Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to this week's drone on show. Today I'm joined in the studio by Ryan. Ryan, what do you do?
[00:00:04] Speaker B: I help guys start their thermal drone and ag businesses.
[00:00:07] Speaker A: So this week we talk about the J100, T60, T50, thermal drones, I mean, everything drone. Military drones, military drones. We talk about it all. And if you're interested in starting a business, if you already are in a business, I think you're going to find this conversation interesting. Stick around.
Drone world. What's going on in the drone world? Right. Because you talk to people every day.
[00:00:28] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:00:28] Speaker A: You are getting into the drone world. So what's going on in the drone world?
[00:00:32] Speaker B: The biggest kind of news, I would say, honestly, is that is the J1 hundreds.
[00:00:35] Speaker A: Last two weeks, J100 has kind of been in the headlines. People talking about it.
[00:00:39] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:00:40] Speaker A: What's the news?
[00:00:41] Speaker B: I've been getting a lot of calls, a lot of emails and stuff. A lot of issues with it, which we've done some videos on. And the biggest thing most recently is the drones falling out of the sky. That's happened to multiple people. Yeah.
[00:00:54] Speaker A: It's not what you want from an ag drone, is it?
[00:00:56] Speaker B: No, no, definitely.
[00:00:57] Speaker A: Drones falling out of the sky, never a good thing.
[00:00:59] Speaker B: So not a good thing at all.
[00:01:01] Speaker A: So EA Vision has said that's a pretty secluded, like, it's a very isolated event.
Like, would you, from what you're hearing is like, would you agree with that?
[00:01:09] Speaker B: So the guys that Mike talked to, and then I've had some other guys that I've talked to too. The biggest thing is that these guys are like losing business because of this thing.
[00:01:16] Speaker A: Yeah, man. And it seems like every year the same thing happens and where, like last year with the T40, the T50 was a substantial upgrade to the T40, but it was released at the worst time and it was promised to come. It never comes as quickly as what they say it's going to come.
[00:01:32] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:01:32] Speaker A: So it's supposed to be here in May or June and then it was actually July. And you have guys that are holding off buying their equipment because, you know, I want to get the best it costs. And the T50 when it was released was cheaper than the T40.
[00:01:45] Speaker B: Yeah. That's crazy.
[00:01:45] Speaker A: That's dumb.
[00:01:46] Speaker B: Yeah. I never really did a whole lot of T40 stuff.
[00:01:48] Speaker A: Yeah, because you're pretty new. You're, you're. I mean, you're new. You're a year into this. Is that right?
[00:01:52] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. I started August.
[00:01:54] Speaker A: Yeah, August of last year.
So when you joined T50 was already in full force.
[00:01:59] Speaker B: Yeah. T50 was already rolling. 30 T's were going crazy.
[00:02:04] Speaker A: So every year it seems like these drones are released right when they're going to get like the heaviest youth. The last two years, at least here in our area. Right. Row crop northeast.
[00:02:14] Speaker B: It would be ideal if they could release these in like December.
[00:02:17] Speaker C: Yeah, dude, I haven't thought of that. Like right when you get huffing busy, it's horrible. They release what? Yeah, I didn't think about that before.
[00:02:26] Speaker A: And I feel like with the J100 specifically. And we can't just say that this is exclusive to the J100 because the T50 was the same way. There's so many like holdups in the import process for a new ag drone. Everything from leaving China and getting the permits for it to be exported from China and then for it to be on the water and then for it to get the UAS approved. And there's so many FCC licenses and all of this stuff. A lot of people don't see that stuff behind the scenes, but you know, the timeline gets pushed back, push back, push back.
And then it's like spray season and you have a fairly untested drone and then shit's going to happen.
[00:02:59] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. You don't know the issues with some things until they've been here for at least a little bit. And that's like I think what's happening with the J100 and I think they will get that stuff figured out. I want it to be good. Like I really want that.
[00:03:10] Speaker A: The industry needs it to be good.
[00:03:12] Speaker B: There's like a lot of different companies out here that are coming out with new drones, which is awesome. Awesome. Like it would be so nice. It's like, here's two different drones. This one does this well, this one does this well. But you really can't go wrong either way.
[00:03:25] Speaker A: It's good for the industry when you have a new drone like that coming to market, you know, until you have hands on with it yourself, until you, you've done a thousand acres with it or whatever. It's like you can read impressive specs, but it doesn't mean that much until you know that it works consistently, it works together.
And I saw like one of the latest pushes that they did with the J100, which I think is smart, is they slowed it down when it has like if it's ferrying.
[00:03:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:03:52] Speaker A: Then they slowed it down so that the props and the wires don't get as hot is my understanding of it.
And that's good. I mean, it's a way of protecting the equipment from falling out of the sky. But those are things that you don't think about when you think of when you just read the specs and it has, you know, lidar and has all this stuff. There's a lot of details that go to go into it.
[00:04:12] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:04:13] Speaker A: So abc, right? Is there a drone called abz? What's the ag drone that drone nerds is bringing out?
[00:04:18] Speaker B: I'm not sure on the drone nerds one. I know about the HSE one what's called Raptor, which is an awesome name.
[00:04:23] Speaker A: That is a good name.
[00:04:24] Speaker B: Super awesome name. Great naming.
[00:04:26] Speaker A: Good drone, bad drone.
[00:04:27] Speaker B: I think it'll be good. It looks good.
[00:04:29] Speaker A: I mean, Mike was here, he'd say it's a bad drone.
[00:04:30] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:04:31] Speaker A: Like without even knowing, like the first generation of anything is going to be bad.
[00:04:35] Speaker B: Yeah, it looks cool. It's orange. That's like.
[00:04:38] Speaker A: That is good.
[00:04:39] Speaker C: Is that also a drone that comes from China as well? I think has to probably.
[00:04:43] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:44] Speaker B: It's got like all sorts of crazy stuff. There's some good marketing on it online, but haven't really seen a real one. Just like marketing videos of it, which, who knows? That would be cool.
[00:04:54] Speaker A: So let's get into because. So you talk to entrepreneurs every day, right?
[00:04:57] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:04:58] Speaker A: Who are already talking more to farmers or entrepreneurs right now.
[00:05:00] Speaker B: Entrepreneurs, farmers, drone nerds. It's like I would say 25% is drone nerds and then the rest is going to be a mix of farmers.
[00:05:07] Speaker A: And 25% is drone nerds.
[00:05:10] Speaker B: Like people that just.
Which is me. Like, I got my part. 107. I'm like, how can I make money with this? So like these guys have been flying camera drones. Just like they love drones.
[00:05:21] Speaker A: Yeah, man. And I, this is funny because I just had a conversation yesterday with a guy here locally, one of the best cinematographers in Ohio who has like drones isn't even his. It's. It's just like, it's part of what he does. He does cinematography and producing and stuff. And he told me, kevin, I'm so bored of what I'm doing. It's like I'm doing corporate documentary style videos for engineering companies that make steel parts. And it's just like, what am I doing with my life? It's good money, but what am I doing? And he said, well, what's is. I mean, can you make money with drones?
What's this whole drone thing?
[00:05:53] Speaker B: Yeah, I think that's like the conclusion a lot of people eventually come to. It's like, okay, anybody can go buy a camera drone gets pretty saturated on that.
Are you gonna retire with just taking videos on a drone? But agriculture is probably the best application that I can see. I mean that is a full time job that you can quit your job, start a custom applicator business, spray acres, fly drones all day. That's probably like the career, you know what I mean? If you're trying to get into it and you want a career using that part 107, agriculture's gotta be number one on the list.
[00:06:26] Speaker A: And there's a moat around as well with the requirements for a part 137. It's the, you know, with thermal business, you can't really build a business where you can actually have, you know, employee pilots that fly your equipment for you because they can so easily just go buy their own $10,000 drone.
[00:06:42] Speaker B: Oh yeah.
[00:06:43] Speaker A: But with agriculture, you have all of this licensing and these regulations and these requirements and the money is so much better that you can actually pay your guides really well.
[00:06:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:06:52] Speaker A: And still make a great profit.
[00:06:54] Speaker B: And it's not like you're coming at it with something that's like new and untested. Like farmers have been spraying their fields.
[00:07:00] Speaker A: For decades, just not with drones.
[00:07:02] Speaker B: Yeah. This is the new way of doing it. It's got its pros. There's still some cons to it. Like it's not going to be per. It's not going to replace the ground rigs yet.
[00:07:10] Speaker A: Yeah, it's coming.
