Drones: Growing pains in growing industry
Cue Flight of the Bumblebee, the drones are coming.
With recent information sent out by the Jasper Police Department, feelings on the devices are mixed.
A notice which included references to the potential use of the devices for voyeurism sent a collective twitch among trigger fingers itching to shotgun the unmanned aircraft out of the air.
It also reminded citizens of the new Federal Aviation Administration regulations for the devices. Such as, drones weighing over .55 lbs — about as heavy as two sticks of butter — have to be registered with the FAA before being flown. And, drones are limited to flying no higher than 400 feet and any commercial use has to be through an FAA registered and approved company.
Local law enforcement can enforce the FAA’s regulations regarding any misuse of the devices.
But officers were also concerned with the misuse of the devices to spy on people. They had received a report from a resident concerned that a drone may have been used to look in a home’s window.
Due to the negative overtones of the article, Annette Wigand with ERA First Advantage Realty gave us a call. She explained that ERA is contracted with an Owensboro firm, Beyond Social, who uses a drone to film properties the company has listed.
She thought maybe they had caused the concern while filming a local home around the same time the complaint occurred.
Beyond Social is commercially licensed by the FAA to operate a drone — The FAA uses the term Micro-Unmanned Aircraft Systems or UAS — for videography.
Here is a sample of Beyond Social’s work.
According to Wigand, being able to give clients a fly- and walk-thru of an entire property encapsulated in a two-minute video is a great sales tool.
It has become extremely popular with the company and has Zach Blackburn and Nick Massie, the founders of Beyond Social, constantly running across the company’s territory.
In regards to using a drone as a tool for voyeurism, Zach and Nick both felt a perpetrator of that type of activity would be hard-pressed to go unnoticed.
“I have to be within the line of sight of the drone,” Zach said about the operation.
But, also with the size of a drone designed to shoot professional video and the noise it makes — think electric weed-wacker — it is highly unlikely a drone could go unnoticed if it was peeking into a window or flying overhead.
The model they operate to shoot 4K video of homes can be heard clearly up to 50 feet away and when close by, can drown out talking at a conversational level.
Evan Nordhoff of Huntingburg operates Nordhoff Cinematography, a company specializing in photography and video for weddings and events as well as commercial shoots. Nordhoff has piloted remote aircraft for over seven years, and when he started his cinematography company, he wanted to be able to offer his clients the versatility of drone footage.
“We specializing in creating promo videos, music videos, images and films,” he said. “For weddings, we use the drone to incorporate aerial shots into the films we create for our clients.”
Here is a sample of his work.
https://youtu.be/GDyfnUoypyM?t=2m24s
Other companies in the area are using drones to survey crops and farmland. The devices are largely automated as they use GPS to survey the designated areas programmed ahead of time before returning to land. Those services can be found through Superior Ag’s precision agriculture division.
They are also being used in search and rescue operations. In fact, drones were used to search for an eagle nest after a bird was found shot and subsequently died last year. DNR was attempting to locate the nest to potentially save any eaglets.
They have also found their way into disaster responses. Drones were used during a recent disaster response exercise in Huntingburg involving a leaking chemical tank. The drone surveyed the scene while first responders planned their approach. With the variety of cameras and sensors available, drones can be used to test for chemicals or see hot spots in fires.
In the news, Amazon has teased versions of a drone delivery service and Facebook is exploring the use of a solar-powered drone to provide WiFi to remote areas.
It is an exciting time for the new technology. According to Huntingburg Airport Manager and Pilot Travis McQueen, the applications for drones are about as limited as one’s imagination. “I think it is like any new technology. Think about our cellphones and what can be done with them today through apps. The same thing will happen with drones,” he said. “You have the technology and you don’t even know how to use it yet. There are still plenty of commercial applications to be discovered in regards to the use of drones.”
McQueen says in the past six months, he has been contacted by three different companies operating drones in commercial applications. The companies are required to notify the airport if they are operating within 5 miles.
His concern is the person who isn’t aware of those regulations in regards to manned aircraft. Even though a drone can’t fly higher than 400 feet, some aircraft can fly as low as 500 feet and 100 feet is not a big gap between the two craft in aeronautical terms. “The opportunity is there for a collision,” he said.
McQueen said drone operators could use some instruction in regards to the airspace around airports and the operation of manned aircraft to prevent any issues.
“The field is going to continue to grow quickly,” he said as he likened it to the rapid growth of private pilots in the 20s and 30s. “There will be growing pains.”
On Tuesday, May 24 from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. Current Blend, 307 E. 4th Street, Huntingburg, will feature a seminar on drone regulations and operations.
