Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Mike: I don't know if, for the guys that are just tuning in, if you've never listened to a drone on show or watched it on YouTube, you might not be aware, but we shoot this at my property where, where I live in, in a shop that my dad built. And now we've turned it into a studio portion with a little workout session over there. Talking about workouts. I basically don't do that anymore, so that's not good.
[00:00:25] Jason: You don't? Well, you know, I never start, so I don't have to stop.
[00:00:28] Mike: Oh, so you never quit, so you. I never quit. Yeah, yeah, I don't start. Yeah, yeah, no, I, I still try to do some push ups and stuff, but it's, it's been the last few weeks. I was telling the FAA guys today. Were you there when I was talking about the whole FCC thing and.
[00:00:44] Jason: Yeah.
[00:00:44] Mike: Dealing with the government and now the government shows up and wants to go through my books and stuff. It's just, it's a lot. And it all came at once.
And he felt it too, right. He was like, oh, yeah, I'm part of that problem.
Here I am. So let's just get right into it, guys.
Yeah. We had our first on site FAA inspection done at New Way Ag and not what I expected. It was, it was good.
[00:01:13] Kevin: It was reasonable.
[00:01:14] Jason: It was very reasonable.
[00:01:16] Mike: I gotta give it to the guys right off the rip. Professionalism, like through the roof.
Real aviation pilots, like actually fly manned aircraft.
Seemed like country boys. I don't know that they were country boys, but it was good. Yep. Showed up at 9am in the morning, didn't leave. Now I will say, guys, if you're tuning in and you're the inspector that did it, you know, I, I appreciate the rapport that was built, but they were there for a while.
[00:01:46] Kevin: Yeah. It was at 1:00 o'. Clock.
[00:01:48] Jason: It was after 1:30.
[00:01:49] Kevin: After 1:30.
[00:01:50] Jason: Yeah.
[00:01:50] Mike: Yep.
[00:01:51] Kevin: But you know, a lot, some of that was like giving a chance for us to ask questions and push back and.
[00:01:56] Jason: Yeah. Yeah. This definitely was not anything close to what I expected.
[00:02:00] Kevin: Yeah.
[00:02:01] Mike: What, what did you expect, Jay?
[00:02:03] Jason: I expected them to come in and try to nitpick every little thing. Yep. And find something wrong somewhere, even if there's nothing wrong. Yeah.
[00:02:12] Mike: So you, you had the, the impression that it would be like an OSHA inspection.
[00:02:17] Jason: Yeah.
[00:02:17] Mike: When OSHA shows up, they're here to hand out fines. That's what they're showing up. Not these guys.
Not this inspection specifically. Now we were told that this inspection came about not because of a complaint or. Yeah, well, well, he did say that kind of outside. Not that that was a complaint, but.
[00:02:37] Kevin: But what's interesting is he said, you know, basically there's so few inspectors for so many part 137s that the way. I mean, he said the reason that we came to inspect you is because when I search spray drone, UAS in any state, you're the first ones. And so I was like, the list.
[00:02:54] Mike: Yeah, top of the list. Yeah.
[00:02:56] Kevin: So SEO, if you have for that, but if you don't want to be inspected, have bad SEO and literally your chances of not being inspected will go down.
[00:03:05] Mike: Oh yeah.
[00:03:06] Kevin: Because of just how they do it. Well, not go away, but go down. Because he said, you know, he said, like if, for example, if I have to go to Nevada or in, you know, wherever I'm going next and I have two days there, I have room for four inspections. So I just go through find. And if you're easy to find, then you're easy to inspect.
[00:03:23] Jason: It was kind of funny though that that one guy was like, I didn't realize there was a list. And now he found the list like where everybody's on the internal database, where it's like now it's not necessarily SEO related to Google.
[00:03:34] Mike: Well, that's what he said. I just go down the list, go, any meanie money? Okay, this guy. Yeah, yeah. And then whoever's on that list is going to get a, get a call.
[00:03:42] Kevin: Yeah.
[00:03:43] Mike: The way he reached out, he said for our inspection specifically was like he actually sent me an email prior to arriving.
[00:03:52] Kevin: Yeah.
[00:03:52] Mike: Now he has the ability to not even notify you whatsoever and just show up whenever he wants. But honestly, I will, I will say, and this is going to be a shameless plug to new way AG Track app.
The more we use that, the easier that this.
[00:04:11] Kevin: Yes.
[00:04:12] Mike: Part of the regulatory side of business, keeping your information straight. It is actually. So yeah.
[00:04:20] Kevin: When you get that email or that call, hey, I'm an FAA inspector, I want to come inspect you. It's a little bit like, you know, like, what, what do I have in. Like, what do we need to get in order? Well, you know what, you just. And like you said, AG Track is quickly becoming not just for flight logs, but soon maintenance records, the research you need to do for 107. If you want one place to go where it can be your living dashboard of what you need to do to be compliant and what recertifications you need to do and all that stuff.
[00:04:51] Mike: Yeah.
[00:04:51] Kevin: Act Track will become that.
[00:04:52] Mike: I will say that the Regulatory side of this business is not nearly as cumbersome as it was when I first started this spray drone business. Like, it was trying to keep track of all your records and all of your training documents and all of those things is kind of a little bit of a pain. But now with the app, to be able to have it all in there and even if you're in the field. Right. If you show up and we're spraying, it's a push of a button. Here. Here are my spray records.
Here's my license, here's my training. Here's my operations manual. Here's everything in one.
[00:05:28] Kevin: And. And to your point earlier, they don't really want to go through all of your records. They just want to know, are you being safe and are you keeping records?
[00:05:35] Jason: Yeah.
[00:05:36] Kevin: So once you show them, like, when he saw actrack, he was like, this is way more than this actually looks good.
[00:05:41] Mike: Yeah, I'm glad you pulled that out because, like, we're talking ACT Track. Like, they know act.
[00:05:46] Jason: They don't know it.
[00:05:47] Mike: They're not. I mean, they might like and subscribe to the YouTube channel, but they're not following along too.
[00:05:53] Jason: Yeah. And they don't use the. I mean, they wouldn't.
[00:05:55] Mike: Yeah.
[00:05:55] Jason: Why.
[00:05:55] Kevin: Why would they use.
