Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome back to the Drone Deer Recovery podcast. I'm Mike.
[00:00:02] Speaker B: This is Kevin.
[00:00:03] Speaker A: On this week's episode, we are going to talk about agricultural drone spraying. Everything you need to know. It's. It's a lot, but don't get overwhelmed.
[00:00:11] Speaker B: Yeah, no, we try to break it down in about 30 minutes. It's like the certifications you need, some of the practical things you need, the equipment you need. And it could be for custom applicators or for farmers.
[00:00:21] Speaker A: Right, for farmers. Yep.
[00:00:22] Speaker B: It's like these drones. I mean, we're excited about Adam. I don't think you want to miss this one.
[00:00:26] Speaker A: No. It's the future.
[00:00:27] Speaker B: So stick around.
[00:00:34] Speaker A: You.
Anyhow, so, episode ten of the Drone Deer Recovery podcast. We're not necessarily talking about drone deer recovery, but we are going to be talking about agricultural drone spraying and seeding. Whatever you want to use your ag drones for.
[00:00:49] Speaker B: Yeah. Because so many guys, maybe. It's almost like drone deer recovery is a gateway drug. It's a good thing. It's a good thing, but it's almost like it's a gateway into a career change. Into drones.
[00:01:01] Speaker A: Yeah. And if you want to talk about a true career change, agricultural drones can be. That they can produce.
[00:01:08] Speaker B: If you were excited about thermal drones and it's a fun thing to do during the hunting season, think of a much bigger industry.
[00:01:16] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, way bigger. Way bigger.
[00:01:19] Speaker B: Like, the money to be made, the work to be done is a lot bigger in ag.
[00:01:23] Speaker A: Before we get started, if you guys haven't seen these hoodies me and Kevin are wearing right now, if you haven't seen it on our social media, where we've released, we're going to give a drone deer recovery kit away. Make sure to go to those media and see how you can get it. But basically, I'll give it away right here. You got to buy a. It's going to be wild t shirt or a hoodie. And you're gonna be entered in to win a complete drone deer recovery kit. And you will also be getting a day of training with me on your drone.
[00:01:56] Speaker B: Yeah, you'll fly to Ohio, and then you'll just spend a day with Mike and maybe some of the rest of us just learning how to use it, asking questions. I mean, what we want to do, Mike, is go from a complete rookie. Never flew a drone. Don't know how it works. The only drone I flew was $200 toy to operating a significant piece of equipment and feeling confident.
[00:02:15] Speaker A: Yeah, but we can't guarantee who's going to win it. It could be adding another drone to your already drone company. So we're not going to exclude anybody. Whoever wants to be entered in, they can buy the t shirt or the hoodie and you'll be entered in. If it is your very first time ever flying a drone, you have no experience. Don't worry, I'll get you comfortable flying your drone.
[00:02:38] Speaker B: Yeah, we did a bunch of these last year when groups came in and it was really fun to see some guys who were unboxing their drone for.
[00:02:46] Speaker A: The first time, very first time.
[00:02:47] Speaker B: But if you just have somebody, and we all learn differently, but some people, they just prefer to learn with somebody right next to them explaining every step of the way how to do it. Other guys, they just like, give me the drone, I'll figure it out.
[00:03:00] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:03:00] Speaker B: It all depends on the personality, I suppose.
[00:03:02] Speaker A: Totally. So if you want to get in on that giveaway, make sure to go over.
[00:03:07] Speaker B: I mean, and if you're on the podcast, you probably should be watching this on YouTube because these are actually pretty cool shirts. I mean, it's going to be wild.
[00:03:14] Speaker A: I don't know if we're selling that one for sure, but it's going to be wild.
[00:03:18] Speaker B: So this design, though. Yeah, it's the one that you're going to be able to buy?
[00:03:22] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. Okay. So getting into agricultural drone spraying, this is going to be, when we talk about licensing and applicators licensing and that type of stuff is a lot directed toward an individual or a company that wants to have a custom spray business.
If you are a farmer and you are buying this equipment, there's a few of these that may not apply to you because you aren't doing it on a commercial level. You are just doing it as a personal and you're using it to increase the yield of your crop. So this whole drone spraying thing, there's going to be one section that is for people that want to create a custom spray business, and then there's going to be farmers that want to acquire this equipment to have in their tool shed to pull out when something needs to be spot sprayed or the whole field needs to be sprayed, or they want to use the spreader on it to do cover crop. They might even want to use it to do some fertilizer.
[00:04:24] Speaker B: It's very versatile.
[00:04:26] Speaker A: Yeah. So it's going to be for a farmer and also for people that want.
[00:04:30] Speaker B: To do some of these farmers that have half a million dollar sprayers. If you purchase that in the last couple of years, you almost feel a little bit bad because it's still a tremendous piece of equipment and stuff to be able to do the same thing with $100,000 rig.
[00:04:45] Speaker A: Yeah, it's going to be in that ballpark of $100,000.
[00:04:49] Speaker B: We'll be able to do not only that, but versatile. Like you were saying, do other things. I think there might even be farmers that do this for themselves. And then maybe as a hobby, once they know how to do it, maybe they get certified and they do it. Custom application for other people, possibly.
[00:05:06] Speaker A: So a lot of people want to know what is required to do your own egg spray business. And I'm just going to be completely upfront with you. It is a lot harder than just buying a thermal drone and going and getting your part 107.
[00:05:25] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a whole other world.
