UAS News Podcast — 2012-08-08
Audio not available on SoundCloud — full transcript below.
Transcript
All right. Well, welcome everyone to this week's podcast live from sunny Las Vegas and AUVSI Unmanned Systems 2012 North America. We're calling today. I got a couple of different people on.
Of course, I'm your host, Patrick Egan, and we have our co-host today, Gene Robinson. Hello everyone. I sure am envious of you guys out there in the very hub of all of our UA activity out there. So I'm really anxious to hear what's going on out there.
Well, we got lots of stuff going on. We're flying by the seat of our pants again. The show has been very busy. There's a lot of people down there on the floor.
The mood is definitely one where people are ready to do some business. I've been talking about monetizing this technology and, boy, that's a message that really resonates with everybody. Everybody I talk to is like, I'm ready to make money now. Well, of course we've had some issues standing in the way there between us and the pot of gold, and we'll go into that a little bit more.
The administrator, the FAA administrator spoke yesterday and there's some stuff we'll share with that, and I want to introduce the guests. I've got Marcus Min from Technology Training Corporation. Marcus, are you out there?
Yes, I am. Hello. Thank you very much. Sure.
And then we've got Dr. Jerry Lemieux from the Unmanned Vehicle University. Jerry, are you out there?
Yes. How are you?
And thanks for having us on board. Hey, no problem. And then we also have Jay Wilmon. You're out there, right, Jay?
Patrick, I am here. I'm actually on the show floor and it's my 25th year here, consecutive year at this show, and it's great to be here. It's the best show ever. Of course, I say that every year.
Well, you have some historical perspective to impart upon us. We were supposed to have some other guests. Gretchen was supposed to be our special guest house, but I think that there's something going on and I'm going to assume that Chad Partridge is there too. Their loss?
No, I'm teasing. It's kind of a busy thing out there. I mean, I've probably handed out three or 400 business cards and you guys might be able to tell from my voice that I've almost talked to myself hoarse, but there's a lot of interesting people out there that we want to talk to and there's more people I want to talk to. I'm going to be in the chapter booth at 1030 and you could come on by and we can chat.
All right. Well, I want to dive right in here and I picked you guys the panel today because of course I always have kind of a theme when I'm doing the show and today's theme is I wanted to get some different perspectives, some impressions, and that's why you guys were picked and I'm going to start with Marcus. And I know Marcus knows how to work a room. I've seen him in action.
He's out there. He's grinning. He's gripping. He's making contacts.
Marcus, could you give me some perspective? I know you were out there yesterday working the crowds. What was it like?
It was a good experience. This is my third AUVSI event. One, the first one was in Denver, second in DC now, this one in Las Vegas. And I will say this much out of the West shows, this is probably the best one I've been to even though it's not fair, it's only been two out of three in the West.
The interesting difference between Denver and Las Vegas that I've noticed is in Denver you had less exhibitors, less traffic, but you had more of the bigger actual UAVs on display. I believe they actually had a full-size Global Hawk in there in Denver, the convention center and the full-size Boeing, drawing a blank here, but the spacecraft that went up, the unmanned spacecraft that was out there. At this point
you have a better, bigger testing area. So we get to see a lot of the UUVs in their tanks and the UAVs, especially the small UAVs, which I believe is the future of being able to test in that little area, in that fenced off area.
I thought that was very interesting. A lot more foreign companies this year. You and I were talking about that earlier off the record, I mean off the show, about how there's a lot more Asians, Chinese, the Koreans, Japanese are here. One interesting note, as my emphasis is for seeing Hanwha, and Hanwha Corporation in Korea is actually predominantly an armory and explosives company getting into the UAV, UAS industry.
So that was very interesting to see. I would agree with that. It was interesting to see all these foreign companies and they're coming on strong and they want to do business too. Yes, they do.
It was one of the key things they were talking to me about is meeting, trying to see who's out there, what's going on, what are the availabilities. A lot of these ones, and just to let you know for the people out there, the biggest thing that they're looking for is testing. They have their, they have built or they are almost completed in at least doing their prototypes and looking for testing centers in a lot of places. Asians don't have testing centers like wind tunnels and an area to fly over, to see if their surveillance works or if the UAV will fly and what kind of conditions.
