From Thermal Recoveries to 15K Spray Acres – Drone Pilot Life | The DroneOn Show Ep 37

[00:00:00] Speaker A: We're just gonna get right into it, folks. Welcome back to another episode. We have Henry with us, a local thermal drone pilot in the area and also an agricultural spray drone pilot. So welcome back to the podcast because you have been on it before. I did an interview with you at the. Where was that? Columbus deer in Turkey. [00:00:16] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:00:17] Speaker A: Yep. It was a little loud there. I'm gonna say that that audio was out of control, but, hey, we dealt with it. You've been doing a lot of thermal stuff here locally. Wanted to talk to you about spray drones because you've been flying some spray drones with Dennis, another local pilot here that does training with us. How was that transition, or how different is it flying a spray drone compared to an Enterprise drone like your thermal? [00:00:40] Speaker B: It's really not that much difference. Yeah, like, surprisingly. I mean, definitely. They got a little more lag. They're more weight, but you just got to work them. Yeah, like, they. It's the same. It's the same thing. So I caught onto it pretty quick, and it really didn't take that long. I thought it would take a while for me to be comfortable with it, and it really didn't take that long. Like, they're not that hard to fly. [00:01:00] Speaker A: If you would, because you had hundreds and hundreds of hours on an Enterprise drone, transitioning was easier. But approximately how much time do you think was? 15 hours, 10 hours, 50 hours until you got comfortable flying a spread. [00:01:12] Speaker B: About 10 hours. [00:01:13] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah. And that's what I would expect if you're coming from a drone that you already know the fundamentals of it, and you've been flying in mode two and you switch on to mode two with your dji spray drones is going to be very similar. [00:01:25] Speaker B: Yeah. The manual plus, took me a little bit longer to figure out, but the basics of it was. I mean, it wasn't that. [00:01:32] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [00:01:33] Speaker B: It really wasn't. [00:01:34] Speaker A: Let's address the voice, because your voice usually isn't. Isn't like this. You were out late doing deer recoveries. [00:01:40] Speaker B: Yep. [00:01:41] Speaker A: Probably yelling. [00:01:42] Speaker B: Is that why I was. I was completely yelling, like, like two in the morning, bear hugging everybody. Because this deer was not going to be found. And then it was found. [00:01:52] Speaker A: Dog. How long did you fly for that one? [00:01:55] Speaker B: It was. It was only about 20 minutes. [00:01:56] Speaker A: Oh, okay. [00:01:57] Speaker B: But they thought it was like 100% a dead deer. And we start flying and there's no dead deer. And they're like, dude, we're not going to find this deer. And I mean, they had the whole family there, all the. The kids, two in the morning they had everybody there. And so I'm really like, I don't want to mess this up. Like, I'm going to find your deer. And after, you know, they had told me which way it went after flying there a little bit, they were just like, nah, we're not gonna find it. Well, we did find it, and it was between the challenge of not falling on the ice and hugging everybody and just screaming, it was, dude, that's cool. [00:02:32] Speaker A: Why. Why did you not get there till 2 o' clock in the morning? [00:02:34] Speaker B: Because I had another call. [00:02:36] Speaker A: Ah, look at that. [00:02:37] Speaker B: That was my second call. [00:02:38] Speaker A: Wow. [00:02:38] Speaker B: So, I mean, literally both these calls came in. Probably they came in within five minutes of each other. [00:02:44] Speaker A: Okay. [00:02:45] Speaker B: And so, you know, it just worked out. They knew this one was probably a liver shot. The other one was like, I'm 90% sure it's a shoulder shot. And so I ended up going to the guy that called me second first, because the other guy was like, I want to make sure my deer's dead. [00:02:59] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:02:59] Speaker B: And both of them were, like, not thinking. I mean, they were like, you might find it, but odds are you're probably not going to. Yeah, they thought that they had jumped it, and, well, I did find both of them. [00:03:10] Speaker A: Dog on it. We're going to get into more of these recovery stories because I feel like you've been doing a ton of them. I'm going to go back to the agricultural spray drones because a lot of people that tune into the podcast, they. They're thinking about maybe getting into a spray drone business or want to fly for somebody. And so your experience, right, you've. You've never flown a spray drone. You get with Dennis, you get. You get on his crew, and you guys just start hammering the acres. [00:03:36] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:03:37] Speaker A: Did you do much training prior to going out in the field? You did like a shadow? [00:03:41] Speaker B: Yep, I did. I did ride along, like, once or twice, and that was it. [00:03:45] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. Dude. I try to tell people that you shouldn't be intimidated to fly spray drones. Yes, they are much bigger drones and they could do more damage if it hits you. But honestly, they are very stable. And if you fly any other type of drone prior to getting a spray drone, it's not going to be that difficult. [00:04:04] Speaker B: No. [00:04:04] Speaker A: How many acres did you cover with Dennis this year? [00:04:06] Speaker B: 15,000. [00:04:07] Speaker A: 15,000. Holy smokes. Between how many states? [00:04:12] Speaker B: That was Ohio, Kentucky, Illinois, and Indiana. [00:04:16] Speaker A: Geez. Always hours. What. What's a normal. What were your guys's hours like when. [00:04:22] Speaker B: You were running from before sun up to after sundown? A lot of times we were spraying into the night, so we were averaging probably 14 to 16 hour days pretty easily. [00:04:31] Speaker A: Yeah. And most of this work was fungicide work on corn. [00:04:34] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:04:34] Speaker A: Yeah. Give us. Give me just a typical day, what it would look like. Get up early in the morning. Are you cleaning your drones every night? Just kind of walk me through what that would look like. [00:04:45] Speaker B: Yeah. So I'm. I mean, getting up in the morning, which is kind of funny too, because I, like, as weird as it may sound, I kind of like the work schedule because it's like we're up at 5 in the morning, and, you know, it's like you got very little time where it's like, okay, well, you know what? I'm gonna grab a sandwich or I'm gonna grab breakfast. Other times you ain't got time. You just stumble out the door. [00:05:05] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [00:05:05] Speaker B: But we get out on the trailer and we tried to be at the field at sunup, because typically, actually in the morning, right at sunup is when you're best spraying. I mean, everything's as calm as it can be, and then we just hit it as hard as we can, hit it as fast as we can hit it. Because a lot of times you're messing with weather. [00:05:22] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [00:05:22] Speaker B: And so you've got to try and beat the weather depending on what's coming. And in the perfect conditions, you spray literally from sun up to sundown. [00:05:31] Speaker A: Yeah. How much did weather have an effect on you guys this year where you were, you actually started your day off and. And things are going good, and then either the wind just picks too much and. And the farmer wants you to shut down, or you get rain moving in. Yeah. How. How much of that affected you? [00:05:47] Speaker B: It really wasn't that bad. [00:05:48] Speaker A: Okay. [00:05:48] Speaker B: Like, there were times we had to shut it down for a period, but not like, for the whole day. There was very few days where we didn't. Where we couldn't spread. [00:05:55] Speaker A: Okay. [00:05:56] Speaker B: So it. You know, some days were a little spotty, but the average day really wasn't that bad. [00:06:01] Speaker A: Whose job was it on the crew to keep an eye on the weather? Did. Did you all three try to do that, or was it one guy mostly keeping eye on that? [00:06:10] Speaker B: No, we all three of us did. [00:06:12] Speaker A: Okay. [00:06:12] Speaker B: And then if we didn't like the one weather station, we'd go to the other one, the other one typically looks better. [00:06:17] Speaker A: Okay. All right, I like that. Yeah. So you weren't using just one source to tell you the weather, which is a very great pointer for people that are wanting to get into this. Don't just believe one source. Definitely have. I usually have two to three sources that I'm checking. Although I have. I have landed on Wendy.com. it's a red app. It says Wendy on it. I have found in the last two years that that sucker is super, super accurate. [00:06:43] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:06:43] Speaker A: I don't know why that is. So I've walked away from, like, the Weather Channel. What. What ones do you like using? [00:06:49] Speaker B: I have just the. The standard Apple 1. The. The weather Channel. But I did find the Weather Channel just. It's too wishy washy. Yeah, it really is. [00:06:57] Speaker A: Why. Why do you think that is? [00:06:59] Speaker B: I don't know. [00:07:00] Speaker A: It almost feels like they just say whatever they want it is. [00:07:03] Speaker B: And I'm. You know where I really got caught onto that was there would literally be. Some days we'd be spraying. Might say, like my drone or my app would say 15% chance of rain and we see a storm brewing. [00:07:14] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:07:14] Speaker B: And so Dennis would go on another app and. And it would be like, hey, we're getting up to like 80% chance of rain in 10 minutes. Like, we got to shut everything down. And in five minutes, it's pouring. [00:07:24] Speaker A: Oh, geez. [00:07:24] Speaker B: You know, and. And literally my drone or my app is still saying nothing. 