UAS News Podcast — 2013-09-25
Transcript
Hello everyone and welcome to the next installment of the UAS News Podcast Series where we interview newsmakers and discuss the news and applications relevant to the global unmanned technologies community. I'm your program host Patrick Egan and as always let's say hello and welcome to our co-host Mr. Gene Robinson. Hello Patrick and boy I got to tell you it is good to be back home.
You don't like California or what? What's the deal?
It wasn't so much California it was the 3000 miles in between. That was the real issue. I think I'm going to have road warrior tattooed somewhere because it just felt like that. The road went on forever and the party never ends right?
Yeah well you know I did get the email that you did ride through beautiful Yuma and I think you rode right by a wonderful test site right there near Quartzite. Is this not true?
Did you enjoy the cactus? This is a fact you know being from Texas we don't have anything like that and I thought it was people waving at me so I kept waving back and it was kind of odd. As a matter of fact we actually broke down in our mobile command unit about 30 miles outside of Yuma right in the middle of the desert. I was real familiar with a couple of cactuses real close there for about 8 hours while we tried to find a tow truck big enough to pull us back.
So yeah I was right there and I agree with your you used to call it what? Yuma stand?
That's correct sir. It felt like the rock pile that's for sure because it was hot and pretty disgusting. Yes it's an acquired taste. To say the least and you know I'm used to the warm weather and I can take hot but I guess it's a circumstances when you're sitting there with a big Ford 7.3 liter diesel that won't run and you're in the heat and you're wanting to get out of it I guess that kind of tends to shade your view there doesn't it?
It can it can and you know we should well we'll talk about why Gene was out here in beautiful sunny California and then also down there in Arizona but we've been pretty busy there's lots of stuff going on people are asking me oh you know hey what's going on and I tell them we got more irons than there are fire or more irons than there is fire and we got a ton of stuff going on yeah I mean it's crazy literally
so if it sounds a little wheels off that's because it is a little wheels off because there's so much to do but I did want to cover we're going to cover some of that stuff we're going to cover some of the news anything in particular I mean there was a lot of stuff going on in the last week week and a half and the podcast was dark partially because some of that but any any news stories Gene that that caught your eye in between your road trips
and everything else?
Well like you say there's in two weeks so much can happen here in the industry and what has really really surprised me is how many manufacturers are coming out of the woodwork do you have you noticed how many newly named UAs are popping out having press releases and new companies that are starting up to try to manufacture UAs and get them out in various reasons you know of course we've seen the precision farming kind of blew no pun intended in here as of recent times
but I am really kind of concerned that there's a lot of folks out there that are jumping into this game thinking that they're going to you know have this perfect system for everyone to use and I don't believe people realize how many systems are available do you get that impression?
Oh yeah well that's wheels off too I'm that's another thing I've been trying to do during all of this is I'm on a hard deadline for a article I'm writing about precision ag and some of that's in it you know take a step back I mean I but you know people it's almost it's a I don't it's like a fever pitch I will say the fever pitch I'm just rolling out we are confirmed for dates for the expo in May we're doing the second expo here in May 8th
and 9th in San Francisco yeah and already people are like I want in sponsors want in people want on board so you know I think this year is going to be bigger and better I want to do I really want to I want to try and do a I want to do a little bit of a drone art show so any artists that may be listening out there I'm looking for some pieces nothing crazy wouldn't I would like them to not be let's say dark I'd like them to be positive
but I mean there was so much interest and so many people wanted a copy of the poster from last year I think we'll probably have some of those on on hand this year but I think that there's an interest I know I'm I wish I could find some art I've actually people that have done it I've asked them if I could get copies of what they're doing but usually it's either sold or you know they don't get back
so you know that might be another interesting thing plus we're going to have another lineup of world-class speakers already I've already got people signed on somebody from NASA we got somebody who's using I believe they're using the micro drones for they're doing work on oil platforms out in the North Sea we got some people that are doing TV and film there's some agriculture people of course but we got all kinds of people
so there's I would say that things are heating up I do believe that you are correct though with the AG thing I think people are going off the deep end but you know I mean I don't know maybe someone will come up with the right mouse trap and the right thing I don't know I'm standing back and I'm going to see but that is very hot right now anything else catch your attention?