So I mean, for those that are looking for business opportunities to add testing facilities or an area where they can test, it's a good business opportunity right there. Absolutely. I agree. They're definitely, they want to bust in.
I think they need to get their sea legs, but it kind of goes in hand in hand with, you know, they're coming on strong. They've been eyeballing the internet hard. I talked to one company who makes a quadcopter and it's not bad. I'm going to say it's not a bad product.
Their price point's a little high. And I asked them how they came up with their price point. And this is, well, we've been doing research in Europe and America on the internet and we're looking at the price points and they're trying to come in a little bit lower, but I still think that they're too high and they're going to have a quality hurdle to get to get over. What do you think Marcus?
I agree with you. I think you're absolutely hit it right on the dot. You know, if there's that saying, if it's on the internet, it must be true. That's what they're guessing, but it must be true.
It's a price point on that internet. So they're going to follow it. Well, and you know, that's where I get all my news right off the internet. And if I read it, it's definitely true.
I do think though, you know, it's going to run into, sorry, the one thing they're going to run into trying to test over here or bring a project over here is the ITAR regulations. So, yeah, there's a lot of, oops, they got each other. Well, I think it needs some help, but I do think one thing I want to talk about on that is I definitely, that plays into the regulatory side of this show. And, you know, I'm, you know, it's not, they're not going to take long to, to come up to speed.
And, you know, I don't want to beat the drum some more because some people say I just beat this drum, but I think that if the regulation doesn't happen soon, we may very well be holding the, or handing the goose that laid the golden egg to the Chinese, you know, and I already see it. I mean, it's not going to take them long. You know, a few years ago, I was like, Hey, the thousand dollar Chinese UAV,
and there's companies here and they've got some refined products and they want more than that, but when they, when they finally get it together and they're coming in at price points of 6,500 bucks for something that's pretty damn robust, they're going to be whipping the pants off.
It's going to be hard to compete with that. But, okay, well, I want to do, I know, you know, Jerry Lemieux, the Unmanned Vehicle University, he's out there on the floor. He's got a booth there. I chose him because I wanted to get some perspective from somebody on the other side of the aisle and I know Jerry, you're on fire over there, you know, we did that, that back to school podcast with Jerry and Jerry's got the, the Unmanned Vehicle University has over 17,000 downloads.
So Jerry's doing something right. I don't know what it is, Jerry. Maybe you're sending people a dollar in the mail after they listen. You can enlighten us.
Go ahead, buddy. What's it like on the, on the other side of the aisle?
Well, you know, it's not just me. We tried to hire the best guys on the planet. Most of the professors, faculty at the school have a PhDs in engineering and over 25 years of experience in unmanned systems in the air, ground and sea systems. But yeah, we're on the floor here and I'm pretty much focused on staying at the booth.
I haven't really had any time to get around and, and meet people. Some of the guys that we actually have, we have students and we have directors and we have faculty. It's like we have a whole selection of the guys in the university here helping out. So I wouldn't, I don't know what I would do without those guys, because one of the, one of the neatest things about this, this is our first trade show.
So it's kind of a launch and we have at least four or five people constantly coming in and very strong interest in the curriculum, but I'm getting torn away with about 10 different interviews, which I'm really happy about. And I guess I would say that that's probably our, our primary benefit from coming to this conference is to be able to get some exposure and get the word out about what we're doing. We, we, we had an interview with Washington times on Sunday, and then today we're going to, we're going to hit aviation week.
So we offer a master's and doctorate degrees in unmanned systems engineering, and we're a credited university. And then we also have certificate courses, which a couple are very popular. The unmanned UAV fundamentals course. And then we also have a small UAV fundamentals course taught by Gene Kason, the president of Detroit adult models.
And he's about 40 years of experience with the small UAV. So that's going to be a good course. And we're getting some strong interest in that. People are signing up.
We had one doctorate student sign up yesterday and, you know, we're glad to be here and, you know, thanks for having me on the show. Well, sure. I was, you know, I was trying to get some perspective. You know, I came by your booth yesterday and there were two and I, you know, they were, they were older ladies.