[00:07:10] Speaker B: Yeah, like it's definitely coming.
[00:07:12] Speaker C: So what level of confidence do that? 25. Like so you have 75% of the people you're talking to are farmers. You know, they know the acres that they're going to have. They're going to do like what level of confidence do people have in the enthusiast? Like I can really make money doing this. Or you talk to people that. It's really like, I really want to be able to get into this. But like, can I actually make a business of this? Because I know for myself, having the video experience, like I did wedding videography and stuff, it was a huge jump for me to go from like making just little side money to like actually making a living. Do people have that confidence?
[00:07:52] Speaker B: Yeah, like I think the guys that are just drone nerds, like, they're very confident in being able to work the equipment. The equipment doesn't scare them at all. I'll fly a drone anywhere. Like I can fly. Like they know how to do that and they can know how to, they can figure out how to work the other stuff because there's other things you gotta do with the T50 or whatever. But they're confident in that. Their biggest holdback is like, I don't know anything about chemicals. I don't know anything about farming. I didn't know anything about farming when I started here. But you really don't like these farmers don't want your advice. They don't want your recommendations on a specific chemical. They have agronomists and experience that they rely on. They don't rely on you for that. They just want you to be the applicator.
[00:08:29] Speaker A: And you definitely add value the more you know that. But you don't need like they're not looking to you for that in the beginning, right?
[00:08:34] Speaker B: No, no, not at all. You'll pick it up as you go, you know. But yeah, they don't want that. That was the biggest thing to me. I didn't realize until I feel like.
[00:08:42] Speaker A: People are either unlike. This is a generality and probably not completely true, but people are either very confident and they have the acres or they're like, this is going to be the biggest lift to get, you know, a thousand acres. It's like one or the other. Is that true?
[00:08:55] Speaker B: Yeah, I think, yeah. Some people are like, I got my own fields or I know guys, I got a guy who does this many acres.
[00:09:00] Speaker A: We had a guy last week, right? So a guy who read about found us. No, actually he. He was at breakfast with a buddy and his buddy was like, dude, he owns a big chemical. You know, he has like 15 ground rigs or something, covers a hundred thousand acres a year. I'm not sure. Huge amount. And his buddy at breakfast said, man, drones are the end thing. Like they are going to dominate. And that was on a Monday. And by Friday he had his tech, he had his foreman, I don't know who here picking up equipment t 60s.
And it was funny because Mike was pushing him so bad to like, would you please, can I please spend time with you to help train you and make sure you know how to use this? And the guy. I don't have time for. I drove 17 hours to be here. I don't have time. I don't have time. I got to get back. And his boss on Monday was expecting him. That was on a Friday. His. But he had to drive back 17 hours and on a Monday his boss was expecting him to be ready to cover 502,000 acres with his brand new equipment. Oh yeah, because he's drawn a drone before. He has a part 107. It's like I Don't know that it works that way.
[00:10:01] Speaker B: No, especially with the release. That's these release windows on these drones. That's what's. If it would be December and this. This T60 had been out since December, just. That would make him. His rush job, getting going a whole lot easier.
[00:10:14] Speaker A: Well, you can cover 500 acres easily off the new WAG trailer, but you got to know how to use the. Yeah, it's like if you've flown a Mavic, then the flying will be fine, but there's still a lot of settings and a lot of problem solving you have to be able to do.
[00:10:28] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:10:29] Speaker C: So much, you know. So when I was spraying out in Indiana, I did fungicide on wheat, where we did, like, just 600 acres to kind of just test her, get into it. And I had this beautiful relay to help with connectivity. It was, you know, just nicely packaged on my trailer. Didn't use it. Didn't even take the time to figure out how it connects with my drone.
Well, I get out there in the field, and I lose connection with my drone, and so I'm like, oh, I got to get the relay. Well, I didn't know that you have to, like, get that stuff all set up before you send your drone out. You can't just use that when you're out there. And so what happened? Battery died, and my drone sat down in the wheat, and it was a mess to get it out of there. But those are things you just learn as you go. But, you know, it I can't imagine just, like, being thrown into fire.
[00:11:18] Speaker A: Yeah. And that those are exactly the reasons that we. We try and we had this conversation internally of do we force people to do training? It's like, well, we're not going to force you, but we're going to heavily encourage you because we don't want that to happen. Like, you got to know 100 things. You got to feel prepared. You got to know how the system works.
[00:11:35] Speaker B: Yeah. I tell everybody, even if you're, like, way far away, let me ship your drone and then find time to fly out here and do. Do the training. You can train on our stuff. You don't want to be that the first time you go out. To be, like, a training experience. You know what I mean? Like, you need to know some things.
[00:11:49] Speaker A: If you're really good with drones and you have experience and you don't have pressure, you might be able to go out there and just play around, you know, and figure it out by yourself. Like, it's not complicated. No, it's just going to be when you're in the soup and there's pressure and you can't afford to make a mistake, that's when you don't want to be learning something.
[00:12:07] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Especially on brand new equipment that literally just got to the United States maybe two weeks ago.
[00:12:11] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:12:12] Speaker B: Yeah. Now, so far, the T60 is working out good for him. I talked to him today. Yeah, he's. He's doing good.
[00:12:18] Speaker A: I feel like that's a big conversation right now. People are deciding between the T50 or the T60, what I would say the two best ag drones right now in the US market. You see, you see people having that conversation?
[00:12:29] Speaker B: I do, yeah. Like T50 is proven. Like we've been flying it for how long now? Two years, whatever. It's been great. Everybody knows it's great. Yeah. It doesn't have the biggest capacity now. We got the T60 or whatever. It doesn't have lidar, it doesn't have this and that, but it is reliable. So I still have guys that want to go for the T50, and I think we'll continue to sell T50s. Like T50s will be a thing even as bigger drones come out.
[00:12:51] Speaker A: Why would somebody choose a T50 over a T60 right now? From who you're talking to?
[00:12:56] Speaker B: So there's a few things I would say the price difference is enough that it's like.
[00:13:00] Speaker A: Yeah, depending on what I'm doing, I.
[00:13:02] Speaker B: Think it's about $9,000 difference.
[00:13:04] Speaker A: $9,000 difference.
[00:13:05] Speaker B: T50 and a T60X.
[00:13:07] Speaker A: Yeah, that's substantial.
[00:13:08] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, the price difference a little bit. Some guys are like, I'm not going to do anything more than fungicide, 2 gallons an acre or whatever. And I don't need the extra capacity or the speed. I'm just doing my own fields.
The one guy that I talked to had a J100 and he's. He said every time he's tried to fly, it's got issues, problems, and I'm losing acres, I'm losing money. I need something that I know is going to work. And he's like, I like the T60, but it just got here. I don't need more headaches.
[00:13:35] Speaker A: And that is the voice of an experienced. Like, that's not somebody in their first year. You don't think about those things.
And even though I think the T60 is going to be a solid drone, but like, historically, if you look at release windows, T40 had some issues.
[00:13:51] Speaker B: T30 before, it probably had some kind of issues to start with.
[00:13:54] Speaker A: And T50 with where it's at now, the software.
Like, I never hear our team or Mike complain about something that. That didn't work. Mike or Austin, you ever. You ever find something on the T50 that doesn't work as expected?
[00:14:06] Speaker C: No, I. I really feel like they did such a fabulous job at. At taking what they Learned from the T40 and implementing. Like, so I ran with T40s last year, and then just last week I flew a full day on t-50s. And I was like, there's so many features that I wished that the T40s had that they'd now put, like, little. Just little details, you know, so you have a little corner of the map on your controller where you can see where you're going to the field. On the T40, they wouldn't give you a line to see where your point is, where you start in the field. The T50 has like, a purple line so you don't have to open up your map to get your orientation. Like, you can just see it in the little corner of the screen. And little things of, like having your task summary real time. All these little details that it says, like, I don't know how I could make this drone better other than just make it bigger and badder, you know, just like. But that's the T100.
[00:15:07] Speaker A: The T100. Yep.
[00:15:08] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:15:08] Speaker B: Do you see the. The four motors on the T60 being a downside to the eight on the. The T50?
[00:15:15] Speaker C: I don't. In aspect that it's less maintenance. Like, it's less props that you have to have.
[00:15:22] Speaker A: And props can get expensive.
[00:15:24] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. Like, what is it, a thousand bucks for full set?
[00:15:28] Speaker A: It's a thousand dollars for a full set.
