The DroneOn Show 001: First Show Ever - Anything Drone Starts Here!

[00:00:00] Speaker A: How's it going? I'm Mike with the drone on show. [00:00:02] Speaker B: And I'm Kevin. We're also joined with Austin behind the. [00:00:05] Speaker A: Booth in this week's episode. We're going to talk about where we started, where we come from, where we're headed. And then of course, we had to get a little bit of political maybe in there. [00:00:15] Speaker B: It is 2025 after all. [00:00:16] Speaker A: And we talk prices of new spray drones. Like the price drop. [00:00:20] Speaker B: Yeah. We talk power wash and drones. We talk about this, the FAA kind of where we're at with the legalities. [00:00:25] Speaker A: Of starting a business and how big this industry is. I think you're going to like it. Let's get into it. Kevin. We've been talking about doing a drone on show for a long time where it's not just drone deer recovery related or new way ag related. Because if somebody's brand new here or if somebody's come here because of drone deer recovery, they're going to be like, wait, that's Kevin and Mike from drone deer Recovery. So we, we're just going to address that right away. That is something that we do. [00:00:54] Speaker B: This is exciting because it kind of follows how our business has evolved. Started with one thing, but drones are everywhere. And so this is going to be about drones in every industry. [00:01:04] Speaker A: Yeah. Yep. [00:01:05] Speaker B: Whatever's interesting to us, we're going to talk about. [00:01:07] Speaker A: Yep. If you guys are listening and you've followed our podcast that we called the drone deer recovery podcast, where we had that on the YouTube channel, you might think that this is the same. It is. It is very similar. Right. It's me and Kevin. We're going to talk about drone deer recovery stuff. We're going to talk about new way ag stuff. But we want to talk about, you know, power washing drones. We want to talk about drones that are used to search and rescue. We want to talk about more than just those channels. I love those channels. I really appreciate the support that you guys have given us on those channels. But really what the drone on show is is to talk anything drones. Maybe it's news about. About drones. Maybe it's a new entrepreneur has started a business in a different part of the country. We want to use this platform to help basically get the news out there, breaking news, interviews. [00:01:56] Speaker B: It's like, how many times per week do you text me or I text you, like something new, something interesting about drones? [00:02:02] Speaker A: I mean, it literally just happened. Did I test you guys last night or this morning? [00:02:06] Speaker B: This morning. [00:02:06] Speaker A: Yeah, I text you guys this morning. Obviously, a lot of people come to drone Deer recovery. They want to know, you know, where can I do drone day recovery? Legally? I think. I mean, of course we're still going to have that channel. We're going to direct it that way. But you're going to find out some of those things on this drone on show as well. Like this morning, I text the. The guys, the leadership team, and just let them know, hey, there's a bill been passed. It's now on the desk of the governors of West Virginia. West Virginia is officially making drone deer recovery legal in that state where you're allowed to use a thermal drone to help a hunter, you know, recover lost game. This is good timing, Austin. That was good timing. You. You had that in the backpack. [00:02:55] Speaker C: Well, just, you know, this is the first show, so you might hear some just interesting stuff, because I'm not a. I'm just novice yet at this, you know, producing this show where you might. [00:03:04] Speaker A: Click the wrong button and then it's like, exactly. [00:03:07] Speaker C: Yeah, totally. So we'll just see what happens here. [00:03:10] Speaker A: Okay, nice. [00:03:11] Speaker B: During our initial drone day recovery podcast, so much of it was about legal. Like, it felt like every week we're like, legally. [00:03:17] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:03:17] Speaker B: And it's fun to actually get some good news on the legal front of states coming around and allowing this. [00:03:22] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, obviously, almost every state is looking at it. I mean, if they haven't written a bill at this point, they're definitely, definitely looking at doing something to figure out. So there's no gray area, because right now, I don't care what state you're in. You know, you pick the state. Iowa, Idaho, Texas. There's going to be a gray area about what you can use your thermal drone for. In the industry of hunting. Right. We say hunting. It doesn't necessarily mean that you're physically hunting. You're just helping a guy that went hunting and now he's done hunting, finished. [00:04:02] Speaker B: Hunting, has hunted, he's hunted, or. [00:04:04] Speaker A: And now he really don't want to go down this recovering. Yeah, but that's what I'm saying. It's like there's a gray area because if, you know, if John calls me and he was hunting and he's no longer hunting, he doesn't have a weapon, and he tells me, hey, I shot a buck over here, and I don't even meet John. Am I still considered hunting? Like, can I fly my drone? Like, so, yeah, I. We don't want the show to always be about that, where we're like, what is that called? Debating? What is what? [00:04:38] Speaker B: Just talk. [00:04:39] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [00:04:39] Speaker B: And we get Bored of it. Right. It's like the same thing just over and over again. [00:04:42] Speaker A: So, yeah, I've done many, many podcasts where it. It's. It's the same thing. It's like, you know what is. [00:04:48] Speaker B: Okay, so here's something different. So the same thing that's happened with. [00:04:51] Speaker A: Before we go there, Kevin. Guys, he's not wearing shoes. [00:04:56] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't. I don't wear shoes. This is how I roll. [00:04:58] Speaker A: Are you wearing shoes? [00:04:59] Speaker C: I'm wearing shoes, so I did not know that Kevin wasn't wearing shoes. [00:05:03] Speaker B: I have a desk. Thanks for calling me out, by the way. I could actually do this job in just my underwear. I got pants. [00:05:10] Speaker C: That was my next question. Does he actually have pants or got. [00:05:13] Speaker B: The full pants on? Okay, but no, I was going to say the same thing that happened with thermal drones, like now the states. The next thing they're have to look at is what about flying out a deer? Right. Because there's laws about you can't use a vehicle in the aid of hunting. Like, you can't shoot out of a window. But like, no, that's. Don't you think? Hypothetically. [00:05:30] Speaker A: Well, I know that's going to get pushed this far. I know that West Virginia put that into their new bill. It's like you, before, you couldn't transport wildlife. Well, that was a whole another thing, like, are you transporting wildlife? Once. Once. It's dead. [00:05:47] Speaker B: That's good. [00:05:48] Speaker A: Yeah. Is it still considered wildlife? Yeah. So, you know, you could have went down that. [00:05:54] Speaker B: What did West Virginia put in their bill? [00:05:56] Speaker A: Well, that you can use drones to transport. [00:05:58] Speaker B: Yeah, they specifically said you can use drones to transport. [00:06:01] Speaker A: It doesn't, you know, don't quote me on this, guys, you got to fact check me, Grock me, or whatever you got to do to do. Figure it out. When I talked to the Colonel about it, he said, yes, I want to try to, you know, clean that up to where if you want to fly a bear out, you can. [00:06:15] Speaker B: That's amazing. I mean, talk about. [00:06:17] Speaker A: I'd have to write the. Or I'd have to read through the bill and. And see we could get Grock to do it real quick. This was the bill that was written maybe according to this. Do you think I'd be allowed to use a drone to transport and. And I think he will be able to. [00:06:33] Speaker B: It's definitely coming, right? [00:06:34] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Yep. Yeah, for sure. Because drones are going to get bigger and they're going to be able to fly faster, farther, and just pack out stuff in the mountains. Drones will be Used for transport purposes. Talking about transport purposes, that gets us right down into the next thing is like, is it legal? Like, can you actually fly a heavy lift drone, heavy lifting bears or elk or deer out of the woods? [00:06:59] Speaker B: Based on the state or based on what? [00:07:02] Speaker A: Based on the faa. [00:07:06] Speaker B: Geez, you think, you think it's legal to do that? [00:07:08] Speaker A: We're going to be talking legal stuff for 30 minutes. That's