10%. [00:07:30] Speaker A: Geez. [00:07:30] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:07:31] Speaker A: So the. The other one that I like using, because I'm a pilot, I use Foreflight, and Foreflight basically helps me do cross country planning. Has a weather. It has unbelievable amount of information, but I think it's like 100 bucks a year. So I would check on Wendy. I get an idea of what it's saying, and then I go to the. The nearest airport. To me, if you're spraying out there, there's usually a county airport or whatever. And then I. I get their Metar reading or their TAF reading, and that. That'll give me an idea based on the weather happening right then and there, because that's what type of reading you're getting. So typical day you get up, you. You're spraying all. All throughout the day. It gets hot out there. People don't realize it gets. It gets hot out there. But you guys were running on a mostly white trailer or like a white deck. And it actually is a big difference. [00:08:19] Speaker B: Huge. [00:08:19] Speaker A: Did you get. Did you get to run on a trailer that did not have the white. No. You should now. Now that you've been running on a white run on a one like ours where. Where it's like the gray tops. Yeah. Yeah. Dude, how'd you deal with the heat? [00:08:34] Speaker B: It was no Problem. I didn't like the bees. Those little bees that I learned. You don't want to wear shorts. Yeah, definitely don't wear shorts, because those bees they call. They just drove me crazy. [00:08:43] Speaker A: Like sweat bees. [00:08:44] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:08:45] Speaker A: Okay. [00:08:45] Speaker B: I mean, like, you'd have swarms of them come through and land on your legs and. [00:08:49] Speaker A: Oh, geez. [00:08:50] Speaker B: Nah. Drive you crazy, huh? [00:08:52] Speaker A: I. The first year I was running in Indiana, one of my guys that was helping me was wearing shorts. Day one. He did not wear shorts after that. [00:08:59] Speaker B: I wore them for, like, two weeks. [00:09:01] Speaker A: Oh, you did? You must have not been going and getting drones like we were the first year. [00:09:05] Speaker B: No, I left that to Dennis. I told her to go get the bike. No, I did have to help get one. [00:09:09] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, tell us about that. You had a drone go down. [00:09:12] Speaker B: I did, yep. Hit a power line. And, you know, I'm not gonna blame the mapping guy too bad. Yeah, he didn't map it out, but if I would have been paying attention, I could have caught it too. But we were in the process of moving a bunch of stuff around, and I set my drone down. It's on autopilot. It's flying, and I hear, beep, beep, beep, beep. I'm looking. [00:09:30] Speaker A: So it did sense the line for a little bit. [00:09:32] Speaker B: Yep, it did sense it, but. But it was spraying full speed. [00:09:36] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:09:36] Speaker B: Didn't have time to react. [00:09:37] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:09:37] Speaker B: Flew right into it. I look over just in time to see this thing crash. And I told that. I said, well, our first drone's down. It was like the first week. [00:09:44] Speaker A: Wow. Did it get it hung up in the line or it went all the way to the ground? It. [00:09:48] Speaker B: So it hit the line, stabilized itself, and then landed into the. [00:09:51] Speaker A: Oh, no way. [00:09:52] Speaker B: So it didn't even blow it up, which was impressive. [00:09:55] Speaker A: Wow. [00:09:55] Speaker B: Really impressive. [00:09:56] Speaker A: It. It is impressive how fast these drones can try to correct themselves if something is going haywire. So the drone went down. Did you. Did you have to fix something on it? [00:10:05] Speaker B: Yeah, props. [00:10:06] Speaker A: Just propellers. That's it. [00:10:07] Speaker B: That was pretty. Well, I mean, there was, like, the landing gear was bend a little bit. It. You know, from the weight of the tank, it punched it hold in the tank. But it wasn't nothing like we were flying at the same day. [00:10:16] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, yeah. Did you just not fill the tank then completely full or. [00:10:20] Speaker B: Yeah, well, we had a spare tank we had to replace. [00:10:22] Speaker A: Oh, you replace the tank. Did you bend the landing gear by yourself or just put new landing gear on? We. [00:10:28] Speaker B: We tried to bend it back, and then we ended up breaking the Landing gear. So we just got. [00:10:31] Speaker A: Oh. Because it is aluminum. It is. It's like, if it's bent too much, it's really hard to get that stuff back. [00:10:37] Speaker B: Yeah. But it took me a little while because I. I had to build my relationship back up with that drone again. It's like, you better not if you crash it. [00:10:45] Speaker A: That. That's true. It. It feels like some drones are just have a little bit of an attitude sometimes. [00:10:50] Speaker B: It does. It does. But, you know, it was. It was really impressive how good they actually responded, you know, like, and we're. [00:10:59] Speaker A: Talking about a T50 specifically. [00:11:00] Speaker B: Like, you're talking 15,000 acres. And we had, like, one crash. I mean, there's other mechanical stuff that you gotta do. [00:11:07] Speaker A: Give me an example. Pumps going out. Pumps going out and getting clogged. [00:11:11] Speaker B: This last year, we had motors going out, so I think we had to change three or four motors. [00:11:16] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Like, the propulsion motors. Yep. Oh, interesting. I wonder why that would be. [00:11:21] Speaker B: Yeah. Or it'd be like, radars. Like, we were flying one night, and we were trying to finish up this one job, and it's back into boonies. No service. Can't get there. And we're like, we're just gonna fly one drone. [00:11:33] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:11:33] Speaker B: And we're flying one drone, and all of a sudden, this drone just decides to eat corn. [00:11:38] Speaker A: What? [00:11:38] Speaker B: And, I mean, just into the corn. I have no idea how the heck we saved it, because it was in the corn chopping corn, and we lifted how much. [00:11:50] Speaker A: How much product was in it. It was. [00:11:53] Speaker B: At that point, it was still about half full. [00:11:55] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah. So that's what saved you guys. Probably when. If it has product in it and it goes into the corn, the motors are spinning faster, chopping up the corn, where if it's not full, then they're not going as fast. [00:12:07] Speaker B: And I mean, literally, we brought it back, and, I mean, Dennis was flying it, and we were both just, like, sweating beads. And we get it back to the trailer. I mean, all the props are green. [00:12:17] Speaker A: Wow. [00:12:17] Speaker B: You can see this thing was shredding corn. [00:12:19] Speaker A: Did it have any corn on it? [00:12:21] Speaker B: Just, like, the mulch. And then we never went back. But I wanted to go back with the. Like, the matrice. [00:12:30] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:12:30] Speaker B: And actually see what it did. [00:12:32] Speaker A: What it did. [00:12:32] Speaker B: But it was dark, and. [00:12:33] Speaker A: Yeah. You had other acres to get covered. You were not worried. [00:12:37] Speaker B: We got to get out of there. [00:12:38] Speaker A: How many guys were on. On the crew that you were working with? [00:12:41] Speaker B: Three guys. [00:12:42] Speaker A: Three guys. So it was a mapping guy. [00:12:45] Speaker B: Yep. [00:12:45] Speaker A: But when we talk mapping, it's not like actually going out and taking pictures and creating a map. We're talking a boundary guy. Building boundaries. [00:12:53] Speaker B: Building boundaries. So, you know, recognizing. [00:12:55] Speaker A: Yeah, Walk us through. Okay. The morning gets started. You and Dennis go on the spray rig. Is the mapping or the boundary guy going by himself or. [00:13:03] Speaker B: So he had the matrice, and he would, you know, he'd go out on his own with a set of batteries, go out to the fields and start, you know, running boundaries, uploading the boundaries. Most of the time, he already had fields ready for the next morning. So Dennis and I could get right to the field and send our drones in and start spraying as fast. [00:13:19] Speaker A: Wait, he was using a Matrice to build the boundaries? [00:13:22] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:13:22] Speaker A: Tell us how he did that. [00:13:23] Speaker B: So he would fly. Fly the Matrice over the field, you know, creating your line and then transferring it to the. [00:13:29] Speaker A: Was he flying way up high or, like, down where the spray drones would be going? [00:13:35] Speaker B: Most of the time he was flying high. [00:13:37] Speaker A: Oh. [00:13:37] Speaker B: And then, you know, it center the gimbal and drop down, and you could see exactly where it was going to be with the tree line and everything. Because for service reasons, if he could fly low, he would fly lower, but for the most part, he was flying above. [00:13:49] Speaker A: This is a. This is an interesting way to do boundaries, and it's going to be hard to explain to the listeners of how you guys built the boundaries. So the. The way that they're building boundaries, you. You got to be skilled. [00:14:03] Speaker B: Yep. [00:14:03] Speaker A: Yeah. You gotta be skilled. So I wouldn't recommend it doing this way, but it worked. It did. It obviously did work. [00:14:10] Speaker B: It worked really good. [00:14:11] Speaker A: So we're just not gonna get into more details of how they did it, because basically he had to build the boundaries on his phone then based on the trail that the matrice left. [00:14:20] Speaker B: And you know the interesting thing, sometimes that trail wouldn't match up with Google Maps or even Google Earth, like it would. Sometimes he'd be building a line, and it looked like he's in the tree. [00:14:30] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [00:14:31] Speaker B: And so he would, like, you know, send us a message, be like, hey, keep an eye out on this corner. And we would fly it. There was a couple times it was tight, but nothing. We. I mean. [00:14:40] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [00:14:40] Speaker C: What kind of overlap are we talking here? You said, like, he's building the boundary on the tree line. Yeah. Are we talking about 20 yards or 5 yards? [00:14:47] Speaker B: 5 yards. [00:14:48] Speaker C: 5 yards. [00:14:48] Speaker B: Most of the time it was close, but, you know, like, if you're. If you're drawing, like, on Google Earth, you want to be out in the field some Sometimes that track line for your boundary route was on the tree line. Like, it looked like you're gonna maul trees. [00:15:00] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. [00:15:00] Speaker B: And so with this light or something. [00:15:02] Speaker C: He'S basically just estimating how much space he has if he's flying. Because if he's flying 50 foot higher one time compared to another for his connection, he's still estimating how much space he's looking at in his. In his camera, right? [00:15:19] Speaker B: Yep. [00:15:19] Speaker C: So it's. It's not an exact thing, but he's. He's getting good at. [00:15:22] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:15:23] Speaker C: Figuring out how much room the Ag drone needs to be safe on that boundary route. [00:15:28] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:15:28] Speaker B: And he did it. He did a fantastic job. Like, absolutely unbelievable job, like, in power lines and stuff like that. It was really accurate on power lines. [00:15:37] Speaker A: Wow. [00:15:37] Speaker B: And, you know, because he'd fly above the power lines, and he could line it. Line it up, because most power lines are straight. Most. I say there was. There was some wicked ones. [00:15:46] Speaker A: Huh. That is interesting. We got to get Adam in here, see, get his perspective of what it was like. So Adam would be out building boundaries for you guys so you guys could get to the field and start ripping. Did he run with you guys at all, or was he just literally busy building boundaries? [00:16:03] Speaker B: Most of the time he was pretty busy with the boundaries, but he would get caught up, like, you know, get two, three fields ahead, or we'd be waiting on another batch. He'd come back and fly a third drone or fourth. Sometimes we were flying the fourth one. [00:16:14] Speaker A: Wow. I don't know. Is this a question for Dennis or you. But if. If you were doing it and you have a boundary guy out there anyhow, wouldn't you say it'd be nice if. If there be a. Like, a pickup truck setup that he could just have a. Like, he'd be spraying the boundaries. [00:16:30] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:16:30] Speaker A: And then you wouldn't have to do that. [00:16:33] Speaker B: The pickup truck idea is one of the best ideas I know yet, because there was. What really hindered us this year was we would have to drive way out of the way to spray a 20 acre field. And it wasn't always way out