[00:05:56] Mike: Now I will say, guys, we're talking about the podcast because it happened today, this morning at 9am and it's now, what is it? 3, 3:30. I did ask them if they'd come be on the podcast and they are not allowed because they have to do screening questions or something.
[00:06:13] Kevin: We would have to submit all the questions you're going to ask them in writing and then to have a script media department approve it. And then for every question that they. That they get asked, they need to have a script that they kind of.
[00:06:24] Mike: Yeah, the question has a.
[00:06:27] Kevin: It has an answer.
[00:06:28] Mike: Has an answer.
[00:06:28] Jason: Yeah, they have an answer written out for them.
[00:06:30] Mike: They can't just sit down like you and I and just, you know, and
[00:06:33] Kevin: cool guys, like, actually cool guys.
[00:06:35] Jason: Yeah.
[00:06:35] Kevin: But in that job, you know, they're working as an faa. Like what they say, you know, they're on the record as an FAA inspector. So it matters that they are the
[00:06:43] Mike: one guy that flies helicopters. Like just his, you know, his job. Job that he had prior to being an FA inspector.
[00:06:51] Kevin: Yeah.
[00:06:51] Mike: Pretty cool.
[00:06:52] Kevin: One thing that impressed me with them is it, you know, if. If the FAA's job is, especially now with Part 137s, so many of them coming up, coming around, their job is to help educate. Like, that's what they want is educate. Educate. And you could tell even from the way he asked us questions that he was not nitpicking.
[00:07:11] Jason: Yeah, no, he was like took it as 100. They were there to actually help. Yeah.
[00:07:16] Mike: Genuinely want know.
[00:07:18] Kevin: Yeah.
[00:07:19] Mike: How do you do training? Maybe train differently.
[00:07:22] Jason: Yeah.
[00:07:22] Mike: Maybe have a better checklist or so.
[00:07:25] Jason: I mean it wasn't like we had everything perfect.
He did nitpick a couple little things, but he was like, this is what it should be.
[00:07:30] Mike: Not like, oh, I'm gonna find you for this.
No helpful. What, what I would tell people is do not be afraid of an FAA ramp check inspection. And now, now they did say guys before them have kinda have kind of ruined it or that's why many people have that.
[00:07:51] Kevin: And it was because of their boss. Right. Like the previous, wasn't it? The previous.
[00:07:55] Jason: I, I think it just depends on the person too. Like I just talked to a cop the other day and it said he 20 some years on the force, he's only ever written four speeding tickets.
[00:08:03] Kevin: Whoa.
[00:08:04] Jason: He's like, I'm there to look for somebody that is drinking, doing something that he's not. Shouldn't be doing. If he's speeding a little bit, I'm gonna let him go.
That's the type of people that these were. I feel like they were there to help. They weren't there to be a dick.
[00:08:18] Mike: Yeah.
[00:08:18] Jason: And then there's the other guy. If you're going five over, he's going to write you a ticket.
[00:08:22] Mike: Yeah. That's just wants to throw the authority around.
[00:08:24] Jason: Yeah.
[00:08:24] Mike: These guys were not.
[00:08:25] Kevin: Yeah, yeah.
[00:08:26] Mike: Now they're not saying that there's not those guys. They were saying that there are those types of guys in the field. Not that they agree with it.
[00:08:35] Kevin: Yeah.
[00:08:36] Mike: But if you get our guys.
[00:08:38] Kevin: Okay. And did I understand. Because I could not have understood this correctly. It's not possible. Did he say there's three inspectors for Part 137 operations?
[00:08:48] Jason: Yes, yes.
[00:08:49] Kevin: And for.
[00:08:50] Jason: He said we're looking at 2/3 of them.
[00:08:51] Kevin: Yeah.
2/3 in our conference room. And there's how many thousands?
[00:08:56] Jason: 3300.
[00:08:57] Mike: 3200. 3200. Part 137 operations.
1000 around 1200 manned 137 operations.
[00:09:07] Kevin: Yeah.
[00:09:08] Mike: So that is insane.
[00:09:09] Kevin: That is insane. Yep. That is insane.
[00:09:11] Mike: That is insane.
[00:09:12] Kevin: And I think that also validates their approach that they, they. You know, if you are, if you have an accident and you're doing something unsafe or something, then you kind of have the book thrown at you. I think like if you Run into a power line, and it turns out that you weren't. Didn't have an exemption. You didn't have a part 137. Didn't even have your 107.
[00:09:29] Mike: Well, see, that's what he's saying. When that occurs, they, they. Their hands are tied. Meaning they can't come be an education.
[00:09:37] Kevin: Yeah, yeah, yeah. At this point, there's an incident, whatever, and it's like it's a different approach.
[00:09:42] Mike: Different approach, yep.
[00:09:43] Kevin: But if you, if you have a part 137 and it's the first time you're getting RAM checked, like, it will be for 99% of the people. Because why are you going to go ramp check somebody twice when, you know 11,000 people haven't ever been RAM checked once? Then it, Then it's. It is really educational.
[00:09:58] Mike: Well, that's what he asked me. He was like, because I'm a, I'm a private pilot, so I, I fly airplanes. And he was like, mike, how long have you been a pilot? I said, eight years. Have you ever been RAM checked? I said, no, never. And he's just like, it's becoming less and less of being ramp checked because there's more and more people that are doing it and less inspectors. And then you ask them, is the FAA hiring on. They did not have a good answer for that. Because you said, they're trying.
[00:10:26] Kevin: I think they said, we're trying. And it's hard, right?
[00:10:30] Mike: Yeah.
[00:10:30] Kevin: Because the.
I think they said, we realize that it's as short as it's ridiculous, but it's hard to get people who have that kind of qualification.
[00:10:38] Mike: Yeah, yeah. So I will say, you know, I know of other people in the industry that have a voice in the industry, have been, you know, inspected, but I thought that it was a bad inspection. That's. That's how I do it.
[00:10:55] Jason: That's every time how I took it as well.
[00:10:58] Mike: It was.
But maybe they relearned and they're like, we're not going a new way with this attitude.
[00:11:04] Jason: Maybe, maybe. And maybe the people that they went to were.
[00:11:07] Kevin: Well, but I don't think it's just us. I think if you hear the way they talked about all the other inspections they're doing next week and wherever. It's like they just pick people and we don't know anything about them, but we're just gonna go inspect what they're doing. Yeah, I think that's the normal way to do it.