all we're going to be talking about. You know what we really should tell the people is like, who we are. How. How do we get here? You know, like how. Mike Yoder, ex Amish kid, meet Kevin Knisley that grew up. I don't want to say it wrong. Go ahead. [00:07:29] Speaker B: Ex missionary kid, grew up in El Salvador, Central America. [00:07:32] Speaker A: Would you guys have considered yourself Mennonite? [00:07:34] Speaker B: Would have been considered. Yep. Amish. Mennonite. So. [00:07:37] Speaker A: No way. [00:07:37] Speaker B: Okay. [00:07:38] Speaker A: For real? [00:07:39] Speaker B: Yeah. Beachy Amish. Mennonite. Well, that really is. That means nothing to me. Were you 99% of men, Austin? [00:07:43] Speaker A: Were you beachy Amish men? [00:07:45] Speaker C: No, I was not. I was what they would call a pure blooded Mennonite. [00:07:52] Speaker B: Austin and I are cousins. [00:07:54] Speaker A: Okay. [00:07:54] Speaker B: And our grandparents were Amish. [00:07:57] Speaker A: Oh, but you don't know any Dutch. [00:07:59] Speaker B: Don't know Dutch because my parents spoke Dutch to keep secrets from us. [00:08:04] Speaker A: Oh, so your parents actually can speak Dutch right now? [00:08:06] Speaker B: Fluently, Yep. [00:08:07] Speaker A: No way. [00:08:09] Speaker B: Like my parents. [00:08:09] Speaker A: Yours, the same growing up. [00:08:12] Speaker C: Speaks Dutch. His dad left Amish when they were two years old, but my mom did not know Dutch, so that's why I was never taught Dutch. [00:08:21] Speaker A: Okay, yeah. [00:08:22] Speaker B: You came here to hear about drones and now you're going to stick around to hear about. [00:08:26] Speaker A: Well, I. I think they should hear where we. How we got to this point. I mean, obviously you guys, if. If you're not interested in this, you know, come back next week where we're going to be talking about who knows what. Drones. [00:08:36] Speaker B: It is crazy, cuz. So for people who don't know about Amish, how would you explain it? Quickly. [00:08:40] Speaker A: The Amish in our area, it's a little weird because they're supposed to not be as technically advanced maybe as the world. But the Amish here in our area, I would say are more advanced. They have solar, they have, you know, they're off grid. They have generators that power their whole house. They have light switches. Now, you know, the whole thing is super efficient. And. But no, technically, technically, the Amish in the United States are to be living a slower pace life than normal Americans. [00:09:17] Speaker B: And a lot of the things that they prohibit or ban are not because they believe it's bad, but because they want to preserve a way of life. [00:09:22] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [00:09:22] Speaker B: Which you got to respect that it's a decision like. [00:09:25] Speaker A: Like something that everybody knows Amish for is they don't have cars. They wouldn't drive cars. They won't have TVs. [00:09:31] Speaker B: Electric bikes are in now, though. [00:09:33] Speaker A: Well, here, here in this area. [00:09:34] Speaker C: Tesla's coming. [00:09:35] Speaker B: I think too, that Tesla's coming. [00:09:38] Speaker A: You just got to rip the roof. [00:09:40] Speaker C: Isn't it, Isn't it more though, like the fact that you carry a license, like a driver's license? [00:09:44] Speaker B: O. That could be. [00:09:45] Speaker C: Isn't that a big factor for the Amish? [00:09:47] Speaker A: But they're allowed photo IDs because they need a photo ID to get on the train or something like that. [00:09:54] Speaker B: I think that's one of the reasons they don't fly, though, is because they don't get passports. [00:09:58] Speaker A: Oh, you don't need a passport to fly. Like my mom and dad, they're going to go to Montana to visit some of my family and they have to take the train. And I'm like, bruh, like, it would take you like four hours to get there with an airplane where it's going to take them, you know, two days. [00:10:16] Speaker B: Would they be like, if you flew them there, would they be able to fly with you? [00:10:19] Speaker A: I tried telling her that this morning if she walked in the door, I'm just going to ask her again. I was like, she's going there next week. I was like, wait, why don't you just fly with me in my little airplane out there? I already got my tickets. I was like, I'll pay you for your tickets. [00:10:33] Speaker B: Well, I would like to say one of the little known facts about this studio is that it's powered in a shed barn that was built. [00:10:40] Speaker A: Yeah, I wouldn't call it a shed. It's. It's a 60 by 40. This is a building that my dad built on the farm here. [00:10:47] Speaker B: Solar generator? [00:10:49] Speaker A: Yep, solar. Solar generator. That the whole thing was built for them. And then dad wanted to downscale and then so he sold me this property. Are we running? No, we're running some power out from the house, but the house is way far away. I don't know, is it OSHA or something that listens to this, like, power stuff? But there's extension cords run from the house. It's probably not. [00:11:09] Speaker C: It's worked really well to split it. Half of the power that's powering the studio comes from the house and half of it comes from solar because I can't pull everything to power this. [00:11:19] Speaker B: And we learned this while filming the drone deer recovery podcast where we would have these blackouts because these lights. [00:11:26] Speaker A: Yeah. It would stay on for a certain length of time, and then maybe cloud. [00:11:32] Speaker B: Solar kicks out and we're in the dark. [00:11:34] Speaker A: I don't think it was that. I think that the extension cords coming from the house, the. The breaker got warm and it, like, kicked every time. But, yeah, that's a little fun fact. Okay, so we got into it. That. So you would have the heritage of Amish Mennonite as well as Austin that's helping produce the show. How are we here now? [00:11:55] Speaker B: Yeah. So we met. I mean, are we going to talk about the whole story? [00:12:00] Speaker A: I would. [00:12:00] Speaker B: Yeah. Okay. So, I mean, the way I met Mike was I was running a video production business that ended up failing after nine months. And I. [00:12:08] Speaker A: You say fail. I say learned. You learned a lot, did you not? [00:12:11] Speaker B: Oh, I learned a ton. [00:12:13] Speaker A: It just wasn't successful. [00:12:14] Speaker B: Was not successful. Yep. And I have no shame in it. I had shame for a while, but it's like, I tried. It didn't work. But one of the things that came out of that is I cold emailed you and hundreds of other people. [00:12:23] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. When I had my tree service business. Yeah, yeah. Anywhere. Tree care. [00:12:28] Speaker B: You remember what we pitched you? [00:12:30] Speaker A: Oh, it was about making a video of doing trees anywhere. Like on the moon. [00:12:35] Speaker B: On the moon, in a pool. It's like, if you have a tree, we'll cut it down. And then we were going to show. [00:12:39] Speaker A: Oh. And it was super expensive. That's probably why the company didn't work. [00:12:42] Speaker B: I think that probably expensive video production company in Amish country didn't work. It was not the best idea I've had. [00:12:48] Speaker A: Yep. But honestly, it helped you to where we're at now. Obviously, Kevin was saying that that just. That didn't work. And he was. You were down like press. I don't know. [00:12:59] Speaker B: I went through all my savings. [00:13:01] Speaker A: No money. [00:13:01] Speaker B: No money. No, No. I didn't rack up credit card debt. [00:13:04] Speaker A: But you did learn how to live without money down in South America. [00:13:08] Speaker B: I did do that. [00:13:09] Speaker A: We didn't even tell you. He grew up. You literally were just in the States for how long when I met you? [00:13:16] Speaker B: Three years. Yeah. Maybe three or four years, Something like that. [00:13:19] Speaker A: That's wild. Didn't even know that. [00:13:21] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:13:21] Speaker A: I was going in business with you. Wouldn't be a foreigner, though. [00:13:24] Speaker B: I am an American citizen. [00:13:25] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:13:26] Speaker B: But I could also be president of El Salvador because I'm also a Salvadoran citizen. Although Bukele has that locked down pretty good now, so no chances of that anyways. Yeah, so that's how we met. And that would have been. Yeah. At the end of like a fail a business that, for me, failed. Like it. You know, we couldn't pay the bills. But what happened is we hired a whole team. Video production guys like Austin and Landon. Not them, but other guys. And we couldn't afford to pay them. And so I got in and I learned how to