UAS News Podcast — 2012-10-03
Transcript
Alright, hello everyone and welcome to another installment in our, the SUS news series podcast where we discuss the issues and news that are relevant to the unmanned technologies community and this is SUS news where we interview the newsmakers or are the newsmakers or find the newsmakers we're all about the newsmakers. I'm your program host Patrick Egan and as always we'd like to say a big hello to our co-host Gene Robinson. Hello out there guys, it's nice to be back. It's been a nice week and the Sierra Nevada is working about that secret UAV flying place up there so that was kind of fun.
How do you like that? I love the mountains up there. It's one reason I do not want to leave California. I really like that.
Alright, well this week's episode is called the Jumble and basically the reason I'm calling it that or we've titled it that is we have a lot of stuff we want to talk about. We have some exciting stuff coming up. Also we have our guest today is Stephen Bourne and he actually has got three articles going in three different publications about RCAP. He also had some input from our friends at the federal administration and we'll be talking about that.
But first I kind of wanted to bring up some topics before we get into that. One of those is going to be now you were at the UA caucus Gene and I'm just kind of interested to know, I know you were busy but did you get a chance to do any follow up?
Have you heard anything new? We asked the general to follow up as a matter of fact and as I mentioned earlier in the previous show that we were very well received of the 15 invitees. We were the only civilian UA manufacturer in the group and everybody took a real close look at us and we ended up getting to meet with several congress people which was good. They were very open to our suggestions and more importantly I did get to go have a meeting with Gene Williams the new head of the unmanned aircraft integration office.
I was very encouraged by his words. I think he's really trying. He hasn't been there long enough to be ground down yet I don't think and he's pushing for it. I think he's really pushing for it and we'll see how long he can keep pushing.
But I'm very encouraged by what he had to say. Unfortunately he was very straightforward and said it's an uphill battle. It is an uphill battle and it's mostly driven by the legal eagles that are up here. Unfortunately lawyers tend to sign these even in the most well intended process.
But it will and we're starting to follow up with the people this week. As I said it's been out for the last two and a half weeks and we're starting to follow up with them. We're starting to get some responses back and it's going to be one of those things where we're going to have to keep pushing. Because obviously it's campaigning time and everybody is concerned about the election and they're more focused on that.
I feel pretty certain that they're going to be posting to remember us and remember that we were there. I think we had a good display and showed them just exactly what we could do with a reasonably cost civilian public unmanned aircraft. Well excellent. Again I'm glad you guys made it out there.
They don't see enough of the small business guy or let's say commercial system or civil system. It's all military and I think it's unfortunate for most of the community that they don't have the money to go out here and do what you're doing. Because I think that if they get a better look at what's available and the capabilities and the price points and things like that, people would come out and say why are we spending all this money on capabilities?
They might be a little bit better but are they worth $200,000 more? I don't know. There were a few eyebrows raised at the price points that we were given as well because I do believe that they're used to seeing six figures even for small aircraft. Well yeah there is.
It's awful that people get a little interested. Yeah and those guys of course have market share that they're trying to protect and it's business. Again we bring this up. I don't want people thinking we're just here beating folks up.
If you're making a living or whatever, that's great. On that note, it's kind of funny. I was telling somebody else I'm out here at the Battle Lab and I'm like oh yeah I'm doing this SUS news website and we do the podcast. Oh yeah I've heard of that website.
You guys hate the FAA. I got to chuckle out of that one. I'm like well it's not that. I don't hate.
I'm a little frustrated and I think we've gone through that ad nauseum. Why we're frustrated and the whole community's frustrated. It's not just me or you or the guests that we have out here. There's a large segment of the population in this community that's very frustrated with the FAA and I think the podcast members reflect that.
When I think of the man hours of people that listen to this and the people who call me and the feedback and they're like man you're spot on. You're right on target. God I'm afraid we're going to miss the boat and yada yada and this is a great industry and all the stuff that we always talk about is the feedback I'm getting from the community. The people listening from the FAA and I know they listen.
Hey there's a big shout out. Would you like to have a shout out there Gene?
