Drone Insights & Technology

Overview:As the CEO of Indigenous Aerospace, Jacob Taylor's drive comes from his relentless pursuit to ensure indigenous people benefit from drone technology by providing education, equipment, and training that creates business opportunities and revenue from UAV services within local Indigenous communities.In this episode, Jacob discusses the many different ways drone technology can improve the quality of life within indigenous communities, which are located throughout the remote and sparsely populated regions of Canada.This includes supporting nature and land management, mapping traditional territories to document current and historical land use, and solving logistical challenges (including delivery of critical supplies such as food and medicine).Today's Guest:Jacob Taylor of the Curve Lake First Nation - Otter Clan is the CEO of Indigenous Aerospace, a company whose vision is to provide education and support for First Nation people using drone technology in their local territories to improve their local quality of life. As a student at Western University, Jacob studied Aboriginal Health Policy as an undergraduate and continued on to receive his graduate degree in First Nation Policy Leadership. In 2021, Jacob received Western's Faculty of Health Sciences Young Alumni Award. Jacob is currently a Ph.D. student at the University of North Dakota's Medicine and Health Science division, studying the impact of drones on Indigenous health.

OverviewJohnathan Smeh has had quite the journey throughout his nine years in the commercial drone industry, but drones weren't initially on the radar when he was pursuing a career in geography, GIS, and manned aircraft. n this interview, Johnathan talks through first discovering the drone industry, its evolving technology, and how it's shaped both his current work and what he hopes to work on in the future (hint: it's out of this world!). He also discusses unique piloting stories from the field that required both creativity and ingenuity to ensure mission success.Today's GuestJohnathan Smeh is a Certified Photogrammetrist and GIS Specialist at Volatus Aerospace and a Certified Photogrammetrist with the Canadian Institute of Geomatics. Since starting in the commercial drone industry in 2013, Johnthan has built and sold two companies, High Eye Aerial Imaging, and Canadian UAV Solution, and has hundreds of flight hours on both Multirotor and Fixed Wing Aircraft. A skilled drone pilot, he is an expert at performing all aspects of UAV service, including pricing, flight planning, data collection, and processing.

Maude Pelletier was a geomorphologist working in the Yukon territories studying permafrost, generating precise high-resolution aerial images using photogrammetry to get elevation models and more. She tells the story of encountering the first lidar payloads for drones, and realizing how it could make a significant impact to her work. This led to founding a company that created new innovations in drone lidar technology. In this interview, Maude  describes elements of lidar technology, compares and contrasts lidar with photogrammetry, discusses strategies for creating point clouds, and explores typical use cases.

In 2017, Kirk Floyd combined his RC helicopter skills and a passion for horticulture and arboriculture to create a business within the emerging commercial drone market. In addition to those industries, he also has extensive drone operator experience in movies, media, commercials and as an inspection pilot. Additionally, he is currently working on drone research with the University of Maryland.In this interview, Kirk shares some great stories from the field, and how he used his ingenuity for on-location problem solving during drone missions to ensure their success.

David Heath turned a background in aviation into a career that connects the drone industry with public policy. As a founding member of the PA Drone Association, he regularly advocates for policies, regulations, and new initiatives to enable the drone industry to not only grow, but to benefit the public good.In addition to providing the drone community with access to government programs, he also helps legislators better understand the dynamics and nature of the drone business. He's also worked with state and local governments to create more opportunities in the industry, as well as helping them to start a Drone Center of Excellence.

GIS Scientist and Level 3 Thermographer Jason San Souci takes us on an in-depth exploration of both the art and science of thermography. He walks through the three levels, and uses some great examples of how to combine measurements with experience to get the best outcomes.He also shares some great stories about his time in an Afghanistan combat zone, chimpanzee habitat mapping with Jane Goodall, neurodiversity in the drone industry, the potential positive impact of BVLOS, and much more.

Danielle Gagne talks about her new role as Chief Storyteller at Volatus Aerospace. She will be focusing on distilling drone industry developments and technical information into content that is understandable and usable by all.Danielle leverages her experience working at Commercial UAV News to connect with key players in the drone industry, determine where value is being created, and identify trends for the future.