of the way, but it's in the sticks. Like the one where we. Where the drone went into the corn was on top of the hill way back in the middle of nowhere. Like, we could. We ended up having to back the trailer the whole length of the woods out again. Whoa. In the dark. Just because there was. There was no room to turn around. There's power lines everywhere. A pickup truck would have been. You could have Drove right up to the. [00:17:09] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh. Well, it's a good thing that we're working on something like that. [00:17:12] Speaker B: I mean, we. We talked about it on the trail. We. Like, that would be. It would be like if you could just have a pickup truck and run to these little fields alone. [00:17:20] Speaker A: Yeah. Have you seen what we're working on? [00:17:22] Speaker B: I did. [00:17:23] Speaker A: Did you? [00:17:23] Speaker B: I did. [00:17:24] Speaker A: Cool. Yeah. I'm excited about that. It's who I did. [00:17:27] Speaker C: Who leaked those photos to you? [00:17:29] Speaker B: I didn't see the full photos. I seen the truck. [00:17:31] Speaker A: Okay. It's. It's, you know, it's one of those things. When I was at the spray drone and user conference last year, you know, the new way trailer, in my opinion is the best spray drone trailer on the market. But talking to a lot more applicators in different scenarios that they're getting into. Pickup truck is what I kept hearing over and, and over. And I was like, dude, it's a great addition to a new way trailer is a pickup setup. And I am so freaking excited to release it. But it's just we. We've literally been working on this thing for almost one full year and we were going to release it and then anyhow, it's close. I agree with you because I didn't think about that either. My first year out there running is some of these just cut up small. Like you got a 15 acre here and a 10 acre and they're about five miles away. Rather than pulling your whole trailer over there, sending a pickup truck over there. [00:18:25] Speaker B: You know, I actually see. I see someone can have a business full time on doing those little fields. [00:18:31] Speaker A: Yeah. Like, if they have the charging more. [00:18:34] Speaker B: Or I think he could really. Because like, if, If I figured in the. If we figured in the time it took us to take the trailer out there to set everything up to fly your one drone. You've got two pilots. [00:18:45] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:18:45] Speaker B: You could pay someone more to get their one rig out there and do it quicker than taking the whole trailer and everything out there. [00:18:52] Speaker A: Okay, so would that be like an additional to the already crew or is the farmer paying more? [00:18:59] Speaker B: I think you could. Like, for example, I think if, if. And. And this was what I was looking at for, you know, in the scenario of last year, if I would have had that pickup truck or let's even say Adam would have had that pickup truck, he could have had his own pickup truck. And Dennis would be like, you know what? This field, I don't want to do this field. I don't want to do this field. I don't want to do and just sending all those fields off like, yeah. [00:19:24] Speaker A: Oh, dude. Yeah, I can see it already. The efficiency is going up. It is like. [00:19:28] Speaker B: It is. Well, not only that, but the amount of people that want their food plots sprayed. No, I see, you know, the food plotting industry I see could really explode with a pickup truck. Think about this. If you have your pickup truck, you can pull a trailer. [00:19:44] Speaker A: Yep. [00:19:44] Speaker B: So, okay, let's go prep the ground. [00:19:47] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:19:47] Speaker B: Seed it. You've got everything in one rig. [00:19:50] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:19:50] Speaker B: Or you can just unhook and go. [00:19:52] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:19:52] Speaker B: Like, I think the pickup trucks just. [00:19:55] Speaker A: So you sound pretty fired up. You're obviously an entrepreneur. You have your own thermal drone business. Are you going to have your own spray drone business, or is Dennis not going to let you do that? [00:20:04] Speaker C: We'll see. [00:20:04] Speaker B: Is he going to buy the T100 this year or not? [00:20:06] Speaker A: I. He sounds pretty convinced. [00:20:08] Speaker B: I talk with about it. Sounds like he will definitely down the road. I think. I think I will. You know, it all depends, obviously, on what works out. And. And I've really enjoyed even just flying, you know, with Dennis and being around it, being involved in it. It's a lot of fun. Yeah. [00:20:24] Speaker A: Invaluable training that you're getting. Not needing to invest your own hundred thousand dollars and being able to learn on his rig. That's super, super value. [00:20:36] Speaker B: And, you know, working with Dennis, he's. He's a good guy to work with, too, dude. [00:20:41] Speaker A: He's a go getter. He's just like us. [00:20:44] Speaker B: And, you know, that. That was the fun thing, was it was as fast as you could go. And. [00:20:49] Speaker A: And. [00:20:49] Speaker B: And that's the other thing, is you've got to have the right. The right type of people, or you're not going to do 15,000 acres. Like, you're just not. [00:20:56] Speaker A: Yep. [00:20:56] Speaker B: And so it's got to be push on both ends. [00:20:59] Speaker A: Yeah. So how. How'd the crew get along for the whole season? Obviously, when you first get the season go on and you're in it for the first two weeks, usually you can make, you know, attitudes work. Did, did. Was there any type of scenario where it's like, okay, guys are drained. They're just sick of it. They've had enough of you. And it's just. Did you have anything boil up like that throughout the season? [00:21:20] Speaker B: I think the worst. Worst boil over is when when Dennis was trying to get the pole out of the air and I was driving the truck across the field. [00:21:29] Speaker A: Oh, no. Tell us. [00:21:31] Speaker B: There's so many. I think he said it on the other Podcast where the drone was coming back and disconnected. And he's like, andrea, I need you to run for the truck. Like, this thing. Because we had a T50 on the trailer. We had one on the ground, and this thing's disconnected, coming back. And this was towards the end of the season. We were both so exhausted. Like, you're just kind of in a daze. We're doing big acres, and the one drone we kept always having service problems. And so we're flying the T40. We're trying to T50. So we've got three drones out. Two of them come back, but the T40 is disconnected, and it's coming back, too, when we can see it. So he's like, run for the truck. So I go in the truck, I get ready, and I'm just, like, in my mind, I'm already visualizing mangle drones. I'm just thinking, this is not good, because we've already had to replace so much of them already. So I start the truck up, I get ready, and I look up, and motors are running, so I can't hear very good. I got my earplugs in still, and Dennis is up there, and I see him grab the pole. I start bringing the pull down. Then he. You know, I see him pause, and he looks at me, and he says, I got it. I got it. Oh. He said, whoa. I got it, I got it. And I thought he was saying, go. Gun it, gun it, gun it. And I just hop in that truck, and I'm like, I'm not mangling this drone. And we just start flying across the field there. Like, I step on it, and, I mean, he just starts screaming louder, and I'm like, well, I guess I better keep on going. [00:22:58] Speaker A: Oh, no. [00:23:00] Speaker B: And we pull up, and finally I'm like, well, that's gotta be far enough. And I look out there, and he's just hanging onto that pole for dear life. And he looks at me, and he says, what in the heck are you thinking? And I said, well, you told me I got it pulled up. He said, that's the last thing I told you to do. And, yeah, as I went up there and I had to grab my remote real quick and get to work. We laugh at it now, but that was probably the worst miscommunication we had. But we got along good, and we had a good time. You were. [00:23:35] Speaker C: You were thinking. He was saying, gun it, gun it. Yeah, he was saying, we're good, we're good. [00:23:39] Speaker B: I got it, I got it. And it's like, I was just. I Think with. And that's why I told him later, I said, you know what? I was listening for what I was expecting to hear. Yeah. And that's what I heard because I mean, the last thing I wanted was more mangled drones. [00:23:53] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah, dude. So I gotta bring up, you guys were out all the time working. How does it work being married and doing this? [00:24:02] Speaker B: That's crazy. You got to have a good wife. You got to have a good wife. You know, for us it's, you got to sacrifice something. You got to be willing to sacrifice. You got to be willing to accommodate. And you know, like my wife, she knows I love flying drones and so she spends a portive the whole way through. And when I told her I want to get into the ag side of it, she's, you know, okay, whatever. [00:24:23] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:24:23] Speaker B: And so when I went with that, she came out, you know, several times. [00:24:27] Speaker A: Okay. [00:24:29] Speaker B: But you know, you, you just got to do it. Yeah, that's just, that's just it. You got to be willing to sacrifice something. And that's why I told her, I said, you know, we've got dreams, we've got stuff we want to do. We've. Obviously you're not going to make money when you're sitting at home, so you've got to figure out what you're willing to sacrifice, you know, and for me, to be honest, I would rather work crazy hours and then play crazy hours than work every day and play every day. [00:24:55] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:24:55] Speaker B: Like, I would rather take six weeks and just work my tail off and then take a week off and go do something else. [00:25:01] Speaker A: Yeah, I couldn't agree more. That's, that's exactly the way I look at it. Because when we're out there running, it's like I do think about my family, but I'm thinking about how do I make really good money for this short period of time, not getting to be around my family much during that time, but then later getting to spend time with the family. [00:25:21] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:25:22] Speaker B: You've got to have an eternal perspective of like what's, you know, this is. You're not looking for tomorrow, you're looking for two years from now. You know, what do you want for your family? [00:25:30] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:25:30] Speaker B: And for me, it's just I struggle going to a 9 to 5 job. Yeah, I just do. [00:25:35] Speaker A: Yeah. And you were doing construction prior to drones. Would you say you are full time pivoted to drones now or do you still do some construction? [00:25:44] Speaker B: I do on the side. Okay. But like between ag drones and thermal drones this year, I've been so Busy. I've been pretty much flying drones every day. [00:25:54] Speaker A: Wow, that's impressive. That's just, it's just so good because, like, we'll hop into it. You just weren't sure if there's enough work for a guy to do drones full time. And I can see your mind spinning already. You're thinking about a niche market that you could get in with spray drones because you're already making all these connections with your thermal drone, doing this work for hunters and you know that they're putting food plots in. Did you see the, the clip go semi viral about the, the corn delivery