[00:05:26] Speaker A: Yeah. And the reason for that is you get into drones that are over 55 pounds. And when you do that, the FAA, Federal Aviation Administration, there's a lot different rules and laws that go in effect with drones that are that heavy.
[00:05:45] Speaker B: So for cars, it would be like getting a driver's license versus like a CDL class A or something where if you're going to drive an 18 wheeler, there's a lot more testing and things like that. You have to do that if you're just going to drive the car.
[00:05:56] Speaker A: That's probably a good way to explain it. I just feel like it might be even a little bit more intense than that. But no, that is true because.
Yeah. Okay, so we'll just get into it. Step one that you're going to have to have if you're going to do a custom drone spray application is you're going to need what's called a port 107 remote pilot's license. That is the very first thing you're going to need. And in this podcast, you're not going to be able to see like bullet points and that type of stuff, but we're just going to talk about it. There's a lot that you're going to need, but don't worry if you guys want to get into this, we don't have our package together yet, but we're going to help you guys get this stuff in order if you're wanting to do this, because it really can be life changing money that can be made with this. So you're going to need a part 107 remote pilot.
[00:06:50] Speaker B: So for people who never heard that, let's just talk briefly about what that is. That's 70 questions, multiple choice. And it basically because I often get.
[00:06:59] Speaker A: People you're talking about what is a.
[00:07:00] Speaker B: Part one, the part 107? Yeah, I get people like, I don't know how to fly a drone. Can I go take the test? Well, it's just a written test. There's no practical flying. You don't have to fly through a course or anything.
[00:07:11] Speaker A: Yeah, it's just 70. You have to go to an approved FAA testing center. You can't do it online. You can study online, usually an airport.
[00:07:20] Speaker B: Or something like that. They have cameras, they lock you in a room.
And it's 70 questions, multiple choice. And you need a 70% passing grade to get the part 107.
[00:07:30] Speaker A: You can't have your phone in there. So it's watched.
[00:07:34] Speaker B: And it'll test your ability or your knowledge of laws like applicable drone laws, weather patterns, your ability to read a map. Oh, yeah.
[00:07:43] Speaker A: You're definitely going to learn a lot. You're not in the aviation space.
[00:07:48] Speaker B: It's a learning curve.
[00:07:49] Speaker A: Yeah. You're going to learn a lot more about airplanes than you are. Just specifically drones.
[00:07:53] Speaker B: Guys that I talk to spend anywhere from eight to 15 hours studying in order to feel confident to go take.
[00:07:58] Speaker A: The test, which isn't that bad, really.
[00:08:01] Speaker B: It's like do it for in the evening, it's like a week or two.
And then there's courses like the one that we have on our website that give you practice tests. And before you actually it's $170 or something like that to go take the test. Before you do that, take a couple of practice tests, see how you do.
[00:08:19] Speaker A: And those courses are, it's almost word for word.
[00:08:24] Speaker B: I don't know how they can do it, but, like, it's pretty crazy. And what's really, like, the learning style I have is if you just want to read the manual that the FAA gives you, it's like, shoot me now.
[00:08:36] Speaker A: Yeah, it's dry, but super.
[00:08:38] Speaker B: If you can do a practice test and then after you do the test, that course tells you which ones you got wrong and why. And then you do another practice test.
[00:08:48] Speaker A: For me and you're still learning the proper way.
[00:08:51] Speaker B: You're not just memorizing, but you're understanding.
And that test does have some trick questions in there that you have to.
[00:08:58] Speaker A: Yeah, because there's. If it's multiple choice, there's definitely two answers that it could be, but which one is the most right? They're both right. But which one is more right?
But what I tell people, if you got common sense, take a little bit of time studying, getting your port, 107 valuable, valuable information in there. Even if you decide to not use it, you're going to learn a lot of valuable information that you otherwise wouldn't know. So that step one is going to get your port 107. The next thing is if you're going to start flying drones that are 55 pounds or heavier, the steps, we should probably have them right in order, but I'm just going to kind of talk to them based on how I remember them.
If you're going to fly drones that are 55 pounds and heavier, you're going to need a minimum of a class three medical from an FAA approved medical examiner. And you have to schedule that through your FAA account that you're going to set up. I never know how to say the word. It's like Iraqa account. It's basically your FTN number that you are using for getting your part 107. You have to schedule to go do a third class medical. You will go do that.
Then once you have that, that's great.
That's a whole nother thing. Like if you're a certain age range, how long those are valid for, I don't know. Do you want to get into?
[00:10:32] Speaker B: And what that test is trying to protect against is the possibility of a pilot manning like an aircraft having a heart attack or they just generally want to know that you're healthy and not susceptible to heart attacks and that kind of thing.
[00:10:47] Speaker A: The FAA has their why to do.
[00:10:50] Speaker B: It, not something that should be hard for most people to pass.
[00:10:55] Speaker A: Not a class three? Yeah, a class three.
I don't think you can fly on a basic med. A basic med is if you hold a driver's license. You hold a basic med. Basically, yeah. You need a minimum of class three. I hold a class two right now.
So that's all information if you're going to get into it, hoping we have it pretty easily outlined of how to do it. If not, we'll try to help you with that. Okay. So now you have your medical.