Well okay one of the things that I think is not that we don't like the FAA. We don't like the lawyers that dictate what the FAA can do. I think that's where we need to go with this thing. Well you know we're just I mean we've been we've put our money where our mouth is and our effort where our money or our mouth is and we've tried to help out man.
There's no denying you know that we've done a lot of work trying to help them with the data and I mean I remember you helped them with the website and you know we did the proposed guidelines and the insurance and the testing. I mean it goes on. Millions of dollars worth of stuff was given to the FAA and they did nothing with it and maybe you know it's like that deal where people you know free advice take it for what it's worth. But I thought it was good stuff.
Other people you know when I showed that information to people in Europe they thought I was great and I know that they've used some of that and I've seen some of the work shine through in their work. So somebody listened so it wasn't all for naught. But anyway it's just a prestation thing. We all want to get off the ground.
Yeah we're all concerned about safety but you know I think some other things have kind of clouded this. And that goes back to the UAV caucus or UA caucus that you've got there with the raised eyebrows. There's a segment of this population or this community that's not really interested in a guy like Gene Robinson coming in there and going hey I've got all these capabilities at this price point. Come on down.
You know it makes them look like they're charging too much. So you know that's another factor that's at play. They run away too caught up on that. I just wanted to explain we don't hate the FAA.
We love the FAA. We're just a little frustrated with the policies and the lack of action. Well I got to speak for myself. And some of the lawyers are friends of mine so I can't say it's them.
Just you know single them out. Everybody beats up on those lawyers but they're nice guys. They're just you know they're trying to cover themselves. Also you know we're going to we're talking about that it was kind of funny because I did talk to one of them who also does the commercial space.
And the other news is SUS news was granted a press pass for the International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Space Flight ISPC at New Mexico State University. Yeah and fortuitously I'll be at White Sands Missile Range for NIE and that's just a hop skip and a jump from where I'll be working. So I am going to go over there. And you know I'm really excited.
I mean I love space. I think the commercial space thing is good. I've gotten a little insight. Some of those folks that worked at the FAA on unmanned aircraft systems also were working on the commercial space thing.
I don't know if you remember Steve Schwartz. He was in on that. So good insight. Yeah before he left.
And so you know I've been following that too and I'm really interested in checking that out and seeing what's going on over there. Should be pretty exciting. And then also talking about NIE and this again you know SUS news. We're rolling out the or cart because the other thing I'm going to try and do.
I will be doing some reporting from NIE. I've got to get with the PIO and the Army PIO. And I will do that and I'm going to report from there. The other thing I'm going to try and do if I can get the equipment is we have a comms truck and I'm going to see if I can commandeer the equipment.
Then I'm going to try and do a live podcast from NIE at White Sands Missile Range. You're not getting that anywhere. Here we're going to kind of get a flavor for what is going on out there. Now of course I will not be able to talk about directly.
We'll have limitations but we will be. We're going to try and broadcast live from there and whatever the subject matter is for the day. Yada yada yada. But that should be kind of fun if I can get the stars to align on that.
And so you know October is going to be full of unmanned technology, unmanned technology and space goodness. And then I know Gene you have some stuff coming up. We talked about it. Maybe you want to talk about that a little bit.
Yeah you know as we talked about being the news makers and the news collectors here I think one of the things that we could do is we could actually take our audience out on some of our missions that we're flying. We have been gifted with a very nice NMAR satellite system where we are basically in communications anywhere on earth. And one of the things that we thought would be a really good idea is when we go out
and we start doing some of our training flights or even if we do real missions, if we go on some of these searches we can take that satellite system and perhaps we can put a live feed up.
Maybe we can develop a website so that our viewers can actually log into the website when we announce that we're going to be in the field. They can watch what's going on. They can see how we use our unmanned aircraft. Everything from putting them together to setting them up to launch them to getting the video to actually putting some good data out there on the web that people can use.
It's not theory. It's not anything but a practical use of unmanned aircraft in a real situation. And there's nobody doing that. There's nobody that is doing that right now and we can be the first to do it and I think that we are going to be pretty good.
Well, if we could get the stars to align. I mean we're not making false promises here. There's hurdles to jump through. Some of this stuff is classified.