It's kind of funny who's here. You know, there's a lot of people who are not in this business and these two ladies came in and they were from like, oh, I don't know, silver city or silver Springs, New Mexico, and they're like, well, we didn't know, but our city is right on the other side of a test range and we want in on this business and they're, and they're all right, your booth. And I was telling them, you know, your, your three-day course is probably a good start for them to learn the basics about the technology, the nomenclature, the, you know, the acronyms and whatever else.
And so it is kind of interesting who's here and who is buzzing around the booth and I'm glad that things are going good for you. Um, you know, I wish you the best of luck. Hopefully I'll see you today out on the floor. It's going to be another madhouse out there for me, but I'm glad to hear that.
And then I think we did, we get Chad Partridge. Did we, did we pick Chad up?
Yes, you did get, you did get me. CP. Okay. Well, that's good.
You're a little late, but you know, better late than never. Um, yeah, I hear you were out on the floor yesterday. I didn't see you personally, but I tell you, I talked to so many people. I was, I was like, I was so blown out at the end of the day.
It wasn't funny, but the reason I wanted to get you on as a, you know, Chad, as a one reelection to the board and Chad also, yeah, we're glad to hear that. Chad is also a, a, a member of the Silicon Valley chapter and a long time friend. And I was hoping Chad that you could kind of give us a little bit of perspective, um, you know, let's say some, some perspective from the members out there on the floor. Yes, I, uh, uh, glad to, um,
you know, the one, the one thing that was already brought up on this podcast was the fact that there is much more foreign, like, uh, you know, international participation on the floor, uh, you know, instead of, it is, it is not us based out here entirely.
And, uh, you know, along with that, you're also seeing a lot more talk than I have ever heard of in the past on commercial applications and other, uh, you know, some new channels and opportunities for unmanned systems. Uh, and with that, people are talking a lot about the privacy issues. People are talking about a lot about the regulation issues again, that everything is, uh, everything has become that much more amplified this year. And I'm going to expect to see a lot more of that in the next few days.
And with, with the protesters out front, uh, you're seeing, you're definitely seeing a whole lot more interest. There is a crosshair on this organization overall. And, uh, and it's, you know, uh, I, I subscribe to, uh, any press is good press in this, uh, in this instance. And I just think that things are heating up for AUVSI and, uh, it's a good time to be a part of it.
I would concur with all of that. It is kind of funny. I've been, Gilo was telling me how to get rid of some protesters. I'm like, you should have called me.
I come out, maybe, maybe Jay could get in there and we could talk to them. Uh, you know, Hey buddy, it's not that bad. Jay's got away with people. Uh, Jay, and then I wanted to get your historical perspective on, um, you've been here a couple of years, your relative newcomer, historical perspective from, uh, if we could get your quarter century, sir.
Well, I'll tell you, there's been a lot of changes. I mean, I have to agree pretty much with everybody's assessment so far. It occurred to me this morning that my first show, there was a, a, a blockade and a Martin and a Northrop and a Grumman and now they're all together. We didn't have protesters.
Uh, there wasn't very much foreign and the, the focus was almost exclusively on defense applications and there were a lot of cruise missiles here. So we've come, come a long way. Uh, the show is easily 10 times what it was in my early days. And I was, I thought I was a late comer to the party at that time, but it certainly has been an interesting evolution.
And, you know, as far as the participation, the level of foreign participation, that's a relatively new thing, I guess, from the different communities that we're seeing here. We've always had international exhibitors, but today there, there are another trend and that is that we've come from the big crimes exclusively to having the subsystems, the data links, the payloads and so forth. And then the lower level manufacturing side of it, we're starting to see almost to the level of having raw material manufacturers here.
And another thing that's interesting is that the number of the, uh, 3d printing applications, the products that, you know, direct print the part are here in a large number. And I think that is particularly relevant for the growth that we're going to see in the small UAS where those parts are most applicable. So I see a maturation of the industry, a whole lot of interest and, and the buzz, you know, we've come from having to explain to people, you know, in my early days, it was an RPV who had explained to people, what is an RPV, what is a UAV?
And now we have to defend them. So it's, it's a, we've made great strides in that direction. And I think the, the buzz here is that we need to be more proactive. All of us need to have a greater voice in expressing the benefits of this technology once we do finally get access to the NAS.
