DJI Bans and Beginner Grit: Unpacking Drone Industry Hurdles | The DroneOn Show Episode 17

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hey guys welcome back to the drone on show i'm mike and i am kevin on this week's episode we're going to get into dji bands right everybody's talking about dji bands talk a lot. [00:00:10] Speaker B: About newbies how do you get your first thousand acres and the pain of the first thousand acres yeah it's it's. [00:00:15] Speaker A: Going to be an interesting episode let's hop right into it but we could talk about whitetail research using thermal drones did you did you watch any of. [00:00:25] Speaker B: His stuff i have not yet watched him you told me it was so. [00:00:28] Speaker A: Good i just think it's so good did you watch any of it i. [00:00:31] Speaker C: Watch his first episode yeah what do. [00:00:34] Speaker A: You think it was pretty cool like well well put together oh well put together i i like how he brings comedy into it as well yeah a little bit of comedy his second one no not his second one his third one it's hilarious cuz he's like going after like big name hunters like not really like attacking them but just like saying here's my data literally physically you can see trail camera sits right here this is the photo that trail camera got two deer but there's ten other deer right next to the trail camera that your trail camera never got yeah and well that's kind of the case. [00:01:15] Speaker C: With the deer that i shot last year was that i had one picture of him late summer and then when i shot him he he shot him in an area where he came off the trail because the trail camera was on the on like a logging road and he always went down he came off the trail went down around a tree and came back up was working his way back up to the trail so i never saw any pictures of him yeah but when i was in the tree and i shot him yeah you know it's just it's so interesting to see that data and you know it's like hunting is such a it's a such a sport it's such a like a mind thing where you're trying to figure out what these bucks are doing and it's really cool to see. [00:01:52] Speaker A: Oh dude it's crazy to see it from an aerial you know when drone deer we started going getting bigger a lot more views when we first started guys would always ask me to do this type of stuff that derek is doing with whitetail research now but i don't have a passion to do that like i like deer but i don't like deer to that extent that i'm going to go do that but i think it's so cool that somebody went out and did an original something that nobody else has done yet with thermal drones because there's a lot more things that can be done with thermal drones but him going out there putting in the time and he clearly has a passion he loves whitetail deer he he likes to study them he's the perfect guy to do this to now bring data to the the hunting industry that's never been done before and i'm telling you i think he's going to continue blowing up yeah do you remember when. [00:02:49] Speaker C: We did that one where we were doing the downwind test on that buck and you like didn't have a wind checker so we stopped in at like dollar general and got some guns and. [00:02:57] Speaker A: Powder yeah yeah and and it was i'm actually going to release that but i'm just going to redo the whole thing because i'm going to explain to them like that there is a new channel right like this was something that it was doing because the viewers wanted to see it but there's a new channel that does it way better than we we do it but here's what we were doing and it's completely jimmy rigged like meaning not good like compared to what derek does i mean and. [00:03:22] Speaker C: The guy like he's committed to it like he literally stopped hunting so that he could collect data like that is. [00:03:29] Speaker A: Next level yeah he will be on the podcast at some point yeah yeah for sure anyhow i i just thought yeah okay yeah it's it's good you. [00:03:38] Speaker C: Know in in all this stuff we're going to transition and we're going to talk about you know dji and stuff like that it's just fun to talk about some fun stuff yeah because there's some other stuff that's like kind of heavy and you know just like what's going on here so it's good you. [00:03:52] Speaker A: Bring that up it's there's a lot of stuff that it almost feels like during this time there's more down than there is up because of the whole supply issue dji problems like trying to ban it's yeah it's a lot but we did go spraying yesterday or two days in a row yeah that was fun that was good spraying it's good to just be able to go do something and know that you can get it knocked out in no time at all where it's not like i have to get this done this done and that done makes it a little nicer but i will say when you are just out there watching the drones putz around doing their thing it's like give me another drone i need something else to do so we started flying underneath the power line to make it more. [00:04:39] Speaker C: Interesting yeah mike was just out there he was like by the second half of the day he was just like trying new stuff so are the are. [00:04:47] Speaker B: The fields too gravy or what yeah they were gravy so it's too simple. [00:04:52] Speaker A: Yeah they were easy yeah they were. [00:04:53] Speaker B: Pretty good nice so under the power lines no no issue t sixty uhhuh. [00:04:58] Speaker A: Yeah yep you're about three feet off the corn and about three feet from the power line just yeah it was. [00:05:05] Speaker C: Fun yeah yeah battery management that's just still when you have gravy fields ah. [00:05:11] Speaker A: That'S just battery management is a big thing it's austin we're talking about it i am just not convinced how the t one hundred is going to hold up in our type of field so right we had what were they thirty acre fields forty acre fields we're doing two gallon work but the drone just turning so much the t sixty t six it's turning so much that the battery management is hard because it's carrying the load with it for so long doing two two gallon work and we're trying to figure out how in the same hill is the one hundred going to do this if you're doing two gallon work and i know that we talked to dji when we were there did they know that fungicide's done at two gallons okay yeah they definitely did. [00:05:58] Speaker C: I'M really curious how much like two gallon work they do or do in. [00:06:02] Speaker A: Their testing yeah yeah yeah it's i. [00:06:06] Speaker B: Think they're definitely aware of it isn't that why they have the seventy p. [00:06:10] Speaker A: Like for smaller fields yeah probably i'm just trying to figure out where where the one hundred is going to fit is it do you need to have a minimum of a three thousand foot run or can you you know will it work with a thousand foot run i don't know i just but i'm i'm really excited to get my hands on it and start using it there's only one way to figure that out is actually doing real life stuff because. [00:06:37] Speaker C: When that when that t sixty x sh outperforms is when you can get two trips out of one battery that's when you know you're killing it but. [00:06:46] Speaker A: Yeah yeah because you're basically when we get two trips off of one battery we're doing ten and a half maybe eleven gallons and so we're doing anywhere between you know twenty to twenty two gallons per battery now you're laying it down because you don't have to pull that battery every time you're covering a lot more acres that way yeah so i just don't know i i don't know where the one hundred is going to land i definitely think that there's fields that are not obviously right here in our area in ohio that it's going to shine like when you have a mile long run down and a mile long run back we'll see yeah. [00:07:25] Speaker C: I don't know where that thing's going to land but man i can't wait to see it fly like i'm excited. [00:07:29] Speaker A: For that i think there's a lot of people excited about it and there's. [00:07:33] Speaker B: A lot of acres like what you. [00:07:34] Speaker A: Describe oh yeah i think well no doubt there's more acres like what i just described than what we're dealing with yeah for sure yeah i mean we did we did set up on one field monday night was it yeah monday night that was a it was a three thousand foot run in ohio i haven't gotten to set up on a lot of those but that out in kansas those guys will set up on a mile to two mile run for. [00:08:01] Speaker B: Sure yeah and then then the the speed and the capacity is just going to be yeah i mean we keep talking about airplanes but it's it's going to be a fun comparison to see how two t one hundreds compete with. [00:08:15] Speaker A: An airplane i totally agree i mean just with what we've done in kentucky in that one twenty four hour shift we had t sixties were doggone if you look at what we've done you're getting pretty you're on his tail okay i didn't spend two million bucks on my airplane i spent one hundred and forty grand on a rig it's like to compare to be that close to be the same i would just like. [00:08:42] Speaker C: To watch mike spray for like a month in kansas because you'd be bored you out of your mind well what. [00:08:49] Speaker A: Would you be doing i would probably be trying to fly four drones yeah doing something something yeah no that's how you would do it actually just line