[00:15:29] Speaker B: Yeah, it's 880. Unless it's 880. 880 for a full set.
[00:15:34] Speaker A: And maybe if you're overnight shipping, it's a thousand bucks.
[00:15:37] Speaker C: My thought with the props, if you're going to break like a top set of props on that motor, how are you not going to break the bottom set? You know, if you run into a branch or tree, like, you're going to break that, you're going to make that whole arm dysfunctional no matter what. And so I don't really see an issue with. With having just those four motors. I really actually like it.
[00:16:01] Speaker B: And that's interesting. Yeah, I have a lot of guys ask that about T50, T40 or T50 and T60. It's like.
[00:16:08] Speaker C: And the motors are so solid on those drones, like, even if you. You're not going to have one just like, stop just like that.
[00:16:18] Speaker A: You're.
[00:16:18] Speaker C: It's going to start. Maybe the ones that we've had have had gone bad on the T50s. Like only maybe one or two cases where I've heard of a motor going bad, but it was like a slow process like that. It was. You would hear it and it was going bad. It wasn't detrimental to your drone. And just stay on top of the maintenance.
[00:16:37] Speaker A: Yeah. And I'm not. I'm not sure, like, I've heard Mike say, he's like, I'm not sure if a T50 motor goes bad with a full load. If it still doesn't fall out of the sky, I don't know.
[00:16:47] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't think anybody wants to try. Maybe we should try that.
[00:16:50] Speaker A: We've tried it with like, not a full tank that, like, it's fine then.
[00:16:53] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:16:54] Speaker A: But if it's fully loaded, it's. It would. I don't know what would happen.
[00:16:57] Speaker B: Yeah, it's interesting. Maybe there is no real reliability to having an extra four motors on the T50. Because I think that's everybody's biggest, like, holdback is like, you know, what if one goes bad?
[00:17:08] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:17:09] Speaker B: You got, you know, seven more on the T50.
[00:17:13] Speaker C: But yeah, I honestly am not too worried about. I like it for the aspect that there's just less maintenance, less props to get cracked.
So, Kevin, we haven't really talked about our guest.
[00:17:26] Speaker A: Who is this guy?
[00:17:27] Speaker B: Right.
[00:17:27] Speaker C: We just went right into all the drone stuff.
[00:17:30] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:17:31] Speaker B: I'm Ryan McNally. I do sales here at Drone de Recovery New Way Ag. Well, not here. Cause this is drone on.
[00:17:38] Speaker A: This is a drone on show. Get it right. Yeah, that's good.
[00:17:41] Speaker B: Sorry about that.
[00:17:41] Speaker A: Yeah. If you've probably. Most people know you by your voice, right. You spend hours on the phone.
[00:17:46] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. Chances are if you called in to buy a drone or talk about drones or the business or anything, you probably talk to me at some point. I'm glued to an office chair, which is cool, but also not cool at the same time because, you know, you'll see me. I'll go and fly the FPV drone in the back.
[00:18:02] Speaker A: You need an outlet.
[00:18:02] Speaker B: I'll get that drone break. Yeah.
[00:18:04] Speaker A: I do have to say, like, your. Your office and my office are next to each other. And when I walk past, you're often in the most kind of chill feet, you know, on the table, leaning back, just chatting with somebody, helping them work through what they need.
[00:18:18] Speaker B: Yeah, I love to talk about drones. Like, if you call and just want to Talk about drones. We'll talk. Yeah, we'll talk. Yeah, that's.
[00:18:24] Speaker A: That's.
[00:18:24] Speaker B: Russ gets a little bit mad about that.
No, we do good.
I, I talk to everybody who calls in. Really. I give everybody as much time as they need on. On what it is. But yeah, the t. The biggest thing with that has been the T60X is just since the T60X's came out, questions about the T60X?
[00:18:43] Speaker A: Yep, a lot of questions. Yep. What are some of the top ones? Have you already covered them?
[00:18:47] Speaker B: Yeah, we kind of already did for the most part.
[00:18:50] Speaker A: So is FPV something that you've done for a while? Just getting into.
[00:18:54] Speaker B: Yeah. So like I started at the company in August. I came from a mortgage background. Like, I did mortgages. So I got into drones. I bought a DJI Mini 2 and I said I'm going to take pictures for realtors. Not to like sell them pictures, but as an end to like, hey, let's build a relationship. Because mortgages is all networking. It's like all who, you know, get the referrals, Referrals, referrals, referrals.
So that's kind of how I got into it. And I've been doing mortgages for forever. I saw a job posting for Jones Recovery. I'm like, that would be awesome.
[00:19:28] Speaker A: You had your part 107 when you applied, right?
[00:19:30] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. So like, that's. I. I had this mortgage backgrounds. I think the job was like a customer service job. I was just looking for something to do in addition to my mortgage stuff.
And yeah, I messaged like, hey, I have my part one of seven. Just so you know that's important. And then they're like, I come out for an interview. So Ross said he'd rather have me do sales, which I'm glad I did because this has actually become my full time. Like it was going to be maybe just a side job to do because I own the mortgage company. Like, it's a small mortgage broker. It's just like I thought that was going to be my full time job and then this would be something that I do in the times that I'm not busy. And now this has turned out to be.
[00:20:04] Speaker A: It almost flipped.
[00:20:05] Speaker B: Oh yeah, yeah, it's wild. Which is great because, like, I'm so much happier. Like, you get to do drones, like for a living. Like you play with drones and talk about drones.
[00:20:14] Speaker A: Like, it is fun. And I feel like Mike's passion for drones is just infectious. Like, everybody is attracted to like, man, drones are so cool. And that, that's in every department of the company. So.
[00:20:25] Speaker B: And when somebody asks you like, where do you work? And you're like, I work for Drone Deer Recovery. And they're like, what?
[00:20:29] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:20:29] Speaker B: Drone Deer Recovery.
[00:20:30] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:20:31] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, yeah. And then you tell them about the YouTube and the. And the drones. Thermal drones. Ag drones. Wow, that's crazy. I've never heard of anything like that. And you're like, yeah, that's pretty cool.
[00:20:39] Speaker A: That is cool.
[00:20:40] Speaker C: Then. Then the follow up question. So, like, what do you do like for a living? And it's like, no, that's what I. I work for Drone Deer Recovery and New Way Ag. Like, this is full time. It's usually too much full time.
Usually so much going on.
[00:20:56] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:20:56] Speaker B: Now I love it. I love what I'm able to do. I love talking to these guys and helping people start businesses, which I started a business. It's a pain.
[00:21:04] Speaker A: Like it's hard.
[00:21:05] Speaker B: I did in mortgages where there is nobody helping you. Like you're like googling.
[00:21:10] Speaker A: You figure it out.
[00:21:11] Speaker B: Yeah. Using AI like chat to help you write documents and this and that. So like, it's nice. And I think that we give a lot to the guys that call in, like, hey, I want to get into this. Or I've been a drone into drones for forever. I see this as being the biggest thing and it's.
[00:21:27] Speaker A: Yeah. And that's something that like we keep talking about from time to time is like, we want to make it so easy for people. But you still need to have that, like entrepreneurial. Like I'm just going to try to figure it out. And there's. If you aren't willing just to go try stuff, you know, take a risk, figure it out, then it's, it's. You still got to do that. It's just we're going to make it as easy as possible for you.
[00:21:47] Speaker B: Yeah. And what's nice about the whole ag side of this is that it's not like you're doing any other business where you sell somebody a furnace. It's like, go in there, install the furnace and then you never talk to them for 30 years or until a thing breaks. This is. You build a relationship with the guy that you're spraying for and you kit those acres, it just snowballs, get them back, continues to grow. It's like starting out might be hard, but I think once these guys get going and this has been the feedback that I get from a lot of them, it's like I didn't realize that it would go this fast. Like, I just Sprayed this guy's fields. Now his neighbor saw it. Now I'm doing this guy's stuff and then I got all these acres lined up.
[00:22:24] Speaker A: And do most guys, when they're kind of in that stage of researching and figuring out if they can get the financing, whatever, do they know how much spraying is per acre in their area?
[00:22:33] Speaker B: Generally they, yeah, they. Most guys that I've talked to have done some form of research.
Some, some don't. Some ask and I was like, hey, this is Ohio. Like this is kind of what we see at 12, what 17 is what we typically say.
But I know it's different all over, like California. I talked to a guy in California. It's like minimum 25 an acre to.
[00:22:52] Speaker A: Spray anything row crop or like orchard rice. Right.