I would concur with that. Now, I want to, I want to go back to the 3d printing. Now I was just as impressed as you. Now I went over there, you know, I've seen some of these 3d printers in the past and I was like, eh, you know, all right, well, whatever.
But the ones that are out on the floor now are pretty impressive. I mean, the parts that these people are churning out and I mean, mesh, mesh gears and whatever else, very, very impressive. And for the, the cost, I think they were saying that the printer was like under $200,000 and I'm just throwing it out there for memory, but the stuff that you can print out, the stuff that you can print out in 3d is, is pretty amazing. Gene, do you have any questions for the panel?
Well, no, actually, I think one of the, I think one of the more interesting things that people are going to want to hear about is the lectures that you guys have gone to. I know that there have been some, some pretty powerful speakers out there. And I'm very curious to see what, what some of those speakers have had to say about the industry and where it's going and what their predictions are. Well, I'll field that one first.
I went yesterday to, uh, acting administrator, uh, who was here and he spoke and he had a lot of good things to say, uh, about the industry and GA in general. And he talked about GA and that, you know, how GA brings in over a trillion dollars to the economy and all the rest of that. And I hope that, you know, he, he looks at that and says, Hmm, you know, well, how much is unmanned aircraft going to bring into the American economy?
Because, you know, and I'm sure the old timers here are going to say, well, we remember when this technology was looked upon as kind of a fad, especially Jay. I'm sure he could comment on that, but it's here to stay. And this is the future of aviation. And, uh, my thing with it is, is I had asked the administrator, uh, other people had asked, do you think you're going to, what's relevant is, are you think that we're going to hit that those congressional mandates?
And I will say that he definitely danced around those numbers. Um, I asked about the arc again, cause I'm a one trick pony. And, uh, you know, I talked about small business and representation and in the future, moving forward, are we going to have small business and public participation in a public process?
You know, some people say, well, you're beating that drum and, you know, that's a tired old question, but you know what? These are the, these are, this is lawmaking. And, you know, to me, when you're making laws that I'm going to have to live with, not only as a member of the community, but as a member of the public, um, I would like to be a part of that. I think that the FAA, uh, tripped up and not putting someone on from like a public, maybe not ACLU, but someone else that had some kind of a public advocacy thing on that arc, small business and a university that had an academic program.
Uh, but that's, you know, again, they don't, they don't really reach out to the community and say, Hey, what, what do you guys really think? They reach out to the same, you know, usual suspects. Um, and some of those companies that Jay had mentioned and they say, well, what do you know, what do we do?
And of course they're going to say, well, we do this that way we can protect our business plan and you can't totally fault them because it's business, you know, you got a business plan, you're investing time and money. You want to return on that. But, Hey, you know, there's the rest of us out here and we deserve a little bit of, um, I think a little bit of respect, especially for all the effort and time we put in. Um, I want to, uh, I want to go through this too.
And I think the conversation is pretty good, but I do want to give everyone else, uh, anybody else catch any of the, the, um, the, the presentations yesterday that they want to talk about? No. I know a lot of you guys were probably walking the floor. The other thing I will say is the lady, and I forget her name, came on and spoke from a IKO and the feedback on that, her timeline, she was talking about something out to, um, for full integration into the, the aerospace globally, something like, uh, 2027 and people were asking me about that and what I thought.
And, uh, you know, I don't want to be, Debbie down here, but if, uh, if they rely on viable, uh, sensing avoid system, I think if they were to find one tomorrow, put it out there and say, okay, we got this sensitive void system and we have to certify it's going to take a couple of years. Anybody want to speak to that?
You guys are all quiet here. I think you're right. You're right. It is going to take, you know, something viable.
They've proven a couple and there are a couple waiting in the wings that the military have used, miniaturization obviously is going to be an issue. So it probably is going to be a couple of years down the road before we get a certifiable or an FAA approved sensing avoid for small UA. So I agree with you on that count. Now to change the subject completely, I know, you know, Jerry, Dr.
Jerry, you've been kind of confined to your booth, but I know you, other guys have been out there walking around. I'd like to know what was the one thing that you've seen out there that knocked your socks off something that you just completely didn't expect and there it was. You just kind of said, wow. Marcus.
