Drones Providing a New View of the A/E/C Industry

Drones are leading to exciting advances in the architecture, engineering and construction industry. In the first part of a two-part episode, we’ll learn about what it takes to become a drone pilot, some of the unique challenges they face in the sky and how they’re making safety a priority while flying.

Episode Transcript

(00:03):
I'm John Torek. And I'm Danny Sullivan. And
you're listening to Speaking of Design, bringing you
the stories of the engineers and architects who
are transforming the world one project at a
time. Drones are leading to exciting advances in
the AEC industry.
Today, in the first part of a two
part episode, we'll learn about what it takes

(00:23):
to become a drone pilot,
some of the unique challenges they face in
the sky, and how they're making safety a
a priority while flying.
For Carlos Fehmer, flying runs in the family.
I guess it started off with my dad
was a fighter pilot in the air force,
and he retired after twenty years.

(00:44):
After retirement from the Air Force, he became
a helicopter pilot.
On my mom's side, my uncle, who I'm
named after, was also a fighter pilot.
And I also have a cousin who is
a commercial airline pilot. So needless to say,
maybe, it's in our blood.
Growing up, we went to various air shows,
and some of my favorite things to do
were watching the Blue Angels and the Thunderbirds

(01:05):
fly.
When drones started to take off,
Carlos bought one for personal use, and family
interest in flight continued.
Well, my wife and I have, four kids.
Two are in college where my oldest is
a senior at LSU,
go tigers.
And my daughter's a freshman in high school,
and I have a son who's nine years
old. So they're really different, but I'm pleasantly

(01:27):
surprised that they've taken a keen interest in
drones. His two college age sons have become
certified drone pilots,
while his youngest loves to tag along with
dad. On the weekends, we have a test
facility, and sometimes I'll go out and I'll
do some testing on the drones or fly
in particular. So he'll ask me, can he
come out and watch? So it's pretty cool
to see how fascinated

(01:47):
they are with drones so far. The drone
even joins the Femur family on vacations.
And and the drones offer a a really
unique perspective. So
it's, you know, fairly portable for one thing.
You know, it fits in your backpack. And
I think it's great for taking pictures and
videos of those experience. So we've been, fortunate
to have some great pictures and videos that
we've taken over the years. Carlos lives in

(02:09):
Lafayette, Louisiana, where he leads HDR's
data acquisition program.
His interest in data dates back to his
days at the University of Massachusetts
at Lowell, where he got a degree in
management information systems.
I guess I've, always had a passion for
technology and data.
So information management
concerns like the cycle of organizational

(02:31):
activity starting from acquiring data for information for
one or more sources
through the distribution of that information to those
who need it. Carlos oversaw an extensive survey
program and later became president of John Chanteland
Surveyors,
part of the Fugro Group of Companies.
He later joined HDR,
where he was presented with the opportunity to

(02:52):
manage a new drone program
and worked with the team to develop a
strategy
to align drone use with the company's services
in the architecture,
engineering, and construction industry. Truly, every stage of
a project can benefit from drone technology, but
it has to be the right tool for
the job. So you keep that in mind
as you look at the various projects.

(03:12):
Drones could capture data faster, safer, and provide
more quality data and typically is less expensive
in certain cases as opposed to traditional methods.
They're used on environmental projects today.
They could be used for construction monitoring,
for surveying sites. We're also using it on
marine mammal observations for the Navy. Kind of

(03:33):
the big buckets are marketing and visualization,
survey and inspections, and then moving into construction
monitoring and earthwork monitoring. The benefits to architecture
and engineering clients were clear.
That said, introducing a new technology to a
safety conscious company of 10,000
requires a lot of planning.
Some examples are to consider what are the

(03:55):
risk, what is the exposure in the event
of an accident, and you also must balance
that with what are the benefits. And you
also need to look at operations and oversight.
What is the overall governance look like? All
questions Carlos had considered with a different type
of fleet at his previous company. Prior to
coming to HDR, Carlos oversaw a survey group
that had multiple divisions