The next thing you're going to have to do, and this is something we are probably going to steer you toward a lawyer to fill this paperwork out for you because I tried doing it on my own with the FAA, is you got to get what's called a 44 eight seven exemption. If I got that form correct, I believe I do. It is to be allowed, it's like an exemption from the FAA saying you are allowed to fly drones that are 55 pounds and heavier. Once you get that exception from the FAA, you will then apply for your part 137. Part 137 is for airplanes and helicopters, but because you are over 55 pounds, you are in that same category. You are literally in the same category as them. And so you got to apply for your 137, allowing you to do aerial agricultural.
[00:12:23] Speaker B: So as long as you have that, the 44 8787, you need to have that prior to getting the 137?
[00:12:31] Speaker A: Yeah, because there's steps in there. Because once you get that 44 eight seven, you have to register your drones. And you can't just go to FAA drone zone because it's over 55 pounds. You can only register drones under 55 pounds. So you got to first have that 44 eight seven and then you got to send paperwork in physical paper to the FAA.
[00:12:54] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:12:54] Speaker A: They'll give you n numbers. Then once you have those registered. Now you can apply those aircraft to be on that part.
[00:13:03] Speaker B: So you apply the n number to an aircraft.
Does that grant it part 137 exemption or is that an additional step that you.
[00:13:11] Speaker A: No, that's an additional. So once you get those n numbers, then you can apply for your 137.
[00:13:16] Speaker B: And does the, the part 137 applies not to a pilot but to n numbers on a drone?
[00:13:22] Speaker A: No, it applies to the company, to the company itself.
[00:13:26] Speaker B: So if you have multiple drones in a company, you can use the same part 137 and just register different drones under that part 137.
[00:13:34] Speaker A: Yes, if I understand it correctly. But this is where we have an attorney that we are going to tell you to hire and it gives you this whole outline of how to do it. It's been a little while since I looked through the paperwork, so I don't remember exactly how it goes, but when you get to that step, it's going to tell you how to.
[00:13:54] Speaker B: So the part 107, you have to schedule like a week or a couple of days out to get through the process of getting the 137.
[00:14:01] Speaker A: It's just a paperwork.
[00:14:02] Speaker B: And is that months or weeks a lot faster?
[00:14:06] Speaker A: Now the FAA has sped up that process. When I applied for my 44 eight seven, I think we had that within the first two months. And then the paperwork after that is just gathering it and sending it off. It's the federal government, so who knows how long it takes. But I would say you should be able to have it in three months. It used to be years, but now it is a lot faster. But don't hold me to those months after you get that. Well, these aren't like step by step. You can do these in different orders. Another one is you're going to need to get your applicator's license in order to dispense chemical from the air. You need from your state a commercial applicator's license, which is called core.
[00:14:56] Speaker B: And that's not only from the air. Right. That's for anybody. Correct. Spraying fungicide or commercially spraying chemicals which are restricted from the public. Just having, like, the public can't just go and buy these chemicals, right.
[00:15:10] Speaker A: Well, you can go buy those chemicals. Like for glyphosate roundup, you can go to lowe's and buy it. If you're spraying it for yourself on your own driveway, that's one thing. But when somebody is paying you to apply it, that's where you get into.
[00:15:26] Speaker B: You now need a commercial applicator's license.
[00:15:28] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay. So you need that, which is core. You got to have that first. And then on top of that one you need to have aerial because you are doing it from a drone.
[00:15:39] Speaker B: And that's kind of like an add on or something to the applicators license. So you do core first and then you do the applicators on top of that.
[00:15:46] Speaker A: And there's more add ons that you can do in your applicator's license. Like if you want to do fertilizer, that's another add on. It's just kind of like you were saying earlier, your CDL, you can add on to your CDL. If you're going to do air brakes, that's like an add on. If you want to do hazardous material, that's an add on. If you want to do three trailers, that's an add on. So it's kind of like that. But don't let this scare you guys. It is a lot, but it's pretty easy to do these tests.
[00:16:18] Speaker B: Yeah.
When I got my custom applicator or my applicator and my aerial, I did it. You do it in a day and you don't know what to expect. So you have to go to a testing facility. You can't take these online.
I went to a university or something where they were doing the class. You schedule it in advance, you show up. And how long were you there? I mean, I was probably there for 2 hours.
[00:16:40] Speaker A: Oh, that's not bad. Mine was longer than that. We did a class, OsU put it on. We did it down in Columbus. We did a class. I think we got there at like eight in the morning, and then by two in the afternoon, everybody was taking their exams.
[00:16:54] Speaker B: I wanted to do that because that seems like instead of just studying stuff yourself, because what I did was just the exam portion, so you had to do all the studying on yourself.
[00:17:03] Speaker A: I see.
[00:17:03] Speaker B: But you can actually take both the core and the aerial with just half a day of studying in a classroom setting.
[00:17:10] Speaker A: Right.
[00:17:10] Speaker B: So for most people, if you want to be able to show up, learn the stuff in the morning, take the test in the afternoon. You can knock it out in one day.
[00:17:18] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:17:18] Speaker B: And it's not super expensive.
I don't remember exactly 100, $200 or something. I don't know.
[00:17:24] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah. I don't remember exactly mine. But in Ohio, they have specific classes. They don't have enough of them, I don't feel like. Because they are always sold out for sure in the springtime.
[00:17:36] Speaker B: Right.
[00:17:37] Speaker A: Because even people that do lawn maintenance, that spread fertilizer or do spraying on lawns, they all need to have this. So they are going to be at that class. And so these classes fill up really fast.
Anyhow, you want to get in those classes as early as you can. That way you can get the class taken care of and the exam.