Yeah, I'm thinking, uh, I know it's early. Sorry, go ahead. Nope. Chad, wait.
Well, I can speak to that Jerry Leneo. Uh, if he, if he handed the mic over to me, go for it. Uh, I've been at the show, my, I've been at the show, uh, myself personally, or actually with another company about four years ago, that was my first show. And I actually did get asked by John Walker to join the RTCA committee.
And I do some work on the sense and avoid systems on the panel. They're working group three, but, uh, you asked about what, what was the most impressive thing to me?
And I got to say, but, but just being the first trade show and having 10 interviews with major, uh, organizations and magazines, there was even a film made from a filmmaker came by the booth yesterday. That to me was pretty incredible for, uh, for us. Well, that's it. I would say, yeah, there's a lot of press here.
There's cameras everywhere. There's film crews, um, you know, all kinds of stuff. Chad, what, what, what have you seen?
Yeah. What, uh, there was nothing in particular that I saw, but there was something that I heard that I, that I thought was fascinating and that is, and, uh, and it's now surrounding the driverless car. A mission. Um, I would say that is the one, uh, you know, hidden gem that, uh, that is starting to, that is starting to emerge.
I was told yesterday that there's now nine, there's now nine states with proposed legislation for driverless cars. And that is staggering when you consider the fact that Nevada just adopted it. So you're seeing a movement. It's becoming very real.
Uh, under the Google X projects, supposedly there's talk of hat of, of driverless car having a $70,000 price point. Um, these are initiatives that are happening now. And it's, and it's my belief that we might actually see driverless cars start, start to hit the roads before we start seeing unmanned, uh, air vehicles. And when, when that is going to be a major driver, I think in a lot of ways, the success and the regulatory success that we're going to see with driverless cars, I do think it's going to have a big impact also on, uh, on UAS integration.
And, you know, that was, that was a new perspective. Uh, and I don't know if others caught, caught that also. Um, I'd like to, I like to add to that. If I could go in.
Uh, so, uh, what I have read is that a major car manufacturer has already pledged to manufacture, uh, the first commercially available driverless car in 2018, they've committed theirself to a date. The other thing that I read was in Europe that they actually passed a law for driverless brakes. In other words, you have a sensor like LIDAR or radar that senses you're getting too close to another car and then the brakes get applied automatically. That's, that's a driverless technology.
That's a driverless car technology that's being mandated in Europe. Well, that's really interesting. Uh, Jay, what have you seen?
Give us some historical, some more historical. I, you know, have been floored at the number of unmanned surface underwater vehicles, I haven't seen that the number previously that we see here. Another thing that I saw is, and this speaks to a little bit to Chad's comment about driverless cars. I've seen a couple of booths that have, uh, unmanned aerial cars, if you will, the, the, uh, air car concept on man.
I know AAI was one of them, so I was kind of surprised to see that in the past. Those kinds of things were sort of relegated to the future, you know, never going to happen sort of aviation aspects, but I, uh, I think that there is a lot of new technology so much as the usual miniaturization that we're seeing. I've seen some very nice small sensor packages for small UAS, for instance, which is a normal progression that we see. All that stuff.
I agree with all of that. I think for me, the thing that stands out the most are the, uh, direction posters or the guidance posters that are out in the hall, uh, with Elvis pointing the way to the exhibit hall or the conference halls and the Elvis impersonator is none other than, uh, AUVS high president, Michael Toscano. Have you guys seen those?
Yeah. I think I've had one on the way. I did. It's actually pretty funny.
At first I was like, wait a minute, the guy looks kind of familiar. This Elvis impersonator and it turns out it's Toscano. I thought that was kind of, uh, funny. And I also think it's kind of cool on his part that he could, uh, kind of let his hair down and do that.
Um, you know, as far as people that are out here, you know, uh, that I've seen from the show, there's a lot of, um, there's the politicians, you know, of course, uh, to military people, I was impressed on, on who was coming out here. Um, the other thing I would also like to talk about, I didn't let Marcus talk about what he thought was one of the best things out there. Marcus, maybe you could speak to that real quick. I didn't want to step on you, buddy.