[00:11:20] Mike: Guy that showed up did know about us prior.
[00:11:23] Jason: Oh, for sure.
[00:11:24] Kevin: What, say more?
[00:11:25] Mike: Well, we have a history.
Yeah, we have a history with the FAA, and the 1. One guy that was there was involved in a thing that we were still working through, but we, you know, that thing he was not talking about. He was talking about this thing that he was there.
We will definitely start telling people that story at some point. We're just not doing it at this time. Yeah, I thought it was very helpful, actually.
Educational. And it made me think there's things we can do better and we can help people that are getting into this industry to.
[00:11:58] Kevin: To do their things better. Yep. And. And one of the biggest challenges, like I was thinking there when I was listening to the, you know, couple hours of conversation, is, do you know how hard it is to sit down a country boy like our customers that want to fly drones and work with their hands? How hard it is to sit somebody down? He just purchased equipment and excited about flying it and say, read everything about your exemption. Memorize it, know it. It is the Bible. That is hard to do.
[00:12:24] Jason: It is hard. That is hard to do. I'm.
[00:12:25] Kevin: I'm.
[00:12:26] Jason: I. But I have never read.
[00:12:27] Kevin: We need to figure.
[00:12:28] Mike: Never read through it.
[00:12:29] Jason: Not completely.
[00:12:29] Mike: Oh, my gosh. I've read through that thing multiple times. Because we have been trying to get our own.
You know, we're petitioning the FAA A1. Well, I guess today we figured out
[00:12:39] Jason: it has to be a 133. Might be 133.
[00:12:42] Kevin: We don't know what it is.
[00:12:43] Mike: Nobody's ever gotten a 133.
[00:12:45] Kevin: Yeah. But back in 2025, over 12 months ago, then.
[00:12:48] Jason: Yeah, it's been parked.
[00:12:50] Mike: Yeah, it's been part. Isn't that wise?
It's been part. So he got a question about it,
[00:12:55] Kevin: and they just parked it. And there's so much like, okay, so our complaints was like. And again, complaints. One of our conversations was like, hey, when we petition the faa, they take months even just to get an N number. I can't get, you know, for months and months. And then when you send me, you know, something back, you expect me to have a fully thought out legal reply in 10 days.
[00:13:14] Mike: He said, just keep the dialogue.
[00:13:16] Kevin: The dialogue open. Yeah, yeah. And. And again, you. If you read that through, not. We're trying to be, you know, we're not.
We don't have enough staff. Like, that's really what it is. And I feel for them when they say any government shutdown, you. You don't do anything, and work doesn't stop, and you never dig yourself out. Think of coming to work like that.
[00:13:36] Mike: You.
[00:13:36] Jason: They weren't shut down for like 80 days.
[00:13:37] Kevin: Yeah. Yeah, think of that.
[00:13:39] Jason: What was that a year ago? So they're already behind and then they get shut down for 80 days.
[00:13:43] Mike: Yeah, they're already behind on that. But the amount of people that are getting into is also growing. And not maybe necessarily to do it as a business. But every farmer is technically supposed to have this.
[00:13:55] Kevin: Well, if you fight.
[00:13:57] Jason: Oh, yeah.
[00:13:58] Kevin: Every farmer needs to have this. Yeah.
[00:13:59] Mike: But that's why he said, I'm gonna go inspect some next week in California. But they're private. Yeah, they're private applicators with drones. So it's not a scrutiny or whatever. Is.
He still has to go check on. Yeah, but it's just. I wonder if you're doing it for.
[00:14:16] Kevin: I wonder how like. And again, not advocating for this at all, but I just wonder, you know, in their system, if they're going to go gate check people, how would they gate check the farmer who never registered his drone or never.
[00:14:28] Mike: The only way they'll get a hold of them is if somebody is filing a complaint specifically gives them an address where the dude lives and then that
[00:14:35] Kevin: or an incident happens and then. And then you're. Yeah, then it's not a good place to be in.
[00:14:40] Jason: Yeah.
[00:14:41] Mike: So I'm going to bring it up because a lot of people, I want to say a lot of people, people that are in the industry have looked at FastPass and they're like, bruh, can't be doing that. That was not really a discussion that you can't do that because we're helping people gain experience.
[00:14:59] Jason: I think I took it as the FAA has no clarity on whether that is okay to do it or not.
[00:15:06] Kevin: Yeah.
[00:15:06] Mike: Yep. But they're also the. I also took it as they prefer people to know the systems, be trained properly, have checklists, have operations manuals. And they know we're doing that.
[00:15:19] Jason: Yeah, yeah.
[00:15:19] Mike: They know we're actually making better operators because of the program than not having it.
[00:15:26] Jason: Yeah. I think those guys are. Would be in favor of it. But it's not in the text that it's, you know, it doesn't fit in their little box.
[00:15:34] Mike: Y. Y is how I kind of took it.
[00:15:37] Kevin: Yeah. And. And the debate over like employee contractor, like W2, 1099, all of that. It's interesting that it. There is no really definition. It's not clear.
[00:15:47] Mike: No, it's not clear. Yep.
[00:15:49] Kevin: And so it seems like that's being worked on. And in part 108, I think then clarity will come.
[00:15:54] Mike: Oh, yeah. But who Knows when that ever is coming. Like you literally don't know. They said it could be tomorrow, it could be in a century.
The one guy literally said that. Yeah.
[00:16:04] Jason: He said any day in the next decade.
[00:16:08] Kevin: One of these days, Jay, it's going to happen.
[00:16:10] Mike: That is one of these days.
[00:16:11] Jason: It is pretty crazy to think like if that was somebody's business, if the FAA wasn't a private business, it would be completely different.
[00:16:20] Mike: Why that, why, why do you say
[00:16:22] Jason: that you would have to streamline that thing like nobody's business.
[00:16:26] Kevin: Well, you, you would care. Yeah. You would care about the expense and the efficiency and the.
[00:16:31] Jason: Yeah. Like there is no way you could run that as a.
A profitable business the way they run it.
[00:16:37] Kevin: Yeah, I think.
[00:16:38] Jason: And that, I think that's a lot of government agencies are. They were built in the 50s, 60s, whenever, and they have not progressed with the times.