(04:16):
across hydrographic,
land, and aviation. We had a rock star
team with great processes in place, and and
that really makes the job easier from before.
As far as how it prepared me for
questions we have had to consider, for example,
we put new training in place for our
pilots and put office and field training requirements
together, and we expose our pilots to situations

(04:37):
in a training environment that they are prepared
for in the event a situation occurs on
a real project. Occurs on a real project.
The first time I've ever even flown a
drone was during the HDR's official training that
they brought me to. So it's something I
was interested in. I looked at the technologies

(04:57):
and all that by never adding hands on
experience
until we actually started launching the program. That's
Mike Cameron, a drone pilot and photographer at
HDR.
Mike has piloted more than 250
drone flights spanning more than one hundred and
twenty hours in the air. With a bachelor
of fine arts from Creighton University,
Mike appreciates the unique perspective a drone brings

(05:19):
to his work. With shooting with the drone,
I feel like that I have more of
an artistic touch
compared
to my photography and video six years ago
when I wasn't flying a drone. And that's
just the way the industry
has progressed. With drone photography and video, it's
relatively new.
So you could really push the envelope in

(05:39):
how you
create your art. As early hobbyists flew their
personal drones,
the FAA anticipated the beginning
of an airborne
wild wild west.
So in 02/2015,
they adopted regulations requiring commercial drone pilots to
register their drones and pass a test for
a drone pilot license. There's a lot of

(06:01):
differences
when you look at being a commercial pilot
versus a hobbyist. You have a lot more
risk, a lot more liabilities when you're a
commercial pilot. You have to get your part
one zero seven license. It's heavily
made up of aeronautical charts. It's how pilots
talk to each other, how you talk to
airports.
And for the most part, you will not
be doing that when you're operating your drone.

(06:24):
You might have to call an airport to
get a permit, but not during, I'd say,
about 95 to 99%
of your actual flight. That being said, it's
important to know how other people utilize that
airspace.
With the FAA
overseeing some of the busiest and most complex
airspace on Earth, Mike said it's imperative to

(06:44):
understand the perspective
of airline pilots.
You guys realize that whenever you're flying a
drone commercially or for fun,
you're actually in FAA's airspace.
The moment you jump off the ground,
technically, you're in airspace.
So all the rules applied to you are
all FAA's rules. So
you need to be concerned. I mean, you

(07:04):
don't wanna hit an airplane, so you need
to be cognizant of the rules airplanes are
following.
I know that
airplanes shouldn't be below 400 feet unless you're
near an airport.
You You gotta be aware there's gonna be
scenarios where there's a helicopter or airplane that's
gonna be well below that, and so you
gotta be ready for that even though technically
it shouldn't be happening on a daily basis.

(07:25):
That also includes understanding where you can't fly
your drone. You also gotta know about restricted
airspace as well. If you look at a
sectional chart of United States, you're gonna see
lines everywhere, places you can
you can't fly. You definitely don't wanna be
flying in a military zone or a federal
zone. The part one zero seven is like
the written driver's test you take at the

(07:46):
DMV.
That still leaves you to learn how to
actually operate the drone. Partnering with a company
that helped develop drone manuals for The US
Army And Navy, the pilots go through intensive
exercises to learn how to handle real life
scenarios in the field. And that's where we
go out and we go over scenarios like,
what if you lose connection with your drone?

(08:08):
What if you can't see your drone anymore?
What if all your controls go down? What
happens if your drone crashes? And we we
we go through all these scenarios. Mike said
he was required to have ten hours of
flight time before taking on an official job,
but actually practiced for closer to twenty. Just
going in a field in different scenarios, like
different wind speeds, turning off the controller,

(08:29):
going near structures to see how that changed
the controls if I lost controls. You could
read a lot about it, but a lot
of it was just hands on. Alright. I
got the control in my hand. The drone's
up in there. Well, this happened. This is
how I need to correct it. That happened.
That's how I need to correct it. A
lot of it is
now habitual because I've flown so much. Carlos