We'll work on that and try to get that going. But I agree with you. I'll be watching. You're not going to get that anywhere.
Nobody's ever done it, man. So that's the kind of stuff you get here and that's why I say we're wheeling out the ore cart. You're going to get to see the gold. We're actually, instead of just talking about what it's like to work in this field, we're going to give you some real examples.
I mean you can log in and you can see what it's like. And like you said, Gene, I don't know anybody who's doing that. So that'll be a first and that could be very informative. And I think that'll roll right into the things we want to do with the Omega Unmanned Systems thing.
And that's the kind of goods we're bringing to the table. I think that's going to be very exciting. Like I said, I've never heard anybody doing any of this stuff. I don't care who you are.
So we'll be out right behind the bleeding edge on that one. As usual. As usual. If we can, we'll be making the news.
We'll be making history right there. Also, I wanted to talk about, you know, I promised some reflections. I went through the Unmanned University three-day executive course. And you know, I want to talk about that.
And I basically, the university invited me to go through that to kind of give my interpretations of what I thought the program was like. So you know, I did that and it was over eight weeks and it was over the internet. And it was pretty informative, you know, I have to say. I felt that it was a good value, especially for folks who may only know a little about this industry and some that may know a lot.
And you know, it is compartmentalized. It is compartmentalized. We've talked about that before, this industry. And I think it was a good broad brush overview and people could learn about it.
They heard about applications, technology advancements, command and control, radar, satellite-based GPS, airspace integration issues, and other topics. And I thought it was kind of interesting, the airspace integration issues. A lot of the information they went over, I forgot how involved I was in all of that stuff. And that's what I'll, since it's a family show, I will call it stuff.
And you know, I think if you take good notes, which I did, I took notes on every class and I think there's a good overview and I definitely believe it's a good value for professionals. I think you could go into a meeting, definitely after taking that class and go into a meeting, and sounds like you kind of know what you're talking about if you're talking about unmanned aircraft. Since that time, it's an ever-evolving thing. They've started rounding out the curriculum.
I got a few emails from Dr. Jerry yesterday. They're doing an unmanned space thing. They're doing unmanned ground vehicles.
They're doing everything. They're branching out. They're really trying to round things out. They're trying to get things going at Lake Havasu down there and get the campus built out.
And they've also put together a textbook and they're getting ready to publish that textbook and it will be available soon on Amazon.com. And I don't know, I'm sure you'll see that mentioned or whatever, or he'll probably be advertising that. I'm not sure. But anyway, if you want to get interested in getting into this field, I would suggest you go out there and check out www.uxvuniversity.com, which is the unmanneduniversity.com, and get in touch with Dr.
Jerry. Talk to Dr. Jerry or somebody else over there. Talk to them.
See if it's the right fit for you. You can also listen to the podcast series, Back to School, where I interviewed some of the different outlets that are offering degrees in this field. So go ahead, go there and listen to that. I've been talking to Henry Riddle, trying to bring them on and talk about their program, but there's a lot of hoops to get through with the marketing people and whatever else.
And I've just been lacking and tracking all that down, but I'm working on it. Anyway, so we talked about that. The other thing I wanted to talk about since we're here today is it's rumored that the, and it kind of ties into today's guest, but the AMA has revised some of their docs or new docs for that document 550 and 560, where they, and there's also a reference to the new law prohibiting flying beyond visual line of sight, which we'll talk to the guest about there in a second. So I guess we might as well, with that segue, we'll bring him on.
Our guest today is Stephen Bourne, and we're going to talk about his business, which is Aerial Skycam. He's a RCA peer, which kind of is where how me and Gene started out on this deal. And he had a couple of articles, three articles and some recent publications, and one of them was the Hello Pilot magazine. And he had some input from the FAA.
So we're going to bring him on. Stephen, are you out there?
I am. All right. I know you had to sit through that long intro. Yeah, we talked on the phone, I don't know, it might have been six months, a year ago, and that's kind of how I know you.
But if you could, I'd like to have the guests give the audience a little bio, you know, a little information about yourself, how you got here, what you're doing. Could you please help us out with that?