[00:16:46] Kevin: Well, he said it's kind of like when you did your pilot thing, you learned from books with technology from the 1950s.
[00:16:52] Mike: Yep.
[00:16:53] Kevin: And.
[00:16:53] Mike: And he was talking about a metar. Reading a metar. It's like this.
It looks just like gibberish. It. So the weather is like 023/070 because it was done with the typewriter back then. So then, then, then you knew that the wind was from the west at seven miles an hour.
And then the. The ceiling is 1 01, which means 1,000ft.
But that's what I'm saying.
[00:17:22] Jason: Like if that was somebody's business, that would have been updated already 100 times since the 50s.
[00:17:26] Mike: Yeah.
[00:17:27] Jason: Never would be using that. You know, and the way we file paperwork, you could build something so easily to do it instantaneously.
[00:17:37] Kevin: He did mention that there's a couple like inner. Okay, so. Oh, what was it? A couple like even federal departments that don't talk to each other.
[00:17:46] Mike: Oh yeah.
[00:17:46] Kevin: So when, when you register. What was that part 137. I forget if it was the end number and the AG certificate or something.
[00:17:53] Jason: But like medical.
[00:17:54] Mike: Yeah, with the medical.
[00:17:56] Jason: Yeah.
[00:17:57] Mike: So when you get your medical, you might have night operations like that. You can't operate at night with a Class 3 medical because your vision, you can't see the light or something.
[00:18:09] Jason: Yeah.
[00:18:10] Mike: And so he said you might have a Class 3 medical and it tell you right there that you have a Class 3 medical, but the certificate division doesn't know that you have a.
I,
[00:18:22] Jason: I think it was more along the lines if you are not. If you go and try to get a Class 3 medical and they put on the Class 3 medical that you are, you can't see very well or whatever it is, then you go to just get a regular medical. They will not allow you to use the regular medical.
[00:18:40] Mike: Well, it's a basic med, but I, I took it a different way. I guess you could take what they say.
[00:18:45] Jason: Do you need a classroom medical now
[00:18:47] Mike: to fly at night? Yes.
[00:18:48] Jason: But not to fly at night.
[00:18:50] Mike: No. You don't need a Class 3 medical
[00:18:52] Kevin: if you don't fly at day.
[00:18:53] Mike: Like in the daytime.
[00:18:54] Jason: Yeah.
[00:18:55] Mike: Which still doesn't make sense. And we've talked about it before.
It's easier to see your spray drones at night than it is in the daytime.
[00:19:01] Kevin: Definitely.
[00:19:02] Mike: Yeah, totally easier. But the FAA is not looking at that way. The FAA is looking at it based on a red, green, whatever the night colors are. Can you see those colors? And if you can't see those colors, then they don't think it's safe for you to fly a uav. But the problem is they're basing that on manned aircraft. Because if I lose radio, all radios in my airplane and I'm going to land at Akron Canton and I'm not communicating with them, they actually do it with lightning signals. So in the tower they will flash me two greens. Okay, you're good to go. But if it's a red and a green or whatever, I don't remember the signals because I don't use them.
Then it's go around, make a lab like so there's those things that they're trying to, that they're using in UAV where it's actually not even practical.
So. But like you said, it's, it's technologies in the 50s.
[00:19:57] Kevin: One thing that was interesting, I forget if it was you or one of the inspectors that said is, or you spoke to a part 137 airplane like that was selling his two airplanes.
[00:20:07] Mike: Yeah. So I just got my airplane back from the paint shop and there's a, an air tractor operator out there, a part 137 operation. And he told this paint guy that, yeah, he's looking to sell at least one of his two airplanes because of the drone. How many drones are in his area and these guys even said is coming? Yeah, like he said the helicopters are going to be the first people that are going to lose work as far as doing inspections. Yeah, that actually kind of surprised me
[00:20:45] Jason: that he said that.
[00:20:46] Mike: Well, I think it's already happened in California, but we don't realize it. They're like the one guy was from California and he, he already sees it. So they're doing. You know, they used to do helicopter inspections of high tension power lines every week. Because if one, you know, drops off sparse. A forest fire, they're all burning up. But now they use drones to do that, and there's no reason to have a helicopter pilot.
[00:21:12] Jason: Yeah. He's like, why. Why pay $4,000 an hour if we can pay 200 bucks an hour?
[00:21:16] Mike: Yep, yep.
So I'm telling you, like, if. If there's guys listening that are in, man, you know, aviation, be it a 137 or a 133 or a 135, meaning heavy lift stuff, like, start looking into it. And I have to bring up Eric that got us into that contract in Indiana. He was a insane spray pilot with a helicopter.
And he was just like, mike, I'm starting early. Like, I want to know this technology, because he said it. You know, in that industry, as much as it sucks, it's not if you crash, it's when. And how bad was it? Yeah.
[00:21:56] Kevin: Wow.
But you. You have that. What we see happening, and you put that up against to the.
The farmer conference that you were at, where big farmers.
[00:22:05] Mike: Oh, yeah.
[00:22:06] Kevin: Think that you can't use drones. Like, so those two things are kind of realities at the same time.
[00:22:10] Mike: Yep. There's some frustration that I've definitely had after coming back from that farmer expo, because that was like elite farmers, like, farmers that are between 2,000 acres up to 16,000 acres or more.
And the truth is, not one of them that I spoke to uses a spray drone operation on their farms because they had a bad experience in the beginning, back when it was chucking a truck or standing a van coming out with one drone in their lawn chair with a. With an umbrella, setting up shop and trying to get some acres done.
They did not like that. And they still kind of think that that's what it is when you're a spray drone pilot. And the. The truth is, that's the farthest thing from the truth. Like, the FAA guys looked at the platinum trailer today and absolutely blown away.
Blown away. Ripped out the phones as soon as they could, started taking pictures. Like, this is insane. They were literally saying that.
[00:23:12] Jason: Yeah, we should have recorded that.
[00:23:14] Mike: We should have recorded that.
I mean, they've never seen anything like it.
[00:23:19] Jason: Yeah, they're five times as good as they were.
[00:23:22] Mike: Yeah, There's a difference between spraying in 2023, like, when we were spraying 2027 to 2026. I'm telling you, it is a huge, huge difference.