[00:18:00] Speaker B: In my class, when I went to take the test, there was a helicopter pilot in there, and he was doing the exact same stuff, like renewing his core and his aerial. Exact same thing that I was doing. Because I guess the knowledge you need to be a drone sprayer and a helicopter pilot is the same test.
[00:18:16] Speaker A: Yeah. Anytime you go over 55 pounds, that's when you start getting. They just throw you all in the same category.
[00:18:22] Speaker B: And. Right. For somebody asking, well, can I do ag drones under 55 pounds, it's like, no, not really. No. It's like, you're going to be over. So just grin and bear it and then get certified and go through it.
[00:18:33] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, there's definitely a lot of good things to learn through these exams of how to hand a chemical and that type of stuff, but we're not going to get into that. You'll learn that stuff as you go on. So then your aerial is allowing you to dispense poisons from the air, and that's going to be from a drone.
[00:18:55] Speaker B: Am I right to say both of those, the core and the aerial, you can pass without ever having even your part 107? They're like separate.
[00:19:02] Speaker A: No, you can't take your aerial unless you have a part 107.
[00:19:06] Speaker B: You need the part 107, number one seven to be able to apply for the aerial, for the aerial, and then that gets applied or connected to your 107.
[00:19:14] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:19:15] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:19:15] Speaker A: Yeah. Because when I wanted to take the test, they're like, well, do you have your pilot's license or your 107? And then I showed them that and then I could take the exam for the aerial.
[00:19:25] Speaker B: Yeah. Cool. Got it.
[00:19:26] Speaker A: So I think that's basically all of them in a row is you got to have a 107, you got to have your 44, eight seven, you have to have a 137, you got to have an aerial applicators, and you got to have your core applicators, and then you have add ons to your commercial applicators license. That's why when you start talking agricultural, it's like when I started getting into. I'm like, oh, my gosh, all this stuff.
[00:19:54] Speaker B: And your class three medical.
[00:19:56] Speaker A: And your class medical. Yeah, I forgot.
[00:19:58] Speaker B: But the thing is, it's one of those things where the first time you go through it, it sounds harder and more complicated than it is.
[00:20:04] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:20:05] Speaker B: It is so valuable to have somebody say, here's the next step. Go to this website, here's where you schedule it.
[00:20:11] Speaker A: We helped a college guy, never flew a drone, didn't have a drone license. He was so committed. He had everything to go with us to Indiana to spray. Was it in a month, something like that. Literally, he got his 107, he got his medical, he got all these things that we're talking about within one month, because he was dedicated. He did it.
[00:20:34] Speaker B: Yeah. You should not plan on being able to do this in a month. Right. If you're the average person. Because he didn't need to do the 137. Right. Because that was something that the company.
[00:20:42] Speaker A: Correct.
[00:20:43] Speaker B: So he didn't have that 137 step.
I guess the point about this is, if you're going to get into this, do it with time. Right. And not just from the certification side, but just getting comfortable with the drone before you have to go spray a bunch of stuff next week, that's not going to work. It's not like a thermal drone. It's not quite as pickup and play.
[00:21:05] Speaker A: No.
[00:21:06] Speaker B: It's a whole other world, actually.
[00:21:08] Speaker A: Having the right equipment to do a custom spray business is super important. So after we talk about all these licensing stuff and what you need, what you're going to need after that is the proper equipment to run efficiently, because spraying with drones is all about efficiency. The drone can spray so many acres per hour.
Great. That's if it's in the air, because if it's sitting on the ground, it ain't doing you no good.
[00:21:38] Speaker B: Doesn't spray acres when it's on the ground.
[00:21:40] Speaker A: No. Yeah, it just sprays it right on the ground. So no good there.
[00:21:45] Speaker B: So keeping that thing in the air and minimizing the time that it's between, and then there's things that people don't think about, like how to map fields, how to do prep work, all that stuff takes time.
[00:21:56] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. When you start getting into wanting to cover tens of thousands of acres, that's a whole different ballgame compared to talking about spraying a farmer's 200 acres. If you want to start covering tens of thousands of acres, what we use is a scout in front of the drone pilots that are coming.
What that guy's job is to go scout the fields. Are there hazards around?
Mark those hazards build fields for the.
[00:22:28] Speaker B: Drone to go into a high pressure job. Yeah, I mean, if you mess up, then it's going to cause the drone to and.
[00:22:37] Speaker A: Okay, so a scout, we're basically giving him, making sure that those fields are what they look like on the satellite images that are available on the DJI smart farm app. If not right, if the fields have changed, this is a whole different thing, is using drones to actually create high detail maps, orthomosaic maps. That way your boundaries are proper and that type of thing. I don't know that we have to get into that because that can be complicated using RTK ground base stations, having your mavic connected to.
[00:23:15] Speaker B: So, am I right, Mike, that, like, high level. The point is that if you have a field that is being planted the same three years later as what it was when Google Maps satellite imagery was taken, you don't need to do this orthomosaic, high detail mapping. You just use a baby drone, put it up there, create the outlines.
[00:23:35] Speaker A: Well, you're not even creating the outlines. You're just checking with your eyes and the drone, like, okay, did a tree fall into the field, or did the Farmer set a.
[00:23:48] Speaker B: Is there a hunting blind?
[00:23:50] Speaker A: Is there a hunting blind, like, looking at the field physically to see if there's an hazard out there that the drones could encounter and making those adjustments on the map, because you were then, okay, so now you looked at this field, let's say it's this table, and everything's good.