[00:22:55] Speaker B: He's doing.
[00:22:55] Speaker C: But well, California is just everything whole other level. Like I think 35 hour, 35 hour job here would be equivalent to having like a 70 hour job there. Like, it's just.
[00:23:09] Speaker A: So what would you say is average like for people? Like is the range like 12 to 17 that you see people calling in or.
[00:23:16] Speaker B: I think I, yeah, like out of people that I've talked to. It really depends on the state. Like it really does. Like it depends on where you're at because I think the places where it's flat and wide open, you probably last because it's just so flat and wide open, which is nice because you can.
[00:23:29] Speaker A: Get a lot done. Yep.
[00:23:30] Speaker B: So it's not.
[00:23:31] Speaker A: I do see pricing going down. I'm curious if you see that as well, because I feel like what we did first year 17 and then it's 15 and I think now it's, you know, maybe 12ish is kind of what we charge around here. Is that right, Austin?
[00:23:42] Speaker C: Yeah, I would say, I mean, I would say it's gone down a whole lot. I, I think it's just more, I think we're kind of settling in to kind of that sweet spot. But I, I think there's still going to be areas where you can keep your price high because you're such a, a niche, you know, when you, when it comes to row crop. Yeah. There might be a lot of competition or not competition, but just that you're going to have to find where the market settles. But then there's so much that you can do. As far as we just did a project last week where it took these people to spray this area for a. It was an invasive weed of some sort and it's wet land and they'd have to do backpacks, they'd have to.
[00:24:23] Speaker A: Take, like, walk through. Walk through marshes.
[00:24:26] Speaker C: Marshes. And it was usually like a four or five day project.
[00:24:31] Speaker A: And for 20 people. Right.
[00:24:34] Speaker C: I don't remember how many people, but it typically took four or five days for them to do. And the drones did it now, you know, in half a day of. Of spraying. And Landon, our photographer, was just showing me some pictures of. Of it, and it was just sweet. Like, everywhere that the drone was spraying, it's all brown now, like that.
[00:24:53] Speaker A: And that is gone.
[00:24:55] Speaker C: And I just think that.
That you're still gonna have premium services because there's no other way to do that that effectively. That it's not like you're gonna be still, like, doing a job like that for so cheap.
[00:25:11] Speaker A: Yeah. And I will say that I feel like, although, you know, if we charge 12 versus, like 15 or whatever we did last year our daily, like, the amount that we can make per day is way higher.
[00:25:23] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:25:24] Speaker A: Because you're so much more efficient and you're covering more acres per day. And so that I think it only kind of makes sense. And it still is so profitable. In fact, a lot of people are shocked when they find out that it, you know, with 200 to 300 acres, you can actually pay off your monthly payment for the whole setup.
[00:25:44] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:25:44] Speaker A: Isn't that amazing?
[00:25:45] Speaker B: Yeah, I thought it would have been more than that, really. But yeah, no, if I do the math, yeah, that's legitimately what it is.
And, like, when you consider who you're really competing against, like, there's ground rigs and airplanes.
[00:25:58] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:25:59] Speaker B: You have a tenth of the. The expense, maybe.
[00:26:02] Speaker A: It kind of makes sense. Yeah. And so a lot of guys end up getting, like. I mean, that helps them understand. Okay, if I just do 300amonth, I make my payment. Right. That's base level. But then it pretty quickly shifts over to, well, could I actually pay this off in one year? What would that look like?
[00:26:17] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:26:18] Speaker A: And those guys that set out that goal, man, they can do it.
[00:26:20] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, yeah, they do it all the time. I have guys who bought drones at the end of last season that barely got to use them and have so many acres lined up right now that they're adding more drones. Third drones, like, second drones.
[00:26:33] Speaker A: Great problem to have. Great problem to have.
[00:26:35] Speaker B: Yeah. No, it'll snowball and go out of control like crazy.
[00:26:38] Speaker C: But I'm curious, Ryan, like, when you talk to farmers on the phone, not like the drone enthusiast, like, what are farmers seeing that drones are solving? What problem is being solved? Like, is there a theme? Is it, you know, financial hurdle for them is it seeing the opportunity to have their yield increase or just being able to get into their fields when they want. Like what is the most common problem that's being solved for farmers?
[00:27:07] Speaker B: Yeah, it's probably some terrain stuff, but it's also like the weather, like ground rigs, the rain, like if it's a rainy season, it's hard to get that thing out there. So. And then I have a lot of guys that were like, I'm getting to a point where I kind of need to upgrade or sell my ground rig. So now I'm looking at this drone, like, can I do this?
[00:27:23] Speaker A: Please don't buy another ground rig.
[00:27:24] Speaker B: Yeah, can I do this drone? Can I use this drone to do what I need to fill the gap basically on what I have right now and only use the ground rig for the real heavy stuff that I have to. And that's, that's like what just your herbicides really? Like, I mean, I mean I'm sure there's other stuff out there that ground rig is going to shine at, but I mean most of the stuff I think you can do with a drone without having to touch the fuel.
[00:27:46] Speaker A: Yeah, probably like a lot of stuff if you're doing five or ten or 15 gallons an acre. If you need to do that, you can still do it with the drone.
[00:27:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:27:52] Speaker A: But it's stops being just a slam dunk as far as efficiency. You still, still can do it. Yeah, but man, with the T100, 300 pound payload and you know, 100 liter tank or whatever it is that it's going to have, it's going to be wild. You will start to be able to do.
[00:28:07] Speaker B: Yeah. It's just a matter of time.
[00:28:08] Speaker A: Just a matter of time. Yep.
[00:28:09] Speaker B: And what's funny is that like I, I, when we were at some of those trade shows, these guys from these chemical companies would come up and talk to me and tell me that they're developing new chemicals now that the drones are.
[00:28:20] Speaker A: Yeah, it only makes sense. Yeah.
[00:28:21] Speaker B: All the stuff we have was designed with airplanes, helicopters and ground rigs in mind for spraying. Like drones were never an option until now. So I think we'll see new chemicals.
[00:28:31] Speaker A: And that makes me excited about. So this upcoming season, I mean we're inching closer and closer to July, you know, corn fungicide in Ohio, Indiana. And we have a concept for what we want to go out and shoot this, this season.
Because I think people's biggest and you tell me, I think their biggest fear is how do I get acres If I actually buy the equipment, I learn how to use it, I get all the legal stuff figured out. How do I actually go talk to a farmer and get the acres? Is that their number one thing?
[00:28:58] Speaker B: I wouldn't say it's the number one thing. I think a lot of guys are pretty confident in themselves.
[00:29:02] Speaker A: A lot of guys think they can do it.
[00:29:03] Speaker B: They're buying drone equipment, they're starting this business. They're pretty confident in themselves. They do ask about it, like, do you guys do marketing this and that, which we will have at some point. We'll have some marketing stuff, working on it.
[00:29:13] Speaker A: Yeah, man.
[00:29:13] Speaker B: But like, I guess the best way of getting acres has got to be just knocking on doors. Like, that's gotta be. I mean, once somebody sees the equipment and sees what you can do, it's gotta be a piece of it.
[00:29:25] Speaker A: The thing that I feel like. And so we're gonna actually go out and we're gonna show what this is like. Like, if you go to an area where you've never gone before and you just start at farms, like, and it's such an easy ask. You are not asking for business. You're saying, can I do a free demo for you? Can I show you how the equipment works?
And then the switch from that to, oh, well, this actually works so well. What do you charge per acre? It's so easy. Yeah, but we're going to put us, like, I, I want to go out with Mike this July and I want to give him a challenge. Because if you give Mike a challenge, he'll just about do anything. He won't sleep until it's done, until he gets it and said, Mike, without having any acres lined up, can we take you to a new area, have you door knock and like, can you actually sell acres and do them in a third? Like, how many acres can we get in a 30 day challenge?
[00:30:14] Speaker B: Yeah. That's going to be super interesting to me because from the guys that I've talked to on the phone, they're like, you know what the weirdest thing is that I thought the old guy farmer that's been farming for his entire life would be the most hesitant to jump on this. But when they see the equipment, they're like, I'm sold. When can you make it out here?
[00:30:32] Speaker A: It's crazy.
[00:30:33] Speaker B: And I think it's because they're mostly like, those guys are visual guys. They see it.
[00:30:36] Speaker A: They got to see it.