[00:23:31] Kevin: Oh, and you know what? It'll be different spraying in 2027 or 2028.
[00:23:35] Jason: Right.
[00:23:36] Kevin: We're going back to the Stone Ages, baby.
[00:23:39] Mike: No, don't say that, Kevin.
Right, yeah.
You're bringing that up because that's what the US Government is trying to force down our throats. I mean, don't bring in the foreign drones because we have to manufacture our own. Well, the truth is we have not.
We've not even started developing really good stuff.
[00:23:59] Kevin: Yeah. And. And, but, but in the government's own, like, executive order, when they put tariffs on, they said there's no ability in the US to develop it now. And so they're gonna have a program to, like, incentivize it and stuff like that. But, you know, if you look at the last three years, the progress and where it's at, I just wonder. Yeah. Three years from now, 2029, what will this be like? Because it'll either be.
[00:24:23] Mike: Well, I can tell you what it's going to be like for the people that have the best equipment, like the best spray drones, like a T100 or a T60X. Like the drones that work, that are super reliable, they turn on, they fly, they get the mission done versus something potentially in two years, if this were to go through in two years, three years, we're still going to be working out kinks. What is so frustrating to me is to hear somebody say, well, just build your own drone. Yeah, okay, I can bolt together a drone.
[00:24:54] Jason: They're just like, manufacture your own drone. It's like, dude, there is literally one company, one company in the world that has figured this out so far.
[00:25:02] Mike: Yeah. So don't expect, like, we could put motors, propeller, you know, arms and a spray lance on it, but don't expect it to work flawlessly. That's even like dji, they have three thousands of engineers and they still have dumb little things that come up. So just. Oh, oh, just build your own.
Let's arm wrestle.
Let's arm wrestle. Like, come.
[00:25:27] Jason: It's ridiculous. People do not understand what it truly takes to have a drone. We take it for granted. Yeah, we totally take these drones, they. They hover in place perfectly, you know,
[00:25:38] Mike: perfectly big freaking machines without doing anything.
[00:25:42] Jason: It sits there and hovers perfectly.
[00:25:44] Mike: You push a stick, it goes. That's why the one inspector said that it is dead accurate every time. No human error, no human input is needed, and it will do it exactly the same way every single time. There's another thing. I totally overlooked it. Yes, I can fly an airplane and I can fly down that cornrow, but because I Fly down that cornrow. It doesn't necessarily mean I'm going to have the exact same trail when I fly over that cornrow. I might be slightly off, slightly this way. I will do my very best to keep it right there.
But the computers are working so much faster on these spray drones. Keeping it right there constantly. Yeah, yeah.
[00:26:25] Jason: There's no way a human can do it as good as a drone.
[00:26:27] Mike: Yeah. Like manually, for example.
Okay, so how well a T100 hovers compares to T40? It's a difference. Huge. It's a difference. And the reason I bring this up is we had a company come in here that, that used a American built drone that they were trying to do some hover tough stuff with.
And then I took the flycart 100 out for him and he was just like, this is unreal.
[00:26:53] Jason: They tried the American built drone. It didn't work for it.
[00:26:55] Kevin: And it would move.
[00:26:56] Mike: Well, yeah, it would hover, but it would move 2 to 3ft, which was
[00:27:01] Kevin: a problem on the rocket.
[00:27:03] Mike: It would go up and down one to two feet.
[00:27:06] Kevin: Yeah, yeah.
[00:27:06] Mike: And then we take the T100 or the flycart 100 off and it just.
[00:27:10] Kevin: Without RTK or anything. Just.
[00:27:12] Mike: Yeah, just GPS.
[00:27:13] Jason: Because their payload needed to be steady.
[00:27:15] Mike: Yeah, yeah. But like, why I'm saying that is, you know, you and I just take it off and we're like, it's a nice drone. It's a nice drone because we don't fly the crappy stuff.
[00:27:24] Jason: Yeah.
[00:27:25] Mike: But then if you have to go to crappy and you come back to good, you're like, oh my gosh. Like, you know how many people did try to switch over to a different brand because of this scare of DJI being banned? And the truth is they're back to dji. They're not going out and making public posts about it because they don't want to. They don't want people to be like, I see your bag here. No, they just want it. The best equipment back in their fleet.
[00:27:51] Kevin: Well, they want profitability and safety.
[00:27:53] Jason: Yeah. I mean, yes.
[00:27:54] Kevin: Yeah. They just want to be able to go out and cover acres and make money and.
[00:27:58] Mike: Yeah.
[00:27:59] Kevin: Be safe.
[00:27:59] Mike: Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's. It's definitely.
[00:28:04] Jason: Yeah.
[00:28:04] Mike: It's so overlooked.
[00:28:05] Jason: People do not give. I mean, I wish, you know, the US would make drones, but people do not give DJI and the Chinese people enough credit for what they have built.
Like, period.
[00:28:19] Mike: Well, okay, it's because of our governments, but if we would talk to the DJI people just like they're Workers just like you and I, if, if we would sit here, I think majority of the American people would actually say something good about their product. But when you, when the government speak to each other, it's always like down that country, down that country, it's like, no, that country actually built something really good. Now I guarantee you, we go to China and those people are not going to be talking how good SpaceX is. They're going to talk about their rocket systems.
Let's be honest, the rocket system isn't that good because they're blowing up more than they're going to space. So I get it. From the government standpoint, they don't want to hype up, oh, China does make some really good drones. Like, we suck over here. We're going to try. No, no, no, that's, it's not going to come out of the US Government's mouth.
[00:29:14] Jason: Well, no, never.
[00:29:15] Mike: Well, that's what I'm saying.
[00:29:16] Jason: Yeah.
[00:29:16] Mike: So, but when we say it from a, a farmer, a worker, like you and I standpoint, we can say, say it. When we go to China, we do say, guys, your product is good, but it can be better.
Right?
[00:29:28] Jason: That's what I'm saying. Let's say thank you Chinese people for making what you did and now let's make it better.
[00:29:33] Kevin: Yeah, what's not to love?
[00:29:37] Jason: Like, okay, let's not ban those things. Let's make it better here.
[00:29:42] Kevin: Well, okay, now what would be really dumb, right? Would be really dumb is if, if the US Government doesn't allow Chinese or foreign companies to come into the US and manufacture here. Because then what are we doing?