up like four trailers four trailers and you just maneuver them all from one trailer but you have ground guys filling them for you there you go it's literally just a monitoring game yeah yeah that could work because they're going to rth slightly in a different direction than all coming to one trailer okay we're on to something are you seeing four. [00:09:21] Speaker B: Drones and four trailers or like eight drones and four trailers yeah eight drones. [00:09:25] Speaker A: Four trailers i mean i couldn't fly them all but i'm just saying like so instead of them all rt aging to the one trailer yeah would they just be lined up but the guy is monitoring them because let's say there's a i don't know eight hundred acres and you're flying t one hundreds just bring them back to their landing spot because i can i can be a mile you know three quarter mile away i can still see it but i just maneuver it on my controller and we have sena headsets connected to the ground guy ground guy says yep battery swap ready to go and i take that guy off and now the other one is rth ing back to the trailer that i'm working on yeah the. [00:10:04] Speaker C: Biggest challenge i see there is just like making sure you grab the right controller for the right drone like so many controllers oh one hundred that would. [00:10:12] Speaker A: Be the biggest challenge yeah just keep you you have to stay focused on what you're doing and i bet it would be kind of like atc like air traffic control you can only work so long and then you have to take a break and then you come back because it's there's so much information happening yeah yeah but that would be. [00:10:31] Speaker B: Fun and the step up version right would be you have the trailer and you add a truck bed flight platform to where you could actually do three one pilot one ground guy the reason. [00:10:42] Speaker A: I don't want to bring everything back to the same location is it is happening so fast that you will have two coming back and if they're coming like this like me and austin did yesterday yeah me and austin did it yesterday he's coming in this direction i'm coming in from this direction and we're you know that's thirty thirty that's sixty miles an hour closing in within seconds they would they would smack and so if you're if you're trying to operate three drones from the same platform they will all converge to the same area. [00:11:13] Speaker C: And give a little context there so i was spraying we were on a road i was spraying the field on we were on the right side you were on the left side so opposite sides and we were using the same return to home like it's not just like coming to the same trailer it's literally the same like the middle of the trailer yeah where we're like landing these drones filling swapping batteries so they're literally coming to the same point and it was like yeah here that's why. [00:11:39] Speaker A: I'M saying right say you have three one hundreds on a trailer that's yes you can do that but they all converge right within five feet yeah yeah that's you know height altitude that you can you can set those differently but i'm talking about where they want to land is still all the same area where if you spread out your trailers say you're just trying to cover those acres and it would make more sense because let's say it is a six hundred some acre field it makes more sense for the one drone to be up on the you know far side one in the middle and one at the other end that way they don't have to ferry as far to get to their fields to start yep makes sense so you would you would maneuver it you'd have like a command post. [00:12:26] Speaker C: Yeah yeah that would definitely take it. [00:12:28] Speaker A: To the next level i think i. [00:12:30] Speaker B: Think that could work yeah yeah because then you wouldn't really have drones crossing paths never no so it would all be but you'd have one pilot per. [00:12:38] Speaker A: Every two drones or it depends how much that pilot can watch yeah it's. [00:12:44] Speaker C: Just crazy though like when you think about the t one hundreds though like that's just they're flying faster so there's just that much more quick that you have to process information as a pilot you know if you'd have like well i don't want to go way back to the t forties but those things move so slow that it's like you could manage four or five of those drones just because you have time to. [00:13:06] Speaker A: React yes exactly yeah yep and flying as fast as the t one hundred is going to fly i don't i don't know how much the human brain could process that quickly yeah i wonder. [00:13:20] Speaker C: If it would be a thing that you could just set your return to home speed slower and then once you once you actually yeah you could get your hands on that controller then you can bring it in fast but if you would just have all drones slow down just i mean i don't know it would be a thing that be fun to try yeah you can totally. [00:13:38] Speaker A: Set your rth yeah yep yeah it would be fun but honestly we just need to get them into the united states of america before we actually get too carried away on processing how we're going to operate a bunch of drones. [00:13:52] Speaker B: And in the i'd say in the last two weeks it's not only become getting the you know the new models and it's also how do we support existing drone pilots with parts and dji. [00:14:03] Speaker A: Parts dji parts yeah yeah if you go on youtube right now and you look at anything about dji you'll you'll just see all these videos with a lot of fear about not being able to get products they're banned they're not shipping parts which is partially true but there's a lot of like it just feels like it's just fear like and. [00:14:23] Speaker B: A lot of people that see i think not the complete picture they just see something and they make assumptions based on the little bit of info that they see like so i guess just to maybe set the record straight on a couple things dji in the beginning of july they stopped shipments to the us and nobody knows exactly why but there's a couple different theories out there it was shortly after the big beautiful bill was passed so some people say it was related to that other people say that customs and border patrol has has started stopping other non drone related products by dji like their whole microphone lineup their camera lineup their gimbal lineup. [00:14:59] Speaker A: And they're you know is this based on like youtube videos or do you know other sources okay because kevin has been putting a lot of time in sourcing products is this from contacts that. [00:15:11] Speaker B: You made yeah yeah okay and so the thought is that and the whole thing is done because cbp is using like there's no law banning it right people know this there's no law banning it but cbp is using like they're enforcing they're enforcing some seizures or they're stopping stuff when it tries to come through customs and send it back you know accusing the company of using forced labor but up until now you know this company's using forced labor right but only in their drones right not in. [00:15:40] Speaker A: Their drone accessories only if the drone. [00:15:42] Speaker B: Was put together not in their cameras not in their mics you know it's only here and so it's like well this doesn't make any sense and so you know the theory at least one of the theories is that i mean dji has tried everything they've tried suing the government they've tried that was not a good move you know appealing they've tried different things and now they're i think respectfully they're taking a step back and saying we will not ship anything to to the us yeah and we want to work with the us government. [00:16:07] Speaker A: And the incoming president you mentioned the the big beautiful bill yeah yeah do you think that there's something just your yeah your opinion yeah do you think there's something in that bill that dji. [00:16:20] Speaker B: Wants to try to my my personal opinion is that it's unrelated okay it's unrelated i think it happened at the same time some of their policy changes but it's unrelated that's my hunch okay i could be totally wrong i don't have a lot of facts on that. [00:16:35] Speaker A: It would be so good if we would would have been able to get a meeting with like the executives at dji when we were in china you know we were we were mostly with the r and d team and service team marketing and service team but just to hear from them like what what's their long term you know what's their. [00:16:56] Speaker B: Long term yeah and everything that i hear is like they're not giving up on the us market and i think they see that you know in the next three years drones are not going away it's like drones are going to happen and they want a piece of the market but right now it i you know it's one thing to get in drones in small quantities or to bring in parts to support drones it's another thing to say this is going to scale you know ten x over every year for the next five years and there's just no way right now that dji is poised to be able. [00:17:23] Speaker A: To do that yeah i think that's why we can look at some of the big players in the industry why so many people have jumped ship and are wanting to look at different options because of how many units it will take not that they're necessarily truly convinced that that product is a better product it's just they're looking at the sheer