An entrepreneur and aviation enthusiast, Sharon founded Women and Drones, which is dedicated to driving excellence in the UAS/AAM industry. She shares how the organization empowers women to connect, collaborate and make global business connections.Sharon also discusses their new alliance, the “ConnexiCore Mentor Program – in Collaboration with Women and Drones”. The goal is to develop the business, technical and operational skill sets of newly-trained female drone pilots across North America.

Dawn Zoldi of P3 Tech Consulting explains her journey from JAG lawyer for the U.S. Air Force to creating policies on domestic use of military drones in the U.S. national airspace. After winning the Woman to Watch and UAS Global award, she was inspired to create her company, P3 Tech Consulting. Dawn discusses that her primary focus is on education and advocacy about the drone industry, and offers insight on how today's trends are impacting business.

Our guest is Tanner Harris, President of Blue Nose Aerial Imaging, a Navy veteran and former airline pilot who not only started his own drone services business, but is committed to creating opportunities for others to start and run their own successful drone businesses, especially veterans. Tanner walks through how he helps people set up their business, streamline their operations, and create a customer base. He also stresses the value of networking, both for business development, and also within the drone industry to stay current on the latest trends and products.

Drone reality capture technologies, such as laser scanning and imaging,  are helping a myriad of construction professionals such architects, building owners, general contractors, engineers and commercial real estate receive an accurate data set about their building projects. Join us as Jared Curtis, President of Existing Conditions, discusses how drone technology, combined with traditional architectural tools, helps provide a comprehensive, big-picture view of construction projects.  In this episode, he discusses how drones offer new levels of speed and accuracy, and increasingly allow his team access to spaces that otherwise would be dangerous or inaccessible to accurately document. 

OverviewWith an aerospace background and an MBA degree from MIT, our guest David Morczinek explores the opportunities and challenges of dealing with large datasets to aid in construction engineering. His company, AirWorks, has an advanced platforms that can transform data generated by drones into CAD, DWG, topography, or any other kind of spatial representation. He makes the case that this type of analysis acts a powerful supplement to the work of professional engineers and surveyors, enabling them to do their work with greater speed and precision than ever before.About Our GuestDavid Morczinek is the Co-Founder and CEO of AirWorks where he spearheads the development of AirWorks' autonomous drafting technology to advance the application of aerial intelligence and transform the engineering and construction industries. Previously David had a successful career with Airbus in both France and Spain, where he led the first delivery and completion of Airbus' newest aircraft, and secured aircraft and services contracts of roughly $300M. David holds an MBA from MIT Sloan, as well as M.S. in aerospace engineering from Hamburg University of Technology.

OverviewConnexiCore is celebrating its 6th year in business, so in this episode the tables are turned...and our CEO Frank Segarra is the guest speaker! Frank Segarra is proud of the hard work and determination of his team to build one of the leading turnkey drone service providers in the industry. In this podcast, he shares insights and lessons he learned over the past 6 years in the drone business, including some great personal stories from his early career.Frank talks about the origins of ConnexiCore as a telecommunications company, and how it evolved into a leading drone services and technology company. Along the way it grew from a 4-pilot team to a nationwide pilot network of over 1100 pilots, serving hundreds of clients across a range of industries.Frank also shares his perspectives on the drone industry, its origins, where it is now, where it is going in the future, and how drone technology and regulations have changed over time.Today's GuestFrank Segarra is the founder and CEO of ConnexiCore. He has over 30 years of IT, telecommunications and aviation industry experience and was a US Navy aircraft carrier airman specializing in Avionics Engineering. As a thought leader in drone technology, Frank was invited to be a founding member of the CompTIA Drone Advisory Council. and is on the Board of Advisors for the PA Drone Association.

