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Droneprize.com w/ Jonathan Evans

So we've got on interview here with its in online chat interview with jonathan evans he's the organizer of drone prize dot com uh he's also an army veteran and a u h sixty black hot pilot hey continues to fly and instruction both helicopters and airplanes today eyes also the founder and ceo of skyward it's a commercial drone op management ah welcome jonathan and uh I think we've got a video first that's gonna play there is welcome johnson theo use of these unmanned systems will be as much a part of our everyday living in our culture ten years from now as cell phones are today my name is rick spinner and on the vice president for research at oregon state university this technology it's almost limitless with this can apply to this's the kind of technology that comes along once in a while that if made available it will change the lives of the people using it it's going to save the lives of the people we go out into the public to try and get I see this is a great tool for for any farmer su...

rvey the area without meeting anybody on the outside and then analyzed the imagery probably uploading it to the cloud to a service we have ah mantra organization west wind that we seek to tell the story of life you want so how do we do that in a authentic in scientific way you know how we both tell the story, but also continue to be stewards and suddenly you have the entire earth that needs new the attention that this technology can bring. E I think the number of waves could be applied for public. Good is just beginning to be realized. We're gonna change the world with this technology and we need your help. We can pioneer the regulatory and ultimately the cultural embrace of using this technology. There is no better time to get into thin. This competition gives you the perfect opportunity to try something new and give back in a way. That's never been done before. Think about how you could help your local community reach out land managers, ranchers, farmers, anybody who's dealing with large area that they gotta manage is goingto welcome contributions from u s hobbyist. I think every department in america would have an application where it would be useful. I would just encourage hobbyists to get involved. But to follow the rules, understand the faa guidelines. Reach out to your local community and have fun. So help your community enter drone prize and win the grand prize is going to be a heavy lift multi rotor system. We're gonna bring the finalists out here to oregon and we'll have our fly off for our final competition with unmanned aerial systems you know this guy's the limit how can your perspective change the world? Come join us in oregon on be part of the silicon sky all right, there we go and now we're back with jonathan jonathan welcome to creative life uh this looks exciting. How did you come up with this idea? Says what a great concept teo folks that you're talking to today kind of trying to give them a purpose with all of this aerial filming yeah, the idea came from we got my my company started skyward at skyward dot io we got started when we when we were first working working with the fire department that I was actually flying out of ah, you mentioned in the beginning of my the introduction there that I was still flying I'm I'm actually not anymore, but I was flying it for life flight basically an air ambulance ah helicopter out of the eugene fire department there that you saw in the film and I don't know how much we've gotten into the regulations here it all, but they're sort of to available avenues right now basically for for what I would call non recreational are for basically they're two two categories there's there's basically recreational flight, which is I'm sure the category that that we're talking about in this forum almost almost entirely recreational flight being that basically that you you you initiate the takeoff strictly for the love of the sport, the joy of it and the other one is the faa has provided what's called a certificate of authorization of waiver o r waiver, which is available only to public entities like fire departments right now. And so what we were doing was trying to bridge the gap between the love of the technology on dh that colin was has always been so eloquent about andi and how you could actually have some professional use is out there and having the professional aviation background we wanted to make sure that we're dotting all the I's, crossing all the t's e's and doing this safely, responsibly and professionally. So we got started with the eugene fire department there to show them how you know if you got an eye in the sky here what? What? How could that benefit your your incident, commander on the ground and really just asking them that question. So we did was we introduced enthusiasts, hobbyists again, recreational people that want to go out there for the love of the sport. We introduced them to that fire department and we said, hey, guys, can you come out and and fire recreational flight for us to sort of demonstrate ah your love of this technology to these professionals here that now have an option through the faa to potentially you know do stand up a professional program from one incriminated time and it was so popular that went so well that we thought jeez, what else what else could we do to harness this sort of vehicle to tell this story on dh what came out of strong price again the regulatory vehicle being that as long as you're doing this for recreation you're in the f a z enthusiast category we've encouraged all of those folks out there to take there they're drones there there oh robots and go engage their local community and say, hey, this is a whole new tool, right? You've never seen this capability before I'm not here to tell you exactly what you could do it you do with it you're the expert I want to show you how this tool works kind of thing and so we're we've we've given a reason to do that and then a narrative platform basically for people all over the country to tell the great stories that that they are now about how drones and arrow robots can be employed to, you know, improve our civilization on a myriad of ways firefighting is the most obvious one you've got land recreation inspection of wind turbines you land land conservation biology, scientific research, precision agriculture, film farming we we've got any number of uses here, and we're just starting to see some of the sort of human creativity applied to the tool on dh that's what drone prize really? Is it's it's been a really that's, real that's, great it's kind of like drones for humanity here, we've got a purpose for for for this craft, so it isn't just a way for people to get out there and fly, and you win a prize, but I mean, this, actually, I I feel that you're developing a community in a