] Speaker B: The last three weeks we've been working on our trailer. We're building an enclosed area.
[00:45:52] Speaker C: You asked me about that. So before we have to go. I guess so I went to a gooseneck trailer. It's a 25 foot trailer. And I built an upper flight deck for it. And the original plan was the first portion of the trailer I had an upper deck, but there were two doors with a cabin below. And these doors were on a hydraulic actuator that would come up into the air and create a landing platform for each drone.
I had that design. And then once I got it back and tried to land a drone on it, I was like, this is sketchy. Too sketchy. It's way too close to the handrail to you. And I was like, I'm just going to go ahead and build the rest of the flight deck. I built the rest of the flight deck all the way to the back of the trailer. So now it's a full deck. And we operated with just a toolbox and the chargers inside of a toolbox on that deck. And this year, because of the way it was built and how many different things you had to open to get to our components and material, it was just setting up for a job, took a little longer, so we wanted to streamline it. So we tore the doors off, we tore the stairwell out, out, out. And we started reef towards the floor of the gooseneck of the upper flight deck. Over the gooseneck. We tore the floor out and we refabbed with some red iron steps inside the trailer that go up to a platform where you can enter inside the cabin which is over the gooseneck and you have 360 viewing and. Or you can take a right and go up a couple more steps and you're on the flight deck. So there's no moving parts anymore. And there's going to be an air conditioned cab which. With 360 windows and nice.
[00:47:21] Speaker A: But your command area is in the front of your trailer.
[00:47:23] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah it's in the front.
[00:47:24] Speaker C: Yeah. And. And the cab is really there for two reasons. But if I had to say which one it's primarily for. We realized throughout the past two years that chemical exposure is a big exposure.
[00:47:35] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:47:35] Speaker C: Because it doesn't matter where you position. Sometimes you can't position upwind or from the chemical. You just can't. And when it's spraying sometimes you just. You catch drips.
[00:47:44] Speaker B: And if you have an over pressurized building that they can just step into a cab that's going to mitigate the exposure. That's the only way we can think. Wearing a Tyvek suit and rebreather and all this. That's just not practical. You could kill somebody with the heat.
[00:47:59] Speaker A: Would a new way trailer work for that type of operation at all or what? What would have to change on a new way trailer to.
[00:48:06] Speaker C: To make it to have some type of climate control cab built into it? Yeah, yeah.
[00:48:11] Speaker A: Good thing.
[00:48:11] Speaker C: Cuz I mean the trailer that y' all build is. It's excellent. I mean it, it works. It's not too long. It's not and I mean it would work. It just that we need to have. I mean that's our, our perception of it.
[00:48:22] Speaker A: What size tanks do you guys take with you on the trailer?
[00:48:25] Speaker C: We use IBC totes because it's more modular and we can. We have enough room to put more than usually we'll run just two totes. We're not carrying thou like a thousand gallons of water.
[00:48:34] Speaker B: We have water points everywhere.
[00:48:35] Speaker C: Yeah. Down in Louisiana the formers usually have like 2 inch water pumps all over the place. So we just plan the day out to. To we'll spray this 160 acres and then we'll move refill and then move up.
[00:48:45] Speaker B: We got two primary two totes on the.
[00:48:47] Speaker C: Okay. Yeah we can put more. But then we run 175 gallon cone bottom tank for mixing. And then I actually went online and took and got some pictures of your trailer. How the manifold system you built and tried to redesign it.
[00:49:02] Speaker A: Did it work?
[00:49:03] Speaker C: Yeah, it worked.
I tried to redesign it to make it work for us and it did.
[00:49:08] Speaker A: Cool.
[00:49:09] Speaker B: Just regionally we had, you know, certain things you have to change and stuff.
[00:49:12] Speaker A: Yeah, no, I always, you know, I produce a lot of trailers, I sell a lot of trailers. And I'd like to hear from guys like yourself, what could I do to my trailer to make it even better? Because I want to make it easy for guys like yourself. Right. You've. You've scaled your company. I would much. I'd want to see you buy my trailer and run it rather than you go manufacture it. And I want to be cost effective to the point where you almost can't build it yourself. Yeah, that's the way it'll be.
[00:49:36] Speaker C: Some, I mean some of these trailers out there where they're building these cabs, they're just monstrosities and the height on them, I don't even know if it's dot D compliant.
Yeah, we're trying to like 13, 6 and we're trying to still be well below that. I think we're at 12, 4 now.
[00:49:53] Speaker B: Yep. Right over 12ft. But not, you know, we're trying to keep.
[00:49:57] Speaker A: So in your area, is that like, do you guys have trees that are that tall or, or like.
[00:50:01] Speaker C: I mean there's chances, there's chances of trees, but technically speaking, if it's a parish or state or road it, the wires hanging over the lights hanging over should be at a minimum 13, six. Or bridges. Yeah, at a minimum.
[00:50:18] Speaker B: Not always the case, so we really have to watch that.
[00:50:20] Speaker A: So the new way trailer, if you look at it, that the top of the railing and the flight deck, that's 13 foot two. So that's too high for you guys.
[00:50:27] Speaker C: No, it's not. It's compliant. Okay.
[00:50:29] Speaker A: Yeah, but would you run a 132 or you won't run it unless it's under 12.
[00:50:33] Speaker C: No, no, we would run it. We just. Since we're hand building ours, we're just trying to keep it as low as possible. Okay. Yeah, but yeah, I mean it's, it's a, it's a great looking trailer. I mean it would work. I, I have a buddy of mine who sprays. He has an operation.
Zach lahay. He has trailers.
[00:50:51] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. Cool.
[00:50:52] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:50:53] Speaker A: That dude did about 20000 acres himself.
[00:50:55] Speaker C: Did he? I don't know. I don't know what he. I spoke to him the other day. I didn't ask him what he did this year.
[00:51:00] Speaker A: Maybe we were supposed to keep it on download.
I don't think he.
[00:51:04] Speaker C: I'm taking that.
[00:51:07] Speaker A: No, I talked to him last fall. Yeah, I want to come down there and run with you guys like Zach said, we can come down and film that stuff. Yeah.
[00:51:15] Speaker B: You are welcome to come.
[00:51:16] Speaker A: Yeah, I'd love to.
[00:51:17] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:51:17] Speaker A: Already.
I, I was gonna ask what would be words of wisdom for a new guy that is thinking about getting into this business?
[00:51:27] Speaker C: I would say do as much research as you possibly can. Don't be afraid to talk. Talk to everyone you possibly can. And if it's your first year, don't go out on a limb and spend too much money getting started. Just keep it fairly simple and learn the craft, learn the business first and then progress from there. Especially if you have to do this with a loan or something. If you don't have the capital to invest in it in yourself. I would recommend starting out somewhat small and learn, learn the industry.
[00:51:54] Speaker B: Yeah, you just, the little things, you know, the, the nozzles, the usability of it. Just keep it small scale like Clinton said. But you want to, you know, and take notes on what you need for the next year. I think you, that first year, you're just, you're just, you know, recon and what you need or, you know, experiencing what you need.
[00:52:16] Speaker A: Cool, guys. I appreciate you coming on. I think it's so cool. Two Blackhawks helicopter pilots flying high tech spray drones in Louisiana. So cool.
Thanks for being on, guys.
[00:52:29] Speaker C: Thank you.
[00:52:29] Speaker A: Thank you. Alrighty, guys, that's all we got for you this week. Make sure to subscribe to the channel, give it a thumbs up and we'll catch you guys on the next one.
