Drone Fest 2025 Interviews: Aviation's New Frontier

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Welcome to Real People, Real.

Speaker 3 (00:15):
Life.
We're here.
We're going to interview toppilots, talent.
Just get a whole overview ofthe weekend.
It's a three-day event.
Hopefully get some people outthere excited about the drone
world.
Yep.

Speaker 4 (00:30):
So what's the plan tomorrow?

Speaker 5 (00:33):
Ryan, are we going to interview?

Speaker 3 (00:35):
some people yes, we're going to be actually set
up with all the vendors.
We'll have our own podcast setup.
There's the music.
It's going to be a party.
We're going to have some of thetop talent out there.
So, if you're you know, we'regonna interview some of the
greatest pilots in the world.
Hopefully, talk to thepresident of feta um, perhaps

(00:56):
some of the talent.
Yeah, it's gonna be exciting.
Cool man.
And we got esther.
Anaya is gonna perform.
We're gonna get her on cameratonight.
I've already talked to her.
Hopefully we can get her tocommit to the podcast.
Come down to San Diego Amazingtalent DJ for the Chargers.
So we're excited.
Cool, all right, let's get thisparty started.

(01:17):
Man, let's do it.
Yeah, drone Fest All right.
Mikayla, welcome to the show.
Real People, real Life, havingfun talking to a lot of people
here, and one of the top peoplehere sent you over to talk to us
.
That means you're probably themost important person in the

(01:38):
whole fest.

Speaker 7 (01:40):
Oh my goodness, thank you.

Speaker 3 (01:42):
Tell us who you are, what you do, what you've done.
People want to hear.

Speaker 7 (01:47):
Yeah, so hello, my name is Michaela Galler.
I'm a Part 107 pilot.
I'm also a glider pilot and anormal single engine pilot.

Speaker 3 (01:56):
Okay, now you're talking my language.

Speaker 7 (02:00):
Yeah, and there's nothing like flying and actually
getting in the gliders andgetting my part of 1-7 really
got me into drone soccer fromthat, and that's what this event
is having Drone soccer issomething that is nothing like
anything other, when you're astudent and you're trying to
figure out what your passion isdrone.

(02:21):
Soccer is a great way to get inthe gliders, so that's where I
came in.
From that, and also being apart of the drone soccer
community, let me meet a bunchof different people, which
actually helped me get myinternship with NASA over the
summer, which is pretty cool.

Speaker 3 (02:38):
And you're what?
10 years old, you got this alldone by the time you were 10,
right, absolutely.

Speaker 7 (02:43):
No, I actually started flying gliders when I
was 15, and I'm actually now 19years old.

Speaker 3 (02:49):
So I'm a pilot Single engine.
Was it drones that got youthinking about aviation, or did
that come after actually gettingyour feet off the ground?

Speaker 7 (03:01):
So I actually was attending these STEM programs at
Wings of the Rockies in Denver,Colorado, and they, after
completing like a ground schoolclass, they take you up on a
discovery flight.
And I was flying at aCentennial airport and going up
in that discovery flight wasnothing else and it just it got
me hooked and I was like 15years old, I told my mom I want

(03:22):
to fly.

Speaker 3 (03:23):
What did mom say?

Speaker 7 (03:23):
She said how are you going to pay for it?
And I was like what should I do?
And she said instead of gettinga job, spend that time.
Instead of flying and working,apply for scholarships.
I ended up getting the James DRay Foundation scholarship for
flying gliders because I was tooyoung to apply for the power
and so that paid for my entireflight training and I haven't

(03:46):
had to pay a single dime.

Speaker 3 (03:49):
So, if anything- you are the most important person in
this whole-.

Speaker 7 (03:53):
You know-.

Speaker 3 (03:54):
You're pretty sharp, Thank you.
Thank you Pretty sharp.

Speaker 7 (03:57):
I would recommend to anybody if you're interested in
getting into STEM or aviationand you want to figure out how
to pay for something like that.
There's scholarships,especially like being 14, 15.
There's people that want toteach you how to fly drones or
want to teach you how to be apilot, especially as a young
woman or a young man.

Speaker 3 (04:17):
The industry is so small, yet so broad and there's
such well, there's a lack ofboth skilled actual pilots and
skilled drone pilots.
Actually, I'm going to rephrasethat they're both pilots, Right
.
One have their feet on theground and the other up in the
air, but they all share the sameairspace.
I think that's a misconceptionthat a lot of people have to get

(04:37):
out of their heads, includingdrone, specifically drone pilots
and pilots.
It's look, we're sharingairspace here.
Just because your feet are onthe ground, it doesn't mean that
you're not flying right, you'rean aviator yep, yep, absolutely
, uh you mentioned, you are rotcyes, I'm, I'm in the navy.
Where do you find this time?

Speaker 7 (04:56):
I actually you should write a book on time management
you know I started all of thiswhen I most of this is from high
school.
Um, I'm a freshman at ArizonaState University this year.
This is my second semester.
I'm still juggling everythingbut having a good planner and
understanding like I can't doeverything in the world, but the
things that are important, thatI find important and I can help

(05:19):
others.
I set time and make time to dothose things, Like this week.
I'm actually on spring break.
My spring break was last week,but I wanted to be here.
So I set aside time to come outhere and talk to everyone
because I love sharing mypassion with others, because if
I can do it, someone mostdefinitely else can.

Speaker 3 (05:38):
That's right.
A lot of people are fearful.
They let fear hold them back,and fear is just a function of
not understanding.
Lack of information, right.
Lack of information, fear offlying.
Lack of information, fear ofdoing something new.
Lack of information, fear offailure right, these are the
kind of things that hold peopleback.

(06:00):
To get past it, having somebodylike you that says, hey, let's
try it, this is fun.
Fun, especially with yourpersonality.
So, seeing that passion, I seethat all over the place, the it
draws people to you.
They, they want to go.
Why is she so happy?
Why is she enjoying this somuch?
What?
What is so excited about beingin the air or having my feet on
the ground and being in the air?
We need, I mean, I think it's.

(06:22):
I mean you could be at a beachsomewhere, you know.
No, you're here and you'resharing your passion.
Are you part of the dronesoccer thing as well?

Speaker 7 (06:31):
I am, I am I, uh, in 2023, I was a part of one of the
USA teams Um, I was actuallycaptain of, and we ended up
getting third place in the worldin 2023.
Third place in the world and weended up getting third place in
the world in 2023.
Third place in the world Prettycool.
Yeah, I'm gonna say some myself, and hopefully next September,
my team will be able to go withVita and go compete in Korea.

(06:52):
That's our next step, but we'rea bunch of pro college students
right now.

Speaker 3 (06:56):
Of course.

Speaker 7 (06:57):
We're doing our best to fundraise.

Speaker 3 (06:59):
Are you current in your single engine?

Speaker 7 (07:01):
I am.
I actually passed my check rideback in December.

Speaker 3 (07:04):
So you're freshly minted.

Speaker 7 (07:07):
Freshly minted.

Speaker 3 (07:10):
What plane were you flying in in your check ride?

Speaker 7 (07:12):
A Cessna 172.

Speaker 3 (07:13):
Nice, you could do a 152,.
You're so little.

Speaker 7 (07:16):
I know I actually I was already a private, so this
was an add-on single enginebecause I used to fly on gliders
.

Speaker 3 (07:23):
Okay, yeah, yeah, so this is your add-on single
engine, because I used to fly ongliders.
Yeah, okay, yeah, so so this isyour add-on single engine.
Okay, so you already had yourAirman's card?
Yep, and what was your sololike?

Speaker 7 (07:33):
You know, I can tell you one solo that I had.
I actually had an emergency.

Speaker 3 (07:37):
Oh brother.

Speaker 7 (07:38):
It's very interesting .
Um, so I was taking up, andnormally when you're flying
glider there's different waysyou can fly, but I was being
towed up by another aircraft,you know, behind the other
aircraft, and we were up inpattern and we were going up and
I had gone up with myinstructor right before then.
The air was perfectly calm,there is no turbulence, there's

(07:59):
nothing, and I'm right on thefront range of the mountain, so
sometimes we get some mountainrave and but it was perfectly
fine that day.
Well, I go up on my solo andI'm about maybe 2,000 feet above
the ground and at my elevationthat's about 7,300 feet-ish, and
the turbulence shot me abovethe tow plane and I couldn't see

(08:22):
him anymore and I had to do anemergency release lines shot me
above the tow plane and Icouldn't see him anymore and I
had to do an emergency release.
And so I had a release and I hadto divert land at the airport.
I had to do an early landing.
I was my training kicked infrom my instructor, landed
perfectly fine like there was noother, but in that situation,
being pulling up the tow planecould put you both in a stall

(08:43):
and take out the tow plane andtow plane to crash.
Now there has been instanceswhere that's happened, so I just
knew all right time to release.
Clear look left, look right,let's go back in the pattern,
yeah.

Speaker 3 (08:55):
The training in the sky is so critical.
Sometimes it feels so redundantand luckily or hopefully, you
don't have to deal with it.
But it is flying and you'redealing with multiple forces and
when it happens it happens soquickly.

(09:15):
I had an incident.
I was flying into Big Bear inSouthern California and it's an
interesting approach, but it cansurrounded by mountains and I'm
flying in and generally I wouldcome in high and then do a slip
to land Just because there'spine trees really high and so
the glide path.
Well, for some reason this day Ijust did a normal approach,

(09:40):
which a lot of people do.
It was very calm, just like youwere saying, and I got a couple
hundred feet above thethreshold and got a downdraft
and my whole left wing stalled.
Nothing but alarm If I wasn'ttwo inches off the ground, but I
wasn't, but it feels like itwhen your wing stalls and you're
coming in and again withouteven it's like muscle memory.

(10:03):
You know it was nose down, fullthrottle, state ground effect.
I was in a Piper, so use groundeffect and just hold it and get
my airspeed.
Oh, and we're at 7,000 feet,all right.
So we have density, altitudeissues, so just going until I
got that wing picked up and thenI started gaining altitude
about 150 feet a minute.

(10:24):
Oh my goodness, just just keptgoing.
But the interesting thing is Idid that, all recovered and just
flew back San Diego.
I'm like I'm not gonna start.
The downdrafts were coming in.
But what's interesting is,besides the adrenaline headache
I had for the last, the nextfour hours is.
I talked to my instructor and Itold him he says well, that's

(10:45):
the training we talked about.
You know, you did it right, youdid it absolutely right and you
know, and basically a power off, stall and uh and recovering,
and uh, luckily I was high in.
I mean, it was close, becauseif that wing would have hit I'd
have been in big trouble.
But yeah, safety is paramount.

Speaker 7 (11:08):
Absolutely.

Speaker 3 (11:09):
You know people are scared of flying.
Well, you know safety isparamount.
Same thing with drones.

Speaker 7 (11:17):
Absolutely.
Especially like when you'reflying drones in like drone
soccer competitions.
Problems go flying everywhere.
So you want to make sure you'reprotecting your eyes or your
head, or make sure you'rewearing like pants, so problems
go flying everywhere.
So you want to make sure thatyou're protecting your eyes or
your head or make sure you'rewearing pants so it doesn't cut
you, but also making sure thatyou're self-aware because a
drone could be flying right atyou, Absolutely Now.

Speaker 3 (11:35):
I've got a question for you, Michaela.
Yes, Make a decision right now.
If you had to, what are youdoing as a career?
Doing as a career If you had tomake the decision right now?
I'm not going to hold it to youin four years.

Speaker 7 (11:45):
All right, I would like to be an astronaut.
That is the goal.

Speaker 3 (11:50):
Well, guess what?
That's not just NASA anymore,you've got SpaceX and all the
other ones out there.
What a great thing SpaceX didrecently Fantastic Elon Musk out
there getting his team andgetting those astronauts out of
there back to earth safety,their concerns they were up
there so long and how that'sgonna.
You know they're gonna havesome.
They're gonna have somerecovery issues.

(12:11):
But, um, here's the thing I'vemet a lot of people.
You're gonna be an astronaut.
Unless you change your mind inthe next four years, you will be
successful.
Um, you've got every verticalyou can ever think of in the
drone industry.
Okay, right there, you've gotevery vertical you think you can
think of in aviation.
I mean from training tocommercial to I mean everything

(12:35):
you can think of.
You have a fantastic life.
But you said one thing out ofall this great stuff, you said
you said one thing that's goingto make you most successful.
You said you said one thingthat's going to make you most
successful.
You said I want to help people.

Speaker 7 (12:46):
Yes.

Speaker 9 (12:46):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (12:48):
I've been around a long time.
If you find something thatyou're doing on Monday morning
or you know you are helpingsomebody, you will have an
amazing life, and that was themost important thing you said on
the podcast.
Thank yeah but keep up the hardwork.
All those people out there thatthink, oh, she's just talented

(13:10):
no, I guarantee you, she hasworked her butt off to achieve
this resume that she has, andthat resume is gonna grow.
Failure is a function ofsuccess, guys.
That means you learn from itand you keep moving forward.
You don't.
You don't get your pilot'slicense.
You don't get your drone pilots.
You don't get your glider pilot.

Speaker 7 (13:30):
You don't do the third place in the World Cup
without making any mistakes yeah, you know I failed many, many
times, and just it's how youapproach those failures, is what
?
Like it's how you approach it,that's great.
Like it's how you approach it,that's correct.
If you fail at something andyou don't try again, then what
is the point?

