August 21, 2018, issue of 'AOPA Drone Pilot'


VOL 2, ISSUE 17	August 21, 2018

Top Stories

Flying popsicles, pig patrol, and Part 107

A popsicle delivery, a cloud-connected firefighting drone, and a feral pig patrol were launched in recent weeks as the FAA and industry partners study how to ease restrictions on drone operations. The FAA has been flooded with Part 107 waiver requests, and approval rates have declined. Read more >

Drones save money, lives on job sites

From office towers to ancestral vineyards, drones are doing more work on job sites. Read more >

Training and Safety

How to land real estate gigs

Real estate professionals are buying lots of drone photography, but you need a compelling pitch to land the most lucrative jobs. Read more >

Near miss under investigation

A Florida drone pilot quickly took down the video of a near-midair with a helicopter, but not before the FAA and local television picked up on this object lesson on the importance of airspace awareness. Read more and watch a video >

CRASAR and RMUS offer disaster training

The Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue and Rocky Mountain Unmanned Systems will offer UAS Response Technician I/II courses in October in Salt Lake City. Read more and register >

Utah state fire marshal schedules course

The Utah state fire marshal's office will provide a free introduction to unmanned aircraft for public safety professionals on Sept. 11 in Sandy, Utah. Read more and register >

Gear

Talk to the Yuneec Mantis Q

Yuneec is accepting preorders for the new Mantis Q, a 4K camera drone that responds to voice commands and boasts 33-minute endurance. Read more >

Rupprecht talks lights

Drone law attorney and manned aircraft pilot Jonathan Rupprecht goes into detail about anticollision lights for drones, required for all night operations and useful during daylight, too. Read more >

Software speeds inspections

Industrial SkyWorks of Canada has updated the BluVu inspection platform. Read more >

Lifestyle

Dance, drone!

See that drone, watch that scene, this quadcopter is a dancing queen. Sort of. Read more and watch a video >

Old-school aerials

Two Getty photographers explain why drones are not always the right tool for aerial photography, at least for now. Read more >

Public Safety

Vital information, compressed

Drones responding to disasters produce huge troves of data, but gigabytes of pictures and video take time to analyze and cannot be delivered over compromised data networks. Drones could become flying highlighters by using GPS logs, shareable as comparatively tiny text files, to tell a story. Watch the video >

Inside the California wildfire response

Greg Crutsinger provides a firsthand account of how unmanned aircraft teams supported firefighters battling a fire that destroyed about 1,000 homes in California. Read more >

You probably don't need a COA

Many public agencies go about gaining FAA authorizations to fly drones the hard way, and, for most, the wrong way. Read more >

Italian firefighters fly bridge collapse

Video footage released by firefighters in Italy offered a dramatic look at a devastating bridge collapse. Watch the video >

Regulation and Policy

Opinion: Being risk-averse is risky

The senior director of strategy and research for the Center for Growth and Opportunity at Utah State University worries the FAA is stifling drone development. Read more >

Opinion: Key ingredients for a new drone economy

As the United Kingdom updates drone regulations, a market analyst looks at further changes needed to maximize the potential of unmanned aircraft. Read more >

News

Drones herd birds from airport airspace

Birds have long been a big problem for airports and aviators, nesting in aircraft and occasionally colliding with them, with disastrous results. Autonomous drones may one day clear the air. Read more >

No swarms of killer drones, yet

Light shows have made drone swarms a thing, but flocks of intelligent killer drones are still years away. Read more >

Embry-Riddle tracks shoreline erosion

A team of unmanned aircraft researchers from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University mapped a lagoon in Florida to help scientists understand erosion. Read more >