volume of units it will take and. [00:17:49] Speaker B: It seems like the bigger the distributor you are the more you just want it to be easy yeah like you want a you want your supply chain to be normal you know what to expect you know how to never be out of stock and you want to be able to place an order wire the money and it arrives in you know twenty one days or whatever it is and that's not the case right now yeah so but but i would like to also say for parts and for people who have existing dji drones i would not worry yet because there are a lot of people that are small enough like we are to where we're not this big huge distributor where we're actually trying to source parts and we are sourcing parts from you know from different places yeah to support our customers and when it comes to warranty that's another big question people have how do you handle warranty well on the enterprise it's kind of a screwed up situation right now it is because you can send your warranty to canada potentially to get covered but dji is no longer selling new like they're not renewing warranty plans or enterprise care but if you have an existing coverage you can send it to canada but good luck getting that back into the us yeah yeah so some people are doing you know what i did on a drone just recently where you send it to canada it gets fixed and then i'm just shipping it to a canadian address and then figuring out how do i go up there have a friend it's my personal drone so i'm allowed to travel with it yeah but if you you know it's just not working to ship it across the border anymore you sometimes have to pay tariffs on a drone you already purchased that you just got repaired so you have a free repair but one thousand dollars tariff bill. [00:19:16] Speaker A: Which doesn't make any sense i seen another guy on youtube with an m four pro that had to do something like what you're talking about and he up there in canada they they did repair the drone and then shipped it to him because it is his drone he actually bought it here in the states once it got repaired it was transitioning through kentucky and it's still in cbp's hands and it's not like that drone is coming to be sold it's. [00:19:45] Speaker B: Already yeah it's a repair drone but i will say for enterprise like for agriculture drones then it's a little bit different and dji provides their warranty service or their repair service to dealers and service centers like us and and what's made it hard for us is we actually are operating the warranty program at a loss because the price of parts and the difficulty and everything has gone up but dji's reimbursement price has not. [00:20:11] Speaker A: Gone up well they even told us it's not going to because i mean the dji guy in china told us that the customer service right experience in the states has been one of the. [00:20:26] Speaker B: Worst i think it's the worst performing market of any country currently why is that you think there are only two service centers in the us that were grade a that was us and one other service center everybody else they don't i don't know i don't know i. [00:20:41] Speaker A: Wonder if they don't put i don't. [00:20:43] Speaker B: I mean it's hard to put a lot of effort in something that you're losing money in true but but like what what the you know what dji told us is like stick with us like let's like prove that you're a good service center that's exactly what you. [00:20:56] Speaker A: Figure out the money he said you prove that you're worth more we're like. [00:21:00] Speaker B: Okay so for example they have this whole plan where if it's a motor right they'll compensate us for a number of shop hours or labor or whatever but that but there's nothing for the diagnosis like the three hours it took to figure out testing different parts nothing for that and i will just say also the hourly rate is not what we're paying shop guys like we get less money than than what they're actually paying for but it's i just want to say though for the record like we've decided to continue offering warranty and i think it's such an important thing to do like oh yeah so we're going to continue offering warranty and losing money money on it honestly for as long as we're able to keep the doors open and as long as we can sell parts and some of that stuff we can maybe break even but for us this is more like the long term how do we support our pilots how do we support applicators well. [00:21:46] Speaker A: There'S literally thousands of dji spray drones sold in the states and to just say done that doesn't make any sense. [00:21:56] Speaker C: Like no yeah it's so hard for a lot of these guys because you know they're just starting their business and if you have a drone that goes down or crash like you need it up and going like as soon as possible it's just yep guys are panicking when they and yeah drone goes down. [00:22:11] Speaker B: I'D say the other good news is on new drone models that are going to be sold here over the next six months t seventy p t one hundred one year warranties in the us are going to be sold with those units as well is the latest i'm hearing so you buy a t one hundred from a reputable dealer who's able to provide warranty and service you know dji is working with dealers like us to help facilitate that yeah like you. [00:22:36] Speaker A: Said earlier i just think that dji knows how big this market is and they will do what they can to try to stay in the game yeah you know politicians will probably end up trying to get their way but i just think that dji is willing to work with them and clearly they are they they were begging to do the investigation they were like please do the investigation so we can prove to you that we're not doing anything but we also know how that could potentially turn. [00:23:03] Speaker B: Out too yeah and i don't it's it's so toxic right now for a politician to do a review of dji and say there's no threat to national security like if i'm from a red state and i'm like china our biggest adversary their biggest drone manufacturer has no poses no risk to national security even if it's true yes yeah just the political statement and how my opponents will use that against me i don't i mean that's really tough that's a tough thing for a politician to come out and say yeah that's a good point i don't know how that'll work you're. [00:23:35] Speaker A: Down your count button clock doesn't isn't. [00:23:38] Speaker C: Working oh it's not counting down yeah. [00:23:40] Speaker B: I will say the other thing though is like we talk dji yeah the actual bills being proposed and the stuff that's going to take effect in december is chinese made drone oh yeah it's not just dji altel xag ea vision and every other single ea like every. [00:23:56] Speaker A: Single any drone yeah any drone that is built manufactured in china in china will be affected so i mean and. [00:24:05] Speaker B: Already you see people trying to move manufacturing over to different countries but that is a hard thing to do with specialized technology like this yeah so so how fast that'll happen i don't know i don't know what it's going to be like but it's not just dji i just want to make that clear like every other brand is also having. [00:24:20] Speaker A: These right now right now what's being talked about is dji because they're the largest and they're the most well known and that's what people have been using for the last ten years and so if you if you say dji you will know oh that's the company that builds drones like if you say something like top gun most people are not going to know what that is well that's also another spray drone manufacturer that nobody knows about and so you would say top gun you have no clue what that is so using the you know using the three letters dji people are going to know that oh that's the that's a drone manufacturer that they that they've come to know love and use every day i could not imagine how many dji drones actually get used to every single day in the united states anything from consumer enterprise and spray drones like there's an unbelievable amount of dji drones in the just in the enterprise thermal drone space that i'm aware of that gets used every day from power line inspections police departments search and rescue list goes on dude and i've. [00:25:28] Speaker B: Been hearing like dji docks are actually being used by police departments now in the states in the states yeah like i'm hearing of like departments that bought forty of them okay and i don't know exactly how they're deploying and using them but i'm i mean it's just kind of cool and interesting to me that not just my understanding is actually state or federal agencies are actually using these well i mean explain how that makes sense but what do you mean. [00:25:52] Speaker A: By line of sight or what well. [00:25:53] Speaker B: Not just line of sight but you know if they are a threat to national security the thing is there's nothing. [00:25:57] Speaker A: Else that says there's a difference between a sheriff's department a sheriff is voted in by we the people and if. [00:26:05] Speaker B: And federal funds right no if it's. [00:26:08] Speaker A: Federal funds that's where it gets a little weird right yeah but like that's why we're selling to sheriff's departments and not directly to police departments like new york city that's that those are a little different funding so are you saying. [00:26:22] Speaker