Speaker 3 (13:49):
Then it's, true failure.

Speaker 7 (13:50):
Right then it's true, failure.
But if you fail and you tryagain and try again, that means
you're working for it and you'relearning from it, because you
can learn from those failures.

Speaker 3 (13:59):
The only way to change who you are today is to
learn new things, and I alwayssay, meet new people too, and
I'm glad to have met you.
You are an absolute joy to talkto.
We're gonna get your emailaddress and if you're ever in
San Diego, you come into ourstudio and we'll talk airplanes

(14:21):
for hours and then and then whenyou're an astronaut, shoot me a
sign.
When you're in theInternational Space Station, say
podcast baby.
Oh yeah, thanks, michaela.

Speaker 7 (14:32):
Thank you so much for having me All right, bye-bye.

Speaker 3 (14:37):
That was my favorite Ordinary things we're trying to
dispel.
I mean, life's tough, right andso, but the secret is hard work
, so it's kind of likemyth-busting.
For that it is, it'smyth-busting.

Speaker 13 (14:50):
You are born with this magic.

Speaker 3 (14:52):
No, I believe everything is skills and they've
got to be learned.
Oh, you're an actual leader?
No, leadership is a skill.
But you might be able to talk,great, but even talking is a
skill.
Yeah, even talking is a skill.
Are these kind of things?
So this is the kind of thingthat we're trying to get out
there, especially to youngpeople, and it's blowing up
because it's positive.
We don't get into politics.

(15:12):
Basically, victims aren'tallowed.
Look, we are all victims ofsomething.
Let's just, you can't gobackwards.
Let me know when you invent thetime machine, because then I'll
fix something.
We can only go forward.
Okay, we're rolling just asclose as you can.
A little bit closer.
There you go, and then don'tworry about the microphone.
You're perfect, right there.
Okay, fiona.
Well, thank you for coming on.
Real People, real Life.

(15:33):
We're here at the 2025 DroneFestival.
You are not from the UnitedStates.
Where are you from?
I'm from australia, australia,down under that was terrible.

Speaker 13 (15:46):
That's a very english version of australia.

Speaker 3 (15:48):
Yes, it's very polite um.
So what brings you to theunited states, and specifically
to the palm springs uh dronefestival?

Speaker 13 (15:59):
well, I met skip in 2017 at a drone conference and
we've stayed in touch ever since, and when he was looking for
speakers, he asked me to comeand I couldn't say no, because
he's unique is an overused word,but he really is.
Yeah, he's so inspiring, soimaginative, hard working, and
he just gives and gives andgives to other people.

Speaker 3 (16:21):
So I couldn't say no yeah, and so what's your role in
the drone world?
What got you into drones orinvolved, uh, where Skip and you
got together and startedtalking?

Speaker 13 (16:34):
um, well, the summer is.
I've been taking photos sincethe 1970s.
I started selling photos in1982 and I went to work on
Australia's largest cattlestations, which are the largest
in the world, and then I startedtaking photos from helicopters,
mustering helicopters inAustralia and taking photos from
the back of horses, and this isfilmed the film era.

(16:56):
So I'd have to sit on the reinsand take photos with cameras in
really remote areas that youotherwise could not access,
except for on a horse, andbecause all the photos were
taken by visitors and theyweren't telling the stories
properly.
So that's how I got into it.
And then, when they made adrone good enough for my work

(17:17):
which was in 2016, phantom 4,that's when I got into drones I
looked for training.
There was no really goodquality, experience-based
training that was practical, andso I thought, right, well,
instead of whinging, I'll set upsome training.
I already ran photographyworkshops and then I've been
training ever since, and it wasvery, very practical and

(17:40):
realistic and myth-busting andrealistic and I miss busting.

Speaker 3 (17:44):
So you're training, so you've taken, obviously, a
career in photography industry,photography selling, and then,
when the drones 2016, yourealized the benefits in the
photography industry and thenyou now train, walk the audience
through what that trainingprogram looks, looks for for

(18:05):
photographers that areinterested in this sort of thing
mostly, um, well, I runworkshops, either agriculture
focused or general, so forpeople who are interested in a
career change, or students orwhatever, or they're
specifically photography.

Speaker 13 (18:22):
But it's also people who want to make money and they
want to know how, and it's sofast moving.
You know, I also write magazinestories, but the amount you get
paid now for magazine stories,the same you might have been
paid 20 years ago.
Um, I've also published books.
Well, the book publishingindustry now is really really
tough.
I published postcards.
That was back in the 90s.

(18:42):
Well, that's not a thinganymore, because no one even
buys stamps, right.
So I provide practical what'srealistic.
How can you sell photos?
How can you sell yourself?
And one of the main things Isay to people is know yourself,
know what you're good at, andthen find where there's a gap in
the market.
And, like a lot of people, Ihave adhd, which I only really

(19:04):
was diagnosed with recently.
There is a lot of people withadhd in the tech industries and
creative industries.
A lot of them have never beendiagnosed, um, and we see things
differently and sometimes youfeel like you're talking a
different language because yougo oh, that plus that equals
that, but other people can'tnecessarily see it you're seeing

(19:25):
things outside the box.

Speaker 3 (19:27):
Yeah, it's a creative thing.

Speaker 13 (19:29):
And when I heard that saying, I'm like, what box?
What if they were talking abouta box?
I don't see a box.
And I love that because, yes,I've always been interested in
different creative things I didout at school and I'm like a
typical person in this spherewho always felt they didn't fit

(19:49):
in, always felt they had to workharder, harder, harder,
perfectionist.
And there's a lot of us around,um, and particularly women,
because ADHD was thought to be anaughty boy thing in classroom,
right finally, they realisingthere's also quiet boys who have
ADHD.
There's a whole range.
So I particularly love when I'mtraining because I find people

(20:12):
particularly if they've builtmodel aircraft, for example
that's a classic example ofsomeone very often that can be
on the autism spectrum sometimesVery focused, super techie,
brilliant problem problem solverall these skills I don't have,
but I absolutely love thembecause often they the
confidence just went out of themat school.

(20:33):
They felt like they weren'tgood enough.
They might have struggled toread, they might have been
dyslexic, and they're brilliant.
And it breaks my heart thatthere's so many people running
around who are so skilled, sotalented and so giving.
Yet they really deserve to berecognized for the skills they

(20:54):
have and to have confidence inthemselves.

Speaker 3 (20:57):
They're dismissed because they don't fit into the
mold.
And what I see here is kids,young adults, adults from every
race males, females, differentcountries and they're all
engaged in something that istechnical.
It's on the STEM field.

(21:18):
They're learning aerodynamics,they're learning electronics.
We have a kid that'sprogramming.
These things are computerprograms.
This isn't a toy.
You know something I discussedwith Skip Gosh in 2013,.
These were throwaway toys.
2016,.
We have an industry toy.
You know all of these previousindustries you were in

(21:39):
publishing books, postcards, etc.
There's been industrydisruptors.
Well, these drones now areindustry disruptors.
And instead of you giving upand saying, well, looks like my
old film camera is no goodanymore, I've been doing this
for 30, some odd 40 years.
Well, I guess I'm done.
Nope, I'm going to learn dronesand I'm going to take it to the

(22:01):
next level and I'm going toactually teach this stuff.
I'm not giving.
Take it to the next level andI'm going to actually teach this
stuff.
I'm not giving up.
This is actually going to be.
I'm jumping on this bandwagon.
You saw it In 2016,.
What a lot of people arelearning is that was the
beginning.
2015, 14, 15, 15, 16 is whenindustry started seeing the
benefits and the technologystarted getting to a point where

(22:24):
it actually made sense to pushit into commerce and industry.

Speaker 13 (22:27):
Yeah, and you saw it yeah, yeah and well also, I've
had a lot of roadblocks, like alot of people in my kind of
field, people like me, a lot ofroadblocks and because I didn't
fit into a box, you know, likeon committees and stuff, I'm
like a bull in a china shopbecause, that's what I like.

Speaker 3 (22:44):
I like people like you.

Speaker 13 (22:45):
Well, I have a very low tolerance for rubbish is the
polite word for it.
I grew up on a farm.
What you see is what you get.
I love rural Australia andrural communities generally.
Farmers tend to be inventorsand not recognised for it.
But I've had a lot ofroadblocks and what I would do?
I'd get really, really angryand then I'd use that anger to

(23:12):
fuel a change.
I'd go right.
So what can I do to get aroundthis?
And so each time a market kindof fizzled or other people
copied what I did and kind ofundercutting me, I had to change
I need to go right.
What can I do what?
What skills do I have?
And so one of my things whenI'm running workshops is like
know yourself, figure out whatyou are good at and don't go
pursuing something Like if youhate sales, I hate sales.

(23:33):
Like sales is not me.
I love marketing because that'stelling stories, sales is.
I don't do sales Like knowyourself and don't make it hard
for yourself by pursuing acareer that requires things that
you really hate doing.
You're not good at doing.
You know.
That's the.
That's the key, really, and Iguess I guess it's lifelong too

(23:53):
really figuring out yourselfwhat you're good at where you
fit.

Speaker 3 (23:57):
Well, we and we.
We discovered the secret to allof this, and it's hard work,
knowing yourself, dedication,discipline.
You know things are going to beexciting at first.
Then the hard work kicks in and, generally speaking, the
rewards don't come for a longperiod of time later, sometimes

(24:17):
years.
That's the idea, and I loveyour philosophy.
You should start your ownpodcast.
Your passion is there.
Of course, you're busy with thetraining.
Where can people do you do thistraining in?
Just in australia, or is italso in the united states?

Speaker 13 (24:34):
no well, you can't most countries, you can't just
go and work there, you know youneed to work these are the whole
thing I would love to be ableto travel around and do
one-on-one training and whatnot,but but I can't.
But I can do event speaking inother countries because it's not
paid Right Generally at droneconferences, but otherwise I do
it in person and I actually geta lot of visitors to Australia

(24:54):
who will come and do one-on-onetraining.

Speaker 3 (24:56):
Fantastic.

Speaker 13 (24:56):
Yeah, and they are very thoughtful people generally
if they're motivated to do that.
But caring, you've got to careabout what you do because, like
you said, you'll have toughtimes and if you really care and
you have your heart in it, thatwill carry you through.

Speaker 3 (25:10):
That is the trick.
That's the trick to beingsuccessful.
Where can people find moreinformation about your training
program?

Speaker 13 (25:17):
I'm all over online.
I've got a big old website.
It's more than 20 years oldJust Fiona Lake.
If they Google that andphotography or drones or
something like that, they'llfind me online.

Speaker 3 (25:26):
Fantastic, that's excellent.
Thanks, fiona, you've beenfantastic with your time.
I love your smile.
Thank you, nice to meet you,vic Moss.
Yes, I'm excited to do thisbecause I just met you.
However, we speak a similarlanguage.
It's stuff that this littleorganization it's a small
organization called the FAA oh,that one I think I've heard of

(25:49):
them, yeah, yeah, that they kindof have some regulations that
me, as a pilot, have to follow.
Yeah, however, the droneindustry, aviators Aviators Are
required to follow rules.
Let's talk about that andexplain why it's important that
the drone industry understandswhat the FAA is trying to get

(26:12):
them to understand and why it'sa major safety concern for the
aviation world which the dronepilots are.
There are things in the air.

Speaker 11 (26:22):
Yes, they are.
The FAA is a safety andeducation organization.
They're not a punitiveorganization.
They're not a we're comingafter you organization, although
they do have that ability to dothat if you mess up enough.
You don't want to get the phonecall.

Speaker 3 (26:38):
Right, you don't want to get that phone call at all,
but they want to be safe.

Speaker 11 (26:43):
They want pilots, drone pilots and command
aviators, as well asrecreational flyers.
They want them to understandthat you are putting an aircraft
in the air, that's correct andthat it needs to be safe.
You need to stay a certainlevel below and you know, manned
aviation has to stay a certainlevel above for the most part,
has to stay a certain levelabove for the most part, and

(27:12):
that separation pretty muchalmost guarantees that we're not
going to have too many issueswith mid-air collisions, that
type of stuff.

Speaker 3 (27:15):
Yeah, so the FAA and you know air traffic control.
Their job is separationairspace separation.
For those that aren't pilots,aren't drone, but might be
getting interested our airspacethroughout the world is divided
into categories and these arevery important in the safety of

(27:39):
aircraft, which drones are beable to move through and avoid
each other and move safely in acoordinated event.
Right, a lot of drone pilotswere complaining when the FAA
started getting involved in thisand a lot of GA pilots general
aviation and commercial pilotswere cheering.

(27:59):
Right, because we wereconcerned with I fly small
aircraft.
Okay, because we were concernedwith I fly small aircraft.
Okay, you know a drone.
I'm coming at 150 knots and Ihit you know a small drone.
It's going to damage my wing,absolutely.
It will damage my prop.
Now I'm in an emergency,life-threatening situation, so
we were cheering.

(28:19):
What the FAA wanted to do hasthe drone industry embraced this
.