positive light, we're trying to educate people with this new medium and take some of the fear out of it, and also take some of the stigma away from the drone terminology. I think this this is a great vehicle to do that, so I mean, beyond the semantics of actually flight in people connecting, I mean, I feel there's a a sense of community here with a little more of a purpose that that you're trying to reach here, yeah, I mean, that's, exactly, right? I think that it's really easy to be enchanted with the technology, and I mean, we all are right, I'm I'm an enthusiast out outside of my my job is the ceo of the company, and I still go fly these things on the weekend, even though I I eat live and breathe drones you know, you know nearly one hundred percent of the time it's it really does captivate you, you know, just like a any sort of new is being technologies and I think the next question than any anybody with any sort of depth ask themselves what can I do with this? Right, your parents your first thought is this is cool and then and then what can I do with it? And just about everybody wants to do something good? You know, everybody wants to go on engage their community, there is the rail, the rare person who is going to kind of be at the fringes of the bell curve and you know and want to do some irresponsible things here and there. But they be the same case whether they were using a ladder, tow people over their neighbors, a wall or a drone so you know, they're still there still out at the edges of what we consider normal. So I mean, all of us that are living in the society now we just got this new guy cool tool and and and and we wanted teo really give people a reason to go out and find something purposeful and meaningful to do with it? Well, that's great, so too to wrap this up, let me ask you what you know how do people go and I guess they go to your website drone drone prize dot com is that how they enter and that all the details are there that's correct yeah it's really simple three to five minute video and a write up um we've been getting some really excellent entries some things that we we never even had thought about, which is which is why I wanted to get this program started because that was really interested in seeing you know what everybody else else out there does with this tool on dh I'm encourage everybody to show us you know, another layer of that onion that we haven't thought about and then I promise you we'll broadcast it and tell your story to the rest of the world that's wonderful we really, really appreciate what you're doing here is is a great ah great community you're building here this is a great opportunity for people to do something good we thank you for taking a moment to join us today were kind of squeezing in a lot of people here today but we really appreciate you taking time to tell us about drone prize dotcom thank you jonathan yeah my pleasure jeff thank you, wei need that we have a couple minutes in between I'm getting our next special guests on board so I wanted teo pause if it's okay with you and take it a couple questions if we have any in the studio audience what I thought was interesting and I know we just let him go, but maybe we could talk about folks are asking nick in chicago, uh, how would you approach some of these organizations in the best way to fire the police, the coast guard to get in involved, do many thoughts around who you might get in touch with, who is the point of contact? Well, you know, I, uh, probably varies in your community, but if you're in a fairly small community, I say I would walk into the fire department with drone in hand ah, and hey, hey, guys, I'm so and so I'm local here, I I would love to you and chris fireman are like boys, too. They love toys, so you walk in with the faint in your hand and I just imagine that's a great first first approach again, there's, there are online groups that are already doing this there's a search and rescue group, I believe it's called swarm on facebook you can check them out search you ve search and rescue drones I believe that's on there again facebook is growing to be an amazing community I mean there's, you get so much information there, I rarely go to dedicated forums and other chat area's just because there's so much information there readily available, you can connect you can bring in other people that's such a great community connect people and just doing some searching in the facebook search cab you know, you can find some of these organizations and there's people actively doing it, and you can belong to some of these organizations. Is that like the search and rescue drones they've got, uh, you sign up there, you tell him what g area you have to tell him what your capabilities are, you tell me where you live and they will contact you if they need some help with the search and rescue missions in the area or far department. So this there's ways to connect that way too. And speaking of facebook, we know you have a facebook set up specifically for this topic drug workshop, so let's, talk a little bit about what you're hoping for people teo do on that it's facebook, dot com slash drone workshop dot u s that's that's the full earl or you could just go in the search and go drone workshop and it'll pop right up there. It was originally intended to be a platform to promote the workshop, obviously, but I see that because it's a community and I see how these communities work assumes the workshop is we're done recording the workshop and the promotions over and the and the and the contests are over and everything I'm going to open it up so that anybody composed to the page just like any other community page and let people go in there share question, whatever, andi, of course it'll be moderated. I'll keep moderating and hosting it, but I think it's a great place for people that watched the workshop, can come and ask questions. Well, because again with the community, it doesn't rely on one perspective or one person's answers, you know, we can get people in there that comes from different, different areas, and they can answer those questions intelligently and like a firefighter, I'll put out the flames if necessary, that happened in any community, but but I think it's a great it is a great way to open up the community. There are other drone conversation communities, but I want this to maintain the feeling flavor of what this the spirit of what this workshop is about and that's dedicated to photographers and videographers who wanted just get better aerial images awesome, and I'm actually just looking at the page right now, jeff and it's cool some people like jalen, all ho, uh, is actually are posting some of their work. As well as some of the videos. So on our page, you can post stills on our new student work. But, of course, in this group, you can be sharing your your work as well, which is great.