[00:30:37] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:30:38] Speaker C: Have to see it. And I found even when I was spraying that if I was spraying one field and a neighbor that was also a farmer saw what was going on. You want to bet your bottom dollar he is not if there was a chance that this was better application that it was going to help his yield that anything like that, that he would come out on the top side financially by using this type of application. You're going to bet his bottom dollar that he doesn't going to miss out there. I had quite a few peepers coming, like kind of who you spraying for? And you know what's going on here? And just like, oh, you know, I think I would consider, consider that I got a use you guys next year. You know, it's just like I heard that so many times, dude.
[00:31:25] Speaker A: I feel like I don't know if people are doing this in some parts of the country, but I feel like they should. I feel like every drone spray pilot and I don't know if this is legal or not, but I think everybody should have yard signs and after you spray a field, just plant a yard sign in there. Because when that field starts looking amazing and you know, whatever, it's like people want to know who sprayed that. I feel like you get so much business just from that.
[00:31:49] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm just, I'm going to be super interested on like how that goes. Do we see that more of the old guys, like the older farmers been doing it or the ones first jump on board? Because I've been told from, from the guys that are out here doing this every day, like the younger guys, like the younger farmers, like they got to do the research, they got to pull their numbers, this and that. They're very analytical with stuff. And then the older guys are very visual. Like I see it know that drone can do what it. Once you see the cone come out of that thing like you know, it can do some work.
[00:32:16] Speaker A: I feel like the old timers will never buy a drone to fly themselves. No, no, they will always pay. Somebody or their nephew or whoever works on the farm might end up flying it.
[00:32:28] Speaker B: I will say I had an 82 year old guy in Kansas, I believe, like middle of nowhere Kansas. He drives a Tesla.
[00:32:35] Speaker A: Oh, I love this guy already.
[00:32:36] Speaker B: Yeah, drives a Tesla, bought a new ag trailer, two drones in a spray in his fields. He's like, I'm 82 years old.
[00:32:43] Speaker A: That is legit.
[00:32:44] Speaker B: He's like, I love the tec technology stuff.
[00:32:46] Speaker A: That is amazing.
[00:32:47] Speaker B: Yeah, he was awesome guy. I probably talked.
[00:32:49] Speaker A: So he, he flies himself?
[00:32:51] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, he's running the trailer.
[00:32:52] Speaker C: Everything that is legit.
[00:32:54] Speaker A: Class 3 medical. What a boss.
[00:32:55] Speaker B: Yeah, he's telling Me about his road trips that he goes on in his Tesla and he's like, I thought the thing wouldn't be that great of a road tripper, but it turns out it's awesome. And especially with full self driving, he can sit there and just take in all the scenery. Things that he never saw before driving down these roads. Oh yeah, he's seeing it, you know.
[00:33:09] Speaker A: That's awesome.
[00:33:10] Speaker B: Yeah, he was, he was awesome guy.
[00:33:11] Speaker C: That, that brings up such a great point because I think sometimes people look at these just because of the size of the drones. It looks intimidating. But really after only flying for 10, 15 hours, you really learn what you need to know. As far as just like flying, like they're really not that hard to fly. And I mean if an 82 year old guy can do it, I mean, do you want to have your butt kicked by an 82 year old? Like.
[00:33:38] Speaker A: No, you can probably figure out.
[00:33:40] Speaker C: You can probably.
Yeah. To him I think it's pretty cool.
[00:33:43] Speaker B: Flying FPV is the hardest thing.
[00:33:45] Speaker A: Yeah, especially. Yeah, there's different levels of fpv. Right?
[00:33:47] Speaker B: You did it. Was that the first time?
[00:33:49] Speaker A: I've never picked up an FPV before.
[00:33:50] Speaker B: Until we did it one day. Yeah, yeah. FPV is hard.
[00:33:53] Speaker A: We were taking off under a porch and I just slightly put the throttle up and it went wham.
[00:33:58] Speaker B: Oh yeah, Yeah.
[00:34:00] Speaker C: I ran inside as quick as I could. I was out watching Kevin and I was like, this is not safe anymore.
[00:34:05] Speaker A: They are, they are so crazy.
[00:34:07] Speaker B: So fun. Wasn't it like once you got out there and we're zipping across the floor.
[00:34:11] Speaker A: Feel fun? It was awesome and it's a good time.
[00:34:13] Speaker C: So that's the one you built, right?
[00:34:15] Speaker B: Yeah. So that's like. I'm like drone nerd. You know what I mean? So started really? That's more recent, I would say probably in the year before I started working here. I got into the FPV stuff just because I got a really good deal on a DJI fpv. Like already pre built. It's not really an fpv. I mean it is, you can fly it manually, but it's not like Nevada or. No, the one that came before that. The DJI FPV is what they call it. Yeah, it was fast. That was my biggest thing. I want to fly faster.
So yeah, that's what got me into it. So I bought this drone, got a good deal on it, and turns out you can use the goggles and controllers to build other drones. So that's how the one other one Came to be that you guys flew.
[00:34:54] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:34:55] Speaker B: And yeah, FPV is so much fun.
[00:34:58] Speaker A: It's a great hobby. But you can't make money with it. Right.
[00:35:00] Speaker B: Some guys, I mean, yeah, you can.
[00:35:02] Speaker A: If you're like the top 10%, you can make bank. Yeah.
[00:35:06] Speaker B: You're not going to be a millionaire unless you're, I mean, the top one for stuff. I mean, you guys have met some guys out there doing it.
[00:35:12] Speaker A: Yeah, like, but, but that is like a whole other world where you're mounting like, like mirrorless cameras and Komodos and stuff onto a big risk. Yeah, it's crazy.
[00:35:22] Speaker B: Yeah. That's what, like there's a very big correlation to like FPV and like skateboarding or like dirt bikes or something like that is action sports.
You get the same adrenaline rush, but you're not risking like breaking bones. You're risking breaking your 6,700 thousand drone.
[00:35:41] Speaker A: And I am like, I'd say I'm a drone nerd. Also, I am so excited about getting the Mavic 4 Pro next week.
[00:35:51] Speaker B: What? I am not like, okay, so since I had my mini 2, I still fly that mini 2. The thing's great.
What am I getting out of a Mavic, dude?
[00:35:58] Speaker A: The Mavic 4 Pro comes down again like a user experience unlike any others. Like the controllers here, the screen comes up and the sticks are folded down. They come to life. That's how you turn it on. It's just by like you pull the screen up, you can now see your sticks and then the whole like it looks so futuristic. The whole three camera trio on the front.
[00:36:21] Speaker B: I've seen it. It looks super cool. I haven't seen the control of that.
[00:36:24] Speaker A: It goes 390 degrees and the way that you go, like, how is that.
[00:36:27] Speaker C: Going to help you?
[00:36:28] Speaker A: Oh, Austin, let me explain. All right, you can actually. Then you rotate the screen like this and your three gimbals rotate.
[00:36:38] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:36:38] Speaker A: And so you have everywhere from a 24 millimeter equivalent camera on there to 165 millimeter camera on there. So I already know that with the filming we're going to do with Mike out there, like door knocking, talking to, you know, like this 165i in the millimeter eye in the sky.
It's going to be amazing and I need it.
[00:36:59] Speaker B: And you like, so you came from video production too. So like you've been into that. So. See, I never knew anything about video production. I just, I liked flying stuff and.
[00:37:08] Speaker A: It'S so, it's like, it's, it's like this creative Outlet and you get to do cool stuff. And like Mike, Mike also. Cuz Mike was a producer shooter for the biggest hunting, like real hunting series ever.
[00:37:20] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:37:20] Speaker A: And he has pictures of, you know, climbing mountains and chasing elk and, and there's something so fun about telling stories through. Through camera. But then also if you do it commercially, then it's so it's really hard because people's vision and what they want, it's like, it's just hard.
[00:37:39] Speaker B: Yeah. And you almost have to be a mind reader.
[00:37:41] Speaker A: Yeah. And sometimes what they want in the budget they have is like. Yeah, two separate things.
[00:37:46] Speaker B: Um, but yeah, video production's gotta be super hard. Yeah.
[00:37:50] Speaker A: But that camera that, that drone is gonna. Oh yeah, it's gonna scratch an itch.
[00:37:55] Speaker B: So like that was the one thing to go to. Like if I wanted to get a mini 3 or 4. Because you could swap the camera to vertical. Yeah. And vertical video is like when you start post. I post everything just like on Facebook.
[00:38:07] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:38:07] Speaker B: And if it's not vertical, you can't really see what it is.