service? [00:26:23] Speaker B: Yes, dude, I did. [00:26:25] Speaker A: I'm telling you, Henry, I had so. [00:26:26] Speaker B: Many people message me and were like, dude, when are you going to start this? [00:26:30] Speaker A: I'm telling you, Henry, it's a thing. Like I just haven't done it because I don't have the time to. But I'm telling you, a young entrepreneur with some go getter attitude has to do this. [00:26:41] Speaker B: You could. I can't. I had so many people message me and we're like, you need, like this is actually legit. Like you need to start doing this 100%. And I was like, you know, yeah. [00:26:52] Speaker A: So guys, what we're talking about is the agricultural spray drones also can do seeding projects. Well, you just swap the tank with the, the seeding tank and you take the spinner disc off on the bottom and when you hit the spreader, the drone thinks you're going to spread seed, you hit it. Well, it just opens up the gate on the bottom of the drone and corn falls out. So we were talking about doing a corn delivery service and it has to be a thing. My cousin over here, he sells deer corn. This is all like, he grows corn and shells it and puts it in 50 pound bags. And it is insane how much deer corn he's selling like every weekend. He's almost sold out because they can't bag it fast enough. [00:27:40] Speaker B: And that's like, I mean every feed mills like that. [00:27:44] Speaker A: Yeah, but think of the service like the people have to go there, pick up their corn, go to their hunting land, drive back their hunting land, drop it off. I'm telling you, convenience sells. And if people understand how convenient it would be to, you know, call up Henry and be like, hey, I'm planning on hunting in two weeks. Can you get me £400 out there, you know, by this Friday? [00:28:05] Speaker B: And you know what's interesting with that? I already have guys calling me and I had a guy call me from Georgia who's got A lease up here. But he has had zero time to run trail cameras. He has had zero time to do any type of scouting. So he's like, hey, I'm planning on coming up here at the end of this month. I don't even know if it's worth hunting. I have no idea what deer are there. Could you fly your drone and just get an idea of what deer are there? How many deer am I looking at? Stuff like that. So I did send them all the, you know, the, you know, the numbers and stuff. And he was like, you know, it would be so nice if I could have someone up there in the area that, that could run my feeders. [00:28:41] Speaker A: Oh my gosh. [00:28:42] Speaker B: I'm like, like, I'll totally do it. [00:28:44] Speaker A: That's. [00:28:45] Speaker B: I, I told him that. I said I'll totally do it. Like, I have no problem. It's not that far from my house, like, and it's not, I'm telling you. [00:28:51] Speaker A: Run a little like run some ads that this is the service that a guy does and it's, it will be a thing. All I can see right now is a booth at the local expo. You have your drone, you have a little video playing. You show like, you know, hunter sends you a coordinates on your phone and then you get that and you show the drone going to the coordinates and then boom, drop it. [00:29:14] Speaker B: Dropping the corn. Miracle corn. [00:29:16] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:29:17] Speaker B: Yeah. And you're not leaving any scent. [00:29:19] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:29:19] Speaker B: I mean the deer has no idea. [00:29:20] Speaker A: I'm telling you, it, it's going to be a thing. No doubt it's going to be a thing. And out there where you guys live, I just feel there's a ton more hunting that goes. Goes on out there compared to here. [00:29:32] Speaker B: I mean, just everybody hunts. Yes. [00:29:34] Speaker A: And well, and most people bait. If it's, if it's legal, you're going to put a corn pile out. [00:29:39] Speaker B: Yep. [00:29:40] Speaker A: Usually I did find a huge buck last year. It was 190 inch buck private land next to public. Everybody around the private, public land was doing bait piles. But this, this group of guys said, nope, we're not doing bait bounds. And they shot the big one. No doubt. The, the other people had them on their camera, but they ended up getting them. [00:30:00] Speaker B: No doubt. That's crazy. [00:30:02] Speaker A: And that just comes back to. It just depends on how you want your hunting experience to be. Like, some guys want to bait bait. Some guys don't want to run cameras. Don't run cameras. Some guys don't even want to use drones because it's the new technology. They don't Want it? [00:30:15] Speaker B: Well, you know, there's even. There's even more to the. The taking corn out. If you actually were to put a spreader on there. Because there's a lot of people who don't even like corn pile. [00:30:28] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:30:28] Speaker B: They like a spread out. [00:30:29] Speaker A: Yeah, no, I've been spreading mine too. [00:30:31] Speaker B: So like if you were to fly high and you would spread it over, whatever. I'm thinking five, ten. I'm thinking deer season, like gun season. [00:30:39] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:30:39] Speaker B: Like if you were to just kind of spread it throughout the woods. [00:30:42] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:30:42] Speaker B: It wouldn't be a specific pile. [00:30:45] Speaker A: There you go. Oh. [00:30:47] Speaker B: Add it in with their acorn mix. Do you know what I mean? [00:30:50] Speaker A: Yeah. 100%. Yeah. Just put some in the acorn trees. [00:30:53] Speaker B: It would actually make it last longer. They wouldn't just come hog it. They actually be. [00:30:58] Speaker A: Yep. Yeah. So my last pile, or not really pile that I put out, but I took use the drone to do it. I just kind of flew the drone around like this and now It's a huge 15 yard area and they have to like dig around for it. [00:31:13] Speaker B: So I help an outfitter out and that's what we started doing. Just because it actually pulls more deer. [00:31:17] Speaker A: Not with a drone though. [00:31:18] Speaker B: No. [00:31:19] Speaker A: I guarantee you that guy wants a drone now. [00:31:21] Speaker B: Oh, he wants a drone for everything. [00:31:23] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:31:24] Speaker A: Dude, I'm telling you, Henry, you're going to get a drone like a T100 and hoist those suckers out. No more dragging it out. [00:31:31] Speaker B: Oh, that's what he wants to do. He wants to. Okay. So here's the other thing. I'm going to. I'm still going to do it this year. Just because I want to do it is like a food delivery with a. [00:31:40] Speaker A: Drone to the hunter. [00:31:42] Speaker B: Yeah. So there's a shooting house in the field and there's guys who want to hunt all day. [00:31:47] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:31:47] Speaker B: And so everybody keeps talking like, why don't you start a food service? Like just fly it out to me. So I better try it. [00:31:54] Speaker A: You could. With the 30T, there's a drop kit. I have one if you want to use it. [00:31:58] Speaker B: I think it would make it such a cool video. And like if you were to take a look a little baggie or I had tested it with. I put like a 20 foot rope on there, put a little like a lunchbox on there, Put a rock in there so it wouldn't suck up into the props. [00:32:12] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:32:12] Speaker B: Put hamburgers, a soda. I put the whole kit in there and everything. I was going to fly it out and then the hunter's like, now I Got deer around me. And like 15 minutes later, he shot a big buck. [00:32:22] Speaker A: Wow. [00:32:23] Speaker B: So I didn't fly it out. [00:32:24] Speaker A: That's crazy. [00:32:25] Speaker B: But it's something that I've been thinking of, like, that'd be kind of fun, dude, if nothing else would make a good video. [00:32:30] Speaker A: Let's. Let's connect on the. The outfitter and I'll bring a T100 out there and we'll hoist some deer out for him. All right. So he doesn't have to just think about. For an, for an outfitter, it makes sense because they have clients that are coming to pay to hunt on the land. [00:32:46] Speaker B: So if you find it with a. [00:32:47] Speaker A: Thermal drone and hoist them out with. [00:32:49] Speaker B: A drone, if you were to. He is so sold on drones. Like, drones have changed his hunting period. Like, so what, what I started doing when I started working for him and he was really called, I was like, okay, what are your opinions on the thermal drones? I was like, I don't really know him, but I'm going to get one. He's like, well, if you get one, I'll. I'll just pay you salary. [00:33:10] Speaker A: Wow. So you're on. You're a salary contractor for this outfitter. [00:33:15] Speaker B: Yes. Because he wants it. Like he said, if I don't see the deer drop, I'm gonna use the drone. So we drop a pin and we go in with the four wheeler and I mean, drive right up to it and we don't step out anywhere else. I had an experience this year where the guy gut shot one. I found it with a drone. It ended up laying down or being 100 yards from the stand. [00:33:35] Speaker A: Okay. [00:33:36] Speaker B: Now there was two big bucks in this area. They were hunting. He shot. Shot a smaller buck he thought was the bigger one. Ended up being a small one about 100 yards from the corn pile. We went up with the four wheeler, loaded it that very night. The other big buck was at the corn in daylight. [00:33:50] Speaker A: Wow. [00:33:51] Speaker B: So this was all from when we got the deer out. [00:33:54] Speaker A: So you're saying that the you. You ended up not busting the deer and maybe you would have. If they would have just got on the trail and. [00:34:02] Speaker B: Well, they would have had to grid search it because there was no blood. Oh, it was literally within two hours. [00:34:08] Speaker A: Money, like, this is. This audio is money. I'm telling you guys. This why this is going to keep growing. Yeah, like, yeah, we, we think, oh, everybody that's in the hunting industry knows about a thermal drone. No, they actually don't. They don't realize how good it works. And I guarantee you, you still get it. You will go to a. A customer's place and you're looking for a deer and you're like, yeah, they seen this online, but holy moly, I didn't realize it works this good. [00:34:36] Speaker B: That. That was. That was my experience last night. That's why my voice is still gone, because they were just like, yeah, we're not finding this deer. [00:34:44] Speaker A: Yeah. And I try to do my very best on the videos to show how good it works, but there's only so much you can do, and you have to see it in person. [00:34:51] Speaker B: Yes, exactly. Especially with it. With the screen. Like, if you pull it up on a screen, most people don't realize you pull right up on the screen. [00:34:57] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:34:57] Speaker B: Like, so, you know, I have the TV screen. The whole family's watching, and it's just. It's like, there's a lot of people are like, well, we're going to the movies. I'd rather do this and go to the movies. [00:35:07] Speaker A: And I mean. [00:35:09] Speaker B: But the other thing that I've been seeing a lot of is, you know, and especially with the 4 TD, like, that thermal is just next level. [00:35:18] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:35:19] Speaker B: Like what that thing picks out. Like, I found a coon in a den in a hole. [00:35:23] Speaker A: Yep, yep. [00:35:24] Speaker B: Squirrels, Chipmunks. [00:35:25] Speaker A: So. So let's. Let's transition into that. You've been flying a 30T, was it for about two years? [00:35:30] Speaker B: A year and a half. [00:35:31] Speaker A: Yeah. A year and a half. You've been flying a Matrix 30T. A little ramrodish. Gets a little ramrodish. He wants to get work done. Plows it into an oak tree or something like that, and down she goes. I tell you how good the 4 TD is and you buy one. And literally that night, you found deer with it, didn't you? [00:35:51] Speaker B: 24 hour period. I found four deer. [00:35:52] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh. It's a good thing you bought one that day. [00:35:55] Speaker B: I knew. I knew I had to, like, I crashed it. And I called my guys the next time, I said, you're going to have to fill in. I'm going to go to the store. And I get up here and you're like, well, we have the 40 and I want. I want the four TD. [00:36:07] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:36:08] Speaker B: And I think I looked last night. I'm at like 24. 