I mean, really, what are we doing?
[00:29:57] Mike: Just think that they're, they want to come here and kill us.
[00:30:01] Kevin: And we're talking, okay, it's about war, we're talking agriculture. Right? But even, it's even more amazing almost if you think of the little drones and the technology in a consumer 799 drone. What the capability it has is phenomenal.
[00:30:17] Mike: It's insane.
[00:30:18] Kevin: Compared to three years ago, it's like, wow.
[00:30:21] Mike: Oh yeah, it is.
[00:30:22] Jason: Yeah.
[00:30:23] Mike: I should send you the blue UAS list that I found last night on.
It's so embarrassing.
[00:30:31] Kevin: I wonder if there's any.
[00:30:32] Mike: Literally looks like something that.
[00:30:33] Kevin: But Mike, are there good drones on there? And they're just think.
[00:30:36] Mike: I think they were, but they look like something that was built 10 years ago.
[00:30:42] Kevin: Yeah, but okay, like, like Skydio's X10. Yeah, like it's, it's actually probably a decent drone, right? $50,000, whatever. But it's probably, it's probably decent, right?
[00:30:51] Mike: I know from what we've been told. No, I don't think, not from people
[00:30:54] Jason: who have truly used it.
[00:30:56] Mike: They had Rogers use it. No, it's not that good.
[00:30:59] Jason: This one dude had. The company had to have a skydio rep now on site when they were flying the drone because it was. They were having that many technical issues.
[00:31:07] Mike: No, no, we will say that was supposedly in the beginning.
[00:31:10] Jason: That wasn't that long ago that we talked.
[00:31:11] Mike: Yeah, I know. But the truth is where you want to go. We can't sit here and bash too much of it because at some point if this proposal goes through, we have no choice.
[00:31:23] Kevin: Well, we want like, we want good drones. That, that's probably the bottom line is we want good drones and we want the entrepreneur to not have their hands tied behind their back and for like we want it to not be death, desolation and despair for the next three years. Yeah, but you're not going to ramp up production on a good product quick enough to meet a six month deadline.
[00:31:44] Jason: What they should do, and this would make it easier for everybody is they should allow the drones that are coming
[00:31:49] Kevin: in to keep coming in without new approvals.
[00:31:53] Jason: Yeah, that's fine. Without new approvals and then build in America. But we already know that the American drone is going to be 70, $80,000 compared to $40,000.
So what the government should do to help the farmers, to help the people, subsidize that drone to make it the same price as a Chinese drone. If that drone is better, those companies will win. It's that simple.
Like don't ban these products because.
[00:32:19] Mike: Subsidize only the American built.
[00:32:21] Jason: Only American built ones.
[00:32:22] Kevin: That's a good idea.
[00:32:23] Mike: Make it a freaking level playing field.
[00:32:24] Jason: That's a good giant drone, comes in at $40,000, American drones at 70,000.
[00:32:28] Kevin: And you subsidize the 100 tariff that you charge the Chinese companies to pay for it. To pay for.
That's a good idea. Yeah. Why don't we get you into office, Jay?
[00:32:36] Jason: I don't know. Been thinking about it.
[00:32:37] Mike: Jay Miller running for U.S. senate starting in.
Yeah, no, for real.
[00:32:42] Kevin: That would, that would help the whole sit. That would help.
[00:32:44] Jason: Yeah. And that, because then you still, whoever's
[00:32:46] Mike: listening to this, if you have reached to a senator, like cut that little clip of Jay and like show it to him like that. I think that's a good idea.
[00:32:54] Kevin: It's a good idea.
[00:32:54] Mike: They subsidize other things like the Israel, you know, Iran.
[00:32:58] Jason: Let's take this Billions of dollars that is going to Israel and just redirect it into the American drilling industry.
It's that easy.
[00:33:04] Kevin: What's not? I mean.
[00:33:08] Jason: And do something for the American people.
[00:33:09] Kevin: Yeah, let's do it.
[00:33:10] Jason: Yeah.
[00:33:10] Kevin: Yep. Let's do it.
[00:33:11] Mike: Yeah. No, I agree.
[00:33:12] Kevin: This makes me think of the commercial U of E Drone conference next week.
[00:33:15] Mike: What are you most looking forward to?
[00:33:17] Kevin: I was thinking the thing I'm most. Look, I just want to go and see what the vibe is like. It's going to be. I mean, you always learn something new. New technology, new vendor, like, you know, somebody from Europe who's here with the new technology. It's always interesting.
But I remember last time, do you remember last time when he went. The one individual that we spoke with, that was probably the highlight of the show for me.
[00:33:38] Mike: Let's hear.
[00:33:39] Kevin: He was the one saying December 11th.
[00:33:42] Jason: Oh, oh, yeah.
[00:33:43] Kevin: Here's what's going to happen to you.
[00:33:44] Mike: Here's what's going to happen.
[00:33:45] Kevin: Your drone's not going to connect. It's going to be on. It's going to be banned.
Your softwares.
[00:33:52] Mike: Oh yeah, they could stop the radio frequencies or something.
[00:33:56] Kevin: Your remote controller will physically not connect. Connect to the drone. Yeah. And there was probably four or five other things. And when we, when we said no, we don't believe it. He just said, oh, let's see. Just wait.
[00:34:05] Mike: Do you think that guy's there?
[00:34:07] Kevin: I hope he is.
[00:34:07] Mike: Oh, are you gonna walk up?
[00:34:08] Jason: That's why Kevin wants to go back.
[00:34:10] Kevin: I just think it's like there's always. Okay, so what's the new thing gonna be? The new thing is going to be six months. You're dead. Or then a doornail. Figure something else out. Buy my American drone. That's what a lot of the vibe's gonna be. And I don't know, I mean, maybe we'll see. And a lot of this depends on company.
[00:34:26] Jason: I don't even remember what company.
[00:34:27] Mike: I forget what that was.
[00:34:28] Kevin: It a.
[00:34:30] Mike: It. It basically looked like prototype company, but the drone kind of looked like that R19 revolution, but it was green, remember?
[00:34:38] Kevin: Yeah, dude. And I just want to. I don't know. I do you get an American made drone by changing the color of some of the panels and manufacturing a bit like an assembling in the US Is that, is that an American made drone?