shoot. And so that actually is what equipped me to, you know, be hired by you when I helped you with your first. [00:14:06] Speaker A: Yeah, so I met Kevin at a. At a. Just a local cafe. I was running in there to get a coffee real quick, and I seen Kevin one other time at church, and I. I recognized his face. He sitting in the back corner, didn't look too excited. And I just walked back there. I was like, probably just some small talk about church. And then I asked him how he's doing, and he said, not that good. I was like, wait, what's. What's wrong? I got this, you know, really good idea. We actually prayed for each other that day. And I was like, I got this sweet idea. It's going to be massive. It's called drone Deer recovery. He bought my website. He started working on the website. I went to Colorado for an elk hunt out there. Season open down here in Ohio. We started getting phone calls. And in the beginning, I was trying to get Kevin to be business partners with me, and he was like, no, tried that. [00:14:59] Speaker B: Not going to do it again. Bad idea. I'll just be a freelancer. I don't want to. I'll just shoot video. I like shooting video. I'll edit. I just don't. [00:15:09] Speaker A: So then I talked him in. Okay, well, then just be partners with me on the YouTube content. [00:15:13] Speaker B: Okay, let's do that. Yeah. [00:15:15] Speaker C: Kevin, did you. Were you actually into editing or had you, like, outsourced all that? [00:15:20] Speaker B: Yeah, outsource, yeah, we outsourced a lot of it, but, like, I was pretty involved in. [00:15:24] Speaker A: But he learned how to put teams together through that company. Did you? [00:15:28] Speaker B: And. And you actually learned how to shoot by editing? Because if you just shoot and you never edit, like, you don't realize all the things that you wish you would have done when you're shooting. So. [00:15:36] Speaker A: Yeah. And so we started drone Deer recovery. If you guys are listening, you wonder what that is. We use thermal drones to help hunters recover lost game. And basically I filmed myself doing that exact thing. I hired Kevin to come out and film Me while I'm on these recoveries, you know, showing the technology and the hunters and just, like, the camaraderie and everything that's involved with the hunting community. And we put it on YouTube, and within the first three months, I think we did over 6 million views on that YouTube channel. And we were. We were just off to the races at that point still. I was working on Kevin. I was like, he brings so many skills to the. To the table. I was like, I need that to help the company grow. And so I kept working on you. It took six months to talk him into it. I think it was a good idea by now. [00:16:22] Speaker B: This is how we are, right? You're more of like, let's send it. And I am probably more reserved and, like, think it through and, like. And I think that's one of the reasons that we make a really good partnership. [00:16:30] Speaker A: Yeah. After working on him for six months, he seen. I was like, kevin, it is going to be big. I'm referring to Drone Deer recovery specifically. And as he's seen it grow. And then the next thing was, like, people wanted to buy product from us and teaching, and it was just, build this, build that, build this. And it was like, okay, this. This is working. [00:16:50] Speaker B: Yeah. And the last thing I'll say about that season is like, you know, we both come from a faith based. Like, faith is really important to us. You know, we're believers. And for me, sitting in that coffee shop, it was the end of a difficult season. You were also like, this whole thing came out of asking God for new dreams. And the fact that you had this idea, and that day you slipped me your credit card and said, let's build something. [00:17:14] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:17:15] Speaker B: It was so exciting. But, like, you can't help but think that God, you know, that's. I guess that's where we come from, is. Is just seeing how. [00:17:23] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:17:23] Speaker B: This whole thing is of God. [00:17:25] Speaker A: Absolutely. I might add what he's referring to. When I was down, I would. You know, everybody has their own lowest point in their life. Right. Like, in my own terms, I don't actually know if this is true or not. I would have called myself an alcoholic. I. I always wanted to drink alco. And one night I was like, what in the world am I doing with my life? I had a business at that point. I had a family at a house. I had more money up to that point that I've ever made. And yet here I am drinking for what reason? And so that's when I started praying the Lord. And then this whole idea that we Just talked about drone deer recovery came out of that, and then it just led into the next thing, right? So we go through that, we go through drone deer recovery, and we have a very, very successful season. The first season, dude, I made. I remember I bought a drone for $22,000. It was the whole kit. And I. I was like, basically, I just want to pay off my drone. And not knowing how well it would do, I made $50,000 in 10 weeks. So way more than made enough. I remember I took that money and I was like, man, I really want to do drones full time. What else can I do? Because obviously drone industries in. In any industry, be it power washing drones or photography with drones, or it might be orthomosaic or lidar or spray drones, the whole industry as a whole is growing because the equipment is getting better and better. So I was trying to, like, try to figure out what should. What should we do next? Right? Drone recovery is becoming established. It's figuring out how to thrive outside of just doing this actual service, as well as providing drones themselves to other people. But it's kind of seasonal, right? It's. It's a little seasonal. It September through March, February maybe. And then I was like, spray drones, agricultural spray drones. Like, think about it. Ag is everywhere in the United States. It literally goes from the east to the west, from the, you know, from the north to south. It's everywhere. And ag drones were just starting to pick up, and I bought one, tried making it work. It was an XAG drone. [00:19:40] Speaker B: We tried pretty hard to make that one work. [00:19:41] Speaker A: I did. I tried for two months, and it was miserable. [00:19:45] Speaker B: And remember that controller, you'd hold it in your hand like a. [00:19:48] Speaker A: It was like a pistol thing. Yeah, yeah, it was a pistol controller. Anyhow, it got that drone and did start applying for some local farmers. Did a few jobs here and there. It kind of worked every now and then, but not good enough to be like, say, I'm a good drone applicator. You should hire me and you should trust that I can get your crop sprayed. I'm going to say this guy that was selling these drones just hit me at the right time where I was, like, trying to figure out what drone should I use, Like a DJI drone or XAG or a helio or whatever it might be at that time. And he just hit me at the right time. I was like, okay, I'll give XAG a try. And I really should have probably just stuck to DJI because that's what I was using with my thermal drones. Is DJI and really solid, solid system. Anyhow, after struggling for a while with the xag, I sold it, switched over to DJI drones and it was just game on since then. [00:20:43] Speaker B: Yeah. And that journey has been similar for both drone deer and the ag drones. Right. Where we bought a drone ends up not being the right one. [00:20:51] Speaker A: Yep. [00:20:51] Speaker B: You know, we buy a different one and that's some of the what the value that we try to provide through what we now do is advise people on what's the best equipment. [00:20:59] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. And so we had the. We had the same approach or we have the same approach with New Way Ag. If you guys haven't ever checked that YouTube channel out or website, it's New Way spell N u W a Y ag dot com. And what we do is we again, we, we make videos showing me that, showing you guys how I use the equipment and how you could do the same thing in your area. And by doing that, the algorithm of YouTube, the algorithm of TikTok, Instagram, whatever social platform you want to mention, it sends it to those people that actually have that interest. Right. It sends it to some people that are want to be entertained about farming stuff, but it's really, we're using the power of those algorithms to get the content in front of the right eyeballs that would potentially want to have their own business. And really what we want to do is not only be, you know, great custom applicators, but help entrepreneurs start their own business. And that's when we started talking about, because we were trying to do a