24 fines with, oh, okay, I'm in it. This is no kidding. I've only had two deer I haven't found with that deer with that drone. [00:36:18] Speaker A: And the one was that double drop time. [00:36:20] Speaker B: And the other one was a follow up for Dennis. [00:36:22] Speaker A: Oh, My God. [00:36:23] Speaker B: None of the actual ones where they called me out and I went out have I not found. [00:36:29] Speaker A: So how much better is the 4 TD compared to the 30 T to you? And in what ways is it better or in what ways does it like? [00:36:37] Speaker B: The one thing I really like about it is smaller box. [00:36:39] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:36:40] Speaker B: You know, I mean, it's just quick grab and go. [00:36:42] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:36:42] Speaker B: And three batteries. So, you know, the battery charging, it's just. Overall, it's just nicer. Service is unbelievable. [00:36:51] Speaker A: Connectivity. [00:36:52] Speaker B: Yeah. To the controller, I was fine with. With Dennis and a couple of the guys over in Pennsylvania. When I was flying with them, I had better range, but it wasn't that much. [00:37:01] Speaker A: Oh, we better clear up the Pennsylvania thing. Henry wasn't doing a. No, he was doing. Yeah, he was doing a herd census on private property. Yep. [00:37:10] Speaker B: So. But anyway. But I was. So I get back and I'm like, actually wanting to test is. I go over to dad's place. He's got a nice buck he's been, like, keeping an eye on, but it got shot. [00:37:21] Speaker A: Oh. [00:37:22] Speaker B: But it's still been showing up. But it's been wounded. And so he's like, I want to know where this thing's at. So I'm sitting in his living room watching tv. I set the drone up on the porch, Fly off the porch. I'm flying literally on the backside of his property, like, and I'm in the living room where it's warm. Perfect service. [00:37:39] Speaker A: I know. [00:37:39] Speaker B: It's insane. [00:37:40] Speaker A: I don't understand. [00:37:41] Speaker B: It's unreal. [00:37:42] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:37:43] Speaker A: That's my thing is, like, when I got my hands on the 4T first, and then I'm flying around and I'm calling my guys that are like, Dennis and Jay and them that are flying 30T. I'm like, guys, I don't know how to tell you this, and I don't understand how DJI does it, but the connectivity is insane. And it's. It's radio communication. But somehow they figured out how to. [00:38:05] Speaker B: Make it better, which I think Matt's wanting to get one now because, well, Madison was saying. He's like, well, I got an itch. Dennis. Batteries are lacking. He's like, well, maybe we gotta adjust this. [00:38:16] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:38:17] Speaker B: You know, the spotlight isn't quite as bright, but overall, like, daytime, fine. The camera's clear. [00:38:21] Speaker A: Yep. [00:38:21] Speaker B: The thermal definitely is clear. [00:38:23] Speaker A: Do you run in high res? Your thermal and high res or high gain? [00:38:28] Speaker B: I run my thermal in, put it in inspection mode. [00:38:31] Speaker A: Inspection mode. [00:38:32] Speaker B: But there's. [00:38:32] Speaker A: So there's different modes that you can put it in and I've been playing around with it. High res is usually the best for me. But you can, let's say it's really blown out. There's a, you know, everything's red. If you go to low gain, it adjusts. So I'll show you before you go where to play with that. And sometimes if you're just out flying, you're like, stuff isn't showing up properly. If you choose the different modes, not the tint color but the different modes, it will sometimes be different. But the high res is insane. It just looks like an HD thermal, but it's not actually hd. I don't know how the other day. [00:39:06] Speaker B: I spent like three hours just messing with settings and just going through. I didn't know the thing at cruise. [00:39:10] Speaker A: Oh yeah. [00:39:11] Speaker B: But it's got Cruise. Yeah. And so I'm like a mile out and I just turn it to home and hit cruise and Yep, here we go. [00:39:17] Speaker A: Yeah. Cruising. [00:39:18] Speaker B: There's a lot of features. It's way more quiet and so, you know, getting into, really getting into small places where you couldn't get in with a. With the matrices. Yeah, you can get in there. [00:39:32] Speaker C: So since flying this, have you missed like the IP rating and waterproofing and stuff like that in like if. With the. Yeah, I guess. [00:39:41] Speaker A: Yeah. The 4 TD is IP rated. Yep. [00:39:43] Speaker B: I definitely would have because I fly in a lot of rain. [00:39:45] Speaker C: You fly in a lot of rain? [00:39:47] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:39:47] Speaker C: So if you had gone with the regular 4T. Yeah. [00:39:50] Speaker B: And that's why no go for you. And that's why I. The amount of recoveries I do in the rain and the snow. [00:39:57] Speaker A: Yeah. It was, it wasn't even a question for you. Yeah. [00:40:00] Speaker B: I don't care what, how much more it is. I'm going to have to do it because I can provide a better service. And you know that. I think there's a lot of people who've asked me and been like, what do you do different? What are you doing? A lot of it is, you know, the drive part of it. Like I don't get like if someone calls me, I don't care what time of the night it is. If it's 2 in the morning, 3 in the morning. Latest I've been out was 5:30. [00:40:21] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:40:22] Speaker B: Pretty much stayed out all night. Because I want to find their deer. [00:40:24] Speaker A: Yep. [00:40:25] Speaker B: And I feel like that is what has been the difference maker for me. [00:40:29] Speaker A: 100. I'm telling you, if you, if somebody calls you and you say, yep, I'm come, I'm doing it. It's like, not even a question. You're gonna be busy. [00:40:39] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:40:39] Speaker A: Because they. When they're calling you, they want somebody now. [00:40:43] Speaker B: Exactly. [00:40:43] Speaker A: Every time I call you to do a recovery, you're doing it. It's not. I don't have to ask you if you want to do it. It's just like, okay, Henry is going to be out there here in a little bit. It's. And I'm telling you, if guys want to do this work, you have to be willing to do that, because if you don't, the next guy will, and your business won't flourish. [00:41:02] Speaker B: Now, I don't know who's going to be listening to this, but I do know I took quite a few people's business this year simply because they got a call they didn't answer. That was probably the main reason. And so they were looking for another guy. They called me, and there was even several of them where I was like, yeah, I've got two more before I get to you, but I'll get to you as soon as I can. Or it was on the way, whatever. And I went out and flew for him. Whatever. And I know the one guy in specific, he had another guy he used, like, two or three times. I don't know who it was. [00:41:33] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:41:34] Speaker B: But he literally. He was like, yeah, I'll just call you in. Every time. He was like, you were here faster. You were more energy. Energy. He's like, just. Everything about it was a better experience. [00:41:46] Speaker A: 100. [00:41:47] Speaker B: And that's what I mean. That's not knocking other pilots at all. But, I mean, that is where I have found my success is you've got to be in the moment. [00:41:54] Speaker A: Yeah. Just listen to what Henry's saying. If you're gonna want to. If you want to be very, very, very successful at doing deer recoveries, you have to do all of those things. You. You cannot have an off time. You can't. You can't have an off time. Because I'll tell you how it is, guys. I don't have to go on all these recoveries anymore. I can choose which recoveries I want to go on. And if I have guys call me and I say, well, here, let me. Let me call one of my pilots. Just that little bit of hesitation of saying, I'm going to call one of my pilots. They're done. They're going to call another pilot on their own, because there's that many people that they can choose from, and I've lost business because I was like, well, I don't really want to do this. One tonight. And they're like, okay, I'll move on to the next one. And for me, right, for me, my business that I have established now, I'm okay with that. But dude, if things would get hard and I'd have to go back to doing full time recoveries and making 50,000 to $70,000 in a year, I could totally do it. You just don't say no. And you just go for every single one. Don't quit sleep in the daytime. Dog on it. You can do it for at least a month and a half. [00:43:01] Speaker B: I'm telling you, you're gonna fall asleep in the daytime. You're gonna get a call. [00:43:04] Speaker A: Nope, that too. [00:43:06] Speaker B: I got the daytime was. [00:43:07] Speaker A: No, just crazy. So how many recoveries are in the daytime versus nighttime? [00:43:11] Speaker B: Oh, not a whole lot. I mean, really, the last little bit has been because it's been real cloudy. And if I can do daytimes, I like doing daytime because most of them are night. But I'd say probably this year, probably 10%. [00:43:25] Speaker A: Okay. So yeah, you're still 90% nighttime flying. Yeah. And. And you have to do that to try to give the best service to the guys available. I mean, guys are saying you can do night or daytime searches in the sun. Yeah. But you're getting freaking lucky because there's. [00:43:41] Speaker B: And I have done those, but it's. I just simply tell them, I said it's just. I don't want to miss it. I don't want to miss there. You know that pieball deer that you assembly on? I missed that deer the first time I went over. [00:43:52] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [00:43:53] Speaker B: Because it was so white. And I was like checking bed, bed, bed, bed, bed. I looked at that one. It was laying next to another one. I seen the live deer. I scan over on the dead deer and I see it's a bed. And so I keep flying. And finally I'm like, there's no way that deer would have made it that far. I better go back and check. So I went back and I literally, right there it was. [00:44:14] Speaker A: So you're saying that the thermal was showing up white because it had lost that much heat already? [00:44:18] Speaker B: Yes, it just. It didn't have enough red to really. You know, there was a deer laying. Right. Besides, I figured it's probably a doe that got up, moved a little bit and laid down. [00:44:27] Speaker A: Okay. [00:44:27] Speaker B: So when I went back and replayed my video, I could see clear as day. It was the deer I was looking for. But it had so much white. Like