The more that we hear about it and the more we hear about governmental sequestration and things like that it seems to be a catch-all for just about everything that we hold near and dear of course the MIS-O-MATIC has been updated you know we've gone from December on the NPRM for the small ruling out to sometime in the ether of 2014 and I can't tell you how many people have expressed the same frustration that we have been expressing for the last eight years and you know now we've got you know a great filibuster going with Mr.
Cruz and they're all trying to defund the Obamacare and shut down the government and it just continues to show that our government is just you know we're so dependent upon them to get so many different things done and it's just it's crazy I don't know really which way to go on this one you know I'm pro in certain instances and con and some but I tell you it's getting uncomfortable to watch all that go on. Yeah
well the sequestration things really kicked me in the shins but my program at the Battle Lab is totally done it is over so I'm out looking I'm out shaking the bushes for another employment opportunity which is too bad I really like that one but you know the sequestration thing they cut the NIE budget I guess it was working too good so I'm dead in the water there but you know well I think there's going to be some contraction in the industry
I have noticed that some big contracts have been going out October 1st is the drop dead you probably noticed that I think General Atomic's got a fat one and so did AV and those are probably sustainment but I think that a lot of people are starting to feel the pinch let's say so we'll see.
You know I've always said that there's only a few letters between self and unemployment this is true so yeah well you know everybody's got a hustle I hear that one too everybody's like wow man you're all over the place you're doing all this stuff well it's hard to make a living in this field and you got to you got to spread yourself out and you know multiple income streams but that was interesting that
you hit on the pushback on the test date thing and you know that's funny because that's a really hot topic also folks have been asking I know I've been feeling this question all the time who I'd lay bets on as far as who's going to get a test center interesting enough and I don't know if I covered this already but I did hear that there were about 50 plus or minus applications that were first turned in
and those were paired down to 30 plus or minus but only about 10 are I would say plausible or workable and that's what I've heard and those test centers that are probably going to happen are I'm just kidding.
Well you're going to make a prediction? Go ahead I think you should make a prediction I've got a couple myself but I would be curious to hear what yours are Mr. Patrick. Well you know it's getting down to the point and people are asking this because I think people and I'm not going to I think at this point I don't know if I want to make predictions because they could hurt people.
I have been hearing from people who want to invest in areas that have test center things going and deals are being made and whatever else and I don't know if I want to put my two cents in there and that might hurt deals that are going on so I'm going to this is a gold mine show not a gem mine show so I'm going to back off of that one I will just say the only thing I will say is I look for test centers close to some of the larger vendors that's all I will say but if you want to make a if you would like to make some projections Jane go right ahead.
Well you know with my Karnak hat on you know that's a great Karnak hat on. To quote someone much greater than me I agree with your estimation that it's going to be near some of the larger vendors you know obviously General Atomics is a large vendor and Boeing is a large vendor Lockheed Martin is a large vendor so you know start looking in those areas that's three of them right there but I also think that Fort Sill has got a shot since they're already working at Oklahoma. I think North Dakota has got a good shot and I think that North Carolina has got a shot surprise surprise.
You know there are a couple of states I will say the other thing with that too is to really think about the business model too there's you know that's part of it with the application is I mean it's got to pay for itself the ones that I've been involved with it's like hmm you know what do you want to fly here? I do think that down there at the UAS portal here in California that Eileen has got a good idea and I think she's on track for what really needs to be done to get like small business and innovation in there.