[00:38:10] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:38:10] Speaker A: You gotta be able to like it.
[00:38:11] Speaker B: Yeah. Shooting that vertical video.
[00:38:13] Speaker A: So that latest DJI drone is an example of one that is not coming to America.
[00:38:18] Speaker B: Oh, really?
[00:38:18] Speaker A: Not released in the U.S. really?
[00:38:20] Speaker C: Well, that's a downer.
[00:38:22] Speaker A: Sucks.
[00:38:22] Speaker C: Thanks for getting all the hype up there.
I was ready to fly this drone.
[00:38:27] Speaker B: If there's a will, there's a way.
[00:38:29] Speaker A: So there's. There's a way. But you got to get creative and you got to go figure out how to buy in a different country. And yeah, they're not illegal to have. It's just you can't, I think you can't import them at scale and because of what CBP has going on with the DJI band and stuff, you can't do it.
Same with, by the way, same with the DJI dock.
What do you guys know about the DJI dock?
[00:38:51] Speaker B: I know it's, I mean, I know what it is and I know it's good for certain things, but I don't know if you had remote areas that you needed to be able to inspect with a drone. Like that dock is awesome. Right?
[00:39:03] Speaker C: Oh, but man, if we would have that, like people have hunting land, you know, in another state, you know, there's so many out of staters that come to Ohio. How cool would it be if the guy could just be sipping on his coffee at home one morning like, ah, I wonder what's, you know, what my. What's going on in my land right now and just launch his drone out of his remotely launch it just remotely.
[00:39:28] Speaker A: You know, that would be definitely beyond line of sight.
Hypothetically.
[00:39:34] Speaker C: Yes.
Right.
[00:39:36] Speaker A: So a friend is in China actually flying back today, and he told me, Kevin, he said when you walk down the street, you see light poles with docks. I don't know if the DJI docs are different docks, but docks, like every couple of blocks, light pole with a dock up above. And if there's ever an emergency or a fugitive or whatever, a drone just goes up and it's like. Imagine having one of those every 10 blocks where you just have an. And it's all like from the remote command center. I don't know that I'm a fan of that.
[00:40:02] Speaker B: That's a little scary.
[00:40:03] Speaker A: That is scary.
[00:40:04] Speaker B: Yeah. I don't want that here.
[00:40:05] Speaker A: But if you think of China being, you know, like five to 10 years ahead of us.
[00:40:08] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:40:09] Speaker A: It kind of makes sense that that will be what's going to happen.
[00:40:13] Speaker B: Yeah, I, I think you'll get a lot more pushback here in the United States on something like that.
[00:40:18] Speaker A: You know, we Americans, man, we love our, we are weird people. We love our freedoms. Give us our guns, but don't you dare.
[00:40:24] Speaker B: Yeah, don't surveil me.
[00:40:25] Speaker A: Don't surveil me. No. And that's, that's how I feel. Don't surveil me.
[00:40:28] Speaker B: Yeah, like leave me alone a little bit. But I know, yeah, some of that stuff I think, yeah, definitely will end up being here. I mean, it makes sense. I mean, right now, like if you go to some of the cities, they'll park like this generator looking light pole with cameras on it and it has microphones and it listens for gunshots. And then it starts filming as soon as it hears loud noise like that. Which is wild.
[00:40:50] Speaker A: But I think today also on the way to work, I saw a YouTube video before work, before I was driving to work and Roll.
What's the company out at Columbus and Andrew. Andrew, yeah. Like they just announced or released. They announced, I don't know, unveiled their new like autonomous fighter jet.
[00:41:13] Speaker B: It's awesome. I needed it. If I haven't, I, I follow them actually on.
[00:41:16] Speaker A: They're funny. On YouTube.
[00:41:17] Speaker B: I love it. I, I'm a big fan. I have nothing to do with Andrew, but they're in Ohio, dude.
[00:41:23] Speaker A: And I. So, so the CEO was saying, because people are scared. This is AI like powered fighter jet. That's a scary thing.
[00:41:29] Speaker B: Oh yeah.
[00:41:30] Speaker A: But he was like, weapons are scary. And it's more scary to have kind of a. Basically AI or not. AI weapons are scary.
[00:41:37] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:41:38] Speaker A: And. And they're. The concept for their jet is have a real fighter pilot in a. Like AN F. I don't know, 23 or whatever. And then you have like three kind of wingmen that go out in front that are autonomous. And if anything's going to get shot down or radar, like the first to engage are these autonomous ones. And they're kind of like flying information off of the guy behind them. That's a real human. So this human is actually controlling them. Ish. I don't know how it works.
[00:42:03] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:42:03] Speaker A: You know, they're like flying in uniform and that guy. The. The robots in the front are much cheaper and you don't have a life in it. So if something's going to take a hit than. And it's like a decoy, like a shield. Yeah, but one that can shoot back.
[00:42:16] Speaker B: Yeah. That's insane.
[00:42:17] Speaker A: So, yeah, it's. It's like. And then you. You read of all the advances that Ukraine is making.
[00:42:22] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. It's wild.
[00:42:23] Speaker A: Like, they have scaled up and like the kinds of.
So FPV now with fiber optic lines. Have you read about that?
[00:42:32] Speaker B: So you can't jam the signal.
[00:42:34] Speaker A: You can't jam it. And then you can like fly it like so far and.
And now you just have like woods and stuff with lots of little like, of these fiber optic lines. That's crazy.
[00:42:44] Speaker B: Yeah, just like leftover ones left over there. Yeah. That's nuts. Yeah. I think that, like the fiber optic lines probably loses a bunch of maneuverability with the FPV drone. But then you can't hack that thing.
[00:42:53] Speaker A: It can't hack it. Yeah.
[00:42:55] Speaker B: Scary.
[00:42:55] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:42:55] Speaker B: Well, did you see the bolt? M, I think is what it is from Andrew.
It's like a quadcopter or.
[00:43:01] Speaker A: What is it?
[00:43:02] Speaker B: It's like an FPV drone. It's almost like a FPV drone, but also mixed with a matrice 30t. That's what it looks like. It looks super cool if they made a thermal version of that for drone deer.
[00:43:12] Speaker A: So what's the use? I mean, it's a weapon. That's all that they make, right?
[00:43:15] Speaker B: Yeah. So it's like. It kind of is a scout drone, but you can also have it dive.
[00:43:19] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:43:20] Speaker B: And attack and it's crazy.
[00:43:22] Speaker A: And those are. Isn't that. Doesn't that one explode a couple feet above the ground for maximum damage?
[00:43:28] Speaker B: Explodes right in front of. Yeah, it's nuts.
[00:43:30] Speaker A: It is actually.
[00:43:31] Speaker B: That's like AI powered too, because, like, you can, I guess, Put that up in the sky and have it support. Support you. And then when you need to use it, you can.
[00:43:38] Speaker A: You think, this is. This is how people felt when, like, automatic rifles and stuff were first. Like, think of cannons and stuff like that. First making the way onto the battlefield.
[00:43:46] Speaker B: Yeah. That's gotta be it.
[00:43:47] Speaker A: It's just like, man, what is this world that we're.
[00:43:49] Speaker B: What's so crazy about that is that these drones, these FPV drones, have brought shotguns back into war. Like, shotgun kind of like disappeared. And now it's like, every soldier is probably going to have a shotgun.
[00:44:01] Speaker A: You need a shotgun. Yeah.
[00:44:02] Speaker B: To be able to get that. I mean, if you got one of those things coming.
[00:44:04] Speaker A: That is horrible. Yeah. Terrifying.
[00:44:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:44:07] Speaker A: So also, another drone news, I'd say since last podcast, I think tariffs dropped.
[00:44:14] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:44:14] Speaker A: They're down to 30%.
[00:44:17] Speaker B: It's awesome.
[00:44:18] Speaker A: It is awesome. But for drones it's 55%, so what the heck.
Yeah. So it's like, I believe. And it ever changes, but it's like 10% just because it's tit for tat. And then 20% for fentanyl and then 25% for drones.
And so it's like we're at 55%. And the crazy thing is that this is now the normal price, so.
[00:44:40] Speaker B: Yeah. Oh, yes. You'll never see them cheaper than it is now.
[00:44:43] Speaker A: Probably not.
[00:44:44] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:44:44] Speaker A: Like, I'd be so surprised if these tariffs went away, because I'm surprised they're as low as they are.
[00:44:49] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. So now does that play into it? Does somebody see, like, we've been selling these drones with the tariffs on it and that price? It works. So we're just going to keep.