B: Even if there's like like a sheriff has funds that are not they're not federal but they're also not state they. [00:26:27] Speaker A: Would be independent of that like an actual if you say a sheriff there's a like the sheriff of tuscarawas county we voted him in like if it's a police department i think the mayor puts the chief in place and so then that's different so the sheriff's department and the sheriff works for we the people that voted him in and so the funds are different if you watch peter centinella where he goes out to maybe like the border he gets to talk to sheriffs but he can't talk to like the us custom border protection yeah but the sheriff can tell him exactly how he feels because he was voted in yeah where the other people get appointed yeah if you're appointed it's different your voice is different than it is if the people voted interesting that's good but that being said i think that's why sheriff's departments are still buying dji drones is because their funds are come from different areas i think i don't know that indefinitely but yeah yeah that being said i think the dock will be used for crowd like like at concerts like there's such huge crowds and things are going on i i think that docs will be used at those locations just for monitoring i think of the tragedy that happened in las vegas i think it was las vegas and that shooting yeah it took them how long just to figure out where the you know where these shots were coming from i think if a thermal drone would have been in the sky they could have probably seen the the rounds actually like and you could have pinpointed it exactly where that dude was located i think i'm sure there's there's many more areas that they can be used in oh another one i just found this out by watching one of peter centinella's videos is there's private firefighting companies so in california like the super rich hired private firefighting companies to come in and protect their houses from this you know forest fire or whatever it was that having thermal drones or firefighting drones would totally make sense and he was saying that insurance companies are now paying private firefighting companies well it makes sense listen if it cost them a quarter million dollars to protect a twenty million dollars house they are still in the long run further ahead than they would have if they would have just let the house burn up no and. [00:29:06] Speaker B: I think it's good to have like commerce or capitalism is a great way to answer that problem but it sucks that the state so badly manages that you have to hire like the state has no resources to do this and. [00:29:17] Speaker A: So yeah but i think you have to hire there will always be those private entities it doesn't matter what it is you're going to have it because there's just too big of a scale if the state tries to have you know enough guys to protect each house it's just not going to work it is going to go down to who has the money i know it sucks but there's an opportunity for people yeah i'm just thinking of like the the the t one hundred or the t sixties like faa loosen up on some of your bs you know regulations hook up a hose to those suckers hook up a hose and let them fly around these houses spraying right like not with their tanks but physically holding a hose spraying as the fire is coming make it so much easier to protect a house pulling up a two inch hose or a you know or an inch and a half hose pumping out one hundred and fifty gallons a minute yep yeah yep starts making sense starts. [00:30:19] Speaker B: Making a lot of sense yeah yeah y yeah that and that that again it's probably just a matter of time but what i can assure you is that the united states will probably be the last country that i actually adopt because of regulations y one hundred percent. [00:30:32] Speaker A: Like you you see the videos where they're on high rise buildings pulling up you know long hoses and spraying it straight into high rise yeah it's going to be a long time till it gets here but after hearing that there's private firefighting companies i started thinking about all the use cases dude just to. [00:30:51] Speaker B: Have a drone like i wonder if that would be a thing would that be a thing you get a like you get special licensing and faa exemptions to operate like in some of these. [00:31:01] Speaker A: High danger areas i i think i think those type of companies might not even care what the faa says because they will charge for the service and then deal with it on the back. [00:31:13] Speaker B: End so so you for sure could not fly when there's like what are they called where there's like a no flight zone over disaster tfr so you for sure could not fly then but is it possible that under the emergency clause you could actually fly a drone outside of its intended use in the in the case of like working for. [00:31:31] Speaker A: Emergency services what they were trying to say when you know things were happening in tennessee right with the whole flooding thing but it depends who sees you but i'm going to say that did. [00:31:41] Speaker B: Anybody get fined like do you know. [00:31:43] Speaker A: If if no because nobody had an. [00:31:45] Speaker B: Issue with right it would be interesting if let's say like there's a company out in california that has five t one hundreds and they have those like dropping mechanisms things that that can you. [00:31:57] Speaker A: Describe how they work yeah so there's they're basically fire bombs they have fire retardant product in it and it measures the distance from the ground to the drone how far it is it has a laser on it and it measures it and then it drops it but it sets a detonator in that bomb as it's coming down and it will detonate at approximately fifteen feet to twenty feet above the ground and then it will you know shoot out this fire. [00:32:28] Speaker B: Retardant product but so imagine with the t one hundred you have ten let's say you have ten bombs or whatever we call those that are thirty pounds each twenty five thirty pounds each and you could actually fly in a line and go you know bang you know and actually i mean it would be so interesting if the faa would actually cite or fine a company doing that in defense of private homes well again. [00:32:55] Speaker A: Kevin they probably wouldn't care i agree i remember there was this time when somebody called me from the faa they don't care they actually don't care as long as the public somebody doesn't turn it in then they have to do their job and they have to uphold. [00:33:12] Speaker B: The the rules yeah it would just be interesting like i would it'd be interesting to see how that plays out it would be interesting because there's there's something that's so obviously in the public good and the faa's laws require them to you know do whatever they're going to do yeah i don't know i mean it it could i mean i. [00:33:30] Speaker A: Mean they tried to go it's yeah we're not going to go down that route anyhow but there's so many things that they could be used for good i just seen a forest fire that started i think it was in california and it was caught on a like a security camera you could see this little tiny bit of smoke right and then it was fast forward smoke gets bigger bigger bigger bigger if a local fire department would have had a fly cart one hundred or a t one hundred and have these you know anti whatever you want to call them i don't want to say it's a bomb yeah that's what they're called they're called firebombs fire retardant bombs fire retardant bombs but people hear bombs on the on the drone and that's why we can't have it in the states but i'm saying imagine a local fire department would had it and they see that little bit of smoke i don't care if it's five miles away it's in the most rugged piece of country you can't get to fly that doggone drone up there and drop the fire retardant bombs. [00:34:31] Speaker B: And boom done and maybe while you're out there i mean maybe also have a dock drone doing a thermal scan every four hours watching to see what little pockets of heat are starting no. [00:34:43] Speaker A: I'M yeah but like you said it's our regulation it's going to happen and. [00:34:48] Speaker B: We'Ll be the last to implement it probably but what else is going on. [00:34:52] Speaker A: In this week's news we basically addressed them already the parts issue big problem but i would say right now we're we're in the heat of fungicide season i'm not really running that hard myself but guys across the country are i mean we see it by the service department just being absolutely inundated with calls with drones going down a lot of stuff happening right now on facebook i don't follow it much but people are talking about their dji drones are falling out of the sky and i think we're linking this back probably to old batteries a lot of old batteries are getting moisture inside the batteries and when they're being used a lot getting heated up at some point that connection just is lost and down goes the drone. [00:35:42] Speaker B: Are you seeing that on t fifties. [00:35:43] Speaker A: Or t forties t forties a lot of t forties it did happen to a t fifty but he was running an old t forty battery in his t fifty so that is something that's been happening lately and it looks like it's really bad because it is you know it's dji drones people are like dji is probably making these things come down so they buy new