Actually, let's say that this table was the field and the satellite looks like there's nothing here. There's not a bubbler sitting there and there's not a phone here, but you get there and you see that there's a new object out there that shouldn't be there. Now, when you build those boundaries, you can try and get close to outlining that. If you can't do that, then you should probably take a high detailed aerial map to do that. It doesn't happen a lot. If a farmer has a field and it's working for him, it's probably going to be the same.
[00:24:45] Speaker B: So in the cases that it's different, that's when you go create the orthomosaic map because the satellite imagery, you can't go off of it.
[00:24:53] Speaker A: Yeah, but there's a couple of tips and tricks I could teach you. When you're actually out in the field and your drone is flying and there is an obstacle there, rather than trying to build an obstacle avoidance around it, you just watch your drone when it's getting close to that, it's going to tell you obstacle. You can tell the drone to go around it, go over top of it, or whatever. So there's a couple of different ways to do it.
It doesn't have to be just one way to do it.
[00:25:24] Speaker B: Yeah, it's like different tools in your toolbox, right. And you pull out the one that's best for the situation. In the case of the baby drone that's flying, the mavic three enterprise is the best one for it. Is that right?
[00:25:35] Speaker A: If you're doing an orthomozaic, yes, absolutely. That's my opinion, of course. But I believe that that drone is the best right now for what we're.
[00:25:44] Speaker B: You don't need it like a matrice or like a bigger drone.
[00:25:46] Speaker A: No, the mavic three e is the best one. It has manual shutter, so it can fly super fast and take pictures very rapidly. Clear photos. So, yeah, there's a couple of different.
[00:25:58] Speaker B: I've seen this process where you fly over 100 acres. Whatever, you do it a couple of minutes, it doesn't take super long. You come down, plug that card into the software, and, I mean, it's fast. Boom. There you have your high def fields, you make outlines, and you're good to go.
[00:26:14] Speaker A: Yeah, because that's a Camz file as well.
I know it's a lot, but that's a whole different thing. Like, we can teach you guys, but then you would transfer those CamZ files to your DJI platform, and then those boundaries are.
[00:26:30] Speaker B: And you're remote. Right. On the Mavic three enterprise.
Tell me if I'm wrong about this, okay. The Mavic three is using a cloud, DJI cloud storage, and you can take information, whatever outlined on your Mavic three that can appear on your t 40 remote outlines and maps and stuff. Or do you have to do that through the computer?
[00:26:56] Speaker A: You have to do that through the computer. So from the computer, once the photos are taken, you put all those photos into. Let's use Pix 4d fields. Pix 4D. You put it in there, they stitch it together, you then create the boundaries within side of that new image that you have. And because you have an RTK ground base station, the coordinates of those photos. Each photo that is taken has a coordinates on it, and that's what the software is doing, is stitching that together. And so when you drop a pin here and you drop a pin here, it's within inches of being.
[00:27:30] Speaker B: Got it.
And then you have the farm app on your phone as well. Right. And you're sometimes making.
[00:27:37] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, 98% of my fields that I built in Indiana, because the fields were all the same from year to year. We were just doing it on your phone.
[00:27:46] Speaker B: And you told me the other day, how many fields you think you created.
[00:27:50] Speaker A: On your phone in Indiana? I created, I think it was 1003 or 1100 fields in 24 days.
[00:27:58] Speaker B: Yeah. And then all that stuff through the cloud pops up on your remote, and then your t 40 fleet is actually all connected. Right. If you own multiple drones, it's all synced.
This is not the video. We're going to talk about this. But we tried last year, other equipment that wasn't DJI. We tried XAG. We tried different things. By the way, we made a video, XAg said they'd reach out and never did.
[00:28:26] Speaker A: The XAG did not reach out. But we did send the flight logs to XAG, and XAG's findings were, they don't understand.
Basically, the drone computer told 100% power to all four motors. 100% power was there. It was still plummeting.
[00:28:43] Speaker B: Yeah. People see that video and they think, oh, wow, pilot air. Like you grabbed the sticks or something.
[00:28:47] Speaker A: No, there was a couple of changes they had to make in their software, and I'm sure that they've corrected that now after seeing it.
[00:28:54] Speaker B: But, yeah, anyways, that's not the point. The point is that the way that all this software is connected, from the baby drone to your phone to your fleet of t 40s, software is important, right? If you're going to do efficiency, it's hardware and software, and you got to have both. And there's no one as good as DJI right now at having.
[00:29:15] Speaker A: That's our opinion. Of course somebody's going to probably not agree with that. But there's a reason they have 70% to 75% of the drone market in the world. DJI, think about that. In the world they are the leader in, and it's just because they started it, right? And they grew the fastest. They put a lot of effort into their software.
When you are spraying, it is all.
[00:29:40] Speaker B: AI, right, all autonomous.
[00:29:42] Speaker A: It's doing it autonomously.
[00:29:44] Speaker B: That's a scary thing for a lot of people. What would you say to somebody who is freaked out like, I ain't going to trust my.
[00:29:51] Speaker A: It is a little freaky, no doubt.
[00:29:54] Speaker B: About it, because you have these sensors and you know that it's supposed to see the tree and it's supposed to stop.
[00:29:58] Speaker A: It's supposed to stop.