You know I don't know how much support she's getting from people in the state of California I mean we're just I don't even want to go there but you're going to need support of the state and there are other states out there that are putting up money which is encouraging I mean if you really think you have a credible shot at this deal you're going to have to put up a little bit of money you know I did get the call early on with this from Mike
and Congressperson's office and the phone was ringing what you know what's this worth you know some people are saying billions alright thanks that's all I needed to know click you know okay but it doesn't come with billions you know you're going to have to find your own billions and that business model is going to have to work you know I mean technically there's this test site right now New Mexico State University
you can go down there you can go through I've tried to push people there and say hey you know you get that equivalent level of certification nobody wants to pay for it you know it's not going to be free you know it's not going to be you know go ahead I've heard some pretty good numbers Patrick I mean from I don't know whether it's you know pre-release hype or whether they've actually done some really close pencil figuring on these numbers
but you know we've kind of estimated that some of the weekly charges could be pretty outrageous up into the you know five figures mark and I have seen some stuff come out come down the pipe for estimations that don't look too bad I mean they're in the thousands mark and some of them are even in the hundreds mark so that's encouraging to me but again I don't know whether that's pre-press hype or pre-release hype whether they've actually got good numbers on that or
you know it's just to get you into the showroom or what but it's that sounded pretty encouraging to me it does it does and if that works that will be that would be great you know it can't be fifty thousand a week you know I don't think that's going to work no no that's not I don't think that's going to happen either no I don't think that's going to go oh and then the other thing I wanted to hit on too is it seems like there's a lot of stuff falling out of the sky
and I want to take this opportunity to kind of say you know I think that the other thing the fever pitch thing now talking to people in the community or whatever else and everybody's ready to go and people are buying drones and I got my own personal drone and I'm a drone pilot and all the rest of this and I don't think people are putting the thinking cap on before they go out and fly you know I would agree with
you on that count and you know we have always advocated that there needs to be some sort of common sense regulation on this we've never backed away from that but again with community based standards that need to be adhered to and you know some level of certification for aircraft it doesn't necessarily have to be the you know the full certification of every nut and bolt on your slow stick sort of certification
but it should certainly have proven itself in flight and these folks you're going to have to know the rules of the road when it comes to the airways I mean because there are no red lights and no yield signs up there and they got to figure it out so and they're lowering the credibility of the entire industry I mean you know the next one will be I don't want a drone falling on my head I mean it already there's already news articles out there oh
you know people have trepidations about it whacking you in the face during your wedding or falling out of the sky where you're running from bulls or what was that deal in Spain and there's you know the other thing and I agree with that aircraft certification talk to somebody else that the other day there's a lot of people rolling out new aircraft and they're using parts and pieces that I would call substandard there's a real flight to economy instead of quality
and I'll tell you right now that business model's not going to work if you can't perform because your aircraft is crashing all the time I wouldn't want you on my side I wouldn't you know I wouldn't I don't want to do any work with you I'm gonna be like anything else you know you have a guy that works for you and it comes in every day late because he got into another accident or had some you know I just didn't want to deal with that
so I you know it's a it's your own credibility is at stake you roll out with junk that's going to be your reputation plus like I said you bring it down the tone in the entire industry so let's let's put the old thinking cap on there before we're flying over people stuff does happen so I just you know something to ponder before you fly over the crap anything you'd like to add to that Gene no no no just don't fly over the crowd how about that
I think it's pretty easy that that one's good so one other thing I did want to mention before we get into this deal is also that there is UAV day at the fleet October 6th from 10 a.m.