models i don't you can surmise whatever you want but yeah i don't think it's that although it looks like it's more dji drones than other drones it's because there's ten thousand more dji drones than than other models out there the news right now is it's it's basically it's a downer because of how the government is treating dji right and if you're an american you're listening to this and you're probably like yeah it should be like the china's they're going to kill us all because they're watching us i just talked to somebody i can't tell where we were spraying but a huge school he's like yeah what are they gonna watch the corn growing out here you know that's just some common sense like what are they gonna watch i mean get on google maps i got i i was in china i was able to get on google maps i could zoom into my house right here and look at you know my trees and everything what more are they going to. [00:37:06] Speaker B: See yeah it would be nice to have more of the supply chain in the us like we well if we. [00:37:12] Speaker A: Would there wouldn't be other models i can tell you that and that's probably where this will so here here's here's. [00:37:18] Speaker B: What i think though like if drones are going to become an increasingly important part of the american economy because soon you know farmers are using them they're not using airplanes they're not using ground rigs they're using drones like fast forward five years if our supply chain still relies one hundred percent on parts and everything coming from china and we enter some kind of a cold war or something with china where trade stops yeah like the impact to our economy to our agriculture like we should not depend on that i think we should have. [00:37:43] Speaker A: Other yeah there should be other options but it should it should be done. [00:37:48] Speaker B: Slowly yeah you got it yep because you don't want to hurt the entrepreneur. [00:37:51] Speaker A: The farmer yeah like the transition should take a little bit of time not just you know dji's shipping in thousands of drones and then wa bam close the door and say no more is. [00:38:05] Speaker B: That how is that how trump rolls that's it feels that way yeah it is yeah and like august first there's all these other tariffs to other countries that haven't made a deal wapang on august first they go into effect and if you haven't negotiated a deal with the united states then trump will tell you what your new tariff is and. [00:38:24] Speaker A: Yeah i don't follow it enough to. [00:38:26] Speaker B: Know yeah it's definitely not slow and methodical it's like abrupt and yeah somewhat. [00:38:31] Speaker A: Chaotic no i i think it's a good idea if if we can start getting our stuff figured out though to manufacture our own motors our own propellers our own everything do you know how expensive that's going to be and and. [00:38:45] Speaker B: The timeline is going to take be. [00:38:48] Speaker A: Out of control yeah timeline is one thing cost is another i mean you look look at what happened when the this chair is driving me nuts but look at what happened when the price increased just by tariffs we could see sales almost immediately drop off like people are like they knew what they could buy it at and now you're telling me it's ten thousand more only ten thousand more right i get it yes it's ten thousand more but if you look at what a helio costs versus what a t sixty x or a t fifty costs right now this helio american built thing it's not american built all right ninety of their parts are from china but if it were i i cannot see that drone being less than eighty five thousand dollars one drone really yes wait if it's built in. [00:39:40] Speaker B: America okay yeah yeah you're not saying helio doesn't doesn't retail for that because. [00:39:44] Speaker A: I think they're assembled in america i think a helio drone right now is in that sixties oh no way yeah. [00:39:51] Speaker B: I think is it really sixty thousand dollars wow no wonder they're crowdfunding and. [00:39:57] Speaker A: Trying to well yeah soon they won't need to do crowdfunding because there will be government subsidies to help with that. [00:40:03] Speaker B: Wow oh yeah guaranteeing so that i mean i did not know it was that high that that seems exorbitant and that's for the whole generator batteries everything. [00:40:13] Speaker A: Yeah that's the whole thing yeah that's like the fly all day type of kit yeah because we're were we forty three thousand for a t sixty x but we were still like twenty grand less than what a helio would be. [00:40:24] Speaker B: Wow yeah yeah that's crazy to me. [00:40:27] Speaker A: So but that's going to be the reality yeah like yes things get built in china for less because their their workers make less there's a reason our. [00:40:36] Speaker B: Iphones are made in china right yeah. [00:40:38] Speaker A: But like if you take a t fifty motor like let's talk the copper everything that goes into building that motor bring that motor to america there is just no way that we're building it. [00:40:51] Speaker B: There'S a company i think out of dallas i think called unusual machines and donald trump junior is on the board of advisors or something and they don't create drones they create drone parts parts yeah like they create the components almost like hobby wing you know what we saw in china so maybe it's the start a trend you know i don't know i don't know what they're making i don't know how viable it is but it's cool to see that they're. [00:41:15] Speaker A: Doing no no listen it will be a thing in america but a lot of those drones that will be american built will be funded paid for used by the military the police departments these departments that get federal funding to pay for these things they don't care that it's eighty thousand dollars they just care that it's built in america and they have the funds to do it but when you talk joe the entrepreneur that wants to start a business and he has to go get a loan for it it's going to be too hard for him if it's the farmer that wants to buy a drone and it's thirty thousand dollars more because it's built in america it's just going to get it's just going to be hard but. [00:42:01] Speaker B: I do think that the road to it being easier is to scale up component manufacturing in america so i like. [00:42:08] Speaker A: That they're doing that no i get it i'm not against it i'm just trying to figure i'm trying to get my mind around how is the end consumer going to shift his mind how because we're going to need to be taught differently like that a drone is. [00:42:25] Speaker B: Now worth sixty thousand dollars not thirty. [00:42:27] Speaker A: Thousand and it might not work as good yeah you know what i'm saying like i want to buy i want to buy an american drone right now and start using it so i can teach myself but then just me like just allowing myself to spend more money. [00:42:43] Speaker B: Just because it's built austin what would that be like for you as an applicator to spend sixty thousand dollars on a crappier drone like what would what would that experience be like for you. [00:42:54] Speaker C: Oh man it'd be so hard yeah spend more money for something that's not as good but and then also you always have that that more of that fear factor of crashing like what are you going to do like one if. [00:43:06] Speaker B: Everything else risk is a lot the. [00:43:08] Speaker C: Risk is a lot higher and then you know that you're i mean parts are probably going to be more expensive because they're going to be all manufactured in the in the us so there's just that whole like it's you're not going to feel as free to you know it was just like with a you know the t sixty x that i that i put down and we were in kentucky like it was amazing accidentally hit a line and because i didn't try it obviously but the whole thing repaired for under a thousand bucks like you're not going to have that same type of repair or crash you know if you're you're spending sixty thousand dollars on a drone like i don't it's just it's going to be way. [00:43:45] Speaker A: Riskier because those things happen yeah it's just going to be the biggest thing is to to reshift our minds of what something costs i think that's going to be the hardest thing and that. [00:43:57] Speaker B: Means also reshifting what you charge per. [00:43:59] Speaker A: Acre which then yeah there's no way that you're going to be able to charge more per acre than what we're charging currently you can't how how are you how are you going to do do that the farmers don't even want to pay what we're charging right now they want to pay less it could. [00:44:16] Speaker B: Be farmers choose not to i just don't know if you have drones that cost double and they also cost no. [00:44:23] Speaker A: Everybody'S going to make less everybody's going. [00:44:25] Speaker B: To make less but at some point. [00:44:26] Speaker A: It'S not worth it it's still worth it more than it is to run an airplane and you know be having a two million dollars airplane that's the thing i think the margins are so good right now with drones that everybody's just going to have to make less. [00:44:40] Speaker B: Just because you have more invested in your equipment and your roi is less. [00:44:44] Speaker C: I mean and there's that the other side of it too where it's like if you i mean maybe the equipment's not as good but it's the application going