Speaker 11 (28:26):
I think for the most part, absolutely the vast
majority of drone pilots,including myself we don't come
from an aviation background.
I'm a photographer,videographer.
That's my life, that's what Ido, that's what my degree's in,
and so when I first got started,drones were just another camera
.
I like to tell people, it's thetallest, most versatile tripod
in the world.
But once you get into it andonce you understand that, you

(28:51):
take on that aviation mentalityand safety culture mentality.
Yeah, the regulations are therefor a good reason.
There's always outliers,there's always the.
Oh, it doesn't apply to me,folks.
There's always outliers,there's always the.
You know the oh, it doesn'tapply to me, folks.
I think the FAA has a set ofdangerous attitudes which are
always fun to explore, but forthe most part, I think that the

(29:16):
industry as a whole, absolutely100%, has accepted and really
embraced the safety culture.
Good, and really embraced thesafety culture Good.
There are regulations that youknow the FAA is always kind of
bolding forms a little bit withthe regulation.
You know every four years theyredo the FAA Reauthorization Act

(29:36):
, so it's changing a little bitand it's making things a little
easier for us to fly.
But there's yeah, you know, youthrow your mavic mini up, um,
you know, 250 feet away you're.
You know, in my eyes, at my age, you know I'm beyond visual
line of sight because I can'treally see it that well um, but
that's not what the fa reallycares about.
The fa wants you to be, wantsyou to be safe, wants you to
understand what the rules are.

(29:57):
You talked about controlledairspace.
When and where you're supposedto fly in controlled airspace,
or if, if you're going to be inGulf airspace, there's certain
other things you need to do, butit's been embraced, I think,
for the vast, vast, vastmajority of ground pilots and
recreational flyers, those thatknow it.

Speaker 3 (30:15):
So, yeah, you talk about the attitudes and we study
those.
You know worst pilots.
Arrogance is a terrible traitof a pilot.
Humility there's a lot ofthings that pilots deal with.
I study every aircraft incidentthat the ntsb puts out there
and it is amazing in the ga, inthe um piloting world, where

(30:41):
such disregard for you knowthese.
Some of the things I'm justblown away that they'll do and
they've killed their family orthis and that, embracing these
rules, they're there for areason.
If somebody's in the droneindustry and they want to do it
correctly, they want to be saved, they want to understand and
understand.
I love what you said when yousat down and it was we're

(31:02):
aviators, you know it's.
It's.
This is a burgeoning industry.
Right, you know, we talked toskip in 2013.
They were throwaway toys.
Yeah, yeah 2014, about 2015, ish, industry starts looking at
these things.
The technology started comingaround cameras, these types of

(31:25):
things.
It's not a toy and, yes, youare an aviator.
You are not behind thewindshield right, but you are in
airspace.
What are what?
What are the licenses that thefaa uh is requiring for drone
pilots, and why would, and, andat what point is it a
requirement and what point is itan option?

Speaker 11 (31:46):
sure, um basically it's broken down into two
categories.
Well, there's others.
There's, you know you're flyingwith uh, you know, flying under
a public co as a firstresponders.
You know, we don't, we won'tget into that, because that's
that's a whole other thing.
But you have your default setof rules.
You've got what's called 14 CFR, part 107.
It's regulatory rules.
Cfr stands for CautifiedFederal Rules.

(32:08):
You have Part 107 under theFARs that control all aspects of
drone flying, whether it's nota commercial license.
People really don't understandthat.
It's the default set of rules.
So if you're going to fly adrone in the airspace in the
United States, you have to flyunder Part 107, with one major

(32:30):
exception, and that would be 49USC 44809, which is called the
recreational rules, theexception of 107, something like
that.
You're doing better than I am,at least quoting the parts, yeah
, well, yeah, trust me, I dothat.

Speaker 3 (32:47):
I work with the faa on stuff so anybody that knows
the the uh, the book, the fact,the far it's, it's bigger than
anything.
You see it's about three inchesthick.

Speaker 11 (32:57):
It's funny it's and but drones just have a little
bit of it, which is kind of fun.
Um, but if you want to flyunder recreational rules, the
FAA realized that, look, ifyou're going to fly under 107,
there are certain rules you needto apply and you have to be
held to a higher standard.
But if you just want to putyour little Mavic Mini up at the
park assuming that's legalaccording to your local drone
laws these are the rules youneed to follow.

(33:20):
There's eight very simplelittle rules, the main one that
everybody seems to forget thatgets wrong is you just have to
fly 100% for recreational,that's it.
Just if you're out just havingfun flying around, you can fly
under 4409.
Then you have to register yourdrone.
If it's over 250 grams, youhave to take what's called the
TRUST.
So the Recreational UnmannedSafety Test Okay, that's a free

(33:41):
online test.
I mean, best place is justtrustpilotinstitutecom.
It's free and it's required, nomatter, and there's no age
limit on that.
If you're flying under 250grams and purely recreational,
you don't have to worry aboutregistering your drone.
So that's nice.
We had an issue with one suchdrone here in LA a while back

(34:03):
when he hit the super scooperbecause that was an unregistered
recreational drone but he wasnot flying legally.
And then there's a few otherrules you have to follow.
It's called a CBO, soCommunity-Based Organization
Safety Rules that have beendeveloped with the FAA.
But if you just Google 49USA44809, you can find those eight
rules.
It's very, very simple to flyunder them.

(34:25):
You have your little trust cardand you can fly.
It's fun, it is a lot of fun.

Speaker 3 (34:33):
Now, do you fly recreationally or professionally
?

Speaker 11 (34:39):
I fly for my clients , so definitely professionally.
I fly for fun myself too.

Speaker 3 (34:43):
I mean you know too.

Speaker 11 (34:45):
It's like flying a drone.
It's fun.
Of course, I'm going to havefun with it sometimes Plus it's
a skill, it is a skill set.

Speaker 3 (34:50):
It's very much a skill set, so this isn't
something you just pick up oncein a while.
No no, especially if you'regoing to be professional at it.

Speaker 11 (34:56):
If you're going to be doing any kind of cinematic
movement yeah, I don't havegreat weather part of the year,
believe it or not.
So I tell people, get a little,you know, get something like an
Emax, tiny Hawk or Centaurus orwhatever and fly it around the

(35:18):
house, because it's the samestick skill, but you're always
doing that.
So if you're, if you're goingto do cinematic moves, you
definitely need to stay on thesticks very nicely and very
smoothly.
If you're going to be takingphotographs, um, I do a lot of
photographs.
Hey, there's one of myphotographs right there.
Um, sorry, um and um.
That's not so critical to bethat critical on the sticks.

(35:42):
But when I first started, all Icared about was photos.
So I didn't care.
So I'd fly to a spot, fly toanother spot, fly to another
spot, take my photos.
What I figured out along theway was I spent the first two or
three years flying drones, notpracticing my cinematography,
because I would just fly to mynext still photograph.
It's like a zoom, real quick,you know.
But while you're doing that,practice your stick skill.

(36:04):
So quick, you know.
But if you, while you're doingthat, practice your stick skill,
so when you're ready to do thatcinematic cinematic or cinema
cinematic, sorry movement for tvor whatever.
Um you're not learning overagain.

Speaker 3 (36:16):
You're not unlearning bad habits to learn new ones
one of the things that wasinspiring to me learning about
these drones is the high-payingjobs that can come with skilled
pilots.
The industries that it covers,oh yeah, and the list gets
longer and longer and longer.

(36:36):
What's your personal experiencein the—you've been a
photographer most of your life.

Speaker 11 (36:44):
I've been a photographer for 40 years.
I run my business.

Speaker 3 (36:46):
So we just spoke to another photographer and you
entered into an industrydisruptor called the drones.
Well, you guys went throughfilm, then you went through
digital and then these drones.
You embraced it, oh, big time.
You embraced it instead of.
This is for them young kids,this technology.

(37:07):
I'm definitely not a young kid,and what's interesting, though,
that I found is you embraced itearly on.
You're an early adopter.
I've been flying since 2012.
So you were real early.
You basically weren't when itstarted, and were you excited
about it.

Speaker 11 (37:21):
Then it was.
I'm sitting there watching thisstuff come out.
I have reached out to a clientand said, hey, there's these
things called drones.
I specialize in architecturalphotography, so I work with
general contractors, work witharchitects, stuff like that and
one of my large generalcontractor clients was they
would pay this guy to fly his172 or 182 or whatever.

(37:43):
This guy to fly his 172 or 182or whatever over their
construction projects and takefour shots.
Take four shots from everysingle, you know, from every
every uh compass angle and printthem out.
Pay him 250 bucks.
It's like I can do that betterfor you.
Yeah, I have this little thing.
You know, there's these thingscalled drones with a little

(38:08):
GoPro underneath this, um, soobviously the fisheye was always
fun, but's why I tried it likeshe was.
Yeah, give it a shot, let metry.
And I've been working for themever since.
Actually, I have even nowtrained their general, their
project managers, to fly.
So actually I trained myselfout of a job, but, um, I know it
was worth it for them, uh, andthey embraced it big time.
But it's just another angle ofview that you can give your

(38:29):
client as an architecturalphotographer.
It opens up the skies to me,literally and figuratively.
I can do things with with mycamera at 400 feet or 300 feet
or even 75 feet.
I can't do any other way.

Speaker 3 (38:45):
No, and from a GA, and when we were saying 172, 182
, they're small airplanes.
You know you have so many otherfactors other than taking the
picture.
I mean, there are factors whenyou're flying a drone, I
understand, but not like in anairplane where you're flying low
altitude in a multi hundreds ofthousands of dollar aircraft

(39:10):
costing you a ton of money tofly it.
The accident rates at lowaltitude are astronomical.
So what these drones have doneacross the industry is created a
whole higher level of safety.
Yes, you know, we've eliminateda lot of the guys hanging off

(39:32):
the side of buildings washingwindows Yep Contractors.
Slipping off roofs washingsolar panels, Yep Helicopters
running into power lines tryingto clean power lines.
You know, just the smallairplanes taking photos.
I like, though, that you are aphotographer and you didn't
disregard the change.

Speaker 11 (39:51):
You embraced it.

Speaker 3 (39:52):
And this is what we talk about on the podcast.
Life's going to changecontinuously.
Technologies are going tochange.
Adapt, move forward with it,learn it.
You might find it to be fun.
Adapt or die.
You have to.
Yeah, and I can see the passion.
Yeah, I got a little bit ofpassion in me, which I like, and
thank you for being anambassador for the FAA rules the

(40:18):
understanding why it'simportant to pilots.
I love the fact that you'retelling these drone operators
you're aviators, you are in thesky even though your feet are on
the ground.
Thank you so much.
Absolutely, I appreciate it.

Speaker 11 (40:31):
That was an awful lot of fun, thanks, thank you,
thank you, I'll do it this way,yeah, yeah, yeah, a broken hand,
a left-handed?
Yeah, definitely Cool.

Speaker 3 (40:37):
Thank you, thank you yourself.

Speaker 10 (40:40):
Yep, my name is William Carr.
I'm the director of educationaltechnology and information
services here in Palm SpringsUnified School District and how
are you doing?

Speaker 3 (40:49):
I'm doing fantastic.
So last night I watched youorganize all of these schools,
all these teams, these droneteams.
They were excited.
They seemed just engaged inthis whole event that we're
doing.
And you're there as each ofthese teams came through,

(41:12):
bringing this to the young kids.
These are young kids that wewere looking at elementary
schools, middle schools you knowthere was high schools, but
bringing them at a young level.
What was your passion for that?
Schools, but bringing them at ayoung level.

Speaker 10 (41:25):
What was your passion for that we started out
with middle school and highschool was what we thought was
the right mixture.
But then we started thinking islike we're trying to create a
lifelong program or get kidshooked to go down those career
paths of different drone pilots.
We asked ourselves, could westart earlier?
And so we did.
We just gave it a shot.

(41:45):
We found a really cool teacherand we tried it as a pilot at
one of our elementary schoolsand I couldn't believe how much
fun the kids had and how seriousthey were about it they're more
serious about it than themiddle school and high school
kids and then the teacher.
The amount of feedback we gotfrom them was just like their

(42:08):
attitudes changed in class alittle bit.
It's like we it's like you hearthis a lot, probably but we
kind of gave the kids an agencyand a voice.
Yes, they were now part of agroup of about seven pilots now
and they were all trying tojockey to get on the team or be
the head pilot.
And once we saw that kind oftake form and it was easy for us

(42:29):
to support it and it wasn'tjust a fluke we decided that,
well, what would this look likeat a few other schools, rinse
and repeat.
The success kept happening.
And so now it's at all of ourelementaries and it's easy to
support and, most importantly,there's so many STEM and the

(42:51):
four Cs.
There's so much curriculum andlearning opportunities that are
applied to when you get a groupof kids together and they have
to talk strategy, they have totroubleshoot their drone, they
have to look at something thatfailed, think about it and try
again, and so it was like awin-win.
And I know this is a longanswer to your question, but

(43:12):
once we saw it and once theprincipals saw it and sometimes
feedback from the parents, weknew that this would be part of
Palm Springs across all of ourelementaries and our middle
schools and high schools as well.
But we never thought it wouldtake hold so strong at our
middle schools or, excuse me,elementary schools, and the
turnout today kind of showed itit was uh we have a bunch of
folks here and the excitement wehad kids come up to us, the

(43:36):
questions that these I believethis middle school is asking
it's.

Speaker 3 (43:40):
You're staring at him and he's.
He's talking about I'm tryingto design my drone, I'm working
on my coding, I'm trying tofigure out the coordination of
them and you sit there and saythese kids are being taught to
think.

Speaker 10 (43:53):
That's the key, right?
That's what happens.
Education is you're trying tomake them be able to solve
problems, right?
We don't want to give them theanswer.
That should be the way it is,that's the way it should be.
That's the way a lot of ourfriends in Northern Europe and
other places.
They teach you how to solve theproblems.
You want to be able to comeacross a university and figure
out how to get through it, andso that was a perfect.