to 4 p.m. at the Reuben age Fleet Science Center in San Diego and reason I mentioned that is they will be screening the civilian drones movie and if people remember that's the full version full version it's gonna be pretty heavy-duty I mean the feedback I've been getting is people are like whoa so we had Maha Calderon on a few weeks ago you can listen about her she says the ethos behind the film I think it's gonna raise some some eyebrows
and some questions for people so if you're in the area I would definitely shoot down there and see that and I just wanted to me you know put that out there but let's talk about what you're up to today Gene I know you're you're gonna go out you're out in the field or you're heading out into the field today we are trying to get our act together here which we do fairly well on in most instances but we've got batteries charges charging
and fuel going in and we're about ready to go out and start our training cycle with our NIST proponent which we've had Alex on the show during the backdrop burn that we did in April and we are preparing to do yet more research I don't know if you saw it yesterday but the AP ran a story yesterday that got picked up by just about every outlet out there concerning the wooly the wildland urban interface exposure scale
so it's certainly getting a lot of publicity out there we were kind of you know often the shadows doing our own thing and it's just kind of busted loose and going viral so we are going out today to continue doing the science that we are attempting to finish that that project so we've got a quiver of super bats lined up they're all flying tased UOs and we're going to try to geo locate and and ortho rectify some video which is something that not too many folks have done there's some been some stuff done in the military
but not to the level that we're doing it so it's you know we've got a pretty full dance card I mean it's kind of late coming in because we're doing a lot of stuff this morning trying to get prepared for it but you know it is some of the coolest science that I have been involved with with unmanned aircraft so it's a great opportunity and it's nice to be able to do this legally under the COA that we have here
and we don't have to worry about it so it's a good deal I know it's I'm you know maybe at the upcoming expo we can talk about fire instead of SAR I mean I enjoyed your presentation about SAR but I think that the fire thing is pretty interesting too and then again if you wanted to go back and listen to that podcast with Alex it's very interesting again I like to get these scientists guys all spooled up on
you know what their passion is it's a that's a good podcast I learned a lot so you got the super bats out there you guys are going to go nuts they really like those super bats huh you know they've been a very capable bird we've come to know them and love them they're you know not the most sleek and streamlined birds in the world but they're very capable and we have flown these five that we have a whole lot a lot
and they perform like troopers got no complaints with them there yeah they're they're nice we they were actually had that we had their product line on display at the small unmanned systems business expo MLB company is they are members of my chapter out here in Silicon Valley great people good guys I'm glad that that all worked out and that's a positive thing any any any highlights that you did want to share with us are
you kind of keeping that under under wraps well one of the highlights that we were preparing for right now is in November we have a ranch owner out here who has very graciously allowed us to set the torch to it and we're going to be doing some prescribed burns whereby we are going to have aircraft overhead and collect some some pivotal data if if I might be so bold as to say that that is going to help us do some of the things that that we need to do to get this 3d model for fire exposure done
I mean it's you really do have to you know because you've got fire on the ground and you've got environment you know all the way up to 400 feet that I mean we're trying to get every layer that we can of that so yeah that's that's going to be a pretty good one I don't know that I'm going to be able to do any to do a podcast during that period it would be great if I could but that one's going to be pretty important for us
well that it's it's hard to pull all of that off and that's I mean the next thing I wanted to talk about in the next segment however I do want to I do want to it's time to pay the bill so I'm going to run this advertisement from from hood tech okay today's podcast is sponsored by hood technology experts and advanced EO IR gyro stabilized four axis imaging systems for small UAS the company offers low swap payloads integrating EO
and where and lasers to provide unparalleled long-range imaging from moving platforms visit www.hoodtech.com for more information H O O D T E Z H .com and one of the good debt oh well well you know you got a you got to produce something decent pay the rent and I want to thank them again hood tech for sponsoring today's podcast it's all of our sponsors at SUAS news are great you know it's kind of an interesting thing
I want to get too far off into the weeds on that but most people that come and advertise at the SUAS news kind of join the family and I really I enjoy that relationship with those people meet some great folks who've got some good products and our philosophy is that we want to help them succeed while helping us to succeed so that's good getting into the next part of this and talking about doing podcasts when there's a lot going on the reason that Jean was in California last week was to come up here