to be not as good like how are you going to convince a farmer to pay more just because your equipment costs you more but actually might not do as good of an application like there's just no way i mean unless you can unless you can prove that your application is going to be. [00:45:07] Speaker A: That much better i do not see how you're going to in the future increase the cost to the farmer yeah. [00:45:14] Speaker B: And i don't think i disagree with you i'm just seeing the roi i'm seeing probably a lot more people that will choose not to get into it and won't that like by definition like the one drone guy the five drone guys in the county that are doing it instead of the fifty or whatever maybe it's instead of twenty they're booked out and so that means next like next season the price goes up because they're going to get enough acres whether. [00:45:36] Speaker A: It'S seventeen or eighteen but again the farmer looks at what he gets yeah. [00:45:42] Speaker B: Like it has to make sense for. [00:45:43] Speaker A: The farmer one hundred percent did you watch that video i sent you guys where a youtuber did a really good breakdown his fungicide cost him yeah that's. [00:45:52] Speaker C: That one yeah that was a good. [00:45:53] Speaker A: Video it just doesn't even make sense to him at that point like he's literally losing money and i don't know. [00:45:59] Speaker B: If a sixty thousand dollars drone is what tips it over the scale but if the farmer doesn't make money he's not doing it if the applicator doesn't make money he's not doing it yeah it's just how how our economy works. [00:46:08] Speaker A: So but i think what i'm saying is the margins we're going to release a video and i'm still on the fence if we're going to release the video but it's going to show you the margins that we actually make by spraying these acres if you're efficient if everything goes good if if if there's a lot of but if it goes good the margins are really good so you're just going to have to make. [00:46:32] Speaker B: Less and yeah maybe yeah yeah i mean i agree you can't put your price up to the point where a farmer won't pay for it but i. [00:46:39] Speaker C: Was i was just talking to a guy that picked up a trailer he's from the the midwest i mean in ohio we think we're from the midwest but like this is midwest kansas flatland and obviously i mean what he was telling me prices were you know a lot less what we would make here in the east but i still wonder like because of the type of fields and the efficiency like even though can. [00:47:03] Speaker A: You imagine what we would make there. [00:47:05] Speaker C: Though yeah like i told him don't don't worry about that like you're going to be able to be more efficient than what we can here you're going to still make good money even though your prices are low one hundred percent. [00:47:16] Speaker A: Okay perfect example i went to kansas and i we see sat the trailer sat at one location and you could have done five hundred acres at one location no moving yesterday yesterday we did three hundred ninety two acres yep we did three hundred ninety two acres we moved seven times yeah no six seven was your guess we moved six times to do three hundred ninety two acres moved meaning drove yep the truck anywhere from ten minutes to twenty one minutes to get to the next location to get your drones open up to get flying again every time the fields yeah and we started you know we didn't start till eight am and we were done by two three what was three four thirty something like that four thirty we were done it was like we were putzing around we did three hundred ninety two acres and if you charge thirteen bucks an acre and he was charging more this is this is what you would have done yesterday five thousand bucks and we were putzing around and we moved six times and if you would have one location in kansas let's yeah let's say it's six hundred acres it's a six hundred forty a mile square i would probably set up on the bottom side i'd split it into fours and i'd move up the road as i'm you know so it's not ferrying back as much and if i if i charge you know eight dollars let's do nine dollars it's still five thousand dollars how much could we get done there's just no knowing i bet you could still do ten thousand bucks a day at eight dollars an acre because you do a six hundred forty you would do that in you would do that in six hours you do twelve hundred acres i guarantee you you could average twelve hundred acres we were. [00:49:06] Speaker B: In about fifteen hour fifteen hours a. [00:49:10] Speaker A: Week yeah fifteen hour day yep i think so i think that's true so even at even at eight bucks eight bucks an acre i mean look at look what's your overhead yeah start what's your overhead it's not that much that's why i'm so hesitant if we actually release the numbers because then if the farmers find out or if the other applicators find out and they're like now the farmer doesn't want to pay me sixteen bucks an acre because you just told them you know this is how. [00:49:40] Speaker B: Much you made okay yeah that's fair the other thing that goes with it is you have one two three months to like make all your money for the year one hundred so if you could do that every day the pricing would be totally different but because you have such a constrained season then you you i mean you got it for it to make sense so what do you think the average length is but. [00:50:01] Speaker A: That'S where you know custom app joe that going to do it as a seasonal job he's he's going to be a nurse the rest of the year and he's going to come in take two months off and come in and undercut you and he's still going to. [00:50:12] Speaker B: Make money yep that that is not a bad setup right have something else. [00:50:16] Speaker C: One hundred percent at what point does the price have to drop low enough though that airplane guys can't do it anymore because like at some point that's going to have to level out because. [00:50:27] Speaker A: Yeah just the over overhead that the airplane has you had mentioned it kevin one other time that there's this what is it called the kind of like beef between the drones and the airplanes it shouldn't be like that but it's kind of like that i know that the airplane guys were dropping their price because drone guys were coming in being less but like you said there's going to be a time that the airplane cannot cannot do it but the drone is actually still profiting yeah yeah and. [00:50:58] Speaker C: I think there's going to be a time when guys actually start seeing the results of the drone and if it's actually that if it's actually going to help them out more when they're producing their their crop then even if they have to pay more for the drone they're going to eventually get to that point where they're going to do that. [00:51:15] Speaker A: Yeah and there's going to be another thing that sets farmers apart like there's it just happened to me this morning i felt so bad for him i apologize multiple times there's a local guy that wants to start spraying he has t forties has a trailer set up not a new way trailer set you know who knows what he looks like but he wants acres and i was going to give him some acres and it was on the schedule to start spraying that this morning totally forgot to tell him i was out spraying last night till ten o' clock totally forgot to tell him don't show up at that field he showed up there this morning he's like hey are we doing this and i was like sorry we're not doing it but if you wanted to you're there you can boundary he has t forties i said put a gallon of water in do a half gallon acre just fly the boundary and get the border made so you're ready to go when it's time to rip and he was like well he doesn't have a repeater he doesn't know if he can get back there with a t forty and he's brand new brand new at this and he's trying to figure out how am i going to boundary this then he says well i can just boundary it on my controller i said we don't like to do it like that anymore because we want to provide the best application for the farmer out there if i do a manual plus like we've been doing it i without a doubt know exactly where that drone flew next to that tree it's between fifteen and twenty five feet next to the tree guaranteed because i manually flew it next to it it's not dropping a boundary point like on your google image thinking that you're twenty five feet from the tree so farmers are going to start learning who does the best application and if it's new ag that flies the boundary flies it physically flies it while spraying knowing that they're between fifteen and twenty five feet away from the trees or the power line or the structure whatever it is that's the company they're going to want to use they don't want to use that company that pulls in their boundaries so far to protect themselves from the trees that they're not getting the coverage that they would get with the other guy that would fly manually so i i told the farmer hey there's this guy that showed up i forgot to tell him he's like well if he wants something to do i got twenty thirty forty acres for him does he have any experience i said no he's like he didn't want it he said i'll give him something just to get his feet wet but he would never allow him to spray his acres then i was like whoa i forget sometimes what we have and it was an opportunity that somebody else gave