[00:29:59] Speaker B: And when I was learning to fly a t 40, I was like, I mean, you don't understand how scary it is until you're actually doing it.
[00:30:08] Speaker A: Here's the field boundary. Is it going to stop? It's like it's flying, it's going 20 miles an hour and all of a sudden it stops.
[00:30:15] Speaker B: It stopped that time. Now, is it going to stop next time?
[00:30:18] Speaker A: No, they are really good. I mean, there are scenarios where they don't sense everything, but I believe the technology is only going to get better.
[00:30:27] Speaker B: Only better. And so much of it, right is, again, when you have a full tank of stuff and your drone has stopped because it senses the tree, you, the pilot, then have to input commands to override it. And that battery, eight minute battery life, that battery is going down.
[00:30:45] Speaker A: If you have a full load, you.
[00:30:46] Speaker B: Problem solve that immediately, or else that battery, that drone ain't getting back.
[00:30:51] Speaker A: Yeah. Because the drone at 5% automatically wants to land. It doesn't know what's below it or whatever.
[00:30:59] Speaker B: It doesn't care. I mean, it has no choice. It's got to come down.
[00:31:02] Speaker A: Yeah. It's wanting to land. And that's another thing. We can teach you how to handle emergencies and that type of thing, because there are ways, even if it's at 5%, I can get that drone to keep flying.
[00:31:14] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:31:16] Speaker A: The efficiency, we talked about efficiency and what comes into that is if you're doing your custom applicating efficiency is going to start with your trailer set up. That was huge.
[00:31:29] Speaker B: You need a trailer for this, for custom applicators.
[00:31:32] Speaker A: I mean, you can do it out of your pickup truck, but you're not going to cover tens of thousands of acres. That's when you're really going to start doing well.
I am speaking of terrain, like we have in Ohio and Indiana, the terrain we were spraying is mostly small cut up fields on a hillside or down in the bottoms or something like that.
If you would have wide open, flat fields for days like Kansas has, then you might not need the efficiency that we're going for. But when you're spraying what we're spraying, and that's what I'm prepping for. That's what I'm prepping you for, is those difficult fields.
I'm not coming back all the time with 50% battery life because I don't have a mile down, row and back like this is small fields in and out, like a lot of turns. The more the drone turns, the more energy is being used. And so, yeah, trailer setup is key to run efficiently. And what's nice about what we're building and how I want to set you up is you're going to be efficient in the crappiest fields and you're going to be efficient in the biggest of fields. You're going to be efficient no matter where you go. So I don't want to have a Kansas setup and an Ohio setup. It's going to work in Ohio and in Kansas.
[00:33:02] Speaker B: And we should be real with an industry that's growing like this. Drones add most value to crappy fields, right. Because it's hard to do with a helicopter or an airplane. Airplanes and helicopters can easier cover acres on flat ground.
[00:33:20] Speaker A: Yes, they can, but that's just covering acres, because when you start talking about how much better this works, people in Indiana that have big old, big flat, open fields out there that we sprayed, they didn't want those airplanes and helicopters spraying them anymore, 100%, because the drones apply it better.
[00:33:39] Speaker B: It comes from them learning and experiencing. Right. But then, like, for the crappy fields, you can't get a helicopter. Correct? And so it's like, well, it's either don't spray it or have a drone spray it. And so depending how common drones are in your area, you might first season get those fields where it's like, spray it or drone don't spray it at all or drone spray it. But then as farmers become accustomed to how well it applies, you'll get some of those really nice fields. Because, let's talk about it. Why is that better?
[00:34:11] Speaker A: The altitude that you're above the crop and there's some super good helicopter pilots and airplane pilots, they're man flying. They are always accurate 11ft over the crop or 14ft whatever they choose. Right. They're always over the crop at that same altitude if they're super, super good. But there's human error there. There's factors that go in and out, like up and down or side to side. Is he exactly on his line? Yes, he might be really close, but there's variables there. The drone, when you tell it to be 18ft over the crop or 12ft over the crop, it's going to be right there almost all the time, unless there is a big variable in terrain changing or something like that, but it's going to be right there. And when it goes down and it makes it line and it comes back, it's going to be within inches. Another reason why it applies better is the chemical gets kind of blown down into the crop itself. And even just a little bit of air movement within side of the canopy of the crop. These little micron size droplets are landing on areas on the crop that otherwise don't get there with helicopter or an airplane. Because those guys, even though you might think, well, helicopters, rotors are pushing down, when a helicopter is flying straight and level, it's not necessarily pushing air down because the rotor becomes like a wing. And a good helicopter pilot is using it like that. He's using the energy of moving forward and then pulling up and then coming back down. So when you're spraying, you're just ripping across it and it's laying it down as it comes down. If you watch an airplane do it sometime, watch that as he rips across it, lays it down, and wherever it falls, that's where it's going to stay. It's not really moving around inside there.
[00:36:15] Speaker B: And with these drones, you can adjust everything from like micron size gallons, like gallons per acre? Acre. All of that stuff is adjustable based on the product you're applying and what the farmer wants.
[00:36:28] Speaker A: Yeah. So your droplet size, you're going to adjust that based on wind.
The smaller droplet you can make, the better coverage you're going to get because there's more to go around. But you can't make that too small because a small, little, tiny micron, I don't remember, I had to learn it in my applicators. But it'll tell you, this size micron droplet takes this amount of time to fall this distance. And so the smaller it is, the longer it is going to take to come down. Well, if there's a wind blowing, then you got to calculate in for your drift bigger, that type of stuff. So, yeah, there's a lot to learn. But that's why, if you commit yourself into this, I think that's why the profit margins are better than doing.