the. The dough. Yeah, it was. Piebald has so much white it just looked like snow. [00:44:39] Speaker A: Oh, you missed it. You did. You did turn your RGB camera on. Oh, my gosh. [00:44:46] Speaker B: And then we went piebald. [00:44:47] Speaker A: Deer is. Is white and brown. I sent him on one. I should have done it, but I was like, it's an hour plus drive for me to go out there. But you found it. That's cool. [00:44:57] Speaker B: That was like 15 minutes for me. [00:44:58] Speaker A: Nice. Yeah. Yeah. Just down the road. Dude, I gave you two that day. [00:45:02] Speaker B: Yep. [00:45:03] Speaker A: And you found them both. [00:45:03] Speaker B: Yeah. The one was almost two miles from where you shot it. [00:45:06] Speaker A: Holy moly. How'd you keep pushing? Like, how'd you keep going that far out? Like, what made you be like, okay, I got to keep going further away from the shot. [00:45:16] Speaker B: I'm just not going to quit. I mean. But part of that, too, is you have to trust your cameras. Like, you have to actually trust what you're seeing. [00:45:22] Speaker A: Okay. [00:45:23] Speaker B: I. Where I struggle with my first year is I would fly too much over the same woods. I'd be like, well, maybe I missed it. I'm at a point now in which this can't. This thermal definitely is better, but I'm at a point now. If I didn't find it in those woods, it's not there. [00:45:37] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:45:37] Speaker B: And so I accept it and I move on. And I move on and. Yeah, but it's somewhere. [00:45:41] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:45:41] Speaker B: And I. There's just. You can't quit. And so it's like what I've been doing is resetting. I'll fly until I lose service. I'll reset in a different spot and reset and just. [00:45:50] Speaker A: Yeah, but at some point, you gotta quit. Just like that double drop time we were looking for. [00:45:55] Speaker B: You know what? [00:45:55] Speaker A: I think we did four square miles. Yeah. [00:45:57] Speaker B: I need to look back at my video because after you send the picture of it and I got a different angle of it, I did find a buck looked very similar to that buck, but he was in thick, nasty stuff. And I seen he was alive. I couldn't see the drop times, but I want to go check it out a little bit more. [00:46:12] Speaker A: You should. [00:46:12] Speaker B: And see if it actually wasn't. [00:46:14] Speaker A: You should. [00:46:14] Speaker B: I know it was a big. [00:46:15] Speaker A: You know. You know, sometimes the hunter's so convinced it's dead that talking to him long enough. You convince yourself that is going to be dead. And that's not always the case. And a lot of times I definitely feel like I was looking for a dead deer. Dog gone it. We found a bunch of dead deer that night. We did four square miles. [00:46:31] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh. [00:46:31] Speaker A: I found three of them. [00:46:33] Speaker B: I found two does in a buck. [00:46:35] Speaker A: Okay. I found one dead buck that I, I was like, holy smokes, this is the deer. I started yelling and screaming and then it wasn't the buck and it was a good dead buck. I found a wounded buck and I think I found a dead doe. Yeah, I found two dead does. It's crazy. That night was crazy. But we did not find the double drop down. [00:46:53] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh. And I flew till 5 o' clock that next morning. [00:46:57] Speaker A: It's crazy. Yeah, that's thermal drone pilot recovery. You gotta have an attitude that most people don't. You just gotta. [00:47:10] Speaker B: And you gotta have a go getter. Like. Yeah, you've gotta. I don't know, it's different than anything. [00:47:15] Speaker A: But that kind of translates into the spray drone business as well. Like, you know, it's, it's long hours, it's get up early, work late, do the whole thing over again the next day and the next day. And it's a grind doing spray drone stuff as well. Did you guys do any spraying at night? [00:47:33] Speaker B: Very little. [00:47:34] Speaker A: Yeah, I tried commencing. Well, you guys don't have the low light cameras like the T60X did. We did most of our spraying at night because it was cooler and less traffic, less everything. It was nice because if I want to park on this road, I'm parking on the road. Like, no traffic. Henry, we're talking about, what is your go go juice? Like, what if you're, you know, you're flying all night? What are you doing to keep yourself awake? [00:48:00] Speaker C: 11:30 at night are like, oh, you're doing. [00:48:03] Speaker B: You're a bubbler, man. Oh man, let's go. I don't eat much, but I drink a lot of bubblers. [00:48:08] Speaker A: No way. Where you get it? [00:48:10] Speaker B: Mostly at Walmart. [00:48:11] Speaker A: Okay. [00:48:11] Speaker B: Walmart has them. [00:48:12] Speaker A: Let's go. So did you drink bubbler before drone? [00:48:16] Speaker B: No, My first bubbler I ever had was down at the, at the Sportsman show. [00:48:20] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, there you go. [00:48:22] Speaker B: Never even knew of him. You were like, do you want a bubbler? I was like, I don't know what a bubbler is. [00:48:26] Speaker A: I tell you what, it's crazy to think how many people have started drinking bubbler since drone day recovery. [00:48:33] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I live off of a pretty. [00:48:36] Speaker A: Well, I thought about starting my own drink, but that is so disgustingly expensive to just get started. So I'm not going to do that bubbler. But doggone it, they should sponsor us. [00:48:48] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I totally agree. They should, but I'm not much of an energy drink guy. Like, I used to do like energy drinks and stuff. Like I can't do them. Like, I just get to jittery. Oh, it just. Like I don't do coffees. I don't do. [00:49:03] Speaker A: I said, I said you're a coffee guy. [00:49:05] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:49:06] Speaker B: I like, I get so. I get so jacked. Like, I can't. [00:49:10] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:49:10] Speaker B: If someone calls me and says I've got a deer to find, I, like, I've had very few cases. Like, if I find someone's deer, like, it's like I shot the deer. Like, I will get the adrenaline Shakespeare. Like, I just shot the deer. Like, people. Like, my dad makes so much fun of me because I get shook up about a deer on a video. [00:49:31] Speaker C: Dude, we, we said it. I said it earlier, but I need a360 camera out there so I can get some of these, these reactions whenever you're finding these deer. [00:49:41] Speaker B: Oh, my God. [00:49:41] Speaker C: I want to see that on a visual. [00:49:42] Speaker A: Yeah, we'll. We'll send them home with the 360 that's in my truck. [00:49:45] Speaker C: Yeah, let's go. [00:49:47] Speaker A: Yeah. Because you're doing so many of them and that, that's another thing that guys got to understand if, if they're wanting to do this type of business. You got to be area. [00:49:54] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:49:55] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:49:55] Speaker B: You're definitely, definitely that. I mean, the key to my success, I mean, one is being in the right area, but then two is you've got to have the right personality for it too. [00:50:04] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:50:05] Speaker B: But I mean, you can create that. Like, you've, you've got to be passionate about it. Like if you come out and you're just kind of mopey, whatever, blah, blah, blah. Who's ever gonna. [00:50:13] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:50:13] Speaker B: Who's ever gonna want you? [00:50:14] Speaker A: They want the experience. Like they. [00:50:16] Speaker B: Not only that, but they want you to be excited for them. [00:50:19] Speaker C: Absolutely. [00:50:20] Speaker B: Like, it doesn't matter. Is it a 2 year old kid or is it a 80 year old grandpa? [00:50:24] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:50:24] Speaker B: They want you to be excited for their success. And I look at it from my perspective too. If I shoot a buck and I hire someone out and they're just like, yeah, there's your deer. Why in the world? Why would you ever get that guy back? [00:50:39] Speaker A: Yeah. Yep. I agree. [00:50:40] Speaker C: So you have something internally that naturally you are excited, but you also turn up as someone that. That is assisting in this. [00:50:50] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:50:50] Speaker C: And you also turn up and you get that energy. Like you're intentionally turning on the enthusiasm, but it's already there for you as well. Is what I'm. Is what I'm hearing. [00:51:01] Speaker B: Oh, I Just, I love hunting. I always have. [00:51:04] Speaker A: Well, how much hunting do you actually do now? [00:51:06] Speaker B: Very little. [00:51:07] Speaker A: Very little. Yeah. [00:51:09] Speaker B: Like my target buck that I was after this year, daylight, at eight times in seven days, I wasn't able to kill. [00:51:15] Speaker A: Because you weren't hunting? [00:51:16] Speaker B: Yeah, because I didn't have time. Literally, I was on call, and I'm like, and this is no joke. I would get in the stand, I'd be like, okay, tonight I'm gonna hunt him. I would get in the stand, my phone would ring. I'd be like, dang it, I gotta take this phone call. And so finally, you know, I set up my phone now to where I can put it to voicemail. And, you know, they can either leave me a voicemail or text them or I'll text them right back. But the amount of times I've gotten in the call in the stand, and then I get a call, hey, I just shot a deer. [00:51:43] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:51:43] Speaker B: And it's like, you gotta go. I gotta go. So I would get out of stand and leave. [00:51:48] Speaker A: I, I did one. I, I. That video will probably be coming up here in the next week. I did one just like that. I was in the stand, got a call, and I was just. It was that type of day. I was like, I'm doing a call if it comes in. And I was on the stand. He called. I was like, okay, I'll come right, right out and see if I can find it. Got there was too sunny. And I was like, he's gotta be here. But it's really sunny. I'll come back this evening. Went to the deer stand and it got overcast. I was like, I can't do this. Like, I. I'm sitting in the sand. I cannot wait till tonight to go look for this deer. I called the dude back. I was like, I'm going to come back out because it's overcast now. Took off the stand and went and found the deer. So it was a good day. [00:52:29] Speaker B: Yeah. No, I don't. I mean, hunting time. I did end up getting that buck then, but it was way. [00:52:33] Speaker A: Oh, you did. You shot a big buck. [00:52:35] Speaker C: Well, that's. [00:52:35] Speaker A: Can you show me a picture of it? [00:52:36] Speaker B: I see a picture of it. [00:52:38] Speaker A: With your gun or the bow? Bow, yeah. [00:52:40] Speaker C: Okay. [00:52:40] Speaker B: Which I. Yeah, I don't, I don't do much gun hunting at all. [00:52:43] Speaker A: Okay. [00:52:44] Speaker B: So, I mean, I'm, I'm. [00:52:45] Speaker A: So do you pattern deer, like, you put cameras out and then don't hunt until a daylight? [00:52:50] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:52:52] Speaker A: I'm trying to do that more, but. [00:52:53] Speaker B: I very Very much. I stay out of there until. Until he, you know, he starts acting. Right. [00:53:00] Speaker A: Huh. So how do you know that he's going to come the next day, though? [00:53:06] Speaker B: This one here was very. Was very unique because it was on