drone deer recovery podcast that was really focused just on thermal drones. And then we were thinking about, you know, ag drones, just focusing on that. And then finally we came to this conclusion that it's like, wait, like there's so much more than just thermal. There's so much more than just spray drones. It's gotta be drone on. Like, it doesn't matter what it is. Like just drone on, man. [00:22:23] Speaker B: Almost Game on. Just drone on. [00:22:25] Speaker A: Yeah, drone on. [00:22:26] Speaker B: And you know, we don't want to limit it to just those two things because it's so exciting to see how drones are evolving. And you mentioned power washing a couple times. [00:22:34] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:22:35] Speaker B: You think that's one of the next big things coming? [00:22:37] Speaker A: We call it power wash, but I think it's more soft wash. I'm not in that, in the industry of soft washing or power washing, but I do, I actually do think it's going to be a tool, a piece of equipment that's used in that business that is overlooked. [00:22:55] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:22:56] Speaker A: Like right now, you know, high rises or water towers or cleaning slate roofs like in Florida, or tile roofs, like, they have to use long wands or, you know, tall ladders where these drones will be efficient enough, fast enough to set up. Just pull it out, you know, spray a product on the tile and clean it. [00:23:20] Speaker B: And you're doing that without putting a human. Right. Way up there on the side of the high rise, which is awesome. [00:23:26] Speaker A: Yeah, I actually do see that. Industry will pick up and grow. Probably not like the agricultural side because, you know, ag is massively huge, but there's definitely other industries. And that's what we want to do with the drone on show is, you know, show those other, you know, industries and how they're doing their business. [00:23:49] Speaker B: And some of those we're going to explore ourselves because they're just so exciting to be a part of. So talk about heavy lift. What do you think about heavy lift? [00:23:55] Speaker A: Oh, dude, I love heavy lift, but can the company, like, just buy me a little ranch somewhere out west in the mountains so I can really test it? Like, because when I think heavy lift, I think of, of things that need to be moved from point A to point B in rugged terrain. Yeah, that's the first thing that I think about. Now, there's other scenarios where it's like, maybe there's mud, right? It you need to get from this side to that side and there's just a bunch of mud and you can't really drive through it or something like that. You could talk heavy lift drones there, but mine really goes to mountainous, rugged terrain. And I think of people that live in the mountains and you could even bring up like North Carolina, Tennessee, there's, there's some rugged mountains down there, West Virginia. But out west, when you're talking, you know, 8,000, 9,000, 10,000 foot elevation gains, I just think that heavy lift drones out there will make life much easier and it will make certain places more accessible. It might be building radio towers and flying pieces of the tower up to that location without using a helicopter where, you know, it's burning a lot of, a lot of fuel, it's loud, it's dangerous because you got people in it. I'm telling you, heavy lift is going to be something that is currently, I think it's overlooked. [00:25:16] Speaker B: Yeah. And isn't it true, Mike, that in the Next, let's say 12 months, that category is really going to come into its own with new equipment, unlocking new payloads, new distances? [00:25:26] Speaker A: Honestly, honestly, my opinion. And we will have a whole podcast on the heavy lift FAA Thing. But the reason that I think it's not already been adopted to the point where it could be is because of faa, Federal Aviation Administration rules. There's none. And to try to push those federal rules or to try to get them to make rules is hard. And so people don't want to take the risk like flying stuff around and videoing and showing people how it's done. Because what are, what's the FAA going to do when they see your video? Or if you know, some guy has a problem with you and reports you to the faa? Like, because the FAA has, you know, by law they have to do an investigation if a complaint is filed. And so I think people haven't done it because they aren't sure what is it called? Ramifications, like what, what the consequences are. [00:26:29] Speaker B: Yep. And there's not really a clear, like here's how you do it. It's just the wild West. You got to figure it out 100% and we have to help the FAA. Like there's no rules like you said. So, so the FAA needs to figure out how to regulate it, how to make it safe, but how to allow. [00:26:43] Speaker A: Some guys are going to say, well, there's rules because there's helicopters doing it. Yeah, but that's, that's, that's a helicopter. How does that apply to a UAV operation? Like we're talking this uav, you know, barely weighs a hundred pounds dry. Max takeoff weight might be three to 400 pounds, but that's still way less than a helicopter at, you know, let's just even take a light helicopter. Maybe it's like a Robinson R44. That thing might weigh 1500, 20, 200 pounds, something like that. That's super heavy and it's going to take a lot of energy to move that thing. It's going to, if it crashes, it's going to destroy a huge area compared to a 400 pound drone that has a 12 foot wingspan and it plows down into, you know, into the trees. It's not going to destroy that much. [00:27:32] Speaker B: Yeah. And even the current, like some of the leading current heavy lift drones are equipped with like safety things like a parachute the auto deploys. [00:27:41] Speaker A: Well, yeah, there's lots and lots of safety features that are built into these drones. You know, vision sensors, ESCs that are regulating, you know, power distribution to the motors. If you know something is starting to go wrong, it's going to give you that, that warning. There's so many safety features built into the drone. It shouldn't be about that. The drones are not safe. It shouldn't be about that. It literally is just not happening because nobody is pushing the issue. Yeah. That is literally why it's not going forward. [00:28:10] Speaker B: Yeah. So that'll. [00:28:11] Speaker A: Heavy lift stuff. [00:28:12] Speaker B: That'll change, right? [00:28:13] Speaker A: 100. That's going to change. It's going to change exactly, exactly like the spray drones. So currently, if, if you guys aren't familiar with the operations of a spray drone business, literally five years, six years ago, there was no good avenue for you to figure out what the rules and regs were for an FAA compliant spray drone operation. And so guys just started doing it. Like, they just literally started doing it. And if something would come up, then they'd. They say, okay, well what do we have to do now? Today we have some type of a system, but it's still pretty crappy. It's slow, it takes time. DFA is just. Yeah, ridiculously slow. But it's, it's called a, an exemption. You get what's called a 44807 exemption. You know, it's saying that these are rules for airplanes and helicopters and you are exempt from this rule. This rule, this rule. And you have to petition the FAA to allow you to fly a drone over 55 pounds because there's no rules and laws for it. So you have to kind of like beg for it, which is like, doesn't make any sense. Slowly moving forward. I'm saying this because that's how heavy lift is going to be. You have to start pushing to try to figure out where does this fit in and how do we make it work. Because it's not gonna go away. [00:29:37] Speaker B: Yeah. Drones are changing the way. So like it's going to change how a lot of life is done. And the US needs to like, regulations are stifling or stifling growth. So having regulations loosen up or just built around how to do this safely. [00:29:50] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:29:51] Speaker B: It's going to be a key thing to the US Keeping up with other countries that are way past us. [00:29:55] Speaker A: Yeah. I've seen some videos come out of China where they're using heavy lift drones to fly solar panels up on a mountainside. Like what more efficient way to move a solar panel from, you know, a mountain valley to a mountainside using a drone. Yeah. You might think, oh, it can't lift much, guys. It's not about lifting a whole bunch on one load. It's about lifting a lot with a lot of different drones. Right. So you can move £10,000 using 10 drones, multiple different loads. You're still going to get that weight to where it needs to go. It's just going to take more of them to get it there. I like to say, you know, many hands make light work. Many drones make