(44:14):
That's exactly right.
What you said is if a studentlooks at something and they're
like I'm trying to figure out A,b or C, and then when they get
to their prototype and they testit and then they tweak it again
, that young man or young womanis going to do well in life and
that's what we want to do.
And so sometimes it's hard.
So often our teachers are tryingto teach and tell and instead

(44:39):
of giving them the opportunityto problem solve and explore and
so drones is perfect for theproblem solving and explore as a
team.
They succeed or fail, and thenthey have to think about it and
talk.
As they get into designingdrones or going through some of
the coursework, they have tothink about different
applications of using the drone,and then, when they do it, they

(45:00):
try to lift something up orthey try to move something.
If it doesn't work, they tryagain and try again.
So, uh, getting kids to thinkand getting kids to not stop.
So we the grit and perseverance.
And then, of course, uh, givingthem a little bit of the carrot
, which is the Jones soccermatch, which is fun, it's just,
it's an educational successstory.

(45:22):
It truly is.

Speaker 3 (45:22):
But I love what you said.
As you described, the processis the learning through failure.
Yes, the education system ingeneral is you fail, you're
wrong, you're not punishedAlmost.

Speaker 4 (45:37):
It's almost like punishment.

Speaker 3 (45:38):
You failed, do better next time.
Right, get a bad grade?
Yeah, this, and if we can teachthem that through critical
thinking, that failure isinevitable, that yeah, it's
difficult what you're doing,don't give up, uh, and that's
part of the path to success.
I see the pro.

(45:59):
You're right on.
You're right on.
One of the questions that Ihave is when you decided,
decided this might be somethingto introduce to the schools, was
there questions from theparents Like what are?
you going to do?
Teach my kids.
Why are they going to school toplay with toys Right?

Speaker 10 (46:15):
So you're absolutely right.
We have tons of kids, we have22,000 students and a lot of
parents, and so when we pilot it, we look for those unique
standouts, both good and a lotof parents.
And so when we pilot it, welook for those unique standouts,
both good and bad, so we canplan for the next rollout.
And so we always forward, faceit with a learning opportunity
and that learning opportunitycan be a social learning

(46:36):
opportunity.
It can be a way for the kids tobe more excited to show up to
school and for those parentsthat really, really care about
standards and and math science,all those things we have a
curriculum that does align.
And most importantly you kindof mentioned a second ago is a
coding.
There's so many things we can dowith autonomous drone coding

(46:58):
and we do that with the roboticsand drones.
So some of the parents theysome of them were a little tough
on us at first because maybethey care mostly about normal
curriculum.
However, when they watch themdo a tournament because we also
do small in-house tournamentsand when those parents show up
they watch it I try to get thoseparents to hop in that arena,

(47:21):
grab a controller and fly andsomething magic happens, like
the inner child pops out, theystart smiling and they're
normally like they have thoseresting mad faces and they're
smiling ear to ear.
And I have a bunch of picturesof those folks that go from like
, okay, there's a problem.
Parent to a kid.

Speaker 3 (47:40):
Something in their childhood comes up that they had
to put away.
They had to put their toys awayat some point.
Educating the parents that itis a full course.
It's not only STEM, it's social.

Speaker 4 (47:53):
It's social.

Speaker 3 (47:55):
There's so much to it .
It's physical.
They're having to work withthings.
Having this problem solved,they have to work together.
So many kids get isolated insocial media and all this stuff.
They do this.
So engineering, I mean some ofthese kids might just become
actual pilots behind in cockpitsbecause they love the concept,
especially like the, the fpv,and they're like I want to be

(48:17):
the guy actually in the machine,not on the ground.
I mean the careers are amazing.

Speaker 10 (48:22):
You're at, you're right on spot and you say pilots
and you say aviation.
You know, as kids get to thehigh school level we offer them
a 107 program.
So they go into an LMS and theystart preparing for their true
drone license 107, which roughly70% of that is your small pilot
license material.
So a lot of kids that gothrough that they're like, wow,

(48:43):
maybe I will be a pilot.

Speaker 3 (48:44):
I just knocked out almost 70% of a part of the
coursework by getting my dronelicense, you knocked out some of
the most difficult parts.
I'm a pilot Awesome and solearning to fly the plane is
kind of like learning to fly thedrone, kind of.
It's a skill set, yes, and itjust takes time and money.

Speaker 7 (49:03):
A lot of money.

Speaker 3 (49:04):
But part of the test that is so difficult is the
written exam.
Many people fail it first timeout.
A larger percentage of pilotspass their check ride okay.
Then the actual written examand then you go into and there's
as many other exams you got totake so to get that portion out

(49:25):
of the way knocked out.
It's or a nice foundation, atleast it's built up, yeah and
just understand how airspaceworks, understand how aviation
works, understand thecoordination it's just a
beautiful thing that happens andwhat the fa is actually about.

Speaker 10 (49:38):
Right, and then their job and I was a.
I was a major new.
I don't have my 107, but I havethree of my technicians that
work for me that do have their107.
You're the ambassador, thoughYou're building the program.
I want to do it, I got to makethe time, but that was their
exact same statement that youjust said was like there's so
much that doesn't you don't haveto, that doesn't even deal with
drones directly, that I had tomemorize and focus on.

(50:00):
It was like more about airspaceand radio frequencies and when
you're over this area versusthis area, and so they had a
hard time struggling with a partof the test as well.

Speaker 3 (50:11):
Well, just because their feet are on the ground,
they're aviators.
They're aviators.
I kind of try to make themunderstand.
They need to understand thatthey're up there with the guys
behind the cockpit, make themunderstand.
They need to understand thatthey're up there with the guys
behind the cockpit.
They're up, they, you knowthey're sharing the
three-dimensional space withother and it is a serious it was
a serious safety concern, uh,for pilots.
But we love that the fea faaand that the drone community and

(50:34):
that the education community is, is is getting the information
out there and expressing whyit's important.
And then the passion,especially with these young kids
, I mean to give them this idea.
I mean there's just this senseof I there's.
I'm not going to make it inthis world.
You know the american dream ishappening a lot right now and

(50:55):
it's like well, wait a minute, Ican.
I can learn all these skills andmake a good living this whole
career.
I can do things in almost everyindustry.

Speaker 10 (51:05):
It is it's growing like crazy.
And you hit the hammer on thenail perfectly again on the head
there.
Sorry I messed that one up, butwe're a huge golfing community.
Out here in the Valley we haveabout 130 golf courses and I
know a few superintendents andsome of them have been
approaching me saying in thevalley we have about 130 golf
courses and I know a fewsuperintendents and some of them
have been approaching me saying, hey, do you have students that
can film our new redesign ofour ninth hole?

(51:27):
Because most of our members arein Jackson Hole or up in other
areas and we want to show them anice visual of what the new
signature holes are going tolook like.
Do you have any kiddos?
They started asking me this awhile ago and I go, I really
don't right now, but now we'retrying to line these folks up
with this To the part 107, theimportance of that is ridiculous

(51:47):
to opening the doors of gettinga job.
We at the district, as soon asa student is ready to take the
test, our foundation pays forthem to take the certification,
which is super cool.
We have a funding mechanismwhen a student is ready, they go
and take the test in Redlands.

Speaker 3 (52:04):
How many schools is this program in now?

Speaker 10 (52:07):
right now, the drone soccer program is in all our
schools, however.
We created a class about sixyears ago called the art of
drones.
That's offered in our middleschools and one pilot in high
school and it's tied to CTE atthe high school.
At the middle schools it's anelective and what they do
through the art of drone justreal quick, in a nutshell, is we

(52:28):
go through safety, designingdrones, parts of the drones,
drones in business applications.
Then they get to go into flyingthe drone, a little bit of FPV,
a little bit of line sightstuff.
Then we sprinkle incinematography photos.
In the last part of it.

Speaker 3 (52:45):
This is like college level curriculum.

Speaker 10 (52:48):
When I heard Skip was doing this in Grossmont I
said let me see your curriculum.
He's like most of it's up hereand I go.
I have a curriculum.
We built it.
It went through trial and errorfor middle school and high
school and then the last part isdrone soccer.
So at the end of this classwe're taking the normal class.
The last section of it is dronesoccer and any of the kids that
are in that compete.
On top of that, every schoolhas a drone soccer club.

(53:09):
We pay the teacher a stipend sothere's no cost to the schools.
We provide the equipment at thisearly phases and my goal is
that you know our districtstarts cranking out kids that
have a pathway to grow smartfirst, directly into the
industry.
That's what our true goal is.
I think we're like three yearsaway from perfecting it.
The reason why we're so excitedabout it is it's not hard to

(53:33):
get the kids excited.
It's hard to get the kids tosit down and want to do math,
even though math is awesome.
It's hard to get the kids intolanguage arts.
A of kids go to sports.
A lot of kids like theater.
Almost all kids love this.

Speaker 3 (53:47):
Kids without and their parents when they, when
they, their frown turns upsidedown.
Exactly, you're absolutelyright.
Well, listen, thank you foractually getting these kids
prepared to come out of theeducation system with the option
of an actual career that theypotentially could love the rest
of their life.
Amen, they've never seen that,and you know what they're

(54:10):
learning now, without even themoney in mind, and they're going
to fall in love with it.
And if you can do somethingwithout a focus on the money and
just love getting up on Mondaymorning and going to do what you
love, the money will follow.

Speaker 5 (54:26):
You're absolutely right and you'll be taken care
of.

Speaker 3 (54:27):
Okay, well, skip, you're back again.

Speaker 5 (54:30):
Yes, I am, and you pulled this off.
Well, we're not done yet, butmy responsibility was last
night's show streamed on NBC infront of a thousand people with
a thousand drones in the air,FPV drones in the air, the
Korean FPV drone that goes 150,a two-hour synchronized

(54:51):
choreograph event that wasrehearsed to the minute.

Speaker 3 (54:53):
Amazing.

Speaker 5 (54:55):
And we started at seven, supposed to end at nine.
Oh my God, we started at sevenand ended at nine.

Speaker 3 (55:00):
Things actually were on time scheduled.
You did a fantastic job.
I was absolutely blown away bythe drone, the thousand drone
performers.
That should be 4th of Julyfireworks.

Speaker 5 (55:13):
Well, a lot of cities use those drones for 4th of
July and the fireworks.
What made our program differentwas usually the drones just go
up and do the show, kind of likefireworks just go up and show.
But what we did was the slides.
The images represented theevent itself.
We had Star Wars, we had dronesoccer, we had the violin for
Esther, and then her music wastimed to each slide change.

(55:38):
So she's a professional.
It was easy to time it.
Well, probably not for anybodyelse, but we knew the drone
light show was 11 minutes 22seconds, believe it or not.
The Jedi routine was 14 minutesand 30 seconds and then her
routine was interlaced with that.
So she knew when the droneswere going up and that's why she

(56:01):
started playing her violin.
Everything was choreographed.
It was crazy.

Speaker 3 (56:04):
It was one of the best shows I've been to.
Oh thanks.
This is the first year of theDrone Fest in Palm Springs 2025.
Amazing turnout.
What are we looking for years?

Speaker 5 (56:18):
to come.
Well, brett.
Paul said he's going to help me.
Yeah, paul's behind the camera.
Paul said he's going to help me, yeah.

Speaker 3 (56:22):
Paul's behind the camera.

Speaker 5 (56:24):
Paul said he's going to volunteer to help me out so
that I'm not so stressed out asI was.
It took me two months.
So I teach at Grossmont, as youall know, monday, wednesday,
friday.
It took me two months and thisis no BS every Tuesday, thursday
, saturday and Sunday to workthat performance out.
I mean hours and hours of work,not including inviting all the

(56:46):
celebrity speakers that I'mfriends with from the industry
and then helping Tim Ingram withthe logistics here, but not too
much.
I mean he's FIDA USA and FIDAInternational, so all that
competition with these peoplefrom all over the world.
He's running that thatlogistically.
Um, I'm glad that's not me atall.
Just there's like a thousandkids in there.

Speaker 3 (57:07):
I couldn't handle that well.
It's amazing to see how manykids and adults are into this
feta drone soccer.
It's amazing to see we're gonnahave of it.
We got some footage of it lastnight.
You can't describe it unlessyou're actually looking at it.
It's a light show.
It's intense quick actioncompetition and they've got a

(57:30):
billion people a year watchingsome of these competitions.

Speaker 5 (57:32):
You were saying yeah, in the Pacific Rim, where this
started in Korea, yeah, there'sabout a billion people that
watch the world finals that aregoing to be in September in
Korea.
I went last year for my firsttime.
It was Tim's third trip.
It was amazing the hospitality,the city, the event.
Harley Davidson of Korea isreally cool too.

(57:53):
That was awesome, all theHarley Davidson logos in.
Korea.
It was trippy, so I had a blastwhen.

Speaker 3 (57:59):
I was there.
Well, you know what wassurprising?
Well, not surprising, but I'msurprised at how huge this drone
world is.
But the people that came tosupport we had the mayor of Palm
Springs, yes, we had.

Speaker 5 (58:11):
Desert Hot Springs mayor.

Speaker 3 (58:12):
Desert Hot Springs mayor, we had high-level school
district people coming here.
They're promoting it within theschools in their science
programs.
This gives these kids anopportunity for a high-paying
career and have fun doing it.
And you're behind a lot of this.