about six acres of woods. [00:53:11] Speaker A: Oh, wow. [00:53:11] Speaker B: So it was a really small patch. I went in to pull all my cameras because I was like, it's not going to happen there. And I get a picture of him, I'm like, okay. [00:53:19] Speaker A: Huh. [00:53:20] Speaker B: And so he was there a bunch. I didn't have time to hunt him. And then I went down to West Virginia. I was hunting down in West Virginia. There he is. [00:53:28] Speaker A: Oh, wow. [00:53:29] Speaker B: I was down in West Virginia. [00:53:31] Speaker A: Holy mack. This is a big deer. You downplayed that a little bit. [00:53:35] Speaker C: Yeah. Pretty casual. [00:53:39] Speaker A: That is cool. [00:53:39] Speaker B: But so for him specific, I was in West Virginia and he showed up. He had been gone for about a week. And I knew if he was going to be there, he was going to be like, it's a thick bottom and I was going to have to hunt him quick. So I shot my deer in West Virginia as fast I could. It was just a little spike. I'm like, the first thing that steps out. I'm shooting, killed it. Headed home, got back, didn't have time to hunt him that night. Didn't have time to hunt him the next morning. He was there at 9 o'. [00:54:03] Speaker A: Clock. Wow. [00:54:04] Speaker B: As I'm driving to my stand, he was there at 1:00'. [00:54:06] Speaker A: Clock. Oh. [00:54:07] Speaker B: So I get in the stand and I'm like, okay, he's here somewhere. And he shows up on the. On the far side of the field. I'm like, you gotta be kidding me. So he's 200 yards away, but I know he likes being exactly where I'm at. And I had the perfect win for it. I have my horn, like, my rattling horns, and I rattled a little bit and didn't know. I mean, I'm like, where the heck is he? I have no idea. Got up to start taking my stuff down. I hear something, look back behind me, and he's walking out at 40 yards. [00:54:34] Speaker A: Oh, geez. [00:54:34] Speaker B: He walks right in and called two bucks in. He went buck. He came up the hill to push. [00:54:39] Speaker A: The other buck out and nice. Ended up stuck him how far? [00:54:42] Speaker B: 15 yards. And he went about 30 yards. [00:54:45] Speaker A: So no drone needed. [00:54:46] Speaker B: No drone needed. [00:54:47] Speaker A: Nice. Good deal. Doggone it. So you shot a good buck, but you're still busy out doing their deer recoveries. I sounds like, oh, it sounds like a great life. [00:54:57] Speaker B: No, it is fun. [00:54:58] Speaker A: Nice. [00:54:58] Speaker B: It is. I Can't complain. It's been a great. [00:55:01] Speaker A: So when. When are you going to. I think you could have a spray drone corn delivery service this year yet. What has to happen for you to make that investment? [00:55:12] Speaker B: Not much. So back. Yeah, I'm just thinking about that too. You could literally do it out of the bed of your truck. [00:55:20] Speaker A: Yes. [00:55:21] Speaker B: Like, that's what's even crazy. [00:55:22] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:55:23] Speaker B: So you really wouldn't need that much. [00:55:25] Speaker A: No, you do. It wouldn't. Like you could start with what you have. I think a dually truck would be perfect because you. You could do three ton. You could do three ton of corn on the back of a dually truck and have a little flatbed and fly your drone off of there. I'm just trying to figure out. [00:55:39] Speaker B: We're gonna try it. My wife. My wife's not listening right now, so we're gonna try it. [00:55:44] Speaker A: Yeah. Hey, I can talk to her. Wait. I mean, she'll. With how much success you've had already, I. I wouldn't see why. [00:55:52] Speaker B: Why it wouldn't work, especially not in that area. [00:55:54] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, I agree. I agree. [00:55:57] Speaker B: It just is that simple. [00:55:59] Speaker A: Dog on it. It was good. [00:56:01] Speaker B: I had a thought back when, before I had to run, you had said about night spring. [00:56:07] Speaker A: Huh. [00:56:08] Speaker B: I love the idea of night spring because you don't have to deal with people. Mad people coming and spitting in your face. [00:56:13] Speaker A: Oh, you had a mad person. [00:56:15] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:56:15] Speaker A: What happened? Oh, Dennis told me about this. [00:56:20] Speaker B: This guy was livid. [00:56:22] Speaker A: For what reason? [00:56:23] Speaker B: There was a little bit of. They had to put insecticide in it as well. And so he was on one of the neighboring houses and he could smell it and he just. I don't know really what his problem was other than he was just having a really bad day. [00:56:38] Speaker A: Yeah. He's just an angry person maybe. Yeah. [00:56:40] Speaker B: And there was. There was several of those. We had this. I mean, that. Not that extreme, but to the night Night spring. I. I was just thinking on the way up, I was like, it would be nice 100% because you wouldn't need to worry about anybody, dude. I mean, if you're spraying two in the morning, who the heck's gonna be. [00:56:55] Speaker A: Yeah, who's gonna care? Yeah. The only time they care is if you're parked close to their house and you got generators. Generators. [00:57:02] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:57:03] Speaker A: But you can easily try to park somewhere else. Yeah. Yeah. Huh. I didn't think about that. That's definitely another reason why it would be safer because then you wouldn't have people walking over getting close to your lz. If They're Even if they're angry. [00:57:16] Speaker B: Yep, exactly. [00:57:17] Speaker A: That's nice. Hold out. I appreciate you coming on and sharing your stories. If somebody wants to get a hold of you, you're listed on the drone day recovery pilot locator map. Do you have like, Facebook or anything like that? [00:57:29] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:57:30] Speaker A: What is it? [00:57:30] Speaker B: Henry Hostetler. [00:57:32] Speaker A: Henry Hostettler. [00:57:32] Speaker B: I was at Eagle View Drone Services page, but most everything goes through my personal one. [00:57:38] Speaker A: Henry Hostettler. [00:57:39] Speaker B: Yep. [00:57:39] Speaker A: Ex Amish. Is your whole family still Amish? [00:57:43] Speaker B: Nine siblings are Amish. [00:57:44] Speaker A: Okay. So kind of like me. [00:57:45] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:57:46] Speaker B: My parents left. The. My parents left. I have five, six younger siblings that left as well. [00:57:52] Speaker A: Okay. So maybe. Maybe the next time we'll get into that, how that all went down. But it's pretty crazy to think where our heritage comes from and the tech that we're. [00:58:02] Speaker B: Exactly. And now we're just like full blown. Like, you wouldn't believe the amount of time I show up. And they'd be like, so used to be Amish. It'd be like, so we have an Amish guy running the technology. [00:58:13] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:58:14] Speaker B: But, you know, surprisingly this year different from last year, I did a lot of recoveries for family or like locals around there who previously really were kind of anti drones. [00:58:26] Speaker A: Huh. [00:58:27] Speaker B: Like in previous times, I had my drone shot at because I don't really know what the gain was of it, but there was a lot of people who I knew really didn't like my drone around there. I think part of it was just they didn't understand, like, actually what I'm doing. [00:58:42] Speaker A: Yeah. It is so weird to think that people, the first thing they think about when they see a drone, oh, somebody's looking at me. Why? Why is that? That when you. When somebody sees a drone, that's the first thing you think about is, oh, somebody's looking at me. [00:58:59] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:58:59] Speaker A: So weird. [00:59:00] Speaker B: And then there's a lot of people, you know, this is. I think it's a joke because they're like, oh, well, you know, you're helping China spy or stuff like that. And I'm like, do you. I don't know, it just makes me mad because I'm like, do you know how stupid you sound right now? Like, why they have Google Earth. [00:59:16] Speaker A: They can do whatever they want. [00:59:18] Speaker B: And not only that, like, like with the spray drones, for example, like, why would they be putting us by the. In. I'm going to fly over corn. [00:59:25] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [00:59:26] Speaker B: Like, I get all. He wanted to get into that. [00:59:28] Speaker A: Like, man, that dude's spraying a lot of corn today. [00:59:33] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:59:33] Speaker B: Like why does it. Why do they. [00:59:34] Speaker C: I'm going to. I'm going to speak into why people get fired up about drones in the air. Tell me so. And I'm going to preface it with this. Our friend Kevin Kniseley has a quote on his phone, and he's like. And it's. Nobody's thinking about you. And what that means is we think that other people, you know, are noticing us or concerned about us. But a lot of people, they're focused on what's happening in their life. They're not thinking about other people. Right. So the. The reality is, and this is like a. From a psychological thing, people are seeing the drone and they're like automatically associating that that drone is looking at them or their. Or their things. And so that's just the automatic assumption. [01:00:19] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:00:19] Speaker C: Right. And most of the time, somebody's out doing their thing. They're not. They don't notice you, they're not thinking about you type of thing. But our normal inclination is that people can automatically, like, obviously they're looking at what I'm wearing, what I'm thinking, what I'm doing. Everybody's focused on what they're doing in their life. [01:00:38] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:00:39] Speaker C: So to speak. And this is my thought, right? Homeowners out there, they see a drone, they automatically think that that drone is obviously looking at their property, their deer, spying on them. But usually it's the farthest thing from it. Like, I'm not worried about what. What you're doing, dude. I'm doing my own thing. [01:00:58] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:00:59] Speaker C: Right. So that's. I just submit that, you know, people automatically think that obviously it's looking at my stuff, my property, my deer. [01:01:07] Speaker A: Well, definitely. Hunters definitely are getting people looking at their deer with air quotes. A wild deer is not your deer, no matter what. [01:01:18] Speaker C: Exactly. [01:01:19] Speaker A: It is making it easier. Let's be completely honest. It is making it easier for a normal, average, financially stable person to buy a drone and now see things that he's never been able to see before. Unless he had an airplane or had a buddy that flew him around in an airplane to look at the deer that are on the neighbor's land. Not that the deer is the neighbors, but it is making it easier. And it's legal. [01:01:45] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [01:01:46] Speaker A: You could buy an ultralight. Like, I have an ultralight that you could buy for like 7,000 bucks. And you could fly your ass all over that neighbor's land looking at the deer, at his deer corn bait pile that he has. But most people don't do that. But now it's easier to buy a drone to do it. Yeah. [01:02:05] Speaker C: So anybody already inclined toward that just has more ability, too. Right, but it's. They're already inclined to do that. [01:02:14] Speaker A: Yes. [01:02:15] Speaker C: The guys that are trespassing, walking through land, whether that's