Sure. My name is Stephen Bourne, and I run Aerial Skycam. I'm actually a licensed mortician, funeral director and bomber. I graduated school in 2001 in Chicago, Illinois, and have been practicing for years.
I have placed my license on inactive status. I'm helping my mother in a new job, a food job. So currently right now I'm not practicing. You know, but what started me out in radio controlled helicopters was, you know, I was in Miami at a flea market and I saw a helicopter flying and I picked up on it.
And I love photography, and so I just put both of those together. And, you know, I wanted to start a company and I wanted to make money off of it. And that's why I'm here today to speak to everyone. Excellent.
You know, that kind of sounds like, you know, my story and other stories that I've heard. You know, I usually like my AP business was kind of an offshoot of the business that I already had. You know, I felt the same way I was into photography. Oh, it's a slam dunk.
I love it. Yada, yada, yada. So, you know, that's not a story we haven't heard before. Would you agree, Gene?
I would definitely agree. There are thousands of stories like that one, and there are many that came into the industry and then went right back out again. And Stephen, you know, I commend you for pushing ahead with us and trying to make a go of it. And it's going to be interesting to hear what you've discovered as you've gone down your path.
Yeah. You know, one other caveat with that is, you know, I think a lot of people, I still talk to a lot of people and, you know, I talk to a lot of people and a lot of them don't know that this was a legal business. Prior to February 13th of 2007, you know, you could do this legally. There were no issues.
I got paperwork. You know, you can fly Dallas, Fort Worth and Class B airspace. You know, have a nice day. You're doing remote control.
You know, this doesn't look like commercial operations. Call the tower. Have fun. You know, see you later.
And then, you know, that was prior to 2007. And I love when I hear, well, you shouldn't have got into an illegal business. You know, I didn't. It wasn't when we started.
Exactly. A lot of people dumped a lot of money into this business and a lot of effort into this business, and it was not illegal. So, you know, that's another thing we're doing here. We're getting some historical perspective on the integration effort.
But anyway, I don't want to hog that all up because I want to talk about, you know, Stephen, you had three articles and three different publications. And from somebody who has done a couple of articles under his belt, I know that that's it's difficult to do. So, I want to talk about the articles and what these articles make or the significance of these different articles. So, maybe you could, you know, talk through them any way you want and, you know, set them up and let's hear some background on that.
Okay. You know, as far as my camera ships, you know, they are not autonomous aircraft. I do not fly them out of sight. I'm not using any waypoint.
Basically, you know, the highest I've ever gone is about, you know, 150 feet. I have no obstructional view when I fly. I also have a, you know, a camera operator that will, you know, support the camera equipment as I'm piloting the helicopter. As it stands now, you know, I've contacted the FAA, my local FAA agency here in Illinois, and I tried to get a COA.
And at this point, you know, the military, federal, state, and local government agencies are allowed an application. I am not as a private individual. So, you know, the applications for camera ships, you know, the Border Patrol search and rescue, I think those are all great applications and they do help. You know, I have written to my senator.
I've written to my state representative and the only feedback I received was basically a generic letter saying thank you for your time. I've tried to educate myself with the AMA, the newspapers. I'm also a sponsored pilot. And Patrick, I do belong to the Radio Controlled Aerial Photography Association, as you know.
That's good. I belong to my local camera club. I'm on several forums. I recently, you know, I'm trying to get my FAA Airman Knowledge Certificate.
As it stands now, you have to be a commercial pilot. You cannot be a private pilot. You have to have a commercial rating. I've looked into getting my pilot license, which is around $17,000 for everything.
Around $300 an hour just to rent a helicopter. Commercial pilot license is a lot more than that. So, I actually am trying to get into the coursework of the Young Man Vehicle University. You know, I've been looking at the coursework to educate myself even more.
And then, you know, of course, lastly, on today's show, what is disturbing though is, you know, when you get on YouTube and you type in, you know, unmanned aircraft or RC helipilot FPV, there are thousands of videos of pilots at 1,400 feet. The FAA has Internet access. They watch these videos. In addition, they do, you know, they do watch RC heliporums.