Speaker 5 (58:31):
Yeah, the training program that all the schools use
is the training program thatPaul was part of, but as a
student and as an instructor, aprofessor, and we either scale
it down for first graders or wescale it up for college students
.
But these kids can actuallystart with drone soccer in first

(58:52):
grade and work their way upthrough the system and come out,
let's say, at Grosmont College,hopefully one of the colleges
in the Palm Springs district,and get a high-paying job.

Speaker 3 (59:06):
And it's an international appeal.
We had teams from Mexico, korea, singapore, europe, united
States a plethora of youngelementary school kids, middle
school kids, teams.
These people are on a path,they're having fun.
Now they're in competition,they're learning teamwork and
they're moving towards ahigh-paying career if they stick

(59:27):
to it.
Yeah, exactly, it is amazingwhat you guys are doing.

Speaker 5 (59:30):
Thank you, I'm really glad you guys came.
I mean, I know you know to takeyou out of your really cool
studio and stick you here andall this crazy is just crazy.

Speaker 3 (59:39):
Well, this lines up with what we do on the podcast,
talking to ordinary people doingextraordinary things.
You're the ordinary persondoing extraordinary things.
Yeah, I guess that's the energylevel you have.
Skip, I mentioned to Paul acouple times.
I don't know how you do it.
You were on the move for MrMoon Four hours straight.
You need to do this.

Speaker 5 (01:00:01):
Oh yeah, that was the head of the FIDA International.
Excellent.
I'm sorry to interrupt you, buthe's like the big cheese.

Speaker 3 (01:00:08):
This is what you do when you're at a convention.

Speaker 5 (01:00:11):
Yeah, we're live.
This is like really happening,real right now.
There's hundreds of thousandsof kids playing.
There's motocross freestyle FPV.
There's rocket drone FPVtraining.
There's motocross freestyle FPV.
There's rocket drone FPVtraining.
The Jedi performers from lastnight are giving seminars to the
kids on how to use lightsabersand stuff.
It's just.
There's so much things going on.

Speaker 3 (01:00:31):
They were amazing, those, the Jedi.
I mean, this is something theystudy.
Is they do this for cinematicor they're trying to?

Speaker 5 (01:00:38):
No, they're career professionals.

Speaker 3 (01:00:41):
Wow.

Speaker 5 (01:00:41):
So Fiona just finished the Batman movie.
They do motion capture for likeRiot video games.
They've done all kinds ofmovies.
They do the training whenthey're not filming.
Excellent so they're actuallyperformers in the industry.

Speaker 3 (01:00:59):
Well, we'll get some of that footage on this.
It's amazing to watch.

Speaker 5 (01:01:04):
I'd like to drag Fiona over here, the head Star
Wars girl, absolutely Definitely, so she can tell you about the
career.
It's really amazing what theydid and they worked on this for
months, choreographing it, andit was fun where we were staying
at the Airstreams they weregoing through the rehearsal
yesterday and just and it wasfun where we were staying at the
Airstreams, they were goingthrough the rehearsal yesterday
and just out at the pool.

Speaker 3 (01:01:24):
It was something to see I mean I really loved it.
The dedication from everybodyI've seen, from the production
crews, the camera crews, thetalent, I mean everyone's having
fun.
Yeah, that's what I noticed.
It wasn't a well, you lookstressed, but everyone else
seemed to be having a heck of atime fun, but everyone else
seemed to be having a heck of atime fun and enjoying this
amazing technology.

Speaker 5 (01:01:43):
Well, the show was live at 7, and at 6.45, it was
so hot out there that the powerblew from the school.
The fuses blew and theycouldn't get a fix, or will the
supervisor of this district, Ithink?
They ran people down to HomeDepot and bought a generator and

(01:02:05):
it was in the box and theyplugged everything in, pulled
the rope and we were live on theair at 7.
It was crazy, didn't you see,when the screens deflated I saw
that, yeah, yeah we lost powerto everything.

Speaker 3 (01:02:18):
Well, who made that decision?
Thinking on your feet, if it'sgoing to go wrong, it's going to
.

Speaker 5 (01:02:24):
At least they did it before we went on the air.
It was crazy.
But yeah, he sent somebody down, they bought it, put it in they
were putting the gas on thefield and just pulled that rope,
started it, everything going,the bounce house screens went
Back, back back, Everything wasup and I was like you've got to
be kidding me.
Somebody told me that Mercuryis in retrograde and that's why
everything went wrong this week.

Speaker 3 (01:02:46):
I just think somebody let Murphy in and he put his
laws together.
You've got to, you know, listenanytime you put on a big event
like this and I guarantee youthe audience did not see any of
the glitches.
They were screaming, clapping.
They had their camera phonelights out.
It was like a high-end concert.
When Esther Anaya came outplaying her violin.

(01:03:08):
She's the DJ for the Los AngelesChargers and she was just
rocking this and then the dronesgoing up and her with her
violin.
It just was, it was neat, right, it was amazing.
I just stood there like, wow,this is nothing like I thought
it was going to be.

Speaker 5 (01:03:25):
But it's like I've done.
What was great was a lot ofthese people.
I don't want to say it was likea favor.
I mean everybody got paid, butit really wasn't what they get
paid.
So all of my these are friendsof mine in the industry and I
said, you know, I kind of need alittle help and everybody

(01:03:48):
stepped up to help me out tocreate this thing.
So that's why it was it reallymeant something.
Because Esther I've known for 15years.
I met her at the Latina USApageant.
She was a performer.
We did a thing with Pitbullthat was put on by a guy named
Amada Salinas, who's also inthis town as a producer, and she

(01:04:12):
was willing to come out here.
She just finished a 25-citytour, so she was willing to come
out here and work with thisFiona, the Jedi's and Jasmine.
They just finished a big filmproduction and they were willing
to come out here and take careof this.
You know, you guys, I mean Paul, he's so helpful.

(01:04:32):
So it was really nice to be ableto have people that I yeah, I'm
live on TV, but if you want tocome, I'm live on a podcast.
But if you want to come to theentrance because I'm talking
about you.
It's all bad stuff.
You might want to clear the airbecause I just said
unbelievable things.

(01:04:52):
It's the live stream right inthe entrance, the very entrance,
no, the very entrance where thedrone soccer is.
Sorry to interrupt you people.
This is Amano Salinas.
He was the guy I was talkingweird stuff about.
He runs the city.
Okay, all right.
All right, he's a veteran, he'sthe head of the American Legion

(01:05:13):
in California, he's a formerambassador and he's some Navy
dude.
Now I think he's a Republican.
I don't hold that against him.
Old school Republican, you know, not the weirdo ones.
And okay, all this hate mail isgoing to come towards me.
Hey, listen if you hate on me,I'm from Hollywood, California.
You can assume what you wantabout my political things

(01:05:34):
without me talking about itHollywood.
Yo, I lived on HollywoodBoulevard.
I did.
Oh, there he is.
Oh, I made so much fun of you.
Hey, if you've got a minutewhen I'm done, they would love
to talk to you.
This is a huge.
He's got 100,000 subscribers.
Oh, you watched it.
Yeah, yeah for you.

Speaker 4 (01:05:52):
I'm going to commentate to smack, all right.

Speaker 5 (01:05:54):
Okay, so anyway, I think I should probably turn it
over to him.
Let's do it, since I trashedhim so much.

Speaker 3 (01:06:02):
Let's you know, skip, keep doing what you're doing.
The reason why everybody'shelping you out is because of
the support you give back to thecommunity.

Speaker 5 (01:06:11):
Yeah, I try to.
Well, it's obvious, yeah, Iguess these kids, it's amazing.

Speaker 4 (01:06:17):
They just are loving this.
As we talked on, the podcast.

Speaker 3 (01:06:20):
It was just a toy in 2013, and now it's an industry.
Thanks, skip.
Thank you so much again.
Well, introduce yourself.

Speaker 4 (01:06:27):
Good afternoon everyone.
My name is Amato C Salinas II.
I am a Navy veteran.
I'm also the NationalLegislative Counsel for the
American Legion and the ViceChair of Foreign Relations and
national security for theDepartment of California, and
I'm also on the NationalCommissions and Bylaws Committee
, so you're not and president ofthe Navy League here in Palm

(01:06:49):
Springs greater Palm Springs soyou're pretty bored then,
absolutely.
You know, after my daughterleft off from college we have
the emptiness.
But actually it's my give backto our veterans.

Speaker 3 (01:06:58):
Excellent.
So my son is a retired Navyofficer.
Now flies for American AirlinesPaul, behind the camera, Navy.
So Navy's a big deal in ourfamily.

Speaker 4 (01:07:09):
Go Navy absolutely.

Speaker 3 (01:07:10):
Absolutely go Navy.
So what's your role today hereat the convention, at the Strong
Convention?
How are you supporting thiswhole thing?
I'm actually troubleshooting atthe Strone Convention.
How are you supporting thiswhole thing?

Speaker 4 (01:07:19):
I'm actually troubleshooting.
If there's a problem, we goahead and address it to make
sure everything moves forwardsmoothly.
So I'm not relegated to anycertain position.
Like I said, I'mtroubleshooting, find what's
wrong, find out how to fix itand get it moving forward and
keep the show going Absolutely.
We just had a drowned electricsystem where the scoring board

(01:07:40):
wasn't working and it's like hey, you know, this is where my
aerospace engineer comes in.
Take it apart, put it together,they're like it works.

Speaker 3 (01:07:47):
so wow, um the your part.

Speaker 4 (01:07:50):
You're the president of veterans society I am the
national legislative council forthe american legion, which is
all the veterans okay, whetherit's here or international.
So I travel to Korea, centralAmerica, south America, panama,
on behalf of and representingour veterans, to assure our
veterans overseas and on CONUSthe continental US, off CONUS,

(01:08:14):
those people that do not live inthe continental US about their
benefits and also to remind themto keep their membership up
because I'm their advocate.
I work with our Congress andour Senate to get bills passed.
An example we just introducedHR 439.
That bill goes ahead and makessure that our 100% permanent and
total disabled veterans, whenthey're off CONUS, get medical

(01:08:38):
coverage.
If they were in the US theywould get their medical coverage
, but since they're off the US,they have to pay for their own
medical coverage and hopefullythey'll be reimbursed.
Bill HR 439 allows them to thenget the medical coverage paid
for and we're hoping tomodernize the FMP program so
it's mobile, like the VA systemis, and it's automatic deposit

(01:09:01):
checks versus having to wait forsnail mail.

Speaker 3 (01:09:03):
No, it shouldn't be that way, not for our veterans.
And what's interesting is, alot of these veterans actually
actively serve overseas.
And now, if they're overseas,they're not getting the medical
benefits from the VA, right?
That doesn't make sense.
No, it doesn't.

Speaker 4 (01:09:17):
So we need all of you out there that podcast, contact
your congressman to say hey,vote for HR 439.
That benefits our disabled 100%totally and permanent disabled
veterans.
Why are the other countries?
A like you said, they've servedthere, they like it, they have
a life there.
B because they're totallydisabled.
They do not have the funds inthe US.

(01:09:39):
So, overseas, their wife getsmedical, their kids get college,
their kids get medical, theirmother-in-law gets medical.
Why not the veteran that's 100%disabled, that got that benefit
through CHAMPVA.
So that's HR 439.
We introduced it this year.
The Department of Latin Americahas introduced the resolution.
The Department of Californiaintroduced the resolution to the

(01:10:00):
American Legion.
America has introduced theresolution.
The Department of Californiaintroduced the resolution to the
American.

Speaker 3 (01:10:06):
Legion and Nick Lota out of New York went ahead and
introduced Bill HR 439.
Yeah, anything we can do forour benefits, our veterans,
specifically those who are 100%disabled and I'm actually a
little shocked that so that theycan actually afford to live,
their benefits get cut off atthe coast.
That doesn't make sense to me.
It doesn't.

Speaker 4 (01:10:22):
So this is a common sense approach.
One of the biggest things iswhat about the budget?
What about the budget?
By revamping the FMP program,mobilizing it and using direct
deposit, that saves us millionsof dollars, that allows us to
move forward, and there's only,out of the 80,000 veterans that
are living off CONUS, only about7,000, 8,000 actually are 100%

(01:10:47):
totally permanent disabled, andthese are the ones that needed
the most.

Speaker 3 (01:10:51):
Right, correct, but listen, you're extremely busy
here.
I really appreciate what you'redoing for the kids here and the
drone festival, but, moreimportantly, the veterans
Absolutely, and we appreciateReal Life more importantly the
veterans Absolutely, and weappreciate Real Life, real
People, your podcast.
Thank you.

Speaker 4 (01:11:05):
Getting the word out and, like I said, go to your
congressmen, email them, letthem know, and this is how we,
the people, we, the people.

Speaker 3 (01:11:15):
Thank you, sir.
I appreciate it.
Thank you so much.
Thank you for coming on.
The podcast Last night wasamazing.
I was blown away by the show.
Skip you, paul and the kind ofbeen 100 people or me, you know
whatever it was to put this showon.
Well, it blew my mind.

(01:11:36):
Tell me your role, because Iknow you had a very important
role in this.
Tell the audience exactly whatyour job was for this
two-hour-plus production.