and we did a I was invited it wasn't really my thing but the did a demo for the California National Guard and it was actually on a Wednesday and I wrote a little story about it which is up on SUAS news if you want to go read their talks about some of the people that participated in some of the products but we had thought about doing a podcast from the demo but man it was it was just a little too busy when
you say Jean yeah it was a fun packed day I would have to give it that much because we didn't have much time to do anything but talk and and demonstrate and fly and then talk a whole lot more yes and you know so it is that's another thing when you get together too and we have we have a Jean and I have a lot other irons that are in the fireplace and so you got to get to do that and then you get set up for the demo
and you're talking to people and looking at systems and everything else so it just gets a little too busy but you know we're here to recap that today and it was actually pretty interesting set up you know we did some present or there were some presentations given about a different software and I really did like you know I don't know if that I have that gentleman's card right in front of me it's in the news story
but the one common operators picture that kind of reminded me of a social media like a Facebook or something good you want to talk about easy to use man you know I think his name was Jason he said yeah they got that that common operators picture you know it's just like some social media site I mean the the value in that to me is that you're not on that revolving wheel of training I mean pretty much
you put somebody on it and they could learn it you know not complicated easy to manage and I was impressed with that I thought that that was that was pretty interesting and you know it is well it harks back to get back in when I was a programmer back in the day in another lifetime any sort of interface that you could leverage that people use on a daily basis you tried to exploit that and everybody uses Facebook everybody uses the social media for that sort of
you know communication so why not incorporate it into a common operating picture where you're getting all sorts of disparate data you've got chats you've got video you've got and it works it just works it does work so why reinvent the wheel yeah I mean it's just easy you know so I was really impressed with that there was another gentleman there I can't find his car yes it's wheels off you got that warning for the show
but you know the the video software I mean in all of the different inputs that you could have put in I mean almost overwhelming how much information there's and I you know that's another thing too I think even with the integration thing I don't think like really people even understand the volume of commerce that goes on in the country every day like say trucks on the road ships in the water and planes in the air
I mean really when he plugged all of those data streams in I was like whoa I couldn't believe how many vehicles there were so I think that sometimes we lose sight of that but that was also interesting you know I hope to see more of that in the future of those two programs and I think we will because I really think that they have a lot to offer you know the other people that were there were the people from IPS
and it was we had Clarence boys and Dave Copenhaver right is that correct yes that's correct that's correct and those two guys are pretty nice I like Clarence he's a thinker he's got that Rubicon cart and you know I just at first I was like what and then I started looking at it and I'm like man you know that that's not really a bad idea that is a good idea and that seems simple but you know it's it's it's utilitarian only thing
I didn't do in the news story I didn't give their website and so I will give that now it's www IPS NEX GEN dot com and you can go over there and see their product line but they had that and then they had I also had the IC4U command truck which is also pretty impressive he's got SATCOM he's got UHF he's got all kinds of I think he's got 3G 4G and everything else in that command vehicle I think if it's a radio frequency it's in there
and I guess what it's all about and for the listeners who don't know the Rubicon cart is basically a little mobile roll-around unit that's made out of steel that you can put any sort of system into for example we were utilizing it to hold our ground control station and our comms for the the aircraft for the demonstration and that actually can pop on to the receiver hitch of your truck or your vehicle crank the wheels up
and drive away the the whole concept is is that you could drop these off and they're being self-contained you can roll them around do whatever you needed to do and it has worked and it does work it works good and and you know that was one of the things I mean it could the wheels are big enough that it could roll around on unimproved surfaces which you know I'm just thinking about that most of the demos that I've been that you've got sensitive electronic equipment being dragged through the sand
you know some of its in boxes you got to take the lid off to hook it up but it's right there in the dirt and you know electronics and dirt are not a good combo it's not like peanut butter and chocolate so I was saying I think it's good and the other thing that I really liked about it besides that it was ultra upgradable our configurable custom configuration and standalone is that it actually when it's open