So, they're well aware of what is going on. And at this point, you know, you guys were saying dumping a lot of money. I've dumped a lot of money into my camera shift. And they're not producing any income.
Right. Well, you know, and I don't want to, again, a lot of what you're saying, and this is one of the reasons that we have you on. First thing I want to go back, you know, Gene Robinson is also a board member of the RCAPA. You know, the RCAPA, the whole idea with that was to, and I'm going to beat this drum again, because people, oh, you know, RCAPA, you guys, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, you know, I think that the FAA put us out to weather on the vine.
They basically tried to destroy a resource. You know, everything that you talk about is what we've been talking about for the last eight years with the FAA. Okay, you go on YouTube, and I tell them for years they were in denial that nobody was doing this. They, you know, oh, no, nobody's doing this.
And they've got it on record many times that this is going on, and people are doing everything they can to get this done. And, you know, remember Trappy?
Do you remember the FPV guy buzzing the head of the Statue of Liberty? Do you remember that, anybody?
Yeah, I saw the video. Yeah, you know, we had the guy's name, home address, who he's working with here. Oh, you know what it turned out to be?
Foreign nationals. But, you know, no problem here. Got the guy's name, home address, telephone number, who sponsored him, who sponsored him here in the United States. The community really came together.
People were very upset about this dude that came over here from the Eastern Bloc and was buzzing the head of the Statue of Liberty. All that information was given to the associate administrator for aviation safety. Not interested, nothing ever happened. No problem here since that time.
He's done other videos, and the kicker on the deal is they were doing those videos to promote their products. And there are some forums that accept advertisements from them, which I think is, again, is foolhardy, myself. Those people should be shunned. You buzz the head of the Statue of Liberty, my book, your trash.
That's me. I don't know. But the other things that you're talking about were exactly what we were talking about. If you don't have common sense regulation, you're going to have activities like this.
If you don't have, let's say, an enforcement plan that makes sense, that's common sense, that most fair-minded people are going to follow. I mean, everybody colors outside the lines, but if you give them something that they can follow, people want to, especially business people, usually want to abide by the law. Gene, jump in here. I know you're biting your tongue.
Oh, yeah, no doubt. It's very difficult, especially when you get so many different varying stories from the physios that you visit. Some say, yes, okay. Some say it's not.
It's very confusing, just when the left hand doesn't know what the right is doing. Well, again, I don't think that the – and this was the perspective that our CAPA and the small business community was trying to give the FAA. Look, you're not going to ramp check these guys. And what you're telling me, Stephen, here with the commercial pilot, helicopter pilot's license, I will tell you right now, nobody's going to do – very few people will do that.
Nobody's going to do that. And I don't care what your enforcement program is going to be. I mean, it would have to be very draconian. But most people – and you'll probably attest to this – I know when I was doing AP, I was there for 10 minutes.
I was back in the truck and I'm gone. So you're going to have a lot of that. You're going to have unsafe people. You're going to have people, if they figure, well, I'm breaking the law, I'm going nuts anyway, so I'll just do whatever I want.
So again, it's a little disappointing to hear that this is the direction they're traveling in because I've been telling them for years it's not going to work. You're just going to have – and I mean, it's not like there's five guys out there on YouTube, right, Stephen?
Right. I mean, there's thousands. I'm sorry, Patrick. I was just saying there's thousands of these videos all over the Internet.
Tens of thousands. But anyway, continue with your saga, sir. Well, what I wanted to say was I do believe that there should be regulations. Sure.
You know, there needs to be, you know, my feelings on it. There should at least be a pilot certification or even an aircraft certification. I agree with that. And even on that note, you know, the servos that control my aircraft, you know, the FAA, you know, if they were going to do a certification and not a full-scale commercial pilot license, you know, would I have to buy their certified FAA servos to control my aircraft?
Not Align, not JR, not Futaba, but something that is manufactured by – or manufactured and approved by the FAA. I can understand that because the FAA, you know, I hate to say it, but an aircraft, if I have my pilot commercial license, will I fly safer or will my aircraft be safer than if I received my certification?