Speaker 9 (01:11:46):
Yes, Gosh, it started about two months ago when we
were throwing it together Onfirst line.
I helped procure some of thedrone talent that came right,
Some of the speakers that wereally wanted to come from
across the country, Australia,East Coast, getting that in line
.
I was also going to be flyingthe event, so I had to go over

(01:12:08):
that.
Planning.
Production planning with Skipthat was another job.
Another job was training thestudents.
I have to come be a part of theproduction, so on the fly we
were training volunteers how todo production, how to be a.
VO.
What is a VO?
So a visual observer.

Speaker 3 (01:12:28):
Okay.

Speaker 9 (01:12:28):
So each one of our pilots for the production had a
VO.
That was eyes in the sky.

Speaker 8 (01:12:33):
Okay.

Speaker 9 (01:12:41):
Interlopers are going to come want to know what
you're doing keeping a safe,sterile cockpit area for their
flying.
We had to really interact withall the other pilots that were
there the air show, the fpv guys, the drone soccer guys.
It was a very delicate dance inairspace that we were all
flying at the same time and itwas dark, so everyone had to do
a dry run during daytime hours.

(01:13:01):
We had to check forconnectivity transmission issues
.
There was a lot happening, yeah.
And then today I get to do thefun stuff.
I get to do lightsabercinematography, drone filming
segments.
I just finished one with 22kids and a staff of
Hollywood-trained Jedi Knights.

(01:13:22):
I'll do one more this afternoonand a couple of podcasts.
And then I get to enjoy the daytoo.

Speaker 3 (01:13:27):
You are an advocate for women in drones.
You know we see a lot of boys,young men in this, but it's also
young women, young girlsgetting involved in this.
We spoke to the dean ofGrossmont College.

(01:13:50):
This is part of the STEMprogram engineering, science,
technology what people need tolearn.
Is this a passion for you tosee women getting into drones,
and tell me about what you'redoing to promote it?

Speaker 9 (01:14:06):
so when I first became a drone pilot, I saw a
stat that astounded me of allthe drone pilots at that time
probably 2019, I think it wasnot even 3% were female.
The last data point that I sawwas about 9-point-something
percent of all drone pilots arefemale.

(01:14:27):
So you know, for me teachingand I teach young girls, little
kids, all the way to grownpeople in their 70s female
pilots they listen, their stickskills are more precise, they're
a little less risk and they'remore risk adverse.

(01:14:50):
Okay.
So when I teach my malestudents, it's all go, all gas
and all go, and I feel likewomen pilots are much more aware
of risks mitigation and veryprecision flying.
That's my experience.
I do also like to encourage allthe young girls.

(01:15:11):
I will help out girls, takeflight at home, help them do
meetings and lessons and meet upwith them.
I'm doing a speaker positionfor them in April in San Diego
and then I also help.
Our Genetic Legacy is anothergroup.
They teach girls of color tofly and map, and so whenever

(01:15:31):
they need me, I jump in and helpwith them too.

Speaker 3 (01:15:33):
It's a fantastic career and we keep bringing that
up over and over again.
This is not a child's toyanymore.
One of the things I like whatyou said which is really
important to me, is riskmitigation.
These are aviators.
Their feet are on the ground.
However, they are in the skywith other aviators.

(01:15:54):
We can't have mavericks upthere.
There's rules to be followedwhen you bring a young woman or
let's take, because we see a lotof kids running around here so
you meet a young girl and youintroduce hey, would you be
interested in drones?
What's it like when they firstget that in their hand and they

(01:16:16):
start flying it?
Do you find that mostimmediately?

Speaker 9 (01:16:18):
just think it's an amazing I mean a majority, no,
majority, no, a few.
Yes, they want to dive in um.
Last year when we were here atthe q tech conference, the
educational um conference herein palm springs, we had a drone
soccer cage outside.
There was mostly teachers, buta few young girls were there
with their parents and they wereshy and they thought, oh no, I

(01:16:40):
can't do it.
I can can't do that.
And I said give me one minute,just give me one minute of your
time, I promise you.
And sure enough, it happens andthe light goes on.
You know, and the same thingwhen I've done camps in Palm
Springs here, you know the onesat the beginning that were
really adverse and acted notinterested.
Once I got them with a fewlessons at the end they were so

(01:17:05):
into it and it just changed thewhole demeanor.
You know, middle school kidsare a tough nut to crack
sometimes and this is such agreat entry Once you get past
the awkwardness and don't beembarrassed and everyone crashes
.
I mean, we all do, you know.
So having that cage allows themto crash and it's not a big
deal, everyone does it, and thenthey learn from that.
But what I love most about thatis it's in real life.

(01:17:29):
E-sport, the drum soccer.
It gets them off the couch, itgets them off the headphones and
playing.
They're actually socializingwith their opponents and their
team members.
They have to strategize.
They have team members.
They have to strategize.
They have to discuss, they haveto talk about their equipment.

Speaker 11 (01:17:45):
And it's co-ed usually.

Speaker 9 (01:17:47):
So all those things, I think, bring it to the next
level from just doing a computergame at home.

Speaker 3 (01:17:54):
Well, and as an educator, that's your
responsibility is to get peopleout of their comfort zone and
get them to try new things.
People are scared of change.
They're scared of things thatthey don't want to fail, but
that is a process towardssuccess.
I love the cage idea.

(01:18:15):
I like, hey look, we're goingto crash them, you're going to
break them.
This is part of the learningexperience, and it sounds that
you're very effective of gettingthem past that barrier.

Speaker 9 (01:18:28):
And then, once they're past that barrier, then
we get into accuracy, fineflying skills right, obstacle
courses, tight turns, hittingbowling pins and getting points,
cheering their other friends on, but it becomes infectious, yes

(01:18:48):
, so that's.

Speaker 3 (01:18:49):
It's a team sport and then they get that feedback.
How early on do you startdiscussing the industry effects
or the career paths with thesedrones?

Speaker 9 (01:19:03):
To me it's high school.
We've done a lot of boot campswith high school kids and their
skill set is much higher.
We can teach them to fly realdrones.
In the old boot camps that weused to do in Palm Springs we
put their hands on real drones,give them real obstacle course
and then you can discuss thingswith them, with border security.
Paul discussed border securitywith them, skip discussed

(01:19:26):
cinematography.
We could talk about you know,what do you want, what are your
interests, and then we could tieit in to having this skill set.
They may not be a drone pilot,but maybe they're going to be a
land surveyor that's a tool in atool bag.
Or a realtor it's a tool in atool bag, or a realtor it's a
tool in a tool bag rightGeologists archaeologists.

(01:19:47):
Architecture is a huge one,right?
So you know you plant the seedand it's something that they
didn't even think about, right,so it doesn't have to be.
Oh, I'm just going to grow upto be a drone pilot, it could be
.
This is a tool that I'm goingto use to elevate myself in that
career choice that I'minterested in.

Speaker 3 (01:20:04):
You know we talk about in life.
You have a tool bag given toyou that's empty and it's a tool
bag Nobody can take away fromyou.
The only person that takes awayeventually is God.
Yeah, and it's your job to fillit.
And I love that you use thatanalogy.
And it's your job to fill it,and I love that you use that
analogy.
Here's your tool bag.
It's empty.
Put that drone skill in there.

(01:20:24):
Every year, that list of howdrones are impacting industry is
growing and growing and thereis a shortage out there of drone
pilots.
What do you think it's going totake to get that nine point?
Let's just say 10% number ofgirls to you know, 30, 40, maybe

(01:20:46):
half the field out there.

Speaker 9 (01:20:48):
I mean I'm doing it one pilot at a time.
Every time I have a class ofstudents, it's about 30,
sometimes 40% women, but usuallyaround 30.

Speaker 3 (01:20:57):
Well, there you go, that is actually a bigger
percentage.

Speaker 9 (01:21:00):
What I tell people is I am creating little drone
ambassadors to go out in theworld right in a positive manner
and elevate this to aprofessional level.
And the stories that I wantedto see on the news are the good
ones the drones for good, rightTechnology that's helping people

(01:21:20):
, that's right.

Speaker 3 (01:21:21):
So the if we see less of the road pilots that don't
know the role and don't respectare the industry or the
equipment, we want that to goaway and we want to elevate all
these good drone ambassadorsthat I put out in the world
after they come through ourclasses one of the things that I
see from an outsider is theamount of lives and injuries

(01:21:44):
that the drone industry hassaved, and what I mean by that
is we don't have small aircraftflying around at low altitude
taking pictures of buildings,which is one of the most
dangerous things you can do.
We don't have helicoptersflying to inspect high power
voltage lines.
You know this industry issaying you know we don't have

(01:22:04):
people hanging off stringstrying to clean a window, and
you know we can, we.
You know these drones arereally raising the bar on safety
.
I would love to see thestatistics on how the injuries
and death rates have fallen inthese specific industries that
drones are taking over.

Speaker 9 (01:22:23):
I have another example for you.
I just saw a broadcast with aguest on Desi's Women in Drones
and it was a company whoinvented these life-saving
inflatables, connect to a droneand guess who's using them the
Coast Guard.

Speaker 3 (01:22:39):
Oh, coast Guard, that makes sense.

Speaker 9 (01:22:40):
What happens is it literally takes three to five
minutes for a jet ski or ahelicopter to get out to someone
in distress.
They timed it.
A drone can be out there inunder two minutes and drop an
inflatable that hits the waterand opens up.
So then those people grab ontothe inflatable and then a minute
later the jet ski's out theretaking care, opens up.
So then those people grab ontothe inflatable and then a minute

(01:23:01):
later the jet skis out therewill take care of them.
So that would and minute secondscount that counts, it counts,
and so those are the kind ofinnovations that are happening
that people don't know about yet, but I see it, with all these
broadcasts and the guys at thefront end of this, it's really
fascinating.

Speaker 3 (01:23:18):
See, you're not only helping women in drones, but
you're saving lives and creatingambassadors.
Every person that you inspireis going to inspire 10, 15 more
people.
Keep it up.
Look your classes have 30 womenin it now.
That is three times what theend of the national challenge.
You should be proud of yourself.
Thank you so much, you.

(01:23:38):
It's nice to meet you.
So Javier, introduce yourself.

Speaker 6 (01:23:42):
Okay, well, I am Javier Ayala, so I am the Dean
of Workforce Development andCareer Education at Grillsmont
College.
Okay, and I am the founder ofthe program, the Drone
Technology Program, the firstprogram in California that's
doing drone technology at acommunity college.
And I started the program aboutthree years ago and before that

(01:24:08):
it was a training program andit was funded by a grant that I
got awarded from the Departmentof Labor years ago, and then we
switched over to an officialcollege program.
So you know, if you crash yourdrone, there's a chance you
might be able to get collegecredit.

Speaker 3 (01:24:26):
You know, I met Skip Fredericks.
He came on the podcast.
My understanding of the droneswas limited to Paul, and he
introduced me to Skip In 2013,.
Drones were nothing but a toyon the shelf Through people like
yourself, skip, developingthese programs in college.

(01:24:53):
It is now a multi-billiondollar industry where these kids
and young adults can learn tofly these things and then
transition into careers paying$75,000 and higher, according to
skip.
I mean there it blows my mindthe things they can do with
these, these, these drones fromHollywood to in industry, to

(01:25:16):
engineering, to sales, to realestate.
The list just keeps growing andgrowing and growing.
You got the first program inthe California college system
and it's growing, it's growing.

Speaker 6 (01:25:32):
So I agree.
I remember in 2014 when I firstgot my first drone and it was
mostly it was a gift and it wasprobably about a couple of
inches, it was one that ran on aAA battery and then I gave it
to my son and he literallycrashed it two minutes later.
So that was that.

(01:25:54):
But I was curious about itbecause I've always been excited
about flight aerospace and Iwas like, well, there's's
something here.
And then it became a big,focused.
Couple years thereafter andI've always been interested in
drones I bought myself a DJIbefore DJI's were cool,
experimented with that and thenI saw the potential in terms of

(01:26:19):
opportunities.
So that got excited and Istarted exploring some more and
I realized, wow, there's a wholeindustry there that's about to
blow up in a very good way.

Speaker 3 (01:26:30):
How difficult was it for you to convince the
education world academia thatthis is not a toy?
This is something that shouldbe looked at seriously and
funded.

Speaker 6 (01:26:45):
I will tell you that path was not easy.

Speaker 3 (01:26:47):
I would imagine.

Speaker 6 (01:26:50):
It took a lot of self-education because I had to
get myself prepared to be ableto make the case.
So in academia, I got a PhD ineducation et cetera.
So there's all of that I teach.
There's a certain standardaround what's called academic
right.
So I had to educate myself andget familiar with the technology

(01:27:12):
around that.
You know how does a dronecommunicate with your phone?
You know how does that connectwith STEM science, technology,
engineering, mathematics.
You know how does that connectwith STEM science, technology,
engineering, mathematics.
You know how do you manufactureparts.
So I did a lot ofself-education because I felt I
needed to do that before Ipresented the case.
And I presented many cases.
I think it must have been 15 or20 times before we got our

(01:27:35):
first grant.

Speaker 3 (01:27:35):
So you got 15 or 20 no's, no's with grants, yeah,
before you got a yes, and wetalk about that on the podcast
that failure is a function ofsuccess.
A lot of people think failureis endgame.
It isn't.
It is a learning curve to goafter a different way and don't

(01:27:56):
give up.
You did that, give up.
You did that.
And thousands of people justhere in Southern California,
tens of thousands of people inSouthern California are
benefiting from this, the smileson these kids' faces and the
intrigue, and you know what itcrosses.
It's an international thing.
We were talking earlier.
I mean, this isn't a UnitedStates thing.