[00:45:00] Speaker A: I think it's more like our US Drone industry is totally toasted if we have an equal playing field.
[00:45:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:45:07] Speaker A: So I imagine there's lobbying to make it 100% or 50%. It's crazy. Just to give the American drone companies a chance.
[00:45:14] Speaker B: It's wild.
[00:45:15] Speaker A: So. And I'm waiting for the day that we have an American drone company that's actually good. That should happen.
[00:45:21] Speaker B: Andrew. Make. Make an act Drone.
[00:45:23] Speaker A: Make an. We need a different company. But, yeah, how do we make an. How do we make an American ag drone? That's good.
[00:45:29] Speaker B: Yeah. Elon Musk. Get into it. I don't. I have no idea.
[00:45:32] Speaker A: Take that rocket tech and apply it to a drone.
[00:45:35] Speaker B: Be awesome. He would probably make a really good one.
[00:45:38] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:45:38] Speaker B: I have a vision of a Tesla robot swapping your batteries and filling your.
[00:45:43] Speaker A: Tanks on your trailer 100% be awesome. Yeah. In fact, I feel like I asked Mike the other day, mike, you can buy these $25,000 robots now that are like, these humanoid robots. Like, Mike, would that be a good investment for research and development in our shop if we could figure out how to program? I mean, these are. I don't know what the platform is, and the new ones are like 125 grand retail, but the old ones are like 25. You know, the previous generation. You know, like, what do we need a robot helper to, I don't know, sweep the shop or to load things? It'd be so awesome. I think we need one.
[00:46:14] Speaker B: I think we need one, too. That's incredible.
[00:46:15] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:46:15] Speaker B: That's a way better idea than the cow idea that Jessica had.
[00:46:19] Speaker A: Just. Yeah. If I had to choose between a robot or a cow, I'm probably going with the humanoid robots.
[00:46:23] Speaker C: What was the cow thing?
[00:46:24] Speaker B: Jessica, she's the other girl in sales at Drone Deer New Way Ag, but she had an idea of getting a office cow, mini cow. She wanted a pet, and I'm like, who's going to take care of it on the weekends? Who's going to do.
[00:46:35] Speaker A: Bad idea.
[00:46:36] Speaker B: Terrible idea.
[00:46:37] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:46:37] Speaker B: But robot robots don't even sleep.
[00:46:40] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:46:41] Speaker B: Don't need to eat.
[00:46:41] Speaker A: Just go charge in the corner. He's fine. Yeah.
[00:46:43] Speaker C: I guess we're going to have to have Jess on the. The podcast to defend herself on that one.
[00:46:47] Speaker A: Because lay out provision for the cow. The miniature cow.
[00:46:50] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:46:51] Speaker B: Yeah. The mini cow is not the best idea.
[00:46:53] Speaker A: What else is happening in the drone world? What's new? What's up this week?
[00:46:56] Speaker B: That's a good question.
[00:46:57] Speaker C: What. What's going on, like, with thermal. Like, are guys. Are they really getting excited about the M4T or what? What's their response to that?
[00:47:06] Speaker B: The price cuts in the M4T have been awesome because of the tariffs coming off. That's been great.
It's getting more people into it. It's like putting that kit just closer, closer.
[00:47:16] Speaker A: I think anytime that there's a kit under ten grand, it is like, game on. You can actually, like, you can almost afford just a hobby drone. Like, buy a hobby drone for you and your friends. Make some money when you help find other people's deer or whatever.
[00:47:29] Speaker B: You know what's funny to me is that I was thinking this the other day is that drone deer recovery has become its own sport inside of a sport. Like a sport inside of hunting. You know what I mean? Because on all the Facebook groups, it's like everybody wants show off Their, like in just a hunting group, they want to show off their deer.
[00:47:46] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:47:46] Speaker B: But if you're in a recovery group, you want to show off the deer that you recover and you almost.
[00:47:50] Speaker A: I've heard people say you get almost. Well, you get more thrills because you can go find two deer night or four deer night or whatever, and it's like you feel a similar rush to finding the dead buck is what you would experience shooting it.
[00:48:01] Speaker B: Yeah. When Jay found some people, one of my brother in laws, I was so fired up when he found it. It's nuts. Yeah, yeah. It's like it's become its own sport. And now that these drones are getting cheaper, like, if you're a hunter, you're putting $10,000 into your equipment just to hunt, and then you're gonna lose that deer.
[00:48:19] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:48:19] Speaker B: You can add them trees to your arsenal. Like, that's good to have.
[00:48:23] Speaker A: And it's. It's small, it's compact. It all fits in a case.
[00:48:25] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:48:26] Speaker A: There's so much to love about that drone.
[00:48:28] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:48:29] Speaker C: We've been saying this forever. It's. It's more than just locating a lost deer. You know, some guys, you know, hey, if you like to track your deer using dogs, or if you like to do the old fashioned, you know, blood trailing, that type of thing, that's fun for you, like, do that. But I'm a guy. I like things that go boom. I like things that fly. And it's just another element of excitement that you can add to your hunt because hunting has become. It's become a sport. It's become. I mean, yeah, it is a sport. We don't hunt out of necessity anymore. Like, we need the food. Yeah. I put all the meat that I get in my freezer, and I'm so thankful for it. But I don't have to hunt to survive. Like, I hunt because I enjoy doing it, and then I enjoy flying my drone. And it's just a fun combination between the two. And so many guys are getting into that. Like, you're right, you're dead on on that. Like, that's just. It's fun to combine. You know, you have. You walk into a Cabela's anymore and it's. It blows your mind how many things are in there to help make your life easier when you're out there trying to be off grid, you know, like the amount of things that. For convenience, when you're trying to inconvenience. Inconvenience yourself.
[00:49:54] Speaker A: Yeah. The whole sport is not convenience, but getting out there.
[00:49:57] Speaker C: Yeah. Totally.
[00:49:59] Speaker A: Do you find people comparing the M3.
Sorry, 30t to the 4t? Like, is that a conversation people actually have in figuring out what to buy?
[00:50:08] Speaker B: Yeah, there's a lot of conversation that I have when it comes to any of those thermal drones. The 30T is still great. You know what I mean? I think the 4T is probably better for most people. Like, you don't necessarily need the big 30T like the 4T. It's smaller, it's easier to travel around with. It's got all the AI stuff, which we never even talked about. The AI stuff. That's wild to me. I haven't even seen you guys use it yet.
[00:50:31] Speaker A: I'd say not a huge application so far in what we're doing with herd analysis and stuff. Austin, is that right?
[00:50:37] Speaker C: Right. I think it's coming. Like, I definitely think it's coming, but it's not a particular feature that we can utilize right now more for search and rescue. Like, the AI algorithm that's built into that drone is for being able to identify persons, vehicles and vessels, and we can develop algorithm to help identify deer and that type of thing. But that's still. We're working on that development.
Part of it.
But I look at these two drones, and part of it is you kind of like the size of the 30T, because that feels more like, do you want a muscle car or do you want an electric Tesla that.
Both cars are fun cars, but it's kind of like you want to show up on a job for a hunter looking kind of bad and, you know, strong and mighty, you know, with this 30T, like, people are surprised still at the size of that drone.
I'm used to it. Or do you want to show up with this nice, sleek, like, almost.
You know what I'm saying?
[00:51:46] Speaker B: The sports car.
[00:51:47] Speaker C: Yeah, the sports car.
[00:51:48] Speaker A: And to the uninformed hunter, he might think that the Matrice 4T is actually like a Mavic or something. A Mavic 3T or like a little. What, you know, a baby drone. But they're so different. Like, the. The body is similar size, but they're so different.
[00:52:02] Speaker B: Yeah, the camera's so much bigger.
[00:52:04] Speaker A: Yeah, it's way better.
[00:52:05] Speaker C: And the image quality, like, the image quality that you're getting from reading that thermal image on this, the controller is significantly better. It's pretty cool.
[00:52:15] Speaker B: Yeah. We're at a point now where, like, the Matrice 4T, which is kind of more like a Mavic than it was a Matrice, I guess you would say it is.
[00:52:24] Speaker A: Yeah. It's interesting. When you say more like a Mavic, you mean in body size or.
[00:52:27] Speaker B: Yeah, like the body size of the.
[00:52:29] Speaker A: Drone platform size is similar to.
[00:52:31] Speaker B: But the controller 30T.
[00:52:33] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:52:34] Speaker B: The camera 30T. Like everything else. 30T.