I don't think it would be safer, but education is the key. Sure. When you see a plane flying, land your aircraft. If you see people on the ground, children, dogs, pedestrians, land your aircraft.
Wind conditions, power lines, trees, rain, land your aircraft. It's all about education. Well, I agree with that, and that, you know, that was another thing with the RCAP, with best practices and all the rest of that and trying to educate the masses. And you'd think again that the – like any other group like EAA or AOPA, that the FAA would support that, but they didn't.
One other thing I do want to say about that, you know, I'm not – I do agree that, you know, a pilot's license is probably not a bad thing because, you know, you've got to have a way to hammer people who, let's say color outside the line, but a commercial pilot's license, I'm calling BS all over that. You know, I've been round and – yeah, I've been round and round with the FAA about this. Now, most people, your cargo is ones and zeros, Stephen, and most of this commercial aircraft stuff is for cargo or carrying people, livery, you know, uses.
So I don't believe in that one. The FAA gives the definition as commercial. Your helicopter turns in – magically turns into an unmanned aircraft system, you know, when a dollar changes hands. Now, and you said you were a sponsored pilot.
So technically, by that standard, you are already flying commercially when you go do the air shows. And that's the thing with the AMA. I mean, it's another gray area nobody wants to talk about, nobody wants to get into. The other double standard is when you get into light sport aircraft, and I've talked about this too.
Me and Gene want to do – we're going to do some applications training. We're a little busy right now. I was telling Gene, the only thing separating me from a 60-hour work week is staff. You know, I'm working more than that.
But the light sport aircraft thing, those people get paid to train people to fly. That, by definition, of what the FAA is telling us is commercial operations because, you know, I asked them, are they giving money?
Is it love, hugs? You know, what is it?
If money is changing hands, that's commercial. And the light sport aircraft pilot, all you need is, you know, your physical. And, you know, I'm sure Gene want to chime in on this one. But you don't need, you know, the Class II medical, man.
All you need is your driver's license. And Gene, would you like to chime in on that?
Well, even with ultralight, you don't even have to have a driver's license. All you have to have is the ability to get the thing in the air and it's fly for less than an hour. So, you know, it goes even further than that with ultralight. And I don't care what they say, it's still a machine with a person in the air and it weighs less than 245 pounds.
Mm-hmm. Yeah, no, I see, you know, a real double standard there. The other thing, I know that there's a lot of pressure from the manned aviation groups. You know, AOPA has been calling for commercial pilot's licenses for this for years.
It sounds like they're going to get their way. That's really unfortunate because it's just going to mean that, well, it's a couple of things. One, you're going to have a lot of outlaws here. And two, you're not going at it like the Europeans.
Again, FAA, you're not leading the way, sorry. It sounds like you're destroying the industry to me. Again, you know, these guys don't want to, you know, again, you know, here I am. I'm the blowtorch because I'm calling out the emperor's new clothes that they're destroying the industry.
You know, Europe, Canada, Australia, you know, other places around the world, you can do this legally, commercially. Anyway, so let's soldier on, Stephen, with the articles. But this is exactly, you know, we're not getting off track. That's exactly why we wanted to have you on here is to give kind of a horse's mouth, I'm trying to do this, and the roadblocks that are being thrown up.
So continue, sir. Sure. In writing several of these articles, you know, the publication cannot print something that is illegal. So they had to take my publications and it had to be approved by the FAA.
And the last article that was written, it has a big stamp of approval by the FAA. And this is the latest magazine. It's a national magazine called R.C. Helly Pilot.
So everything that I wrote had to be approved. So when I wrote the AMA article, there were questions in there about my business and how do you see your business in the future?
Well, that question was, that question raised a flag with the FAA. And I was contacted by the AMA in saying we have to scratch that, a couple of questions out of your article that we've asked you. So, you know, the AMA had to be approved. The R.C.
Helly Pilot had to be approved. So, you know, again, we're not going to put anything in there that is illegal, illegal activity. We're not going to promote that. So I was in contact with the AMA, my local agency here, and I had contacted them regarding my FAA knowledge test.
