Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It is Colorado's Morning News, Marty Lens Gina Gonde, Good morning,
lots of talks and drone has been in the news
quite a bit of late, but here in Colorado it's
a fun thing to see. We see the bright lights
and flying of the drones over parts of Denver.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
And joining us now on the KWA Common Spirit Health
Hotline to talk more about it is Tom Dolan with
the company Bright Flight.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Tom, thank you so much for your time this morning.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Of course, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Hey, listen, I saw the drone show last night, the
one that takes place in downtown Denver, and it is
just awesome to see every night seven o'clock on the Dot.
It's a pretty cool experience. For those who have not
seen it yet, I think just begin by explaining to
us the process of setting something up like this, because
we're not talking a couple drones, we're talking a couple
hundred jones in this case.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Yes, Yeah, there's a lot that goes into it behind
the scenes. So we fly four hundred drones every single
night out we actually fly over the MSU Athletic Complex,
and you know, the work is really as a result
of the crew. You know, we show up three hours early.
We lay out the drone. We first you know, set
(01:05):
the batteries and every single drone. We lay out the drones.
We make sure the drones have all their you know,
correct individual paths in order to fly these these amazing shows.
You know, make sure we have all of our safety
parameters in place. And typically we are, you know, we're
ready to go what we call show mode. We're we're
ready about thirty minutes before launch. Then it's it's kind
(01:26):
of the you know, the calumn before the storm, if
you will. And then right right when we hit seven o'clock,
we launched four hundred drones and just like everybody else,
you know, we kind of just sit back, watch and
enjoy and monitor.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
How many operators per drone, Tom, I'm sure it's not
one individual operator. That'd be a lot of operators for
that it.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Is, it is one individual operator.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Yeah. Yeah. All the work really goes into these drone shows,
you know, sitting behind a computer, three D animation programming,
you know, making sure we're we're building out Blue Sifer,
we're building out Big Blue Bear, you know, make sure
we have the right colors. Let's let's put in as
much movement as we possibly can, and then we run
these these shows essentially virtually through a physics engine. And
(02:11):
that's really to confirm that when we when we do
put these drones in the air, these drones are going
to be able to operate as we intend them to
intend them to operate. We we test it. We have
a test site actually out in Broomfield where we test
our shows quite a bit. We'll make sure that we
run through the shows a few times before we bring
it to the audience or to the client, and then
(02:34):
at that point it's it's just making sure that each
drone has its individual path and and we're confident at
that point that it's going to be able to that
they're going to be able to fulfill the show.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Tom.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
What happens when it doesn't have the right path, Because
while it's making an awesome image, like you said, they're
making real images of Bluesifer and other iconic Denver landmarks.
Every once in a while you see one little drone
to start plummeting to the ground, and he's a drone
operation to himself, and every time he looks at it,
he's like, Oh, that's so much money crushing to the ground.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
What is the that you know, it hurts every time
it happens, but but gravity is a strong force, you know,
And and and when we put you know, we we
fly hundreds of shows a year, but when we have
you know, shows like this where we're running forty straight nights,
you know, we're we're putting a lot of a lot
of pressure, a lot of a lot of stress on
(03:24):
these drones. We try and rotate these drones around, but
but sometimes we get into situations where you know, we'll
have a dip in the battery or we get really
heavy shaking or vibration to the drones. And and they're
almost designed at that point to land in place. Sometimes
land is a little exaggerated and sped up. But that
(03:48):
is that is why safety is paramount, you know. That's
why we make sure there are zero people, zero you know,
property vehicles, things like that underneath our shows at any
given point, because it is there is a chance that
a drone will come down.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Tom and I have to tell you, drones have been
in the news of late and when we booked you,
I wanted to ask and I know you can't address
specifically what's going on in the East Coast and I'm
not asking that, but what I am asking is a
drone operator, what kind of training, licensing and clearance do
you have to have for the FAA? And if I understand,
if the drone's over a pound, you have to have
a certain clearance and right to fly to Is that correct?
Speaker 3 (04:24):
That's correct? Yeah, they if they exceed two hundred and
fifty grands, you have to register that drone with the FAA.
And now there is something called remote ID where there
is an actual module on these drones that the authorities
can They can essentially pull out an internal application that
they have and they should be able to see who
(04:45):
has that drone registered with the FAA. To answer your question,
you know, you have to get your Part one O
seven that is your drone license and then you know,
really only speaking to drone shows, there's a lot that
goes into it. We have a waiver with the FAA
that allows us to fly one pilot per five hundred drones.