(01:28:18):
We saw the Club of Mexico,singapore, korea, europe All of
these international countriesare involved in this drone, and
the fact that it aligns withSTEM is what I have.

(01:28:39):
My son's an engineer, oh wow'san engineer, oh wow, he does
robotics.
But the fact that we arechallenging these kids' minds
you see boys, you see girls, andthey're excited about it.
It isn't a toy, right?
There's so much to learn.

Speaker 6 (01:28:55):
You know what people don't understand, that this is a
way to make learning moreexciting.
When I, when I, when my son,crashed the first drone that we,
that I got as a gift, he wasvery excited about what it
looked like.
Afterwards he was like Dad,what so?
How do we put it together?
He got some glue, he playedaround with it and I was like

(01:29:16):
he's really excited about this.
You know, he was very curiousfor a good week looking at the
scraps that were left over fromthe crash and I was like, okay,
as an educator myself, I waslike, wait a minute, he's
excited about something thatthis kid doesn't get excited
about much, but he was excitedabout this.
Now he's going to go on tobecome an engineer, by the way,

(01:29:38):
and so I know what happens ineducation is that we kind of
kill the learnings and so,because people go through
crosses, it's very removed fromreality.
But when you look at a drone,you see how energy functions,
you see the physics of flight,you see the physics, the

(01:30:00):
mechanics of flight.
There's a lot of things thatcome to life, that are very real
, that normally are prettyabstract.

Speaker 3 (01:30:06):
Well, you're, and we were talking to even some of the
kids.
One of the kids is gonna be onthe podcast.
He's talking about how he'scoding his drone.
He's getting stuck on certainways.
I mean I couldn't evenunderstand what this kid
probably maybe seventh grade wastalking about, maybe even
younger.
Uh, aerodynamics I'm a pilotthe aerodynamics in it, the

(01:30:27):
forces involved, I mean theseare things that are advanced
engineering concepts put down toa very something that's fun for
these kids to do.
You're a PhD in education.
We need to make educationeffective and Exciting,

(01:30:48):
especially for the young people.
Well, even for adults like me,if I'm not, if I'm not
stimulated, I get bored.
You know, and I need, I neededto connect and and to find
different ways to connect withthese people.

Speaker 6 (01:31:00):
It's, it's just, it's an amazing.
I'm just blown away by thiswhole thing.
Well, and you know, going backto the 15 tries that we had
before, we finally got a success.
The success was a $6 milliongrant from the Department of
Labor.
So it went from like zero toall of a sudden having the
funding.

Speaker 3 (01:31:19):
So we can look at every try was about 300 grand.
Right were.
Yeah, they were just saying I'mnot going to give it to you,
but we'll give you threethousand, a hundred thousand
worth well, and we ended updoing things at that with that
grant that weren't even on theradar.

Speaker 6 (01:31:32):
Cyber security back then was not.
People talked about it but youcouldn't even measure time
period, so it's a whole bunch ofthings.
But then it really led to thedevelopment of the drone program
funding skipped, gettingadditional instructors and then
having a case for other fundingand then eventually having to be
a college program.

Speaker 3 (01:31:50):
And how are we seeing this in the education system
started here in California?
Are we seeing this expandthroughout California,
throughout the United States?
These types of programs, someof these, programs were out
there before.

Speaker 6 (01:32:03):
They were at a community college, but you had
to pay $10,000, $15,000, $20,000to get that experience.
The unique part aboutCalifornia people say all kinds
of things about California, butCalifornia does a really good
job of making at least highereducation at a community college
level free.
There's no other state thatgives two years of free

(01:32:23):
education to anyone.
There's no other state thatdoes that.
And so with this program,basically the students can get
an experience that would costthem $10,000, $20,000 or zero.

Speaker 3 (01:32:37):
Unbelievable, yes, unbelievable.
And the program provides thedrone.

Speaker 6 (01:32:41):
So we fund the drones .
We have a fleet of drones.
I update the fleet every coupleyears based on the
recommendations from theprogram-coordinated instructors.
So, yes, we remove all thebarriers.
So other programs that havethis similar program, like the
way we have it even right now,they require the students to pay

(01:33:05):
for the drone.
Here that's not a barrier.
You come in, you will learn ona standard model and then you
can go down the road and buyyourself something more
expensive.
Sure, because we haveindividuals that come from Texas
, different parts of the world,that want to hire students.
And then what happens?
Then they get introduced to the$40,000, $80,000 drone.

Speaker 3 (01:33:26):
Like the couple we saw flying yesterday.
Yeah, yeah, that's justunbelievable.
Well listen, javier, javier,javier, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:33:35):
We can do this again too, by the way.

Speaker 3 (01:33:37):
I absolutely love it, but thank you so much for your
time.
Thank you for what you're doingfor industry.
I'm in industry and lack oftalent, lack of people that
understand engineering,aerodynamics, these kind of
things we need that workforce,yes, and, as you mentioned, as
skip has mentioned, people arewilling to pay for the talent.

(01:33:59):
So thank you for getting toldno as many times as you did, but
not giving up and giving a lotof people, specifically here at
Grossmont College and inCalifornia Community Colleges,
the opportunity, with zerobarriers, to get into an
industry that they can actuallyhave a good life, be able to

(01:34:21):
have a family and achieve somedreams.

Speaker 6 (01:34:23):
Absolutely.
This has been the calling andI'm living it, so I'm very
blessed.

Speaker 3 (01:34:28):
I can tell You've got a smile on your face.
I can see that I love it.
Well, thank you so much.
All right, thank you Hello.

Speaker 8 (01:34:36):
How are you Welcome to the podcast?
Great to be on the podcast.

Speaker 3 (01:34:41):
Okay, how are you Welcome?

Speaker 8 (01:34:42):
to the podcast.

Speaker 3 (01:34:42):
Oh, great to be a podcast, Okay, excellent.
So FIDA on your hat.
Explain to the audience whatFIDA is and what your role is
with FIDA.

Speaker 8 (01:34:49):
Okay, fida is a Federation of International
Dronesucker Association, so weare like Federation of D of drum
soccer association in everycountry.
That's a big job and you're thedirector.
Yeah, I'm a director and I'mthe guy who is responsible for

(01:35:11):
getting the new members and I'vebeen doing that for three years
and currently we have like 20member countries Wow and also we
have like 10 more countriesparking for the new membership
how long ago was FIDAestablished?
Fida was established in 2022.

Speaker 3 (01:35:35):
So three years ago it's established.
Now it's in 20 countries andpotentially 20 more.
How many members?
We have like 20 membercountries, 20 member countries
and then within the countriesthey have participants.

Speaker 8 (01:35:54):
Yeah, so actually we have our policies one
partnership member per country.
Okay.

Speaker 3 (01:36:05):
And it went from nothing in 2022 to how many
viewers in the championships.

Speaker 8 (01:36:17):
In the World.
What is it?
The World Cup at Jeonju, koreaon this.

Speaker 3 (01:36:24):
September 20th, and how many people worldwide do you
think will be watching?

Speaker 8 (01:36:29):
Actually only players , like we guess like over a
thousand, because there are manyteams.
The players, yeah, players.

Speaker 3 (01:36:39):
Only the players, but it'll be broadcast.
People will be able to watchthis.
I was talking to Skip.
He's saying that they've got anaudience worldwide of like a
billion people watching thissport.

Speaker 8 (01:36:54):
I haven't thought about it so I cannot answer it
right now.
But yeah, maybe because we'reexpanding very rapidly.
Very rapidly, yeah, veryrapidly, and we are getting a
lot of contacts from manycountries, because most
countries are interested indrones, not just industrial

(01:37:15):
drones or drones for the racingor taking photos, but, as you
know, sports, and also, you knowsports, but also can be used as
education, such as STEM, andalso it has aspects of the
entertainment, like esports,everything.
Yeah, the drone industry isinfiltrating all industries.

Speaker 3 (01:37:37):
Yes, absolutely, there is a place for drones in
almost every.
The drone industry isinfiltrating all industries.
Yes, absolutely, there is aplace for drones in almost every
industry.
I mean, I'm in the HVACindustry.
There's surveys that you can dowith these drones that you
couldn't do cheaply.

(01:37:57):
Before we talk about all theindustries that it's going into.
Watching the drone soccer issomething I've been interested
in.
I watched one of the matcheslast night with Korea.
Wow, that was fun and they arecompetitive.
We saw Team Korea, we sawSingapore, we saw Europe, we saw

(01:38:24):
US, we saw Mexico, we saw awhole bunch of schools.
It's growing quick, yeah.

Speaker 8 (01:38:29):
So I mentioned that FIDA was started in the founded
on 2022.
Correct, however, drone Soccerwas founded in year 2016.
Okay, and initially we had theleague in Korea.

Speaker 3 (01:38:48):
Okay, was it founded in Korea?

Speaker 8 (01:38:50):
Yeah, that's why the World Cup will be in Jeonju.

Speaker 6 (01:38:55):
FIDA World.

Speaker 8 (01:38:55):
Cup will be in Jeonju .
So Jeonju is like Mecca ofDrone Soccer.
So Jeonju is like Mecca ofdrone soccer, and from year
2016,.
You know, every year we did,you know, tournament,
championship, competition, andas you know, though, when in the
beginning it's not perfect wehave been revising every year.

(01:39:15):
Many teams come, and so ourrules, you know, systems and
regulations have been updatedand gotten more mature, and
that's why we thought, from year2019, we also had a lot of
guests from overseas coming andseeing, oh, it's great.

(01:39:37):
That's why we plan to open thewhole drone soccer ecosystem
globally.

Speaker 3 (01:39:43):
That's the feedback.
Thus, the World Cup of dronesoccer, is the structure of the
sport, similar to internationalfootball slash soccer.
As far as getting to the WorldCup, is it getting that
organized?

Speaker 8 (01:40:01):
Actually, in some countries there are already a
lot of teams and also a lot ofregional offices who are doing
the drone soccer and for thosecountries they are already very
competitive.
They have to go nationalqualification, know, national

(01:40:21):
qualification to the World Cup.
But in some countries they'rejust, you know, starting.

Speaker 3 (01:40:26):
Right.
So eventually in a country, ifthey have multiple teams within
the country, they'll be anational champion.

Speaker 4 (01:40:35):
Yeah, national champion.

Speaker 3 (01:40:36):
And then that national champion, then we'll go
to Korea for the World Cup.

Speaker 8 (01:40:40):
Yeah, but our also motto is we want everyone to
participate, not only see thegame.
So we try to have let theplayers play as many games as
possible.
So on this World Cup we will behaving, like class 40 and class
20, national representativecompetition.

(01:41:04):
Also we have the clubcompetition, Okay.
So you know, anyone who wantsto come and enjoy drone soccer
can come.

Speaker 3 (01:41:13):
This is the secret to the exponential growth.
It's a participatory, welcomedevent If you want to try you
haven't tried it let's try it.
Let's get you going.
Let's get people skilled inthis fun, competitive team sport
.

Speaker 8 (01:41:32):
Getting used to drones, getting used to the
teamwork and have a funcompetition.

Speaker 3 (01:41:39):
It's also a game that can create a career for you
within the drone world, Droneindustry.
So you're actually playing agame that actually is building
your skills to go into industryand make a living make a good
living.

Speaker 8 (01:41:53):
We also see the family, family team, grandma,
grandpa, grandson, like abowling league.
Yeah, they are team and they'redoing, and the grandson is, you
know, striker, and the rest ofthem is a defender.

Speaker 3 (01:42:08):
So what are the positions?
This is good, I like this.
What are the positions withinuh, drone soccer, okay, so drone
soccer we have the positioncalled the striker.

Speaker 8 (01:42:18):
Striker is a ball with a tag yes, I saw that and
only the striker can score.
So if the striker goes throughthat goal post donut and you
make a score, only the striker,only the striker.
So for the class 40 system wehave one striker.
For the class 20, the smallerwe have the two strikers.

(01:42:41):
So two out of five can scorefor the class 20.

Speaker 3 (01:42:46):
And then everyone else are defenders.

Speaker 8 (01:42:48):
Defenders.
However, in class 40, there'sone striker, and it has been one
striker for many years and wefound that when a striker is
down, there's no way to score soit's somewhat.
You know, sometimes the secondgoes down, even if they're good

(01:43:08):
team, you know.
So we have amended the rulesthat there's a position called
guide.
Okay, it's a helper of thestriker and when the striker is
down, the guy that can touch thestriker, and the guy will be
the striker Got it.

Speaker 3 (01:43:28):
It's like a tag team.
Yeah, yeah, tag team.
Yeah, come on in.

Speaker 8 (01:43:32):
I need to jump out of the ring, yeah so it's like
there's a very interestingstrategy when striker is down,
the opponent team covers thestriker, so he cannot be touched
.
And how?

Speaker 3 (01:43:43):
long is a match.
It's a three-minute.

Speaker 8 (01:43:46):
It's a three-minute match Three-minute one set and
five-minute interval, and also.

Speaker 3 (01:43:52):
And is it one point?
One point Each score, that'sall.

Speaker 8 (01:43:55):
It's one point, yeah so the offense defense for the
blue side and red side goes onsimultaneously, got it?
Oh, it's like esports, you know, it's going simultaneously
everywhere.

Speaker 3 (01:44:09):
Okay, yeah, so it's not a single ball yeah not a
single ball.
So you got in 40 class.
You got two strikers, you got acouple guides and a bunch of
defenders.