and deployed it's at a comfortable working height you know so you're not like down on one knee in the dirt working I hate that so you can just stand up and you're actually in a comfortable you know hands reach and operate the autopilot I was the I got to be the outdoor inside let's say pilot monitoring the GCS and I wanted to talk about that too you know you did the demo I described some of that in the news story
but I want to talk about the the autopilot that you're using on the Spectra now and and maybe you can you can talk about that a little bit for the listeners yeah we can one thing that I do want to stress for our listeners is that we were at Mather Air Force Base and we got permission to fly and we actually closed down one portion of the base so that we could do our demo in constant contact with tower
and they were just kind of funny because they were like you're flying a lot but it was typical responses but one of the things that I would like to stress is that we had GA coming in and we had full-scale military coming in and out with the Blackhawks and we did it safely and we did it successfully so again continuing that role of successes with being able to fly small unmanned with the the full-scale
so that being said I'll move on you Patrick went to the to the IC4U to be my internal pilot but about half of the guys the military guys went with me out to the tarmac to fly because they wanted to see this thing take off so you missed out on all the comments and stuff like that and it was good natured you know kind of military camaraderie that goes on amongst pilots and wannabe pilots so they were surprised at how quickly the spectra would take off
and get to altitude and it was pretty windy that day too I mean that's always the case if you're going to do a demo the winds got to kick up and you know and let's say the the factor there but you know that the spectra handled the wind no problem and I had no issues at all that I saw and back to the the original what we started out with was the autopilot and I've got to tell you I've been really impressed with with the Robata autopilot there at www.robata.us
and we've had this autopilot incorporated a couple times into our airframe he just came out with a new version the guy that is producing is named Antonio Lisca and he has worked with us and and he has taken our input more importantly he has listened and he has incorporated a lot of the things that we've requested for search and rescue and for you know even precision farming for making sure that you get the complete overlaps
and it's a robust very simple very straightforward autopilot with a very clean ground control station and I think you'll have to agree with that right Mike Patrick?
Yeah I was impressed with that the interface was definitely uncomplicated and uncluttered I really like the checklist feature in it you got to run through the checklist and click that off I thought that that was important a lot of people disregard checklists but you can't there's a lot of safety built into a checklist you know I mean it's hard to remember everything every time I mean you know it's the same deal when
I leave the house and as I drive down the street and I'm like damn it forgot you know whatever you don't want to do that you know when you're gonna go flying so I think that was an excellent feature the other things I did like how again it was uncluttered you could just click right through it easy to let's say the workflow easy to manage the other thing I liked about it is it again you know how it acquires its own location the geometrical shapes
you can set up maybe you can talk more about that I didn't get a lot of exposure to it and I'd if you're listening Robata I'd love to have one to test you could go into a gene well some of the features we have tried to get and I've always asked for I said I wanted a play school version of an autopilot you know or a Fisher-Price version where you could start it up and launch it and not have to worry about it this is one of those that is that simple
you can fire it up and it will find out where it is and it'll establish an orbit you set up the aircraft and tell it how many meters wide you want that orbit what the altitude is and that's all you need to get her up in the air I'm just saying that that's that's as simplistic as it gets now from there you've got the drag and drop waypoints you can move waypoints easily you can set up one of the really cool things that
I think you can plug in what your field of view is on your sensor if you're using a camera or a micro ballometer or whatever it has everything is a field of view that's not 360 degrees it's not 180 degrees it's typically some angle that you can see and what your coverage will be I like that information in there and then it will automatically based on the altitude that you put in there that you want to fly it will design a grid pattern that will give
you the overlap that you request say you want 50% overlap on your pictures it automatically calculates all that and it automatically sets up the grid for you and you upload that to the autopilot and it's on its way yeah I when you were telling me about that feature I was like wow that's that's really cool so technically you could set up your your let's say grid pattern over you know the cotton field or grapes or whatever the hell you're doing entering all that information
and get complete coverage of the I'd say subject of the remote sensing I thought that was pretty dang cool and you're absolutely guaranteed that the aircraft is going to fly over the area in the pattern that you have shown on the map there and the really cool thing is is that if you need to you can turn it you can orient it correctly so that it gets you the best coverage for the layout of whatever it is you're trying to do this this system was set up