(05:05):
Typically the FAA is a one to one, one pilot
one drone. And then as far as clearance from from
the FAA, we have to get clearance anytime we fly
and any controlled airspace, anything close to an airport, We've
had to work with the Broncos the Rockies in the
past to fly for some of their events because they
(05:26):
have what's called a temporary flight restriction around the stadium
anytime that there is an outdoor sporting event that has
you know, so many people in the in the actual
stadium itself. And then the last thing we do is
we put what's called a notice to airmen over our
airspace anytime we're flying, and that's really to inform helicopter pilots,
(05:47):
you know, typical fixed wing aircraft pilots, any any kind
of pilots that are flying around our area. We want
them to know there is a drone operation happening at
this point, at this time, at this altitude.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
And then on top of all of those precautions, weather
permitting is also a factor in all of this. How
do you guys decide when it can and cannot be
launched for these shows?
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Sure? Great, great question. You know, in Colorado, especially in
the winter, you know there's some days like a week ago,
where it was snowing all day. You know, we knew
pretty early we weren't going to fly that day. Outside
of that, sometimes it's a it's a last minute call.
We had a show. It was probably the third or
fourth night of this forty run night where you know
(06:31):
we monitor, We monitored several different forecasts and we have
three people typically monitoring those throughout the night just to
make sure that we're staying on top and in front
of the weather. And we just we saw two or
three fronts heading our direction. We're going to hit probably
around seven to seven ten. And you know, no secret,
(06:53):
you know, moisture is the kryptonite to electronics, So we
don't want four hundred drones up in the air and
it start to you know, snow or rain or even
really excessive wind. So we unfortunately made the call that night,
probably about fifteen to twenty minutes prior to the show,
to pull the show that night, and we made the
(07:14):
right call because it was about seven oh three and
the sky opened up and snow started to hit pretty hard.
So it would have been tough with four hundred drones
in the air and snow to hit us at that point.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Final question, I just want to go back to the
drones on the East Coast and again just trying to
get an educated feel. You're a drone professional, do you
have any instincts about the origin the pilots of the drone.
Could they just be people like you and we just
aren't aware of them.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Yeah, I mean it's hard to speak too because I
honestly have no idea, just like everybody else, you know,
I know there there's a way, you know, outside of
just you know, going to your local store and buying
a drone. There are so many different ways to build
these custom drones. You know, order the parts, build something
and fly and at that point, you know, you're not
(08:02):
subject to the remote ID laws that required these pilots
to register their drone. So, you know, it's hard to
say it's that, you know, it most likely just you know,
people that have built their own drones and are you know,
having fun flying drones just like we are.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Tom Dolan is with Bright Flight a number of drone
shows that are happening throughout the state, including Denver's first
mile high Holiday Drone Show that takes place at seven
pm each evening. Tom, thank you so much for joining
us this morning. We appreciate it, of course.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
Thank you
It is Colorado's Morning News, Marty Lens Gina Gonde, Good morning,
lots of talks and drone has been in the news
quite a bit of late, but here in Colorado it's
a fun thing to see. We see the bright lights
and flying of the drones over parts of Denver.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
And joining us now on the KWA Common Spirit Health
Hotline to talk more about it is Tom Dolan with
the company Bright Flight.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Tom, thank you so much for your time this morning.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Of course, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Hey, listen, I saw the drone show last night, the
one that takes place in downtown Denver, and it is
just awesome to see every night seven o'clock on the Dot.
It's a pretty cool experience. For those who have not
seen it yet, I think just begin by explaining to
us the process of setting something up like this, because
we're not talking a couple drones, we're talking a couple
hundred jones in this case.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Yes, Yeah, there's a lot that goes into it behind
the scenes. So we fly four hundred drones every single
night out we actually fly over the MSU Athletic Complex,
and you know, the work is really as a result
of the crew. You know, we show up three hours early.
We lay out the drone. We first you know, set
(01:05):
the batteries and every single drone. We lay out the drones.
We make sure the drones have all their you know,
correct individual paths in order to fly these these amazing shows.
You know, make sure we have all of our safety
parameters in place. And typically we are, you know, we're
ready to go what we call show mode. We're we're
ready about thirty minutes before launch. Then it's it's kind
(01:26):
of the you know, the calumn before the storm, if
you will. And then right right when we hit seven o'clock,
we launched four hundred drones and just like everybody else,
you know, we kind of just sit back, watch and
enjoy and monitor.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
How many operators per drone, Tom, I'm sure it's not
one individual operator. That'd be a lot of operators for
that it.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Is, it is one individual operator.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Yeah. Yeah. All the work really goes into these drone shows,
you know, sitting behind a computer, three D animation programming,
you know, making sure we're we're building out Blue Sifer,
we're building out Big Blue Bear, you know, make sure
we have the right colors. Let's let's put in as
much movement as we possibly can, and then we run
these these shows essentially virtually through a physics engine. And
(02:11):
that's really to confirm that when we when we do
put these drones in the air, these drones are going
to be able to operate as we intend them to
intend them to operate. We we test it. We have
a test site actually out in Broomfield where we test
our shows quite a bit. We'll make sure that we
run through the shows a few times before we bring
it to the audience or to the client, and then
(02:34):
at that point it's it's just making sure that each
drone has its individual path and and we're confident at
that point that it's going to be able to that
they're going to be able to fulfill the show.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Tom.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
What happens when it doesn't have the right path, Because
while it's making an awesome image, like you said, they're
making real images of Bluesifer and other iconic Denver landmarks.