And I told them, you know, I'm trying to get this business started. And I had mentioned that, you know, I do not want to fly my R.C. aircrafts for commercial use. And the FAA agent that I spoke with kind of chuckled and he said, yeah, that would not be a good idea.
So they're familiar with the laws. And, you know, it's still being done commercially, though, around the United States. There are several movies out, you know, G.I. Joe, Spider-Man, Alvin and the Chipmunks, a recent movie called Dolphin's Tale, Van Helsing, even the History Channel had a documentary called The Harvest.
You know, all that was done, all that was completed by R.C. aircraft with the camera on top. And it's still being shown on TV. There's, you know, movies.
It's still being done to this day. So it's a sticky situation. A lot of people are confused. Even I am confused where I am being turned down.
But yet I go to a movie and I see R.C. aircraft being used. Well, you know, here's the demarcation and it goes right back to the common sense regulation that I was talking about. OK.
You want to abide by the law, you know, and it is a real high chaper, you know, to go out there. I want to do all this stuff, too. I want to do make movies and TV and I want to find missing children. I want to do all this stuff that you're talking about or that potential applications that you're kind of referring to.
But, you know, I don't really want to be a lawbreaker guy. I don't really feel it's a good way to build a business by breaking laws. That's not really my thing. So it really does kind of check my eye that just like you're saying here, you know, some guy made, you know, fifty thousand dollars doing the movie.
He knows it's illegal. He's out there doing it. The FAA knows it's going on. They're not going to do anything about it, you know, yada, yada, yada.
And then you're sitting there, you're like, hey, man, this is not fair. And, you know, well, I could go on for about 20 minutes, but go ahead and continue, sir. I share your frustration on that. I am more than willing to go to class, to go to school, and obtain a certificate saying that, you know, you have proficient knowledge of RC aircraft.
You can hover. You're safe. And we are going to allow you to do this. But for me to get a commercial pilot license where I can fly a full scale, full scale rotor craft, I just do not see...
No. It's a huge barrier. Yeah. You know, the lobbyists have obviously gotten to the FAA.
The lobbyists, the big groups, the DOD vendors, they will say that they didn't. No, we don't want that. Lies. I think I hear the baby Jesus crying.
You know, so that's exactly what happened here. That's very disappointing. You know, the other one I'm going to leave you with, Stephen, you know, you're talking about, you know, these people doing it for movies or whatever. If you have enough money and influence and you're a big enough DOD contractor, you can get a COA to operate a flight school.
And that's happening right now. You know, remember they told you that it had to be, you know, a government thing or whatever. But, you know, if you got enough bread and enough influence, you can train civilians to use your aircraft in Class G airspace. You don't even have to be in restricted airspace.
Just got to know what buttons to push, man. So anyway, so moving on, what's the big takeaway?
You were kind of on that about your, that you think is a big impediment, this commercial license. But, you know, what's your takeaway?
How is this, what's the lie? Where are you at now?
What are you thinking? At this point, everything's at a standstill. I have thousands and thousands of dollars invested in the camera ships. You know, I have helicopters that are, you know, seven feet long.
They have three CCD motion feature film cameras attached to them. They have 360-degree pan and tilt gimbals, gyro stabilized. You know, everything's there. Everything's ready to go.
And I'm going to do everything legal. And if I do everything legal, then the only place that I can go to fly my helicopter is in, is it an AMA field, fly around, take pictures of other pilots flying. And that's it. Well, we're down to a minute here.
And, you know, I can sense and feel the frustration. And I have to say, you know, you want to do things legal, and I appreciate that. And I feel the same way. And I'm really sorry that you're being penalized for wanting to do things legally.
It's very disheartening. We gave some other examples of people that are coloring out sanctions, coloring outside the lines. And, you know, I don't know what to tell you on that. Steven, I really appreciate you coming on and telling your story.
Your story, you came on and told your story. And there's thousands, tens of thousands of other people out there that feel the same way. Thank you, Seth. Thank you, Patrick.
Thank you, Gene. You, Dex, we have you on. All right, everybody. Well, until next week, you know, keep your feet on the ground, I guess.
I don't know. See you next week. Bye.