Oh no, no. Or one of the best things out there. I think there's a lot of, there's a lot of, secondly, going into it is, is, you know, when the UAVs and the UAS is just, when I got into history, everyone was about the big ones, like the Global Hawk, the Predator, the Reaper, um, the smallest thing I ever heard was the Raven and walking the show yesterday, you have all these smaller ones. I mean, it was one that could fit in the palm of my hand.
There's a lot more commercial based UAS and UAVs. I think that goes along with the hope that the FAA approves, uh, UAVs and commercial airspace, uh, for those that want to use it for either agriculture or agriculture or industrial engineering pipelines, things like that. Uh, going back to what Chad said about the unmanned car, the driver, it scares me it's bad enough. There's people that are driving that don't know how to drive
and there's going to be cars that are automated and, you know, you're going to have that one guy that's going to sit behind the wheel and push the button and go, I think I want to drive my self-requiem.
See what happens. Kind of reminds me of that, you know, you know, there's going to be that one guy that just ruins it for everybody, right?
It ruins that one guy. Well, that's kind of the concern, I think, with everything, you know, even the privacy thing, you talk to people and I've talked to some of the, uh, you know, some of the guys that are here, that, uh, the law enforcement guys and I went and sat that through that panel. Uh, one of our guests, Leonard Lagone, uh, had a panel and it was some of the, uh, usual, let's say law enforcement suspects were up there.
And I mean, everybody, you know, we're all humans and all of this technology, any technology, you're going to have somebody that's going to either flub it or abuse it or whatever else.
But I think on the whole, I mean, you know, I have this speech and that was kind of funny, Doug Davis was kind of making fun of me, but, you know, I'm ready to, I'm ready to see this technology help us. And, you know, the more commercial uses or, uh, you know, civilian uses of, like, say, you know, agriculture and feeding a hungry world and all the rest of that. He's, he was kind of making fun of me, but I do, I see this technology helping in so many fields. Um, Well, one guy I did talk to, he said his goal was on a small company.
His goal was to sell it to, uh, news companies for air company, for, uh, local traffic, you know, instead of having the high in the sky guys flying around, you know, playing the guy that's flying a helicopter and his reporter, now you can save money or have this UAV, you know, hover around all the freeways. Right. Yeah. Kind of like a mobile, uh, you know, traffic, uh, watching platform, you know,
and the smaller stuff, that was another thing I saw another guy from the FAA that was, uh, he was also on the arc and I'm not going to mention his name because I don't want to get anyone in trouble, but, uh, he's over here and he's actually here on a, you know, and he's like, Oh, I couldn't miss the show.
You know, I came out here, I brought my wife out here and then he's, he saw there's a guy selling a little quadcopter and I think it's like 110 bucks or 20 bucks or something and it's a little, uh, thing comes with a radio. The guy says it'll fly to 5,000 feet and he's asking me, you think this is a good deal, should I get one of these?
I go, yeah, you know, you can fly it indoors. You can fly it around in the yard, yada, yada. And, uh, you know, he did say he was like, people, right. This stuff is really interesting.
This technology is exciting. And, you know, I want to kind of be a part of this industry right now. I'm with the FAA, but I could definitely see where this is a future of aviation. And so I think some of those guys are coming around.
I know some of the guys that used to work at the FAA, uh, have come around or more like, you know, maybe you, maybe you were right. Maybe, maybe you did have some concepts and that is, uh, and that's good to hear. Um, I definitely, I'm hoping to, uh, meet up with Jim Williams, who's the new head of the unmanned aircraft system integration office. I'd like to talk to him.
I definitely like to help the FAA move the ball forward, uh, with, with the proposed regulations and everything else. Uh, and I'm interested in hearing about progress. I'm definitely interested in hearing about that and I'm interested in helping the new leadership try and accomplish that. Uh, and I'm, I'm really ready to see some action.
Does anybody want to add onto that? Patrick, it's Jay. I think it's a time that we've got to get more proactive and be, be engaging of our leadership and even of the protesters. I would say to the protesters that all we are asking is give drones a chance.
I like, maybe you can think about different enactment. I would have to certainly agree with that because, uh, we've been trying to push the positive aspects of, of unmanned aircraft use the last eight years in the search and rescue industry. And it is so difficult to get press to even comment on that sort of thing. When you go out and you do do something very positive, very helpful to the community and raise no one's price.