me to step in underneath him right that company believed in him not me and he was willing to say hey mike i have some acres would you want to come spray it and because he gave that opportunity to me i was able to log those hours i was able to log those acres boom instant confidence booster for myself and for the farmer because now the farmer knows because haven't i told you before it's like if i go up to a farmer and i talk to him about acres it's the confidence that i have to tell him i don't care that you have fifteen hundred acres i'll smoke that stuff in two days i don't care then he's like whoa like you're that confident you can actually get it done okay i'm confident in you but if you come up there and you're like i'm a drone spray pilot i i've never sprayed before but i think i can do your acres like no nope not doing it not interesting yeah so yeah. [00:54:39] Speaker B: So that's a hard journey then for somebody starting out it's the biggest this. [00:54:43] Speaker A: Is the biggest holdup right now for new entrepreneurs that have zero farming experience that want to have a spray drone business is how do i get acres under my belt how do i build confidence to tell the farmer what i can do for him and i think it you you have to think that you're going to be the best applicator out there because there's going to be people that do this operation in your area how can you do it better and plus when i told him no we fly all our boundaries in m plus and we spray that boundary then i can tell the farmer with confidence this is what we've done that's good i didn't think about it until this. [00:55:26] Speaker B: Morning that's good yep yeah yeah and. [00:55:28] Speaker C: And you know that's something you know you you kind of in the same situation you gave me that opportunity last year yep we went out to indiana sprayed some wheat just kind of getting our our feet wet you coached me through it you helped me kind of you know learn the process and then we went out to indiana again for the for the real you know fungicide season on the corn and it wasn't more than my second batch through which my second batch was like a nine hundred acre batch that i got a call from the co op and said hey i'm managing so many different like helicopters other drone rigs i don't have time to go back and look at every single applicator to make sure that they got everything i noticed that you got everything on this last nine hundred acres i'm putting you on my like top applicator list and i'm not going to check up on you anymore like i know that you can get it done yeah and and so you build that trust and that confidence but you know that he was checking up on me kind of like okay is this guy going to actually do you know what he says he's doing and it's like the same thing when we went down to kentucky there was a guy down there he's like he didn't hear of any drone pilot down there that could do more than one hundred fifty acres a day and it was like. [00:56:38] Speaker B: That and that's shocking that is so shocking that's a that's a real thing. [00:56:42] Speaker C: Yeah yeah and it was and madison and i ended up doing like finishing up that two hundred acres and just. [00:56:48] Speaker A: Yeah i was like it's a it's a little filler job we'll come do it right away and he was like oh well the other guy would have been here for a few days yeah yeah yeah yeah it's it's true i do feel i feel for some of these guys that are getting started and when he reached out to me right he's doing drone deer recovery and i was like you know what i want to give this guy an opportunity he's trying to get into an industry he knows nothing about as far as farming he's a great like entrepreneur he he can talk to people but i think the biggest thing that is hindering him right now is he has no acres under his belt no acres and so after thinking about this i think that's probably going to be a lot of people's holdup is just getting those first thousand acres i think it literally just takes one thousand acres under your belt to let you build that confidence to start going out and talking to farmers yeah i mean he's talking to farmers but it's just not turning into acres. [00:57:52] Speaker B: So i mean did you give him any advice on what to do like what would be your advice to him to talk to farmers oh just like how does he get started then there. [00:58:01] Speaker A: Is a farm he is hustling so. [00:58:03] Speaker B: Tell me if this is a bad idea but a thousand acres like for somebody who's new that's a week's worth of work right if you have t forties like a thousand acres yeah probably so why why would you not go up to farmers and say let me just do your acres for free i will charge you nothing this year like in a week's time you could solve. [00:58:22] Speaker A: That problem if they would do it see i i just wonder if the farmer would do it if if if you say it's free and you have no experience are they actually going to put the chemical in your hands because they still have to pay the for the chemical yep i wonder if they. [00:58:38] Speaker B: Do it i wonder too but if they would that's how you do it because a week's worth of like free work you know you build some connections and if they don't do it see. [00:58:46] Speaker A: I'M not in those shoes anymore the only thing i could tell him is would he be willing to do that and if so can you go out and sell a thousand acres for free or is it done right now the fungicide season is done it's like people already have their their people lined up that they're going to want to have done the only other thing he could do is go sell pasture land go sell one thousand acres of pasture land are you doing a thousand acres for. [00:59:14] Speaker B: Free if it's a week's worth of work and it gets you over the hump to where you can start monetizing because guys can go on in this stage of kind of being stuck for months like six weeks and they're just kind of like they can't get going just grind it out do a week's worth of work like for your community. [00:59:29] Speaker C: I wouldn't do or you saying i wouldn't do a thousand acres for the same farmer i would go do forty acres for one farmer say hey observe particularly with pasture land those are easy results to see pretty quickly say hey let me do forty acres let me just do forty acres of that and then go to the next guy do forty acres and then cause and then you're establishing you know belief or confidence in ten farmers that you can do this if you do you know but to do it all for one farmer. [01:00:00] Speaker A: I don't think guys i just think we with the reach that we have it's become so easy for us we will never be a rookie again with what they're dealing with but if we can put ourselves in their shoes and try to help them figure out how to get over that hump i think that could be so beneficial for so many people but if we think about where we were spraying there's another trailer right in that area why why weren't they doing some of those acres you know like they could charge way less they're right there doing it it's hard it's hard to say and some farmers once they have made a commitment to somebody and they've been doing it for so many years they don't care i'm just using the guy that i know he has my field boundaries he knows what i need done on it he's going to get it done i don't have to check on him they just don't want to have that worry of switching over to a new guy that might not know where his field boundaries are might not understand this and that yep just don't want to deal with it especially when after talking to him this morning i was like man i feel bad i feel bad for people that are just starting out that can't get acres because they have zero acres zero experience and after talking to the farmer he's like i would not put him on any of my big fields if he has no experience does that mean you wouldn't put him on any of big fields paying him dollar zero i should call him should i call him be like i mean be like hey are you willing to do these acres for free for the experience because if you are the farmer is willing but if you are not the farmer is not that would be crazy i. [01:01:43] Speaker B: Mean yeah yep but going back to the cost of like what would it actually cost him to do forty acres for like or this twenty forty acre field whatever it is for the farmer his hard cost would be what huh. [01:01:54] Speaker A: I mean driving there diesel in his truck he's about an hour hour and ten minutes away from the field diesel in his truck and gas in his. [01:02:02] Speaker B: Generators i mean are we talking one. [01:02:04] Speaker A: Hundred bucks i would maybe one hundred and fifty on the high end hard. [01:02:08] Speaker B: Cost yeah so even if it's like you know i mean i don't know like pay me two hundred bucks and i'll just i just i'm doing it for the experience pay me two hundred bucks to cover my fuel and gas and expenses and let me just come out and do this for you and. [01:02:22] Speaker A: Or no i get it i get. [01:02:24] Speaker B: It but like i think from your experience you're saying it the way you were able to talk to farmers and how you were able to be confident and communicate with farmers it was so different a thousand after a thousand acres the whole game changes yeah so it's how do we help people get to a thousand acres yep yeah so i. [01:02:40] Speaker C: Mean i talked to a guy stopped in at a co op last year when i