hunting Morales or just, you know, to be able to stick their nose in other people's business, it's just another tool. Right. But for everybody that isn't naturally inclined to do that, they're just going about their own business. [01:02:30] Speaker A: Right. Hey, talking about trespassers, have you found any with your thermal drone? [01:02:34] Speaker B: I found them with my cell camera, but I wasn't home, else I would have flown the drone. Only trespasser I had was a black bear. [01:02:41] Speaker A: Dude, nice. That's crazy. You. Did you know he was around there? No. So you were flying thermal drone the other night, and you found a black bear? [01:02:49] Speaker B: Well, he was right outside my front door. [01:02:52] Speaker A: What? [01:02:53] Speaker B: And so I have an intruder on my property and a lot of corn around there. I open up the front door, and I. [01:02:58] Speaker A: What do you mean you have an intruder on your property? [01:02:59] Speaker B: I hear something tear into the corn, and I'm like, what the. Like, what's on my property? And so I just get out the drone right away. Yeah. I'm thinking. I mean, odds are it's a deer, but, like, you never know, like, what's actually there. So I flew the drone up, and immediately there's a black bear. [01:03:18] Speaker A: No way. [01:03:18] Speaker B: Like, and this is in Knox County, Ohio. Ohio. [01:03:21] Speaker C: This is the first time ever, right, that you've ever seen. [01:03:24] Speaker B: And I'm like. My first thought was a horse. Like, someone's horse is out. And I'm like, no, this is actually a. Like, this is a bear. [01:03:31] Speaker A: Oh, my God. [01:03:32] Speaker B: I got my wife over there, and she's videoing, and I'm like. I start videoing. I'm like, no one's gonna actually believe me. And I mean, it was like, I could see the bear and the drone, and, I mean, it was right behind my house, which I shot a deer earlier that day, so I'm guessing it was there smelling. So I go up to the neighbors, and I'm like. I knock on their door, lucky they were still up. And I was like, you're not gonna believe this, but there's a bear in your backyard. And sure enough, like, we're watching. I'm standing in their house, and this bear just comes right up out in their pasture field. [01:04:01] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh. That's cool. [01:04:02] Speaker B: We watch it for, like, a good hour. [01:04:05] Speaker A: You always have the drone with you? [01:04:06] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, Literally. Well, later today I got a good follow up on one. [01:04:10] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, dog on it. You are busy, dude. [01:04:14] Speaker C: I like it. [01:04:14] Speaker A: We should send Landon out with you for like three days because I'm sure you'd have something to do. [01:04:20] Speaker B: It's always something to do. Well, and if it's not. If it's not finding deer, I'm doing a lot of her sense this. [01:04:27] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:04:27] Speaker B: You know, people this time of year, especially a lot of people getting ready for the planting season, they want to know their buck to do ratio. They can still harvest does. They don't want to kill too many does. And so it's a. It's a really busy time right now is a lot of people want to know, what are my bucktail. [01:04:44] Speaker A: That being said, how'd the 5,000 acres go that you guys did the other day? [01:04:49] Speaker B: It was fantastic. [01:04:50] Speaker A: So was it overcast the whole time? [01:04:53] Speaker B: Not the whole time, but the sun never came out long enough to mess us up. [01:04:58] Speaker A: Okay, nice. How many deer ended up being there? [01:05:01] Speaker B: It was some over 800. [01:05:02] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh. On 5,000 acres? [01:05:04] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, what, 25 bear? 20. [01:05:08] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. So you found quite a few bear. Yeah. Would those bear just be like chilling, laying on their backs, or what are they doing? [01:05:15] Speaker B: Eating oats, like acorn under oaks. Some would be like, in. Under rocks. Pine trees, like just kind of. [01:05:22] Speaker C: So they're hanging out and they're not in hibernation yet. So they're. They're fat, sassy, and finishing up the feeding season. [01:05:29] Speaker A: Dude, that. I want to go find a bear with my thermal drone. [01:05:33] Speaker B: Go down to Knox County. You'll probably find one. Like, what are the odds? Like, I can't believe nobody's got pictures of this thing. So I don't know, like, the DNRs, they came out, we found some hair, so they took hair samples. They're trying to figure out, like, where's the bear coming from? [01:05:47] Speaker A: Oh, no. So they got involved. You were like, okay, I'm gonna call them. Yeah. [01:05:51] Speaker B: And now they're like. They're actually like, I didn't know your drone can do this. We might use your drone for further studies of bears, of bobcat dens, of. [01:06:04] Speaker C: Dude, that's incredible. I would love that kind of work. Like, that's. That's like the conservation side of things probably gets me as excited as anything. And when you're talking about wildlife and obviously I want to go take video and photo of it. Yeah. But any kind of involvement, whether that's ducks or. Or bears, any kind of Wildlife populations. I love the concert. [01:06:25] Speaker A: It is crazy that they're not using it to do. [01:06:27] Speaker B: I know. [01:06:28] Speaker A: It is. [01:06:28] Speaker B: I can't. I. I was completely blown away because I'm like, why would you. Like, you could. [01:06:34] Speaker A: Dude. Even just for, like, getting an idea of tag, right? Like, tags. Giving out tags. They could easily do a study on a certain area to figure out how many deer are there and then do their tags based on that. Yeah, we did the Catalina thing. It's not out. It should be coming out here soon. We went to Catalina island to count the deer because they want to kill them all from helicopters just to get a good idea. Because they count them with spotlights. Well, thermal drones are way better to figure out how many deer. They're. Yeah. [01:07:04] Speaker B: Very precise. I mean, what I'm seeing right now is. I mean, there's a lot of people always ask me, like, so do you actually think the drones are the future of spraying? Of everything? I mean, at this point, there's no question. They're so good and they're so convenient. Like, why would you not. [01:07:24] Speaker A: Well, I'll just tell you right now. The next step to thermal drone technology will be the dock. The DJI dock, where you have the dock on your land. Doesn't matter where you are in the country, doesn't matter where you're at in the world. You will be able to launch your drone from anywhere and fly it around your property and see whatever you want to see. That's the next big thing. It literally feels like the cell phone trail cameras. When trail cameras first came out, you had to go get your SD card, so you had to physically go there, do it that way. Well, before that was actual film, and then you had to develop it. Well, this is the same way. Thermal drones are really good, but you got to be close to the property. No, not anymore. You have a dock. It connects to Starlink. Starlink connects to wherever you're at in the world. You fly your drone whenever you want, you see what you want, land it right back to the dock, it charges itself up. [01:08:19] Speaker B: Exactly. And, like, the flight hub to what that is. Well, that all entails, like, is way beyond what I can comprehend, but it is. And with the. The new drone, the 4TD, you can actually use it for repeaters. [01:08:35] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:08:35] Speaker B: So it's like the amount of range you've got on that thing is just. Yeah, it's unreal. [01:08:41] Speaker A: Yep. Yeah, it is unreal. He. He's talking about the 4 TD. If you have two 4 TDS in the. The. The air, you can Use it as a relay. So drone A connects to drone B, and then drone B can just. [01:08:53] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:08:53] Speaker A: Who knows how far it'll go? Yeah. [01:08:56] Speaker B: I did over one little thing that happened over in Pennsylvania. I was almost two miles out, and I was almost done with my partial, and I found a deer. And I'm like. And I had, like, 22% battery life. Less. I'm two miles out, and I'm like this. He's telling me to come back. And I'm like, there can't be a deer. Sure enough, there's a deer there. So I, you know, I had to stop and zoom in on it. And I turned and I booked for back as fast as I could book. And I get out over the canyon, and there's an upwind in. Like, it's windy out there. And all of a sudden I see I'm going 30 miles an hour, and I see it just go to, like, 12 miles an hour. And then the battery just starts draining and it's just hanging there. I'm like, oh, my gosh, I'm going to crash. Dennis starts cheering. He's like, I'm going to get to witness both crashes. [01:09:43] Speaker A: Oh, no. [01:09:44] Speaker B: So, you know, drop it down. I got it in, and it was like, 5%. [01:09:47] Speaker A: Nice. [01:09:47] Speaker B: That was the worst one I had out there. [01:09:49] Speaker A: But that's cool. [01:09:51] Speaker B: So they don't. They don't battle win quite as good as, like, the Matrice does the 30T. [01:09:55] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [01:09:56] Speaker B: But. [01:09:57] Speaker A: But, dude, everything else, it's like, yeah, I would totally get a 4 TD if I were looking at. [01:10:02] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, yeah. Which I'm getting my. The 30t. I'm getting that one repaired and whatever. [01:10:07] Speaker A: Yeah. How's that process going with dji? [01:10:09] Speaker B: Good. They were really good to work with. [01:10:10] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:10:11] Speaker B: So everything's in the works, and pretty much a new drone. [01:10:15] Speaker A: Nice. What's it going to cost? [01:10:17] Speaker B: It was five grand. [01:10:19] Speaker A: Oh, wow. So it's that much for the repair. [01:10:21] Speaker B: But it wasn't as much as I thought it would be. [01:10:23] Speaker A: Wow. Yeah. [01:10:25] Speaker B: I send it along, props and everything I got. So I told him, you know, to use what I had sent along. [01:10:30] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:10:30] Speaker B: Because I had extra parts. [01:10:31] Speaker A: Yeah. Huh. [01:10:32] Speaker B: So that dropped us some. But I'm like, I mean. I mean, when you compare it, like, yes, I do have a lot of hours on it. But still, now I'm like. I mean, a lot of people are asking me, like, are you just, you know, are you gonna sell it at this point? I almost have to keep it for a backup. [01:10:44] Speaker A: Yeah. Yep. It is vital with your type of business. If you have a backup, it. It'll pay for itself. [01:10:50] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:10:50] Speaker A: Yep. [01:10:51] Speaker B: Well, it paid for two of them already, so. [01:10:53] Speaker A: Nice. I like it. Dog on it. Alrighty. Well, we're gonna end this one. I appreciate you coming on, Sharon. I'm sure we'll have you back. Back again. There you go, guys. Henry just out there killing it. Flying thermal drones and spray drones full time. And you guys could do the same. You got to have a little bit of a go getter attitude. You do have to risk something, right? There's always. There's always something that has to be. [01:11:15] Speaker B: Always a sacrifice, always a risk. [01:11:17] Speaker A: Yep. There you go. Alrighty. That's all we got. We'll catch you guys on the next one.