[00:52:36] Speaker A: No. Like, the IP rating for water is the one drawback for it that doesn't make it just the best drone for every situation.
[00:52:45] Speaker B: Yeah, like, how often?
I mean, you're not going to fly it in a thunderstorm.
[00:52:50] Speaker A: Like, yeah, you definitely should.
[00:52:51] Speaker B: Even if it was waterproof. I'm not flying that thing in a thunderstorm.
[00:52:54] Speaker A: If you have a 30T with DJI plus, then you fly it in the thunderstorm.
[00:52:58] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:52:59] Speaker A: I think you, like, hit record and you fly that bad boy.
[00:53:02] Speaker B: I've never flown in heavy enough rain to know, like, can you still see stuff?
[00:53:07] Speaker A: Like, I know that, Like, I think snow is actually more challenging than rain. But I think like, at night, the spotlight.
[00:53:12] Speaker C: Oh. When you're looking at the RGB camera, but you really wouldn't be able to tell that when you're looking at a thermal. So you can fly at night and it could be raining and it's not going to really affect the visibility on that thermal camera. But then when you actually change over with a spotlight and you're changing over to your RGB camera and then, yeah, if it's raining really hard and that spotlight is illuminating raindrops or snow, you can't see. You can't see anything.
[00:53:39] Speaker B: Yeah. I've never flown in heavy enough rain to know because everybody's been just like, yeah, probably wait until it starts raining a little bit.
[00:53:45] Speaker A: I feel like the Matrice 30T for search and rescue is still going to have a place. Isn't that one of the best applications for it now?
[00:53:51] Speaker B: I think for the payload, like, because of the size of that drone, like, we fly the repeaters for the T50. That is a great application for that drone.
[00:54:00] Speaker A: And also, I don't, I don't know, you know, payloads and stuff. It's a whole other interesting world. DJI now is making their own payloads for the Matrice 4T.
[00:54:07] Speaker B: Oh, really?
[00:54:08] Speaker A: And I feel like they took the similar path to what, you know, I don't know what Walmart or Amazon does where they allow all these sellers to make spot, you know, to make accessories and then they see what sells the best.
[00:54:18] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:54:18] Speaker A: And then they just make a better version of that accessory. That's what they've done for the 4T. And I just heard that this week, demo units for the M400 series drone is shipping to dealers so what is the M400? You know how you have like the Matrice 350 which is like.
[00:54:35] Speaker B: Oh yeah. Okay.
[00:54:36] Speaker A: So it's like it, it will be the next generation of that size drone. And I don't know what all it, you know, it's not been announced yet, but it's, it will probably be AI. It'll be better cameras and I'm guessing it'll be a lot of like DJI built payloads for it.
[00:54:52] Speaker B: Yeah. So they used to have all those like Zenmuse cameras. Yeah, this and that.
[00:54:56] Speaker A: Yeah. So I guess they already do have a bunch of those. Those are official dji, right?
[00:55:00] Speaker B: The Zen. I don't know. Honestly, I. I really like when guys ask about it. It's like if you want to spend 25 grand, yeah, it'll work good. But it's a look.
[00:55:09] Speaker A: It is a lot of money.
[00:55:10] Speaker B: I think that for what you're going to use it for, the 30 tier or a 4T is going to be way better.
[00:55:14] Speaker A: Yeah. And then the DJI DoC, there's such an application for DJI DoC, but I don't know if it'll ever take hold in the U.S. yeah. Because the best application is for. I think, I mean there's. There's probably stuff I'm not aware of, but for sure, like police departments, fire departments, and I'm not sure that they're going to install a DJI dock in this in the. With how, you know, they're on the verge of being banned and all this, you know, people being afraid of dji. So I would like to learn more about. If there was one system that I think you could actually build a business out of at scale, it would be the DJI dock.
[00:55:49] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:55:49] Speaker A: Because I think you go buy a 30, $35,000 kit with the dock and the drone and stuff, and I think there's going to be a market there to rent that out to big, you know, $100 million construction projects or surveillance. And I think that the people. Yeah, I think there's a service for it. It's just nobody's pioneering that and I'm not sure it's a great time to get into with, you know, police departments and stuff being really afraid to buy DJI right now.
[00:56:14] Speaker B: I think it's like the best is like remote stuff. Right. Like, that's what I think of when I think of the dock. I think like I have electric like towers, however far out, I'm not going to drive there every day or every couple of days to check on it. I'M just going to deploy my dream.
[00:56:28] Speaker C: I think the biggest hurdle is the beyond visual line of sight.
[00:56:32] Speaker B: Well, there was some news on that recently, wasn't there?
[00:56:34] Speaker A: I didn't see it.
[00:56:35] Speaker B: What is it something to do with Trump making it easier to do BV los? No, no. I saw something. I could be wrong.
[00:56:41] Speaker C: That'd be news to me.
[00:56:42] Speaker A: Unverified. But if true, then go Trump.
[00:56:44] Speaker B: Yeah, I saw. I saw something that lifted something and made it easier for. I think it's for police departments and stuff to do it, which for the average guy is still probably difficult to get, but.
[00:56:54] Speaker A: Yeah, cool.
[00:56:55] Speaker B: Yeah. No, things will continue to change with all the regulation stuff.
[00:56:58] Speaker A: Yeah. Do. Do you see more of that happening in 2025, second half of the year?
[00:57:02] Speaker B: Regulations?
[00:57:03] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:57:04] Speaker B: Lightning up.
[00:57:04] Speaker A: Will we get the part 108, you think later this year?
[00:57:07] Speaker B: I don't know. I don't know.
[00:57:08] Speaker A: Nobody knows that.
[00:57:09] Speaker B: Yeah. Is so slow.
[00:57:10] Speaker C: Nobody knows.
[00:57:12] Speaker A: If I had to bet, I would not bet that it's going to be. It'll happen this year.
[00:57:15] Speaker B: Well, like.
[00:57:16] Speaker A: But it should happen next year.
[00:57:17] Speaker B: If they wanted everybody to get licensed, like, they know everybody's going to do this stuff. This is the future. If they want you to get licensed, like, make it at least like easy.
[00:57:27] Speaker A: Make it easy, man. That make it easy. Set reasonable rules and then enforce them.
[00:57:32] Speaker B: But the benefit of those regulations right now is that barrier to entry that we talked about.
[00:57:37] Speaker A: Like, it is hard.
[00:57:39] Speaker B: It's harder for a guy to get into it. But you still have that equipment, that $100,000.
[00:57:43] Speaker A: And by next year you'll have relationships, experience already, like, you know, book a business. But I do get excited in this industry about making things easier. And we recently have, you know, we hired a full time software dev and we're working on some projects we're not yet announcing. But there are so many things in the AG space that are not easy and they should be easy. And coming later in 2020, 2025, we'll be announcing a new project that is going to help AG pilots. It'll make their life a lot easier. I think that's awesome. And I think, you know, there's so much software out there that is built by people kind of same as trailers. Trailer built by somebody who's never actually sprayed 10,000 acres. And you build it different when you actually use it every day.
[00:58:28] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:58:28] Speaker A: So we're hopefully building something that AG pilots will actually want to use and will actually really make their life easy.
So later in 2025.
[00:58:37] Speaker B: Yeah. That's super exciting.
[00:58:38] Speaker A: Anything else Austin on your end.
[00:58:40] Speaker C: Yeah. It's just been awesome to be able to hear some of your perspective because you're on the phones a lot, so you hear what's relevant. You hear what concerns guys have or questions guys.
[00:58:49] Speaker A: Guys have had.
[00:58:50] Speaker C: So it's just kind of cool to. To be able to. To hear that. Those stories and, man, it's. It's just exciting time to be in the drone space. We said that two years ago, but still exciting. Like, we haven't. There's nothing that's pointing to anything going out or dying. Like, it's here, and it's just gonna continue to find different things to do with drones. It's pretty fun.
[00:59:14] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, we're still in the beginning, and I'm so excited for the future. I am.
[00:59:19] Speaker A: And I will say, if you do call in, you do talk to Ryan. He will take care of you. I see him out in the service center, in the shop. I see you checking up on orders and like, somebody needs something shipped out asp. You're just confirming it's going to go out. So Ryan takes fantastic care of everybody who calls in. And if you want to get started in this, then talk to Ryan. You now have a face for the voice. He will take care of you.
Good conversation. Ryan, thanks for being here. Thank you. And we'll see you guys next week on the Drone on Show.