Speaker 8 (01:44:18):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, two strikers you got a couple
guides and a bunch of defenders,also the Crest 20, two strikers
, crest 40, one striker for eachteam.
You know having me, you knowattack.

Speaker 3 (01:44:26):
And what people need to realize.
If you haven't seen this, yougotta go on YouTube.
You gotta look at FIDA, yougotta look at this drone soccer.
This is not slow action.
This is like moving real fast.
And at night they're lit up.
It's a show.

Speaker 8 (01:44:50):
It is exciting, the speed is crazy, the action is
crazy.
However, super micro country isneeded to be a professional
level, and there are levels.
Yeah, there are Koreans, thereare, you know, semi-pro league.
Those are real good.

Speaker 3 (01:45:04):
You'll be surprised to see them.
Where can people find moreinformation if they're
interested, Okay so please visitdronesoccerorg.

Speaker 8 (01:45:12):
That's the FIDA homepage Dronesoccerorg.

Speaker 3 (01:45:16):
Awesome Well, thank you so much for being on the
show.

Speaker 4 (01:45:19):
Appreciate it.

Speaker 3 (01:45:20):
Let's get some more people out there signing up for
Drone Soccer.
Thank you very much.
Bye-bye.

Speaker 12 (01:45:24):
I have my own business, you're right.

Speaker 3 (01:45:26):
Well, let's talk about your own business.
I'm excited Introduce yourself.

Speaker 12 (01:45:30):
Oh, hey, hi, I'm Desi Eckstein, hi, desi, hi in
the industry is Drone Diva.

Speaker 3 (01:45:37):
Okay.

Speaker 12 (01:45:38):
And I have drone training.
I have a program in San Diegothat I am the instructor for.
It's Girls Take Flight.

Speaker 3 (01:45:46):
Okay.

Speaker 12 (01:45:47):
I'm also the moderator for a program that is
every Tuesday and is fornetworking through women in
drones and it's called theCoffee Connection.

Speaker 3 (01:45:57):
Okay.

Speaker 12 (01:45:58):
And so I wear many hats.
I'm a FAA drone pro.
Safety is really big with me,and I'm also a published author
about drone safety you are okay,so we have a lot of we got to
promote you.

Speaker 3 (01:46:13):
Where can they find your book?

Speaker 12 (01:46:14):
my book is actually through Amazon.

Speaker 3 (01:46:16):
Okay, elevate your standards, because it's about
standard operating procedures,okay, and and then Coffee
Connection, and that is, wherecan they find that?

Speaker 12 (01:46:26):
That is through Women in Drones, and now we
actually are live on socialmedia.
So through Women in Drones youcan find every week I have a
different guest speaker and wejust talk about various topics,
everything from traditionaldrone operations, but also am
now so we're expanding out andjust covering all uncrewed

(01:46:50):
systems so I was talking withrosanne yes, and she was telling
me.

Speaker 3 (01:46:55):
When she first got into it she was shocked that
there was like 2% women indrones.

Speaker 6 (01:47:02):
That's gotten close to do about 10%.

Speaker 3 (01:47:06):
And in her classes now she's seen about 30%.
Yes, it's gross.
The ambassadorship of women indrones and professional women in
drones is working.

Speaker 12 (01:47:18):
Yes, yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:47:19):
What a career path for women.
What's your prediction of thenext five years?

Speaker 4 (01:47:29):
Because this is a growing industry.

Speaker 3 (01:47:31):
Are we going to see 40, 50% women in drones?

Speaker 12 (01:47:35):
I feel like we are.

Speaker 11 (01:47:36):
I think because people are starting to see that
drones are a tool yes, and so,no matter what vertical starting
.
To see that drones are a toolyes, and so no matter what
vertical you're in.

Speaker 12 (01:47:44):
They are a tool, and the women are quite capable of
handling that tool, and so it'sonly part of what that passion
is inside of them.

Speaker 3 (01:47:57):
And so I think you're going to see a lot more growth.
It's interesting because youcan do so much with it and you
can take out the physicality ofmale-female and it comes down to
critical thinking, thoughtprocess, dexterity, skill sets,
training, training, training,training, hard work, which men
and women, if putting themselvesto it, can do.
The other great thing is seeinghow all these educators are

(01:48:19):
promoting this within theschools and even at the
elementary level now.
So for the boys and girls tosee this as an opportunity that
they can compete on the equallevel is amazing.
I think it's going to continue.
I mean, we've seen the growth ina very short period of time
it's going to just continue togrow and the career paths are

(01:48:40):
amazing, and then you have abusiness doing it.
So, even in the entrepreneurialvertical it's, it's going
everywhere and you love it.
Look at the smile on your facewhen you talk about it it seems
to be that way, that's the trickto success in life, though,

(01:49:00):
isn't it right, especially ifyou're happy in your career.

Speaker 12 (01:49:03):
It's when you're when you're actually providing a
service and helping people todo better in their own lives and
there's nothing like seeingsomeone that comes in, never
held the sticks before they grabthat, and you can see that
passion take over and then lateron as an educator, you see
later on in life how it'schanged their life.

(01:49:25):
You know, for one, I say we'rean ambassador for aviation as a
whole and this is just one ofthe many steps, and so it's so
exciting when you see studentsgo to be something they never
thought was possible.

Speaker 3 (01:49:39):
And it's not a singular career path.
It is not like, okay, you'regoing to do these drones and
this is your job.
This has infiltrated all ofindustry and it has raised the
bar on safety.
And what's great and I've saidthis a few times now is
generally when there's anindustry disruptor, the old

(01:50:00):
school fights.
But you're seeing the oldschool embrace the industry and
getting excited about it.
I mean it's, it's.
It's fun, it can be used as ayou know, it's a fun just toy,
but it's also an industry giant,yes, and it's changing the way
we do things and we're just onthat horizon of it.

Speaker 12 (01:50:22):
The one thing that needs to be really promoted is
the safety side of things.
That's key.
We are integrating into theairspace.
We want to make sure that weare doing it safely and learning
to work together.

Speaker 3 (01:50:35):
So I'm talking to people during this convention.
I'm a pilot and one of our bigconcerns when this whole thing
started getting crazy in 2013,2014, and we started getting
loud about what are these thingsin our airspace, or potentially
in our airspace?
And then there was a big, hugepushback at the time from the

(01:50:56):
drone community like, well, it'sour thing.
They didn't see themselves asaviators.
So the education process iswinning, and it's winning by
saying, no, your feet are on theground, but you're still an
aviator, you're in the sky withus and what we what I've seen
specifically at this festfestival is that they are
embracing it.

(01:51:16):
They understand what the fa isabout.
They understand why they should, you know, take the different
tests and learn and get educated, even if they don't go
commercial.
You should understand whatyou're doing and they get it,
they get it and they.
We all have to work together thepilots that are actually behind

(01:51:37):
the glass, behind the, thecockpit, in the cockpit, and the
pilots that are feet on theground but are up there.

Speaker 12 (01:51:44):
Yeah, I always say that my feet are on the ground
but my head's in the cloudsRight, and it's true, yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:51:51):
Because these and safety is in aviation, it's
critical.

Speaker 12 (01:51:56):
Yeah, it is Very much so.

Speaker 3 (01:51:57):
Well, I know you're on a time constraint.
I am, yeah, but I'd love tohave you on longer.
Your smile is great and you arejust so much passionate about
it.

Speaker 12 (01:52:05):
Be careful what you say.

Speaker 3 (01:52:07):
I'll be back Every single person that comes on.
This is just smile ear to ear.
So passionate about it and Iwish I had more time with
everybody.

Speaker 12 (01:52:16):
All right, well, thank you.

Speaker 3 (01:52:17):
Thank you so much.
Tavares, I met you yesterday.
You were talking to Paul thecameraman, who's also a drone
pilot, and you had someinteresting questions to ask him
.
You seem to know a little bitabout drones.
What do you know?
What do you do?

Speaker 1 (01:52:34):
I'm mostly into coding, but I also do fly drones
for fun.
Okay, I actually have my ownphotography drone at my house,
okay.

Speaker 3 (01:52:49):
Why do you like drones?

Speaker 1 (01:52:51):
They're fun and it's the future.
It's like drone delivery.
It's like drone delivery dronesoccer.

Speaker 3 (01:53:00):
I'm in it.
Yeah, it's really fun.
What got you into drones in thefirst place?

Speaker 1 (01:53:07):
This one YouTube video.
Okay, I saw someone flying aDJI drone professionally and it
inspired me to start flyingdrones and I'm trying to work my
way up to being that skilled.

Speaker 3 (01:53:21):
Okay, fantastic.
How old are you?

Speaker 1 (01:53:26):
Eleven.

Speaker 3 (01:53:26):
You're eleven and you're coding your own drones.
Well, not drones yet, but I amcoding games.

Speaker 1 (01:53:34):
I'm in the middle of a project trying to code a drone
.

Speaker 3 (01:53:37):
Okay, and how's it going?

Speaker 1 (01:53:44):
to code a drone.
Okay, and how's it going so far?

Speaker 3 (01:53:45):
I do not have like a drone to code yet, but I am
getting some of the scriptsready.
And what will?
So when you're, when you aretrying to program a drone and
you don't have a drone, what's?
What is the process in yourhead to figure out the coding
that you actually need to do toget it done?
It's mostly just trying tofigure out how to get it to fly.

(01:54:08):
Now you were saying yesterdayyou have a Lego drone or
something that you're buildingor you're trying to do.

Speaker 1 (01:54:12):
I'm trying to find the Legos to make it.
There's this specific motorthat I need for it, and Lego
Mindstorms is compatible withthe coding software it is in, so
that's why I'm trying to findit.

Speaker 3 (01:54:27):
So, at 11 years old, you've already mentioned that
you understand that drones arethe future, that it is the
industry.
Is this what you want to dowhen you go and start working
full-time Get into dronessomehow.

Speaker 1 (01:54:40):
I mean drones are more my free time activity.
I'm more into like I want to bea lawyer.

Speaker 3 (01:54:47):
You want to be a lawyer.
What kind of lawyer do you wantto be?

Speaker 1 (01:54:52):
Isn't there only one?

Speaker 3 (01:54:53):
What's that?

Speaker 1 (01:54:54):
Isn't there only one?

Speaker 3 (01:54:55):
Oh, there's plenty of well, there's plenty of law to
practice.
Do you want to be a litigator?
Do you want to go in front of ajudge and argue cases?
Yep.
Do you want to defend criminalsor do you want to help
businesses?

Speaker 1 (01:55:08):
Kind of all of that.

Speaker 3 (01:55:10):
All of it.
So you're just going to be thebest attorney.
I want to be a good attorney.
You will be a good attorney,but it's a lot of hard work.
You're kind of learning thatwith your coding.
As far as hard work and havingto think you got to be a good
thinker to be an attorney yeahum, I'm also really into uh

(01:55:35):
music.

Speaker 1 (01:55:36):
I have a trombone.
You.

Speaker 3 (01:55:37):
You play the trombone .
Yeah, so you're a musician.
You want to go into the legalfield.
You're studying drones.
You're programming.

Speaker 1 (01:55:49):
And I like reading.

Speaker 3 (01:55:51):
You basically can go into anything you want when you
grow up.
You can decide to go into thearts, you can decide to go into
science I actually am in art,yeah, and you're also into
sciences, sciences, and you'realso into the computer
technology I actually am alsointo history and all that you're
just a smart, I have an amazingteacher yes, name is mustache

(01:56:12):
uh, I really hope that when I gointo high school that I can
like meet her a lot because sheis an amazing teacher.
And what makes her an amazingteacher.

Speaker 1 (01:56:24):
Well, she is nice and she teaches us a lot of great
things like Greek gods, thegoddesses, ancient China.
It's really nice.

Speaker 3 (01:56:35):
A lot of kids would get bored in some of those
classes, but it sounds like yourteacher has figured out a way
to make it interesting.

Speaker 1 (01:56:43):
A lot of kids are still bored, and still I like it
.
She's nice.

Speaker 3 (01:56:48):
You know what a renaissance man is.

Speaker 1 (01:56:51):
Isn't it one of those people from medieval times?

Speaker 3 (01:56:54):
Well, it's a way to describe a person, and a
renaissance man is somebody whois really good at almost all
sorts of aspects of life.
They're good at the arts,they're good at the sciences,
they're good at politics,they're good at lawyering.
They're good at everything.
You, my friend, are arenaissance man.
Well, thank you for talkingwith me, awesome.

(01:57:18):
Well, I'll let you know whenit's gonna be on.
You'll be able to see yourselfon YouTube fantastic do you have
a link for it?
For you too?

Speaker 1 (01:57:32):
yes, I actually do, but it got started very
different.

Speaker 3 (01:57:38):
Did you look?
Tell people your name andthey'll search for you.

Speaker 1 (01:57:43):
Hey Tavares.
Tavares, NBC Newscinematography yeah, Awesome so
photography is a great thing,and drones make that even better
.

Speaker 3 (01:57:55):
Awesome.
Well, thank you man.

Speaker 2 (01:58:00):
You've been listening to Real People, Real Life.
Our passion is to have realconversations with real people
who've made it.
Real people who've made it whodid it on their own terms.
We'll be back soon, but in themeantime, catch us on Twitter or
X at RPRL Podcast and onYouTube at Real People Real Life

(01:58:24):
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