(08:50):
offered a real life example of when a
drone pilot is flying near a structure, such
as a building or a bridge. What happens
if you lose GPS and it switches into
ADI mode? What happens if you lose communication
with the drone? If you are flying near
an asset, let's say it's a bridge or
dam, and you lose GPS
signal, it'll revert into a mode called ADI

(09:11):
mode. And what that means is more of
a manual mode. So in the case of
a GPS,
when it's in that specific mode of the
drone, it'll hover. And let's say that you
have wind coming in at 16 miles an
hour, what the drone's gonna do in GPS
mode is keep it stable so it's gonna
stay in one location. When it's an ADI
mode, you're flying it manually. And if the

(09:33):
wind's 16 miles an hour, that means the
drone's gonna be going in the direction of
the wind. Meaning that a pilot needs to
understand the difference between each mode
and be comfortable handling the drone in either
one. So what you have to do as
a pilot is compensate. So if you want
it to remain stable,
you're going to use your controls to counter
the wind to keep it in the same

(09:54):
location. So one thing that we do in
training is in that particular environment, you wanna
put it in that mode to where you
know what to do in the event it
happens in the field. Other scenarios where you
could lose GPS is if you're, near vegetation
and a few other things. So really important
to be exposed to those elements in a
training environment. So when it happens in real

(10:16):
time and on a real project, you're prepared
for it. Another scenario,
the sudden loss of battery power. I think
you need to be prepared for anything. So
we try to plan for everything for a
flight and identify takeoff and landing areas, but
we also identify good emergency landing areas as
well. So if there was a battery situation
and the battery is malfunctioning,

(10:36):
the pilot evaluates the situation and will make
an emergency landing or they're gonna get back
to the landing area depending on the type
of battery issue. So we train on those
elements during the classroom and field portions of
our training.
Drone pilots not only need to be prepared
to fly in general, they also need to
prepare specifically for each mission.

(10:58):
My responsibility
is to do a UAS
project review and mitigate any hazards, if there
are any, on that site, as well as
get the proper, waivers that are needed in
order to execute that mission
safely.
That's Delfina Ortiz,
unmanned aircraft systems or UAS,

(11:18):
operations lead at HDR.
After beginning her career as a CAD technician,
Delfina worked on several environmental projects involving GIS
data.
GIS or geographic information systems
essentially captures, stores, and displays data related
to specific geographic points. Making it great for

(11:39):
creating maps to display everything from natural topography
to infrastructure
to underground utilities.
So Delfina went back to school to get
her GIS certifications,
which opened the door to another new technology.
The environmental group goes out with a handheld
GPS and they collect data. And whenever they
come back in, I process it using the

(12:01):
new skill set that I had acquired.
And I wanted to learn more about that.
So just learning about GPS and geospatial
data was really a driver for me to
start looking into drones. Dofina also got her
part one zero seven certification to become a
drone pilot
and soon took on her current role in
Carlos' growing drone program. The management and maintenance

(12:23):
of the drone fleet is every bit as
important as the training of the pilots
and a critical part of Delfina's job. Getting
your FAA registration number tagged to that drone
along with all the bits and pieces as
far as batteries, remote control,
any additional payload that's utilized with that drone
and keeping it all together, having that proper

(12:45):
management, especially when you have, in our case,
16 drones, you've gotta keep them maintained and
identified in order to keep it organized. All
drones are not created equal. Each drone may
have a different height and wind restriction,
different battery life, and different limit on the
distance it can be flown. Each manufacturer may
have a different app to plan the flight

(13:05):
or control the drone. Each model has a
different controller. In addition to overseeing the fleet,
Delfino reviews each flight plan submitted by a
pilot for approval. We'll look at the risk
assessment and see if it's something that our
skill set can provide. And we're looking at
airspace. We're looking at the wind
because some aircraft cannot fly in in a

(13:26):
certain wind speed. You wanna keep it below
twenty, twenty five depending on that aircraft. And
then
precipitation,
we're looking at just different things in the
atmosphere.
Trees. You know, that you got a lot
of trees around you. How are you gonna
mitigate that? Where are you gonna take off
and land? And, of course, the area of
interest and if we have access to that
property. During the risk assessment,