[00:37:13] Speaker B: Yeah. It is a double edged sword. Right? There's more to do, more certification, more to learn. Like being a skilled custom drone applicator is a skill. Yeah, it is a skill that you can hone, but then also it creates a barrier to entry to where it's going to be.
For somebody to go through all the certifications, there are going to be people who are just like, you know what? I don't want to. It's too hard. I'm not going to. That also is so it's a double edged sword.
[00:37:40] Speaker A: That's for the custom applicator side. Right? That's where we were. Like, if you're a farmer listening to this or if somebody shared it with you or they're talking to you about a farmer, not all of those certifications necessarily apply to you because you are using it for personal and not commercial. So it's a little bit different. But the learning of how to use the systems, you are still going to need to learn it. Custom applicator or farmer, you're going to need to learn the systems. But the systems, it might sound difficult.
It is teachable and you can learn it. It's like learning how to operate your Apple iPhone compared to an Android. It's a little bit different. But once you understand the functions and what it's telling you or not doing, then you get good at it. It's the same thing. You just got to learn how to run the systems.
[00:38:38] Speaker B: Yeah, that's a good word.
Again, I know for me, when I was first flying the t 40, and it just feels like there's so much to learn, and what you want is somebody next to you that can.
[00:38:56] Speaker A: I guess my point is, situation.
[00:38:58] Speaker B: You don't want book knowledge. Just book knowledge. You don't just want to watch a video, I think, for this. No, I think you want somebody next to you that can tell you see that right over there?
Here's how you go through the situation.
And then there's so much more we could talk about. Like we were last season, we were mounting repeaters on other drones up in the sky to help with some of the signal drop, which DJI now fixed.
[00:39:27] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah. Okay. So we got to talk about that. So signal in the eastern portion of the United States is different than in Kansas because we have a guy that's spraying out there. Not we have a guy, but there's a guy that we help get a drone. He's spraying out there. And I asked him maybe ever lost connection? He's like, not once. I'm like, what are you talking about?
[00:39:53] Speaker B: How is this possible?
[00:39:54] Speaker A: Yeah, it's a normal occurrence over here. Is like, you just get bad reception. Well, it's because there's hills and there's towers and there's more people on cell phones. There's all these things that are interrupting the signal of this drone. It's different. If a drone is up in the sky, like, high, the signal is different. But when the drone is anywhere from ten to 18, whatever feet off the crop, when it's going out there, there's a lot that can happen as far as interference. So, yeah, we use a repeater at times just to boost that signal.
[00:40:29] Speaker B: Well, because you don't want to lose signal. I mean, it's like, correct.
[00:40:33] Speaker A: Yeah, you don't want to lose signal.
[00:40:35] Speaker B: And I know it surprised me when the remote control, it's different than the one you use for the matrice 30 t. But it looks the same.
[00:40:45] Speaker A: Yes, it looks the same. The app, the application that is built into the remote is different.
[00:40:52] Speaker B: So can you not use one for the other? Like, install another app or something?
[00:40:56] Speaker A: No, they tried figuring out if you can hack it and bring the application over.
[00:41:01] Speaker B: Yeah, DJI tries to make. So you can't do that probably.
[00:41:05] Speaker A: Yeah, it definitely seems that way.
[00:41:06] Speaker B: But the matrice, you can fly at night, clear line of sight, it's far away, and it, like, perfect connection. But what surprised me was a remote control that looks exactly the same.
You see the drone, it's like, right over there, and it's like, okay. You start getting your signal interference, then you're like, well, I'm only at 40% battery. I can't afford this thing.
[00:41:31] Speaker A: And we're talking about the spray conditions we were in and the hills and stuff out there.
[00:41:36] Speaker B: That'll be different.
[00:41:37] Speaker A: Yeah. Because the guy in Kansas, he said no, never had any issues. I'm like, man, that would have been nice.
So, yeah, we'll teach you on that as well. At some point, there's been a lot of development. So when you talk about what is a drone really good for, this is my opinion. There's a bunch of different applications a drone can be used for, but its bread and butter right now is fungicide application on bro crop, because that's a small dose per acre. It's usually two gallons per acre is what you're putting down. So you carry ten and a half gallons of fluid in your drone. That's going to cover about five acres on a tank. That's what we were doing in Indiana. But you can use it for so much more. You don't just need to do spraying. You can do granule stuff as well. You can switch out your tanks, you can do fertilizer, cover crop, you could do granular lime. All kinds of different stuff you can do with these drones.
[00:42:50] Speaker B: Yeah. And the t 40 is kind of the drone to have in ag right now.
[00:42:55] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:42:57] Speaker B: Like you were saying, you can switch out the tank for. There's different tanks. It's a very versatile, I guess.
[00:43:04] Speaker A: Yeah, totally versatile. Can you use the drone to apply glyphosate? And burn down is what some people call kill stuff. Absolutely. Yes. You can totally use it for that. I used it on a food plot just to test it. It smoked it, putting less gallons per acre down. But you're still applying the same amount of chemical per acre. Exactly what it tells you on the label.
[00:43:34] Speaker B: There's less water solution in it, but the application, with what you were explaining, with how the drone works, makes it more effective. What's there?