light work. It's many. Just more. There's more. [00:30:42] Speaker C: I like the sounds of that. Yeah, Just give me the drones. You know, Kevin, you know that I flew. Flew the very first drone that you had over in Asia? Do you remember that drone? [00:30:52] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Well, that was a Phantom 2. Phantom 2. No gimbal. Okay, totally. Like, here's what your video looks like. [00:30:59] Speaker A: Yep, yep. Yeah, but that's where it started. [00:31:01] Speaker C: And we crashed it in a tree. I don't know if you remember that or not. [00:31:05] Speaker B: You crashed a lot of drones in trees. [00:31:06] Speaker A: You. [00:31:07] Speaker C: Oh, hang on. I don't think that one in Asia was my fault. [00:31:10] Speaker B: Okay, okay, but let's not get on this subject. [00:31:15] Speaker C: Let's not get on that subject. But anyway, all to say is, like, you know, back then, like, drones was just a hobby, but now you can actually use them for commercial uses. [00:31:27] Speaker A: Oh, dude, there's people making big money using drones for more than just video stuff. Like, that's what we. That's what we thought and were kind of trained to think is a drone is made to take video or photos of something, and they can do that really well. But now they've just become tools. Right. Like lidar. I don't understand LIDAR exactly how it all works, but I know that, like, there's a. There's a project going on on the farm here that LIDAR surveys had to be done, and they would send airplanes out with LIDAR cameras to take the. To take the LiDAR scan. You can throw that on a drone now and be one third of the cost than going on higher in an airplane with a LIDAR camera to get that scan. [00:32:17] Speaker B: I mean, was this recent that they used airplanes? [00:32:19] Speaker A: I don't know if they used it on this project specifically, but I do know when I talk to the odnr, the division of Resources, about this project, they said that, yes, they want to get their own LIDAR drone so they can cut costs. [00:32:32] Speaker B: Wow. [00:32:32] Speaker A: But I do think that this. That the. The initial scan was done by airplane up here because they. They had, like, these big white circles with black circles in the middle of it to help them once the scan came back to organize it, I think. Or like. [00:32:50] Speaker B: Like to stitch it together. [00:32:51] Speaker A: Stitch it together. [00:32:52] Speaker B: Yeah. Interesting. [00:32:53] Speaker A: Yeah. So, yep, from the time you flew that Phantom 2 into the trees in Asia, it's like we've just come so much further than that. [00:33:02] Speaker C: Yeah, we can, we have drones that actually can have. Avoid those things like treetops. [00:33:07] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, yeah. [00:33:08] Speaker C: Give you a. Yeah. [00:33:09] Speaker A: Unless you're flying at night with a, a matrix 30t and you're not looking and you're just like right into the trees. [00:33:17] Speaker C: Yeah, that happened. [00:33:19] Speaker A: Yeah. Anyhow, I am excited about the whole industry. If you start talking to me about thermal drones, I will get fired up just talking about thermal drones, about all the things they can do, you know, not just drone day recovery, but search and rescue and thermal inspections on roofs, thermal inspections on hows houses, just, you know, where's my heat escaping from the house? There's so much stuff you can do just, just thermal drones. And then you talk lidar. I'd love to learn more about LiDAR. That's why it's called the drone on show. [00:33:49] Speaker B: Yep. It's good because. And we are learners primarily. And I remember just like last week we were filming some content where you came back after filming like 10 hours of interviews with different people, which that's also coming on the show. Interviews with other people using drones to build businesses and make money. But you came back with new information that kind of blew what I always thought. And I mean, it's changing so fast. And we're learning about more than our specific niche. We're learning all these other ways that. [00:34:18] Speaker A: Drones are in our region, you might say our region of where we're living in this country. [00:34:24] Speaker B: Because I was telling you you're going to charge by the acre, you know, and you were like, whoa, whoa, whoa. There's guys out there in doing land that's so cut up pasture land that they're charging by the hour. [00:34:33] Speaker A: It's by the hour. Yeah. Yeah. [00:34:35] Speaker B: Never knew that. [00:34:36] Speaker A: But I just think, Kevin, sometimes we forget how vast the United States of America is. Like we literally have every type of terrain, every type of crop. Just. It's so different from one side of the United States to the other that if you just think like we were thinking, you know, Ohio, Midwest, corn states, we forget there's blueberries that are growing. You know, the number one state in blueberry crop is Maine. How's it done up there? I have no idea. I don't live there. But they need to be taken care of. Yeah. That's what I learned when I came back from that area is like, because we had people from all across the country and I was able to sit down and talk with them, I quickly learned I cannot put everything in the same category as it is here in Ohio for, you know, crops and applications. [00:35:37] Speaker B: And then that's probably even amplified if you go to different countries. Oh, imagine going to Vietnam. We've heard of drone fleets. 700 drones in a fleet. [00:35:46] Speaker A: Yeah, 700 and told we should. We really need to actually go check that out so we can bring it here to the drone on show and show people what, you know, what they do with these in other countries. [00:35:58] Speaker B: We got to do it. [00:35:59] Speaker A: Yeah. I don't know. I wonder what the biggest fleet of drones is right now in the United States that do whatever. You know, maybe it's lidar. Maybe there's a monster company that has like 300, you know, Matrice 3M, 350s. I don't know. Maybe there is. I love to. [00:36:19] Speaker B: I know companies like drone deploy that develop software, they also bid on or get lidar, you know, mapping projects that they sub out to operators all around the country. So. Okay, I imagine there's some of those that are pretty big, probably. [00:36:32] Speaker A: Yeah. It'd just be curious. I would be curious to know, you know, what is the biggest company right now? Drone fleet in Enterprise and then in spray. Right. What company has the most drones on their fleet and is actively out there covering acres? It'd be cool because you bring up Vietnam, 700 drones. I'm just thinking, like, just from a management standpoint, like, how in the world. [00:36:56] Speaker B: Be so fascinating to learn how it works to keep those drones in the sky, you know, parts, repairs, maintenance. [00:37:03] Speaker A: And what crops are they spraying? [00:37:04] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. [00:37:05] Speaker A: Or are they spraying all different types of crops? Right. If they have a 700 drone fleet, I mean, they. They got to be doing everything. Anything, really. It. Yeah, I'd really like to see it. [00:37:15] Speaker B: And that's something we're going to try to make. This show is more than just our voices. We're going to try to bring in other people with different perspectives, different experiences, so you can learn really what the drone, you know, what the drone industry is doing all around the country and the world. [00:37:27] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:37:28] Speaker B: So look forward to that. [00:37:29] Speaker A: I. I am excited to hear the entrepreneur and the entrepreneurs how and why they got involved, because it's like everybody has a reason why. So that. That's probably going to be my biggest thing. [00:37:43] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:37:43] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:37:44] Speaker B: Anything you want to tease or do we keep that for later for the actual interviews? Why are people jumping into drones? [00:37:50] Speaker A: My opinion, based on how many people I've talked to right now, is the money. [00:37:56] Speaker B: Right. [00:37:56] Speaker A: There's good money in it right now. I think there's people that are getting into it because they want to have the equipment to treat Crops when they want. Right. So there's farmers that are also buying their own equipment. But why are the entrepreneurs getting into it right now? Obviously it has to do with the money. I mean, why would. I don't want to come on, like, say this wrong. There's definitely people that start companies that don't start the company to make money. But most companies are for profit companies. And so most of the people that are starting these, you know, drone