and Antonio has a very extensive mapping background so this is kind of one of those essentials that you need to make sure that you get a hundred percent coverage yeah I like that I think you know that that's that's got some value there and again that interface was you know easy to use easy to discern too I mean I hadn't I hadn't seen it before but Gene ran through the highlights what's being there we go easy to find easy to manage
you know it was pretty good not not over complicated and you know I think he's got a winner here it did simplify communications for us it was very easy for me to listen to you tell me to check off check off check off as I as you read through the list and I just you know sit there and yep yep yep yep yep cuz we went down the line or oh wait a minute I got a fiddle with this and then you know by the time it was done it pops up
and says okay you're ready to launch clear airspace do whatever upload your your pattern and we were good to go you know that's nicely you could determine where you wanted to orbit and it was just it was really easy to use well the one thing I want to talk about it too because in the spectra you have were flying in a near IR camera and you gave a pretty interesting let's say tidbit of information about IR
and search and rescue and maybe might run over that again is the thousand foot range and the is that what you're talking about yeah well that and how long you were talking about the body farm and how long with the near IR you could tell like if a body was laying somewhere okay yeah well you know based on the reaction that I got when I put my first victim picture up at the SUSB expo I kind of you know have shied away from that
you didn't want to cause anybody any grief over that one but you know the the near IR stuff that we have been using it's a little technical here was a 660 nanometers and we can pick out features on the ground that the human eye doesn't normally see for example if a person is laying out on the ground all sorts of really bad things happen to them and they you know start to decompose but there's a certain point where there's really no trace
you know the vegetation grows up it does whatever but that particular plot of ground is marked and we have kind of confirmed this through the body farm at Texas State University here up to two years we can fit a blade up to two years so that's some pretty exciting stuff we're looking at different wavelengths to experiment with that on and obviously this this Robata autopilot is going to help us because we'll be able to do the same pattern the same way the same time same altitude
and we know we're going to be getting the same results.
Well that's nice to have you know a baseline you know plug your data points into so that's great I know sometimes I mean you know the search and rescue business I mean that's kind of just kind of you know let's say that the facts of the business I know sometimes people are like ooh but I mean you know that happens I think the forensic quality of that is as outstanding like you said things happen in nature
and again it's in a lot of these cases a lot of it's about closure so we're helping out with that that's great a couple other things I do you know again we're going to be busy I'm heading to Orlando for the AVSI strategic planning meeting I'm going to be making more friends there we're going to I don't know hopefully give some perspective on you know I get a lot of I mean I get that people call me from all over the world
and say hey you know you need to do this and you got to do that and you need to talk about this and so I don't know if I'm the lightning rod or whatever but I hope to add some let's say positive perspective from the community so that ought to be good I will also be in New York playing the big room at the Skirball Center at NYU for the drones and aerorobotics conference on the 11th and 13th of October which should be a wing ding if you're in the area come on out actually more people are actually coming out to that let us say industry people
I think people are let's say that industry people have definitely their eyes are open that wait a minute did this this let's say end user drone community it is growing by leaps and bounds they're here they're they're loud they're staying we better check out what's going on would you agree with that of it is that what you've been hearing Gene?
We ain't going away and it's gonna happen it's just at what speed. Yeah and the tiger that they're gonna have by the tail the the regulator that's been you know that was prophesied years ago that this thing is gonna grow beyond your control and we're already there again keep your eyes on the MIS-O-MATIC for updates and progress I don't know exactly what's gonna happen with the MPRM we'll have to keep our eyes peeled for that one there's other people telling me that stuff's happening this year where you're gonna be able to fly there's don't care there's some smaller systems that are gonna have
I guess get certification like AeroVironment Institute got up there in in Alaska which I don't know if I believe that but hey you hear all kinds of stuff anyway that's about it for today Gene anything in closing sir?
You know we're just about to jump out there got to get out there and do some flying so that's where we're off to. All right well good luck and have a good day and we'll talk to you soon. Okay goodbye. Bye.