Every once in a while you see one little drone
to start plummeting to the ground, and he's a drone
operation to himself, and every time he looks at it,
he's like, Oh, that's so much money crushing to the ground.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
What is the that you know, it hurts every time
it happens, but but gravity is a strong force, you know,
And and and when we put you know, we we
fly hundreds of shows a year, but when we have
you know, shows like this where we're running forty straight nights,
you know, we're we're putting a lot of a lot
of pressure, a lot of a lot of stress on
(03:24):
these drones. We try and rotate these drones around, but
but sometimes we get into situations where you know, we'll
have a dip in the battery or we get really
heavy shaking or vibration to the drones. And and they're
almost designed at that point to land in place. Sometimes
land is a little exaggerated and sped up. But that
(03:48):
is that is why safety is paramount, you know. That's
why we make sure there are zero people, zero you know,
property vehicles, things like that underneath our shows at any
given point, because it is there is a chance that
a drone will come down.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Tom and I have to tell you, drones have been
in the news of late and when we booked you,
I wanted to ask and I know you can't address
specifically what's going on in the East Coast and I'm
not asking that, but what I am asking is a
drone operator, what kind of training, licensing and clearance do
you have to have for the FAA? And if I understand,
if the drone's over a pound, you have to have
a certain clearance and right to fly to Is that correct?
Speaker 3 (04:24):
That's correct? Yeah, they if they exceed two hundred and
fifty grands, you have to register that drone with the FAA.
And now there is something called remote ID where there
is an actual module on these drones that the authorities
can They can essentially pull out an internal application that
they have and they should be able to see who
(04:45):
has that drone registered with the FAA. To answer your question,
you know, you have to get your Part one O
seven that is your drone license and then you know,
really only speaking to drone shows, there's a lot that
goes into it. We have a waiver with the FAA
that allows us to fly one pilot per five hundred drones.
(05:05):
Typically the FAA is a one to one, one pilot
one drone. And then as far as clearance from from
the FAA, we have to get clearance anytime we fly
and any controlled airspace, anything close to an airport, We've
had to work with the Broncos the Rockies in the
past to fly for some of their events because they
(05:26):
have what's called a temporary flight restriction around the stadium
anytime that there is an outdoor sporting event that has
you know, so many people in the in the actual
stadium itself. And then the last thing we do is
we put what's called a notice to airmen over our
airspace anytime we're flying, and that's really to inform helicopter pilots,
(05:47):
you know, typical fixed wing aircraft pilots, any any kind
of pilots that are flying around our area. We want
them to know there is a drone operation happening at
this point, at this time, at this altitude.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
And then on top of all of those precautions, weather
permitting is also a factor in all of this. How
do you guys decide when it can and cannot be
launched for these shows?
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Sure? Great, great question. You know, in Colorado, especially in
the winter, you know there's some days like a week ago,
where it was snowing all day. You know, we knew
pretty early we weren't going to fly that day. Outside
of that, sometimes it's a it's a last minute call.
We had a show. It was probably the third or
fourth night of this forty run night where you know
(06:31):
we monitor, We monitored several different forecasts and we have
three people typically monitoring those throughout the night just to
make sure that we're staying on top and in front
of the weather. And we just we saw two or
three fronts heading our direction. We're going to hit probably
around seven to seven ten. And you know, no secret,
(06:53):
you know, moisture is the kryptonite to electronics, So we
don't want four hundred drones up in the air and
it start to you know, snow or rain or even
really excessive wind. So we unfortunately made the call that night,
probably about fifteen to twenty minutes prior to the show,
to pull the show that night, and we made the
(07:14):
right call because it was about seven oh three and
the sky opened up and snow started to hit pretty hard.
So it would have been tough with four hundred drones
in the air and snow to hit us at that point.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Final question, I just want to go back to the
drones on the East Coast and again just trying to
get an educated feel. You're a drone professional, do you
have any instincts about the origin the pilots of the drone.
Could they just be people like you and we just
aren't aware of them.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Yeah, I mean it's hard to speak too because I
honestly have no idea, just like everybody else, you know,
I know there there's a way, you know, outside of
just you know, going to your local store and buying
a drone. There are so many different ways to build
these custom drones. You know, order the parts, build something
and fly and at that point, you know, you're not
(08:02):
subject to the remote ID laws that required these pilots
to register their drone. So, you know, it's hard to
say it's that, you know, it most likely just you know,
people that have built their own drones and are you know,
having fun flying drones just like we are.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Tom Dolan is with Bright Flight a number of drone
shows that are happening throughout the state, including Denver's first
mile high Holiday Drone Show that takes place at seven
pm each evening. Tom, thank you so much for joining
us this morning. We appreciate it, of course.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
Thank you
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