businesses want to make money. And so I would, I would say that it's the money, the probably the operating costs and just the. Yeah, the opportunity. [00:38:40] Speaker B: Seems like for some guys probably just being able to fly drones for a living, like that seems like a fun job. Is it a fun job? [00:38:47] Speaker A: It is very fun. But I don't want to tell people that. It's just like, you know, game consoles, like they, they just sit there and like move their thumbs and stuff. I, sorry, I don't play games. I don't know how it works, but I'm. It's not that. Right? Drone flying is not that. [00:39:04] Speaker B: Sitting on your sofa doing this. [00:39:06] Speaker A: No. Sitting on your chair on top of your new way trailer. It's not that. Can it be that? It can be that if everything's going well. But you are still, you're still a pilot of a machine. That is a machine. Things break. Things might not want to work. You better figure it out. You better get your hands dirty. It's going to be warm, it's going to be cold, you know, dirty. So it is fun. It is definitely fun. I, I enjoy it, but it's not like playing video games. [00:39:36] Speaker B: And there's a whole other skill set too. Right. Of like getting leads, getting acres, Selling your business. [00:39:41] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:39:41] Speaker B: On the back end, managing it, billing it. I mean, you know, if you're looking into starting, I don't know what, what other service, like a power washing service or like I know for some guys they're like, man, if I could make money flying drones instead of making money, you know, doing plumbing or power washing or you know, some of these other service based businesses, that sounds more fun to me. Yeah, that's how I would be. [00:40:04] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, I mean, I also don't want to scare anybody that is a video game player and wants to get into the industry because they're going to pick it up real easy. They're going to pick up the software, the user interface of, you know, commanding the drone to do this and that and if it doesn't, then troubleshooting, figuring out how to make it do what you want it to do. Those gamers will pick up the system good. But I don't want them to think that they're not going to be sweating, being dirty and you know, smelling because the environment is usually, it's really warm out, it might get dusty anyhow. That. That's what I'm trying to say. [00:40:43] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:40:44] Speaker C: I mean, even in the thermal side, you know, being out at 2 o'clock at night looking for somebody's deer, like you have to have that drive that want to be out there. But it is so fun to like fly these drones, but also like have a work ethic that goes along with it. Like if you have those, those two things, like you want to fly drones and you have a work ethic, it's. It can be the funnest thing that you do in your life. [00:41:06] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. Like Austin was saying, you, you gotta have that. It's if, if you don't have that go getter attitude in the thermal drone space of doing search and rescue or finding deer or lost pets or whatever, it's not going to work for you because you are up late, late into the night, even into the morning looking for these things. And you'll hear some of the guests that we're going to have on this show talk about that exact thing. Is Mike, I didn't know if I could make enough money to pay my drone off, but I was willing to, you know, get up and go get it and they were able to do that. So you'll hear, you'll hear, you know, young entrepreneurs give their stories of how they got into drone businesses. [00:41:51] Speaker B: What else are we going to talk about on the drone on show? [00:41:53] Speaker A: We're going to talk legal stuff. [00:41:55] Speaker B: It's just a big, it's a big item right now in this emerging drone. [00:41:58] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Is the legality of everything. So, you know, that's definitely going to be. [00:42:04] Speaker B: And you know, it's good because it's pushing the industry forward. It's what has to be done. And we're at the, at the tip of the spear. I mean, like the industry is just starting. [00:42:11] Speaker A: So if we would give you an idea of the potential growth that an individual could have in a drone company, be an application company. Right. Like using drones to spray crop fields. After talking with as many people as I have up to this point, and I'm going to continue talking to the people. But there's literally people like completely changing careers and going into just being custom drone applicators because the money is that, well, it's insane. So if you are Thinking about it, I'm going to tell you, stick around, learn, you know, use this platform to learn about, you know, maybe different avenues or listen to entrepreneurs that have already started, maybe had some of, you know, what were their roadblocks or what were some of the things that were the hardest thing to get figured out. I think that this show could help you start your own successful drone business. Whatever you choose to do because of the experiences that will be shared from people that have already gone through it. [00:43:20] Speaker B: Yeah. And we want to hear from you guys. So questions, you know, stuff you want to hear, stuff you want us to talk about. You know, leave those in the comments and then we'll cover some of that as well. [00:43:32] Speaker A: I don't know that, that it's worth sitting here trying to squeeze something out. I want this to be a formal place that you guys come and listen to get information that will help you guys. I want it to help you guys. I want to help you be able to maybe it's start a new business and if it's. If it's not, start a new business, just learn about what the industry is doing coming forward. So I don't know that I have much more to add into, into this episode other than I'm excited to bring you guys the. The episodes that we've already done. Unless you want to go down another direction. [00:44:06] Speaker B: I got one more thing. [00:44:07] Speaker A: What is that? [00:44:08] Speaker B: So this last week, some pretty significant price changes going on in the AG space drone equipment, right. DJI announced that the T50 drone, which is one of the premier spray drones, arguably the best, or one of the best, slashed the price by up to 40%. [00:44:26] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:44:27] Speaker B: Unbelievable. And it means that the same thing is happening with the happened in Thermal, where you said you paid $22,000 for it later, that same equipment, you know, 13,200 then tariffs and stuff. It's a little bit higher than that now, but. But man, what a time to get into it. [00:44:45] Speaker A: Yeah. Dropping prices like that. I'm glad you brought that up. So I'm going to tell you guys, if you haven't been in the drone space, there is a company that uses three letters to that is their company. It's called dji. There's one right in front of us and there's one back here. Dji, if you guys don't know, it, is the largest drone manufacturer in the world. They own about 80% of the world drone market in enterprise and spray drones and 90% in the spray drone industry. So just massively huge. The drone that Kevin is talking about it's called an Agris T50 built by DJI. It is the best spray drone. It's an all around cowboy, meaning it can just do everything. Well, is it the best at every single thing? No, but it's an all around good drone. There's a political battle going on between, you know, companies in America that do not want DJI industry because they can't sell their crappy drones. And so they lobbied to get DJI banned in America. They did not want them allowed here because of national security, is what they supposedly come up with, is what the lobbyists were saying. So they say they use forced labor. And so it stops at a border until you prove that every single part, including the plastic that is used to build the propellers, is not forced labor, they're guilty until proven innocent. So the flow of drone stops coming in. [00:46:13] Speaker B: And it's interesting to note that that happened just about at the same time that a bill got thrown out of the House and out of the Senate that proposed a ban of these, of these brands, of these Chinese brands. So they were unable to ban it that way. So then they just said they use forced labor. They stopped, you know, incoming drones by saying that they use force labor. And it's been months. I mean, I think we're probably at nine months. [00:46:35] Speaker A: No, dude, I think we're at a year. Think about it, we're at close to a year. Okay? So the flow stops coming in. There's, there's tons and tons of companies all across the country that