[00:34:51] Jason: No, not in my opinion.
[00:34:53] Mike: Hey, we, we should tell people if because this is going out on Friday, they only have a few more days to. To leave a comment on the FCC proposal.
[00:35:01] Kevin: It is so important but the problem
[00:35:03] Mike: is, Landon, we're probably going to want to link the video from Pilot Institute in this video. If you're listening to it on Spotify, you're gonna have to go to YouTube to watch this and get the link. Because it's very complicated of actually how to leave a comment.
Because the FCC asked seven questions and they need you to ask answer those seven questions specifically. If you just. If you just write a comment into the FCC and you're like, you can't ban these things because my business is going to die. Nope, that's not what they want. They want you to answer specifically to the seven questions that they've asked you.
[00:35:41] Kevin: It actually is a big deal. We as the people don't have really many levers other than who do we elect? And then, you know, when our government asks for public opinion, what do we actually want to say? Yeah, and those levers often feel like they're not that big.
[00:35:54] Jason: Yeah, they probably don't matter, but they're the only levers.
[00:35:57] Kevin: The only levers you have.
[00:35:59] Jason: Like, they're the only 100% we should do it, but I don't know how much it actually matters.
[00:36:04] Kevin: Yeah, and we won't know until we find out.
[00:36:06] Mike: Yeah, we. Yeah, we just don't know. But hey, we still have the option to leave a comment. So we'll leave a comment. Maybe in the future. We don't have that ability.
[00:36:16] Kevin: And what I keep, you know, thinking for us as a company is if what we want to do is you want to help lead and educate the drone industry, then the uncertain waters of the next 12 to 18 months mean that we're never going to be out of a job. Because regardless what happens then you're going to want somebody to show you, teach you what's good, what's bad. And I think to have honest reviews, honest, like, thoughts on the options as they develop.
I think they're always, yeah, the thing
[00:36:45] Mike: is, we're not going to, you know, drone deer, new ag. We're not quitting. We're not giving up.
If it were to get to that point, we have to keep evolving, try to use or find good drones that are American built or on the blue list.
It's going to cost you three to four times more.
But it is what it is. If that is the outcome. But I would tell people that if they have been thinking about getting into a spray drone or a thermal drone or any drone, the drones that are available, they should probably get those bought because you don't know. You just don't Know, and there's a video going out trying to, trying to tell people that. Because I don't want to sit here and speculate because yes. That that feels like that's their agenda. Like this is just the way it's going to be. But that doesn't mean that it's going to be that way.
[00:37:40] Jason: Yeah. Something could change next week.
Nobody knows.
[00:37:44] Kevin: Literally this is hitting the subject but do you ever think how much compliance there is for new way AG vs drone deer? Like if you just want to fly a thermal drone, the amount of compliance and it's just so simple.
[00:37:58] Jason: Yeah. The enterprise side of drones is just easy.
[00:38:02] Kevin: I wonder if it's not like this is almost the golden age of enterprise drones, man. The technology you can get, you can.
[00:38:08] Mike: For the price point.
[00:38:10] Kevin: Price point. Yeah. It is unbelievable.
[00:38:11] Jason: If you are thinking about buying a drone in the next three years.
[00:38:16] Mike: Yeah.
[00:38:17] Jason: You need to buy like a thermal drone. Yeah.
[00:38:19] Mike: Oh my gosh.
[00:38:20] Jason: Or the 4 TD.
[00:38:22] Mike: Yep.
[00:38:22] Kevin: Or if you want a big daddy.
[00:38:26] Jason: I guarantee you will never get a drone with this capability for this price ever again.
[00:38:30] Mike: You think so?
[00:38:31] Jason: Guarantee it. Yeah.
[00:38:32] Mike: I mean actually American made.
[00:38:33] Jason: I guarantee that it will be $25,000.
[00:38:37] Kevin: Well, even just 100 tariffs, I mean I remember even that a year ago we were doing this whole tariff game. I love that game. I can't wait to go back and play it right. Every week our president changes the tariffs everywhere from 40 to 60 to 80 to 140 to.
[00:38:50] Jason: You don't know what the price is.
[00:38:51] Kevin: So ridiculous.
[00:38:52] Mike: Yeah.
[00:38:53] Kevin: And for a business owner like us who has to like now you have a big shipment and transit. Oh well, your cost went up by double. So.
[00:38:59] Mike: Yeah.
[00:39:00] Kevin: And Hugh gets screwed.
[00:39:01] Jason: Well, everybody gets.
[00:39:03] Kevin: Everybody gets screwed and Right. And us Americans, when we purchase things, we fund our government in more creative ways.
[00:39:10] Jason: Yeah.
[00:39:10] Kevin: So not only do you have sales tax, property tax, but now you have tariff tax. And you should be thankful because it's good for.
[00:39:17] Mike: You know the sucky part is I guess if the funds would be used in a good way and you could actually see how the funds. Funds are get distributed or something like that other than shipping it overseas.
[00:39:29] Kevin: Yeah, yeah.
[00:39:30] Jason: You could see somewhere where, okay, the tariff money went into this pot. Now this pot is being used to
[00:39:36] Mike: clean up the trail up the freaking
[00:39:38] Jason: Hoover Dam or something like that.
[00:39:39] Kevin: I don't.
[00:39:40] Mike: That would be cool.
Dude, I would have a problem paying tax. Dude. I, I would. I have said this many times because I follow like Roka News and like Peter Centinella that go around the United States and just interview normal American citizens in their towns. And oftentimes, you know, there's some rundown areas. And I'm looking at that. I'm like, how insane would be if the government has some type of program, instead of sending the money overseas, giving it to contractors and say, hey, for every, you know, house that is condemned, if you clean it up and you haul it to the landfill, you get X dollars and just use those dollars to clean up and make it look good. You could do a lot of cleaning, I can tell you that. Go to Akron.
[00:40:27] Jason: Yeah.
[00:40:27] Mike: You go through some areas that it looks.
[00:40:30] Jason: There's not a shortage of places we could clean.
[00:40:32] Kevin: Yeah.
[00:40:33] Mike: But still give it to a contractor. What's that contractor going to do with it?
[00:40:37] Jason: He's going to hire guys.