was trying to pick up more acres and i was like you know saying hey i have this whole drone set up and blah blah blah and i could tell i wasn't getting his interest and and i was like yeah i sprayed eight thousand acres last season in about twenty four twenty five five days and all of a sudden he's like do you have a card let's talk later on in the year i'm not thinking about fungicide right now but call me back but like all of a sudden when i said that eight thousand acres that's what i did in that amount of time he was all of a sudden interested yeah but. [01:03:15] Speaker A: Before the problem is a lot of people have either had a drone or have heard of a drone that tried to spray some acres and they had a bad experience like myself right i was spraying for a farmer had one xag crashed the sucker got maybe one hundred and a quarter acres done in that day bad experience right farmer's gonna tell other farmer guy drones either don't work or it's be careful and then. [01:03:46] Speaker C: That'S why it is so risky to only have one drone like even if you have a t fifty and then just buy used forty by using thirty or parts parts something backup whatever i. [01:04:00] Speaker A: Mean we were doing it yesterday yeah right we had a solenoid go bad or a pipe burst on the on the one drone it's like we had another drone in the back we just pulled off of there so we could keep running but then you tell the next guy he has to buy two drones instead of one he's like oh geez this is not going to work and now here we're telling them how hard it is to get acres and and it's like i'm not going to sugarcoat this thing anymore like this is like this is hard it's hard and once you get over that hump it's easy it's hard and then it's easy you have the anchors you have the confidence you have the equipment you know what you can get done and now you can tell them what you want to charge yeah it's like i don't know what his name is for sure i think he's in virginia he's been doing it for many many years more than me has more experience than me he knows what he's worth he will charge them out of the backside for doing specialty work and will just rake it in on eza but he can do that now he has the experience he's done it but for the new. [01:05:03] Speaker C: Guy i think the challenge is or the hurdle some guys have to get over is the fact that knowing that you could pay off your rig in a month makes it feel like if you can't pay it off in two to three years feels like a bad deal but when you look in the scope of starting a business being able to pay something off in two to three years actually isn't a bad deal so that the thing that that gets people stuck is like oh my goodness if i'm not able to pay off my rig in that first year that first month of spring i must be a failure i must be falling apart and no it's like some guys are going to start slower but it's like you said it is hard hard hard until all of a sudden it just becomes easier and easier and i just think that i think guys that are getting into it have to be aware of that you know it might be slower but you're still going to be able to pay this business off a lot quicker than a lot of other. [01:05:56] Speaker A: Businesses out there yeah i do know this after talking to a guy that came to the shop buying parts for his crash t fifty we just had a good conversation and he's like mike people won't do what you do you were raised differently you were just raised differently and you we make it look easy but i think the lord blessed us like me and jay and austin it just clicks right it just clicks like we we maneuver the drone without even thinking about how to make the drone do what we're trying to make it do like it just comes like when i see somebody land and they're like coming over coming down going over coming down going do it do it just so we just we just fast fast fast like yeah and it just comes and he's like mike yeah you just grew up differently and you do things differently and so to expect people to do what you do probably not. [01:06:56] Speaker C: Gonna happen this kind of brings up there was one time that i was taken off for the trailer and i did it on a auto mission and i should have just manually started the drone because i was going under the wire and so you have to like disengage the like the auto going out there and i mean that drone was sitting there for two seconds and i and i just saw a glance from mike being like what is what are you what are you doing like i'm just like you know it's just you get so used to to those drones you're just doing it that anytime there's like a little hiccup that you're like slowed down for two seconds it's like hey what's going on like everybody's kind of aware that some this drone is like sitting there for like two seconds and it's like what's going on yeah it's kind of it was kind of a funny moment i don't even know if you realize that you did that but i just know that like i got that glance from you and i'm like okay i got this it's just a little different here but you know you just get used to it and it's the same thing too it's like i noticed you know a few times that it's just like you're aware that even for two seconds if something different out of the normal is happening with that drone you just your self awareness goes up because it's like what's going on you know yeah just hey this has been a pretty long podcast now. [01:08:10] Speaker A: Yeah we could get in the probably a whole podcast just about experience but i would still tell people that if you're going to do this like there is a way it's hard but i think if once you get through that that first thousand acres you start building confidence it'll all be worth it but. [01:08:30] Speaker B: Yeah and i really wish that i mean this is a great conversation and i really wish that we had more ways to support the under one thousand entrepreneur like that's that's on my mind is if you know if it's really really hard and then it's really easy how do we help people you know gain the confidence and experience and what would we recommend so that's it was. [01:08:50] Speaker A: Like that one video you wanted to do you wanted to go out buy the equipment go get the acres like. [01:08:56] Speaker B: See for myself what it's like to go talk to a farmer never having actually sprayed acres myself yeah and i. [01:09:03] Speaker A: Bet i bet you would learn so much just like you did when you went with me to kentucky you were like man that is a miserable phone setup system you got within with within a half a day you figured out that that's that's miserable and now it's working it's like you would learn yeah those things right there that holy crap like this is actually hard to get acres because i know that the guy that was showed up at the field this morning he's a go getter he gets up early he goes does deer recovery through the night he does all these things why is he not getting acres he doesn't have the experience but we give him the experience hear this you know this season right now he can put that in his belt he can walk up to a farmer with confidence yeah yep yeah so i'm gonna. [01:09:46] Speaker C: Just circle way back just because you were kind of closing this this part of the conversation but because we were talking about the whole dji docs and stuff like that you guys were talking and yapping and i was doing some research just looking finding it kind of interesting and i'm just going to bring this back into it just since we were talking about it but after the north carolina incident natural disaster this is according to the internet who knows if it's all true or whatever there were thirteen docks deployed and used down there post management and the way that i kind of understand it is you can apply through an agency for special governmental interest amendment that's going to help you bypass a lot of those things that you would normally fly under your part one of seven so like restricted airspace beyond visual line of sight and i think that's how they were actually able to do this but they were using this to help monitor like flood areas areas that needed to be rebuilt looking for vehicles that were flooded or you know lost persons or whatever so they're they're actually able to do this and from my understanding just what i looked at bypass a lot of your normal regulations because of the procedures that are put in place for like emergency situations like that so i don't know that. [01:11:00] Speaker A: Was just so our attorney was actually talking to me about something like this if we would have had this drone issue stuff that we're dealing with right now if this would have been during COVID there was a special law that would have allowed us to be exempt from a lot of this stuff because of how the law during that time allowed for emergency situations to be written. [01:11:27] Speaker B: Literally and that's since then changed no. [01:11:29] Speaker A: Longer the case yeah because we're covered up and left on was it like december sixteenth it was like at a certain day it left gone yeah it. [01:11:37] Speaker C: Was nice of nice of it to. [01:11:39] Speaker A: Leave yeah we're glad it's not here anymore yeah oh man no that's good alrighty that was that was a good combo yeah that it that's it yeah. [01:11:51] Speaker B: That'S good that's good mike that that like you're thinking on that and your feeling of that it's like it's so good to experience again firsthand yep.