sell DJI products because they're the best product, you know, that is available because they have thousands and thousands of flight hours to make the best flight controller. It stops what these companies do. They start to look different sources, you know, different drones. Get it, you know, get this drone, that drone, bring it into the country. Well, we went to this convention last week in Alabama, and this is a spray drone convention. It's just for spray drones. And I seen more different spray drones there than ever before because of the flow of DJI stopped. And I think this is, this is only my opinion, and I'd love to talk with the CEO of DJI when we go to China. If you're listening to this, let's set up a meeting. But I think what happened is they are so big that they seen all these other drones that were released by their employees that were at the show. They were going to have a presentation and literally like two days before, he said, okay, these guys want to come into the game. Let's see if they can hang around with this. And they said we're dropping the price by 40%. It is literally, in my opinion, just a big power move. Middle finger saying, guys, you want to come into this industry? Let's see if you can hang with this price. Because literally any other drone that is supposed to compete with this DJI T50 will now be $10,000 more for a product that is not as good. [00:48:13] Speaker B: Not as good. Yep. [00:48:15] Speaker A: If that's not a power move, I don't know what is. [00:48:17] Speaker B: And what some of these other competitor drones need is they need time and, like, software development to improve their drones. [00:48:23] Speaker A: Yeah. And so they need time. [00:48:25] Speaker B: They need time, and this is a way of really cutting, but they also. [00:48:27] Speaker A: Need people using their product to make a better product. You know, like, it doesn't do you any good. The more drones you can have in the field, the better you can write your software because of, like, things that come up. But if you can't sell your drones because they're that much more money, think about it. Who is going to do that if you could buy three drones for the cost of two drones? Somebody else? [00:48:51] Speaker B: Inferior drones. [00:48:52] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:48:53] Speaker B: I think this whole issue is somewhat complex because we want competition that's good for the market, but we also, as. As America, we do not want to depend on the Chinese market for producing American drones. Like, I don't think it's good for. I don't think it's good for America. So part of me, like, I, I like what Trump is doing with trying to bring, you know, manufacturing, but it does mean that short term, there's a lot of. [00:49:14] Speaker A: There's going to. Exactly. There's going to be a lot of pain. [00:49:17] Speaker B: But we, we, like, drones are an emerging technology that just, like computer chips. We can't depend on a foreign country. We need to have that in house is like my political view. [00:49:27] Speaker A: Yeah. So, I mean, you're right. It's just the industry is growing so rapidly, and people are now adopting the technology and they expect the technology to get their, you know, applications done, and then all of a sudden, we just cut it off. Like. Like, think about it, Kevin. If they would tomorrow say that all Chinese drone parts and drones are cut off, we're done. [00:49:53] Speaker B: We are. [00:49:53] Speaker A: We are literally done. I don't care if you're helio and say you're built in Texas, 90% of your products on that drone are from China. [00:50:01] Speaker B: You might be assembled in Texas. [00:50:03] Speaker A: Yes. Correct. And so, you know, we'd have to start up a motor manufacturing company in the United States. We'd have to Start a propeller company. We'd, you know, you'd have to start so many things that are on a drone. How long is that going to take? [00:50:18] Speaker B: And right now those companies can't even compete. [00:50:21] Speaker A: Yeah, right. Just the cost. [00:50:22] Speaker B: Just the cost. What really is annoying is our lobbying system in politics where this is not even, you know, you have all these underground forces like skydio paying lobbyists to impact other drones just so they can sell their own drones. They should make better drones instead of. [00:50:42] Speaker A: Yeah, it is hard to make better drones in America because it costs more. [00:50:47] Speaker B: Like it's hard, but they should do it. [00:50:48] Speaker A: But, but think about Kevin. Like if you had a choice, you know, some people are going to say, I don't care what it costs, I'm going to buy American. But it's like if you had a, if you had a choice from two drones and this one over here performs better and is one third the cost of this one. That doesn't do that. Well, we're all about trying to save money as well. I mean. [00:51:08] Speaker B: Yeah, but you look at other industries like spaceships, cars, American made products can. [00:51:15] Speaker A: Win well and they can be competitive. I don't know how this works. I'd question on that. Like, is every single, every single piece, is it built in America? [00:51:24] Speaker B: 100% of Tesla cars that are sold in America are built in America. [00:51:27] Speaker A: Okay, that's impressive. Where does the battery come from? [00:51:30] Speaker B: Probably China. [00:51:31] Speaker A: Well, how's that work then? [00:51:32] Speaker B: Well, the, the battery is. I don't think we have enough earth in like. [00:51:37] Speaker A: See what I'm saying? [00:51:38] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:51:39] Speaker A: What about the, the, the thread that's used to stitch the, the leather together? Like, is that built in America? [00:51:49] Speaker B: I don't know. [00:51:50] Speaker A: I don't know at that if it's real leather. Was the, was the cow raised in America? Was the food that the cow ate raised in America? [00:51:57] Speaker B: Heck yes. [00:51:58] Speaker A: Well, who. But who knows? Like, no, my thing is my thing. If we're going to go down this. It's like, I believe we're a global market. [00:52:07] Speaker B: We are. But there's some, there's some ingredients of like these products that are going to be big enough that we should have production of them in America. Like the big chip company in Taiwan. [00:52:18] Speaker A: Like they're okay, is it just assembled them in America or like every single piece? [00:52:23] Speaker B: I don't know if every piece but the core like thing that takes it from raw material to a finished useful product, that should happen in America. That's. And I agree with you that it's hard. Like I don't know how, like, what kind of a. Of a startup budget do you need to be able. I know that's develop a drone in America. It's hard, but that doesn't mean it's impossible. [00:52:43] Speaker A: Well, I think it actually kind of is impossible, and that's why a billionaire hasn't done it. Because why would a billionaire start a company if it's going to cost. His product is going to cost three times more, and all Chinese parts are still allowed in the country. I think a billionaire would invest the moment every single piece is cut off from China. If it is, then he's like, okay, we now have a market. We know there's a demand. We now have a market, and, you know, let's start building it. [00:53:10] Speaker B: Makes you wonder what kind of conversations are happening behind closed doors, you know, when Apple is bringing some production, you know, to America, when, you know, like, there's got to be conversations that are happening, because to cut that off today would just destroy the drone market. But also, to your point, there aren't companies wanting to invest if they're not going to be able to compete. [00:53:28] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:53:29] Speaker B: So the next five years are going to be interesting. [00:53:31] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, for sure. I like to. I mean, you're going to hear it on other shows that are coming in here. On the show is like, I just feel like we're at a rodeo and we're in an arena with all types of different animals. Cows that have never been at a rodeo, and they're just going haywire. They're going this way, that way, up, you know, trying to jump over the fence or going through the fence. They don't know what to do. But we're in it and we're just going to figure out how to do it. Yep, that's how I feel. [00:53:57] Speaker B: And, man, we're in a spot where we both, you know, one. You know, or I should speak for myself. My opinion, the American first agenda of, like, helping us rebuild our manufacturing, like, that's fantastic, in my opinion. But we also want good drones. Yeah, we need good drones. And so it is complicated, and I don't know how it'll all turn