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Florida Drone Supply Pilot Network Update

Florida Drone Supply

Approved Vendor
Joined
Dec 8, 2016
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www.floridadronesupply.com
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We are very proud that our pilot network training is off to a great start. In our first couple of trainings, we have certified nearly 20 pilots to fly our required flight profiles for most of the major cellular providers. Training for tower inspections is conducted in east central Alabama at a training facility with multiple live cell towers. This course is 3 full days of training - including classroom time, on site safety training, flying techniques and the specific photography and video requirements of the flight profile. Upon completion, pilots are qualified to inspect cell towers under our contracts. We train nearly every Tuesday through Thursday and just completed the last training for December, but begin training again on January 9th and have openings available in the later part of January.

Our pilots have trained with aircraft ranging from the Phantom 4 Pro, the entire line of Inspires as well as the Matrice 200 and Matrice 210. We bring the Matrice line of aircraft to training each week because when the weather gets wet (fog, drizzle and rain) its the only aircraft that is able to continue to fly and allow our pilots to advance their training. Without the M200 and M210 we would have not been able to complete some of our training on time. Using the high capacity TB55s is also a big bonus for inspecting cell towers. Our pilots flying the Inspire 2 have encountered some issues without having a true POI or Orbit mode. We are in the process of vetting the use of a 3rd party app to overcome this issue.

If tower inspection does not interest you, we have other opportunities nearing the final stage of completion for our pilot network as well. They will include business lines such as Utility (power lines), Construction, Roadway Mapping, Golf Courses (video and turf analysis) and a couple others we can not discuss yet.
If you have your Part 107 certificate and are interested in doing some contract work, we invite you to join our network and see what we can do together. Being part of our network has other perks as well (including discounts on all your equipment and accessory needs).
We look forward to flying with you sometime soon!

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Do you mean connections for contract jobs to fly or to other pilots in the area?
Meaning what area do your contracts with the cell companies cover? Are all of your contracts just in Florida or are they just in the southeastern states or do you also cover up into the northeastern states where I live? Just wondering if signed on if I would have to be traveling to Florida every time a job came up. That and rate of pay would be a question and what I would have to pay out of pocket and what they would pay for on their end. That and question is my i1 with the z3 good enough or would I need something like the m210 or the m600 with the z30. You can pm me the information if you would rather not publicly say at this time. By the way. Happy Belated Birthday Michael!!
 
Meaning what area do your contracts with the cell companies cover? Are all of your contracts just in Florida or are they just in the southeastern states or do you also cover up into the northeastern states where I live? Just wondering if signed on if I would have to be traveling to Florida every time a job came up. That and rate of pay would be a question and what I would have to pay out of pocket and what they would pay for on their end. That and question is my i1 with the z3 good enough or would I need something like the m210 or the m600 with the z30. You can pm me the information if you would rather not publicly say at this time. By the way. Happy Belated Birthday Michael!!

Our contracts are scattered around the USA, we are choosing qualified pilots geographically for where we expect the inspections to happen. That is one of the key points of the pilot network, having trained people in place in the specific areas that have a need for our services. Having the pilot near the contract location and not having the pilot have to drive far or have to overnight in a hotel is one of the goals of this program. We have already found out that is not always possible and will make adjustments when necessary.

Our clients are requesting a sensor capable of 20MP, for some imaging 16MP is sufficient but it appears they are wanting to stay at the 20MP quality. The Phantom 4 Pro, X4S, X5S meet the stricter requirements of 20MP, the X5 meets the minimum requirement. The z30 is very welcome and will be used for other imaging than tower mapping, it will prove to be more capable for power line continuity and LOS inspections, where serial numbers are needed and where long distance image vs high definition imaging are needed.

Rate of pay will be discussed on a case by case contract and not on a public forum.

We are expecting the first wave of inspections to happen in the mid west starting in Texas and moving north early 2018. That does not mean the contracts are limited to that area, they may come up anywhere and that is why we are trying to select pilots in all parts of the USA. Here is a map showing the coverage of registered pilots in our network.

Coverage+Map (1).jpg

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Jim
 
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