(13:47):
several factors can contribute to a decision not
to fly. Well, if it starts raining, that
will be a definite no go. Also, if
there's military operation areas,
and typically, they'll give a nodum of they're
gonna be out there and the timing. Of
course, if you get out there and you
see that they're
already in their mission and maybe outside of
that time frame, that would be a no

(14:09):
go. After the risk assessment, Delfina reports back
to the drone pilot such as Mike Cameron.
And so if it doesn't pass that test,
if the risk is too high, then we
don't even do it. Example of
a scenario where we've thought about doing drones,
and then after we researched it, we decided
it wasn't the best fit was photography of
the Golden Gate Bridge. And we were doing

(14:31):
a bridge inspection
at the top of the bridge. And from
my experiences at the Golden Gate Bridge from
my other shoots, I realized that the wind
speeds were extremely high
on ground level. And we're capped out about
on most of our drones at about 20
to 22 miles per hour. And I knew
that once we got up in the air,
we're gonna be

(14:51):
way above that. So we talked about it,
and we decided that in that scenario, a
helicopter was the best fit because our drones
wouldn't be be able to operate. And then
you throw that in, we'll cover while we're
flying a drone near
a commercial road that has a lot of
traffic on it, and it's a landmark.
And besides the safety aspect for the civilians

(15:11):
there, you also look at it, it's a
high profile job. So that was one that
we nixed just because it wasn't the best
fit. Delfina conducts a UAS flight review through
drone logbook.
If the mission is near an airport, then
she checks to see if the unidentified
aerial systems facility map
is enabled or disabled using the FAA's LAANC
database for permitting flights. Though nobody ever says

(15:34):
it,
LAANC stands for low altitude authorization
and notification
capability.
It's essentially where you log the flight plan,
find out where you can and cannot fly,
and get access to controlled airspace.
If the Lance UAS facility map is marked
red or disabled,
then Delfina reaches out to the FAA for

(15:55):
a waiver before determining if a flight can
be approved. If you're looking at a map,
you'll see green boxes on any app that
contains a LAANC, like air map. If you
look on air map, you'll see LAANC. And
if it's red, that means I have to
reach out to the FAA.
If it's green, they'll tell you the altitudes
that are allowed in that area. And if
there's any deviation from that, we need to

(16:17):
reach out to the FAA
and get that waiver in place. And that's
just what it takes to get the flight
plan approved. Once it's a go, there's another
set of checklists to consider. We have a
preflight checklist,
like, the night before. Before you leave the
office with the drone, we wanna make sure
you have all your equipment. All your batteries
are charged.
You have your legal paperwork. You wanna have

(16:38):
your licenses.
You wanna have your memory card charged up.
You wanna make sure that the drone's in
proper working condition. You wanna make sure that
your props, which are the propellers,
aren't chipped or bent or anything like that.
So basically going through all the equipment.
Followed by more checklists at the job site.
Once we get to the flight area, the
checklist is similar. So you wanna check batteries

(16:58):
again. You wanna check condition of your drone.
You wanna make sure your compasses
are calibrated to that specific location. And you
wanna make sure you've done all your updates
on your drone and your software. We should
mention,
this also includes a self check. We can't
fly an airplane, but we are pilots. We're
controlling aircraft. We're controlling an FAA airspace.
So we do treat it like we are

(17:20):
pilots. So the same regulations they they do
for them for their self checks, we do
for ourselves. We need eight hours of sleep.
No drinking,
no drugs. Even if you're taking a science
med medication that will alter your abilities in
any way, you gotta hold off. I mean,
there's been some times where I went on
a flight where, you know, I haven't eaten

(17:41):
in five, six hours. I'm thinking ahead. Am
I gonna get fatigued or dizzy because I
haven't had my protein through the day and
I stopped? I'm like, alright. Well, we're gonna
go get something to eat, and then we're
gonna fly after the fact. Because I wanna
be fully cognizant of everything, and I don't
want anything to get in the way with
that. That checklist uses the acronym, I'm SAFE,
referring to