out. [00:54:15] Speaker A: I know that if I have to start using a drone, that puts me back four years in the technology. Tell me how that's going to work, Austin. You're going to have to fly a drone that has half the capabilities of a matrice 30t. And the quality of the screen that you're looking at will take you. It will take you three times longer to find a deer than it would be if it's a good product. [00:54:41] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:54:41] Speaker A: Can you imagine? That's rough. [00:54:43] Speaker C: That's like. That's like saying, hey, I'm going to take my smartphone and now I'm going to go back to a flip phone. [00:54:47] Speaker A: A flip phone without Internet. [00:54:49] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:54:50] Speaker A: Like, you don't have Internet where you can still text it into the web search thing. [00:54:55] Speaker C: Yeah. And you can't get anywhere. You don't have gps. Like, literally are stuck because you can't go anywhere without your gps. [00:55:02] Speaker A: Because we adapt so quick. We adapt so. [00:55:04] Speaker B: Man, I just can't shake the feeling that somewhere in America, in a garage somewhere, somebody is building an American drone. That is actually going to be good. It. [00:55:12] Speaker C: It is happening, Elon. [00:55:14] Speaker A: It could be good, but what's the cost going to be? [00:55:17] Speaker B: It. It is. I'm telling you. I see it happening. [00:55:20] Speaker A: Okay, I like it, I like it. But you. Is it going to be the cost like what we expect or like have come to know now? [00:55:29] Speaker B: It's got to be. It's got to be. It can't be more than 25 more. [00:55:32] Speaker A: You know what, this just came into me because there's a TV sitting in front of me. What? Like, where are those all made? [00:55:38] Speaker B: A lot of them are made in. [00:55:39] Speaker A: China and they just kept getting cheaper and cheaper and cheaper and bigger. [00:55:44] Speaker B: I don't know of any TVs that are made in America. There might be, but it's all China. [00:55:49] Speaker A: Okay, so why shouldn't we make TVs in America? [00:55:53] Speaker B: We should make TVs, but it is not crucial to our economy the way that drones are going to be. [00:55:57] Speaker A: They are watching this show on their TV right now. They are being educated. [00:56:01] Speaker B: And as good as the show is, they would survive if they couldn't watch it. Our economy is not going to survive if we don't have drones. Like, we're not going to be able to keep up with other. Other like, like other countries. [00:56:11] Speaker A: Yeah, because other countries, beans will be cheaper because they were able to fly it on with drones instead of flying it on with everything. [00:56:18] Speaker B: So when of other, like, I mean, I don't know this, but like airplanes, military airplanes, a lot of those are built in the US Right? And that's what you have. Blue chip, like, blue chip drones are ones where every part has been sourced in America and the supply chain is like, okay, they can be used for military purposes because. Okay, so that, that's in like military grade stuff, right? There's a huge new plant going down in Columbus, like 200. [00:56:42] Speaker A: Yeah, what's that called? [00:56:43] Speaker B: Ansel, can you look that up in Austin. It's like $200 million. I don't know, plant plan. [00:56:50] Speaker A: Because thousands of people. Governor DeWine gave him a good deal. [00:56:54] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:56:54] Speaker A: On something. Yeah. No, he said that's why he chose Ohio. Obviously when you're that big of a company, you're going to go to towns, cities and states that want you there. [00:57:05] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:57:05] Speaker A: What type of, you know what type of. Yeah, exactly. [00:57:08] Speaker B: All that kind of stuff. But, but I think they're doing military grade drones to sell to the government. [00:57:14] Speaker A: Yeah, you're right there. It's gotta be. [00:57:17] Speaker B: There's gotta be. It's gonna, it's gonna, it just gotta shake out. We're just gonna go through it. [00:57:21] Speaker A: I just feel like it's gonna cost so much. Like I can only imagine what that drone costs that they're gonna build down in Columbus. Like it's probably like $1 billion. [00:57:29] Speaker B: Yeah. I don't know. [00:57:30] Speaker A: Because what does it matter if it's going to the military? It's all tax dollars that's ended up paying for it. Right. Like they don't care if it's 1 billion or totally. Side note, 900. [00:57:41] Speaker B: But did you hear about a 1 billion dollar cost for a 10 question survey in the national parks? Did you hear about that? So imagine this, this, this contract that could have. It's 10 questions after you visit a national park, they send it to you. You fill out 10 questions, you grade your experience at a national park. [00:57:59] Speaker A: I was just at one last. [00:58:01] Speaker B: Did you get a survey? I don't know, $10 billion or $1 billion yearly for that, for that contract. Whereas the actual cost of it was about ten grand. If you would have just. [00:58:11] Speaker A: Whoa, whoa, whoa. You're telling me that they build or they, they. [00:58:16] Speaker B: Somebody authorized a $1 billion for 10 questions after you visit a national park. And the data didn't even go anywhere. It's not being used. It just gets like piled into that database and forgotten. So to your point, a billion dollars is. [00:58:30] Speaker A: Elon told you this? [00:58:32] Speaker B: Yeah, Elon told me that. [00:58:33] Speaker A: Okay, so I don't want to. [00:58:37] Speaker B: That's messy. [00:58:38] Speaker A: But how, how do we know that this is like actual facts doge.gov I but who's behind that website? [00:58:48] Speaker B: But at some point, Mike, you gotta, you gotta figure out do I more believe that government funds are being spent really well and very effectively, or do I believe that there is huge amounts of unbelievable waste that Enric. That. I mean, I don't know. It's pretty obvious. I think. Anyway, this is not a political show, all right? [00:59:07] Speaker A: We had to go political there for you guys just for a little bit. I. I don't know. I like keeping a conversation, like, bringing up, you know, if. If you want to say, everything's built in America, I'm going to say, what was the cow raised in America? So I. I think it's good. That's all I got, man. We had that. Surely that didn't get him down too much at the end of the show. [00:59:29] Speaker B: Well, if they are down, then, like, good. And what should bring you up is that you can buy a T50 drone and get into spring or cheaper than you ever have for cheaper than we did and cheaper than ever before in the history of humankind. And it. It'll retail at about 18,900. [00:59:44] Speaker A: That's insane. [00:59:45] Speaker B: That is insane. [00:59:46] Speaker A: That's with batteries. [00:59:47] Speaker B: That's with batteries. So charger, figure out how many acres. [00:59:52] Speaker A: Right. [00:59:52] Speaker B: Figure out how much you're going to charge per acre and then figure out how many acres it'll take to pay off $18,900. [00:59:57] Speaker C: It really is a little bit more than what it cost for the aircraft left itself. [01:00:01] Speaker A: What do you mean? [01:00:02] Speaker B: The T40 by itself was 17,900? [01:00:05] Speaker A: Yeah, that was just the airframe. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. [01:00:09] Speaker B: So that'll get you up. Right. [01:00:11] Speaker A: If you want to start this, now's the time. [01:00:13] Speaker B: And then I'm going to bring it back down again in a bit here. They're going to be all sold out in less than two weeks. I mean, I kid you not. I kid you not. Like, people are placing deposits. [01:00:23] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:00:24] Speaker B: Even before we have the final price and all the details worked out and these are going to, like, we will not have anywhere near enough. [01:00:30] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:00:30] Speaker B: But we're getting all that we can. [01:00:31] Speaker A: Facts. Yeah. I hope you guys like the first show. There are not always going to be, you know, flying from one side to the other and being this or that, but we're going to bring you raw, real audio visuals of what's going on in the drone world. And maybe sometimes we'll talk a little political stuff, but that's all right. We'll get a little personal on you guys as well. But I really do appreciate you guys. [01:00:53] Speaker B: We love this industry. We love drones, and we're excited to be here. Thanks for you being here, and I hope you also share excitement in it. Yeah, let's drone on, baby. [01:01:01] Speaker A: See you guys on the next one.