Well, I mean, the privacy thing, you know, again, I think that's an education thing, you know, people knew, and then I've talked about this before, but the sensors that are flown currently for state, local, and federal law enforcement, you know, these, again, these EOIR sensors, uh, whip the pants off of anything that we're really talking about in the small range. Uh, we just, there's no way we could carry those. And I think people need to get educated. I, you know, there's a lot at play there and we definitely can't be a secretive industry.
Uh, you know, we have to sit down with these people and talk to them and say, Hey, you know, here's, here's really what's happening. And I don't, you know, again, if we go outside and we talk about a lot of these uses, like especially anything that has to do with, you know, uh, search and rescue or agriculture or people don't have any problems with it. They're just afraid of that 1984 thing where you're going to have a UAV outside your window, watching you shave. And so, yeah, that's not really what we want to do anyway.
You know, um, we got to get out there and talk to these people in this way, some of the fields, and I think it'd be easy to do. We just got to get out there and do it. Now, the other thing I've been doing is I've been noticing that there's actually a lot of companies that are in my chapter area and, uh, I've been going to them and I've been asking them, how come I don't see you at the meetings?
And a lot of them are like, well, you know, I don't know, why should I come? Why should I tell him?
Why should I do this? Why should I do that?
And I'm going to have to bang on the drum again that, Hey, you know what? This is a proactive effort. You know, I get out there and I give that speech where I want to monetize this technology and I get, you know, the rival, we want to do that too. I want to make money out of it.
And then after I give that speech, they come over and they're like, well, what can you do for me? How can AUBSI get me some business?
You know, and I'm like, well, you know, it's kind of predicated on that you get involved and you do some stuff and you talk about how you can help move the ball forward. So I just want to put that out there again. You know, don't be apathetic. Everybody can get involved.
I don't know, you know, write a letter to your Congress person and say, Hey, you know what? I want to hire some people. I want to, I want to build a business in this district. And I can't do it because, you know, we could do something.
What are we going to do? And I'd like, uh, if Chad, maybe get you to that too. What are the advantages of me joining AUBSI?
You know, I think, you know, they're still there, Chad. The, uh, there is a ton of background noise. There is a lot of background noise. So whoever's like where it's crowded, maybe they could go on mute until they, uh, are going to speak.
I think you asked me a question, Patrick. I did. I was, I was kind of asking, you know, a lot of people are saying, why should I join or why should I come to the movies?
And, uh, you know, like I was saying, it's, it's gotta be more of a proactive approach for this industry. I think it's need, everybody needs to get involved in the future. And there's more to it than that. And I would like you to speak to maybe, you know, what would, uh, people get out of, of being members of AUBSI besides the magazine and getting a chat with a guy like me.
So I'm going to, um, before I answer that, uh, specifically, I want to talk to even one point before, um, that's something that may not be well known about AUBSI. AUBSI made a substantial budget change within the last, within the last six months to contribute a huge, uh, to make a huge splash in PR, um, that, you know, right now we are being, uh, as, as we've talked about, uh, we're in the crosshairs of lots of, uh, of lots of areas of interest
and AUBSI as a whole is now extremely committed to leading from the front and getting proactively out there and getting the pro message across everywhere.
And I, and, uh, I met with AUBSI's new PR group last night. Uh, I was substantially impressed. Um, and I think that we're going to make a difference, but, you know, beyond that, you know, that's not going to happen without a full commitment from the organization. Uh, you know, every, everyone everywhere, you know, right now needs to galvanize because there is a lot of, uh, there, there are a lot of protagonists out there that are against this organization that in one fell swoop,
you know, there was, uh, there was talk that the reauthorization bill was in danger and without a few key people, uh, not even necessarily AUBSI staff getting up on the Hill and talking to the right congressmen.
Uh, we could have already seen legislation put out against this organization that could drastically hamper things and set us back for years. So I think it's, I think it's so important right now that if you're, if, if you've got a business that, uh, you need to protect your businesses and you need to, you know, protect the opportunity that is on man systems. And so I think it's more important than ever for everybody to be involved with the organization as a centerpiece. I concur with all of that.