[00:40:38] Mike: He's going to hire guys, and those guys are going to go eat in town, and those waitresses are going to get tips, and those waitresses are going to buy couches and those. It just literally feeds the whole economy. Yeah.
[00:40:49] Jason: Yeah.
[00:40:50] Kevin: When the federal government came to visit us today, we were pleasantly surprised that government officials were actually here to help. And not in a scary, horrible way.
[00:40:59] Mike: You didn't see it, but he showed us his badge. He has a real badge that's kind of like a police officer.
You know, you don't ask the question, can I take the picture of it?
You don't, because they don't have permission.
They can't give you permission to take
[00:41:13] Kevin: a picture of it because it's not theirs.
[00:41:15] Mike: It's not theirs. But you can take a picture if he shows it to you.
[00:41:19] Jason: Yeah.
[00:41:19] Mike: Yeah. So anyhow, so that's my number one.
[00:41:22] Kevin: My number two takeaway is the platinum trailer is lit.
[00:41:26] Mike: The price. The price is just as light as the trailer is.
[00:41:29] Kevin: Although after these tariffs and the American drone manufacturing kicks in, you're going to think it's a normal price.
[00:41:35] Mike: You're going to think it's Kevin.
[00:41:36] Kevin: $80,000 trailer is the new $40,000 trailer.
[00:41:39] Jason: No comment.
No, but seriously, if. If I was going out and spraying every single day or like that was my job or my business, I would buy it.
[00:41:48] Mike: There is not even a question.
[00:41:51] Jason: No.
[00:41:52] Mike: That I would be buying that.
[00:41:53] Jason: Here's the thing, dude. People overlook the trailer setup a lot.
[00:41:57] Mike: Yep.
[00:41:57] Jason: And you go spend $40,000 on a drone, $80,000 on two drones that you're replacing in two years.
[00:42:05] Kevin: Mm.
[00:42:05] Jason: A lot of times, maybe. Maybe three, four years is technology evolves and something better comes out. But the trailer, dude, that thing can last 15, 20 years.
[00:42:15] Kevin: Yeah.
[00:42:15] Mike: Yeah. It will last that long too.
[00:42:17] Kevin: Yep.
[00:42:18] Jason: Yeah.
[00:42:18] Mike: Yeah.
[00:42:19] Kevin: So you have this.
[00:42:20] Jason: Make a. Make a good investment the first time and just get. Get what you want.
[00:42:25] Mike: Yep.
[00:42:26] Jason: Buy what makes you happy.
[00:42:32] Mike: This guy.
[00:42:36] Jason: What I will say, dude, if you're. If you're out there all day long, 12, 14, 15 hours a day, and you have an enclosed cab that's with air conditioning cooler on the inside than it is on the outside, it just doesn't feel like working.
[00:42:49] Mike: It doesn't like. It doesn't not like it.
[00:42:52] Jason: No.
[00:42:52] Mike: Oh, they were so impressed when they walked in there. And you got the 360 glasses like glass looking out.
Geez, what kind of Dutch was that? It's like backwards. Completely backwards. But remember I told him that we have a pilot command center, and he was like, well, you got to look outside. He didn't realize that we built it with 360 degree windows. He was just like, this is nuts.
[00:43:15] Jason: He's like, how do you keep visual line of sight if you're in the pilot command center?
[00:43:18] Mike: Yeah.
[00:43:18] Kevin: That was one of the questions that
[00:43:19] Jason: was like, first thing that came into your mind. Yeah.
[00:43:22] Kevin: By looking out the window.
[00:43:23] Mike: It was good for the people that are listening, if you want to tune in, we're going to actually have a video of them showing up, the inspector showing up and having conversations with them that will be on New Way Ag at some point. It went to the editors today, so it. It's going to be good. Yeah.
[00:43:43] Jason: Yep.
[00:43:43] Mike: I did ask them prior to showing up, hey, I'm going to have cameras rolling. Is that good? And yeah, they were fine with it because it's our facility. They can't tell you not.
[00:43:53] Jason: Yeah.
[00:43:53] Kevin: So if you want to see what an inspection is like, then watch them come inspect New Way Ag.
[00:43:58] Mike: And again, it's just paperwork stuff.
[00:44:00] Jason: That was it.
[00:44:01] Mike: Yeah, it's just paperwork stuff.
[00:44:02] Jason: They just wanted to see if we have our paperwork, you know, no looking
[00:44:05] Mike: at drones, no looking at our pilot's license, no looking at our logbooks, like our physical logbooks. No, no. This is 137 strictly.
Yeah, it was good.
[00:44:17] Jason: It was actually good.
[00:44:18] Mike: Now we got their contact info. He did say, I probably won't ever see you again unless you do something wrong.
Hope I never see you again.
[00:44:27] Jason: No offense. I hope I never see you.
[00:44:30] Mike: I. I think I feel tired because I did not know what to expect going into today. And it was heavy. This. The. The last few weeks have been heavy. Just dealing with the FCC stuff and the FAA stuff all happening. And at the, you know, same time
[00:44:45] Jason: it's like, geez, I did wonder, like, how.
[00:44:49] Mike: So I did.
[00:44:49] Jason: I did ask them, like, when they came here, what did they expect? But they didn't really take it the way I meant it. I wonder kind of how we stack up against other companies like ourselves. Like, do we kind of have our stuff in a row or.
[00:45:01] Mike: Well, we definitely do. Once you seen the Ag Track app, he was like, okay.
[00:45:05] Jason: Yeah.
[00:45:06] Mike: He was like, it's all there.
Yeah. When he wanted to see the logs of the spray logs and you showed him. Well, this is what look. Oh, yeah. Well, that's all. That's all we need. That's what he said.
[00:45:16] Jason: They seem pretty happy with what.
Yeah.
[00:45:19] Mike: But they were also manned pilots and they understood that some rules are a little gray, but follow the rules is what they was.
[00:45:29] Jason: Yeah.
[00:45:30] Mike: So we'll do our very best. We're not out there trying to be ramrods and, you know, trying to cause damage. We're not doing that.
But we are going to get work done. One way or the other, we're going to get it done.
[00:45:42] Jason: Common sense goes a long way.
[00:45:43] Mike: Yep. Alrighty.
That's all I got.
Until next time.
We'll see you.