[00:43:43] Speaker A: You can't compare it to a ground rig because a ground rig might be spraying 15 gallons to 20 gallons per acre, and we are only putting maybe two to three gallons per acre down. And what happens is a plant takes in water. So imagine there's 15 gallons of water that sprayed on this plant. It's like, eat it all up, get it in. Well, then now there's only two gallons or whatever on that, and there's not as much for it to consume to quickly get into its roots on a smaller per acre. But it's still going to do the same thing. It just takes a little bit longer for it to fully absorb.
[00:44:24] Speaker B: Correct.
[00:44:25] Speaker A: And I don't know all the science behind it, but it's like, let's pick a window. If 15 gallons per acre turns that plant brown in three days, two gallons an acre might turn that plant brown in five days.
[00:44:42] Speaker B: And again, we're talking the same amount of chemical per acre, just with less water.
Okay, that makes sense. Yeah. That's good to know.
[00:44:50] Speaker A: Yeah.
You can definitely use them for burn down if you need to. Obviously, if you're spraying a herbicide, there's a lot more to watch for.
[00:44:59] Speaker B: On your drift, I guess a question that people might have is, if I just want to do this small scale, let's say I'm a farmer or something, is there any argument to be made to buy the t 30 or an older drone versus the t 40 to save a couple of bucks?
[00:45:13] Speaker A: I don't think it'd be like trying to buy an old iPhone. The things just don't quite work as good with how technology and the new.
[00:45:23] Speaker B: Stuff that they're making. Who knows if it'll apply to a t 30? It might. I don't know.
[00:45:28] Speaker A: Yeah, I don't know. Basically, I would say if you're going to invest the money, just get the latest, whatever is available at that time, that's what you should get.
I don't think that your t 30s, if you've already bought t, don't think they're obsolete. They're still going to have a place. But it's not like, I just don't think I'd recommend buying a t 30 if a t 40 is available.
They got the t 20 p, which is a smaller version of what a t 40 is. It's for smaller areas. They're trying to push them and say they can be just as efficient. They're carrying less chemical, but they're coming back with more battery life, which is like, oh, well, yada. If I put half of the material in a t 40, I'm going to have less.
[00:46:17] Speaker B: You'll have more battery life.
[00:46:18] Speaker A: Exactly. I'll have more when I come back. So it doesn't quite make sense. Smaller, really tight areas. Maybe run a t 20 p.
I don't know. I don't know that it's that big of a difference right now.
I don't know.
I know it's a lot to take in when you start talking about agricultural drones, but there is a lot to learn. There is a huge market for it, and I'm excited about the ag side. I really do think that what I like about it is not only is it going to change people's lives if they want to get into it as a business and hopefully become successful and spray tons of acres, but it's good for the farmers.
If you can increase your yield, it's going to increase your dollar. So if you can help somebody, that's what we want to do. Yeah, I think that's basically all we got for this one here.
I don't know that we're going to have everything ready when this is released, but we will be releasing basically a blueprint of how to do what we just discussed. Right. That's on you.
[00:47:31] Speaker B: Yeah. So what we're aiming to do is it's partially going to be done via video and stuff, but partially it also needs to be done in person.
[00:47:42] Speaker A: Right.
But people want, they want a guide. We're just going to call it a guide to.
These are the steps.
[00:47:51] Speaker B: Yeah. Here's how to do it. Here's what to buy, here's how to get started. And then here's somebody I can ask when I have questions.
So you'll be that guy that they'll ask when they have questions.
[00:48:04] Speaker A: I'll try to help you the best I can, me personally. But there's going to be other people that know the things that I know, don't expect to talk to me every time.
[00:48:16] Speaker B: Even like, what was it, four or five pilots that flew for us last ag stuff last season? A lot of them. I mean, I'm thinking of Madison Jensen.
[00:48:28] Speaker A: They know they were throwing into the same.
[00:48:30] Speaker B: Once you have been doing this seven days, you are at it from. You learn pretty quick, actually. You learn.
Yeah, we do have a wealth of knowledge. I think that we'll be looking forward to. How do we best share it, get it out there and this spray season for us, we anticipate that it will be game on.
And part of that is helping other people get set up with their own rigs, getting set up to do it for the first time. And then we're going to be out there creating video content to bring to you guys. So if you're a farmer, if you are wanting to get started, you want to follow new way ag.
That's the YouTube channel where we'll have weekly drops.
[00:49:14] Speaker A: We'll probably still share it on drone deer. Because, let's be mean, a lot of you guys have been watching us grow the company. We do want to kind of have them separate. But I do feel that a lot of these guys and gals that are listening or watching us are probably either they know a farmer or they farm themselves or they use it for food plots. And the technology just in general is interesting.
[00:49:41] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:49:42] Speaker A: So we might still share some stuff on.
[00:49:44] Speaker B: We'll probably have some on both. So thanks guys, for watching.
[00:49:48] Speaker A: Yes, thanks so much for listening. If it was too much for your ears and your brains to take in, maybe relisten to it. Don't worry.
[00:49:56] Speaker B: Don't be overwhelmed.
[00:49:57] Speaker A: Yeah, don't be overwhelmed.
[00:49:58] Speaker B: It sounds more overwhelming than it is. Yeah, it is not that bad. So stick with it and be one of the first in a whole new generation of drone pilots.
[00:50:07] Speaker A: Yeah, I agree. So I think that's it. That's all we got for this one. We're on to the next one.
[00:50:12] Speaker B: On to the next one.