And I'm going to, I'm going to throw that over to Jay because Jay, you know, you've been here a while, uh, maybe you'd like to pick up the baton and go with it. Yeah. I think I'm a flawed where AVSI has come and in transforming and getting out there and in advocacy and leading the way on the Hill and now picking up the reins on some, some counter media work because what, what we see again and again, it's not just in our systems technology, that it's a small vocal minority who, who create the flap about privacy
and other frankly non-issues and while, while the, the masses sit quietly in apathy and get steamrolled by a minority interests.
And I think that we do need to agitate among ourselves and cultivate the, the kind of input to the media and, and, uh, you know, governmental leaders to let them know that we have a voice too, and we have a different perspective and we're not all about spy planes and killer drones. So there's another aspect of this. And, you know, I think our job would be made easier if we had, you know, currently access to the NAS and we could point to some, you know, applications, you know, other than specular though in the future.
And we hear this again and again, within the future, they're talking about using these drones for agriculture, but for now it's all about, you know, spy planes and privacy, so somehow the message has got to get out there more, you know, not, not louder, but just more. You know, again, you're preaching in a choir, which isn't too surprising. Um, I do, I do believe that, uh, you know, I kind of think that the door should have been cracked open for, uh, more of the, the ag private public asset management
and soon as people see them out there and that, Hey, you know, uh, this is doing this and it's saving people money and it's helping the environment and all the rest of this stuff and it's clean and it's green and it's helpful, I think people are going to cozy right up to it.
I definitely think that, uh, they're just easy buttons that we're being a hit with now, you know, um, and that's not really something it's kind of unfortunate, but again, I think both of you hit that point. Don't be apathetic. If you want to be in this business and I've beat this drum for years, you got to get involved. You got to make a future for yourself.
The other thing I will add to that as I was talking to Ben Gilo about this and, you know, uh, we were kind of joking around about it, but I know that him and Mario and Gretchen are out there and they've been working the hill hard. Um, you know, and when you, when you say this, and I used to say this too, with our Kappa and people didn't want to pay the $45 a year. That's outrageous. What are you doing with my money?
Uh, $85 is not really a lot of money, uh, in today's world. And for an organization that needs to lobby and do PR and have all of the other, let's say broadcast vehicles, uh, that they need to really put a true face on this as organization in this technology, that's not a lot of money. Um, and there are a lot of interests here. That's another thing I do hear from people.
And, and, uh, maybe you guys could add to that. I do hear from the small guys, well, they're not doing enough for us. And even the big vendors, well, wait a minute, you're not doing enough for us, you know, and we don't agree with this and we don't agree with that. And it seems like all of the, that the different groups and that, that it's very compartmentalized and, uh, let's say, like even the law enforcement guys, you know, me and Gene have tried to reach out and talk to them.
And it seems like they're in a little cluster over there and they just can't break out and I definitely think that we need to, as a community, you know, sing kumbaya by the campfire and all come together. Anybody want to comment on that?
Well, I can certainly concur to it because, uh, out here working with law enforcement and fire and first responders, they asked me the same question. They say, you know, Hey, let's go. We're ready to go. Which way do we go?
And, uh, that education process, you know, as Dr. Jerry has started needs to be, needs to take place. We need to get the word out and we can really form how those agencies use their unmanned aircraft and set the standard. Yeah.
I'd like to add onto that, Gene. Um, we, uh, actually had a guy from Hungary call in and he has two PhDs in aerial firefighting and he's been using UAVs, his experience, six years of experience with UAVs and firefighting. So we developed a certificate course around that and he teaches online, it's an eight week course. And we've been trying to contact the chiefs of police and a lot of places.
We're not getting a lot of traction yet, but it would be good, you know, just to get it before you go out and buy one of these vehicles or listen to the talk from some of the vendors to just get an education and what they really are and what the technologies are available and the sensors and, you know, just to get grounded in that before I make a big purchase. Well, hey, we're down to like five seconds. I want to thank everyone for being on. Um, you know, it was an informative talk.
I think it was very insightful for, uh, for the listeners again. Uh, we'll see you guys later. Have a good week. Good luck.
Thanks. Thanks a lot.