(18:01):
illness,
medication,
stress, alcohol, fatigue, and eating. Once the pilot
gets to the job site and is ready
to fly, a safety briefing covers the specifics
of the flight. Number one is the safety
of the people on the ground. A lot
of the stuff we do is in construction
sites.
So before we go in any construction site,
we have our teams give a safety briefing

(18:23):
to the construction workers. I'll bring everyone in,
and then I'll have a safety briefing with
everyone so they're fully aware of what's going
on, fully aware if something should happen. This
is how we're gonna handle it.
So they're cognizant
of
every scenario. However, for a more public site,
such as a completed park or a roadway
through a new downtown development,

(18:44):
the biggest concern is public safety. When we
do flights in public spaces,
we make sure that we don't put the
public in risk in any way. We don't
fly over the public. We don't get close
to the public.
We don't even put that as an option.
However, that doesn't mean the public won't be
very interested when they see the drone in
the sky. We do have, bystanders who are

(19:06):
interested in drones. There's a lot of interest
in the public with drones because the public
out there has the small drones that they
fly around the house, and then they see
our big drone, and they've become very curious.
So we have, steps in place where our
VL, which is your visual observer, handles
the public
while we're flying our flights, and then we'll
halt the flight. I'll hover the drone until

(19:27):
we're able to get the public
back a safe ways away from us where
we can continue the mission. The final step
before takeoff is a check of the ground
space and airspace
around the launch site. You also go through
a checklist of airspace concerns, whether you talk
with your VO, if you're in any controlled
air spaces, if there's any airports nearby, if
there's any heliports nearby,

(19:49):
if you're in a public place, is there
a potential of the public coming and asking
questions, and what do you do in that
scenario?
You cover other hazards, like if there's birds.
What kind of birds? Are there birds of
prey?
Is there a possibility of a bald eagle
coming? You can make a checklist of emergency
landing areas,
potential radio towers that could cause

(20:09):
signal interference or any other towers. Once the
drone is in the air,
a pilot will encounter variables.
Much like when you're driving a car, that's
where your training and expertise
kicks in. Any structure has a potential affecting
the operations of a drone depending on what
metals are made in that building,
if the building's blocking satellite connectivity.

(20:30):
It doesn't necessarily mean that all of a
sudden your drone drops from the sky, mind
you. It just means that you gotta be
aware of when you're flying next to these
structures, a could happen, b could happen, c
can happen. And so you're
aware of doing one, two, three in case
that should happen. So there's a lot of
stuff that can affect the metal underneath the
ground I've had affect my connectability with my

(20:52):
drone.
Now the flight still go on perfectly fine.
It's just when warnings pop up, all of
a sudden, there's a
loss of connectivity.
I know how to shift
my flights to react to that. The drones
themselves are smart too. They come programmed with
features to safely land in the event of
an emergency.
Now hypothetically, let's say

(21:14):
those give out. Or let's say there's an
issue with the pilot and the pilot can't
fly the the drone back home. The drones
we use
are very smart drones, and there's a lot
of programming that goes into them. And they
will return back to home
if there's a lost connectivity for more than
three to five seconds.
If you hit a certain button on the
the controller, they're automatically returned home. We have

(21:36):
them set where if they fly out and
there's not enough battery,
they know when there's not enough battery to
return. They'll automatically return at that time. Each
specific flight, we we set the heights, the
parameters for that so they can return to
home safely.
We have put the precautions in there, and
the drones are programmed to do what they
have to do to make it home safely.

(21:59):
On the next episode of Speaking of Design,
we'll continue with part two when we'll look
at more at how drones are being used
in the AEC industry.
From surveying the wreckage of a train derailment
to monitoring whale migration,
to creating a digital twin of a 160
foot high dam,
drones are bringing new perspectives

(22:20):
to projects of all kinds.
For more information on this podcast, visit hdrinc.com/speakingofdesign.
You'll find links to pictures, articles, and more
information about this project.
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