Our guest in this episode is Tom Nettleman, Senior VP of Operations at Property Condition Assessments, LLC (PCA), where he oversees the operations for performing condition assessments on all types of commercial properties.Tom has used drones for both small and large scale projects, from façade and roofing inspections on New York City townhomes to a 50 acre university campus in St. Kitts that needed a 3D topology map. Tom shares his first-hand experience on how invaluable drone technology has been for many types of projects. The drone data was quick, thorough, easily accessed and made the assessment of the properties much easier than having “boots on the ground”.

OverviewWe discuss how the system integrator reseller community is finding new business opportunities with UAV drone solutions.Our guest is David Burgeson, CEO of Renaissance Systems, Inc. and exclusive distributor of ConnexiCore drone services to the Master Agent Channel.With over 30 years of channel experience, David shares stories and offers insight to other technology channel sales leaders about the capabilities and powerful information drone services can provide to their own customers. “My job is to deliver an exceptional client experience, both for the reseller community of the drone services, and my team who is working with clients every day to enable new product development.”Learn more by listening to Drone Insights and Technology episode 006.Today's GuestDavid Burgeson, CEO, Renaissance Systems, Inc.Renaissance Systems, Inc. has been in business since 1982 and provides IT, compliance, managed security, and software development to businesses of all sizes and throughout the US.

OverviewOur guest, Scott Northrop of Drone Tech Imaging, works with construction companies and engineers to gather various drone generated datasets to help them analyze and manage their projects.After starting a drone business a few years ago, Scott started to explore what might be possible beyond just images and videos. After working closely with a family member that owned an engineering firm, he realized the incredible value that drones can provide to the construction and engineering workflow.Leveraging his background in software and technology, Scott innovated ground-breaking techniques that combine multiple datasets to create rich deliverables, including DSM, DTM, Ortho, 3D point cloud, LAS, DWG, DXF, and more.He also created ways to share all of this important data with his clients in a way that was accessible and understandable.About Our GuestScott Northrop is the founder of Drone Tech Imaging.  He started out as a Political Science Major, working on Capitol Hill for 2 different senators. Following his entrepreneurial drive, Scott decided to become a business owner, running several companies, including some tech firms. After getting his first drone 4 years ago, he started exploring how deliverables could be more useful and intuitive for his clients. Scott was fascinated by what drones make possible, but also saw an opportunity to make the process more intuitive and accessible for his clients. His companies now provide advanced deliverables for the construction and engineering industries, plus more.

We talk with our guest, Allen Cortez, VP of Safety Administration at Hanover Company, a nationwide developer of high-end apartment projects in major metropolitan areas. We explored the positive impact drones and related technologies are making for conducting commercial building envelope inspections.Allen's team manages the safety program for construction sites, the quality control program, operations scheduling and IT initiatives. He shared examples of how drone technology has advanced substantially each year, creating powerful new tools for both quality assurance as well as safety procedures. We also talked about the challenges and opportunities of effectively dealing with the large number of drone deliverables at scale.In this episode, we covered a range of topics, including AI, cloud-based asset management, facade inspection, the pros and cons of an in-house drone team versus outsourced, and what might be possible with drone technology in the near future.TODAY'S GUESTAllen Cortez manages the Hanover Company Construction Division safety and quality assurance programs and project control systems. His responsibilities include project management, planning, scheduling, mobile technology solutions, and administrative support staff throughout Hanover Company's entire portfolio. Allen also manages Hanover's IT systems including, outsourced IT services, and hardware and software selection and implementation. Before joining Hanover Company, Allen was Vice President of Operations for Tribble & Stephens Co., a private commercial general contractor providing nationwide construction services. Allen graduated from the University of Houston with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Construction Management.

Many companies interested in drone technology still think of drones as something that works only for capturing visual imagery.Of course, drones can do much more. While drones can capture stunning and clear video and still photography in a way unthinkable even five years ago, they also can produce data that produces actionable insights.Steven Katz, Founder and Chief Pilot for Sky Ladder Drones, said he recently had a client who wanted drone video, a service Katz has provided many times. But after learning more about the actual business needs, Katz devised a three-day program that not only got the client video, but also photos and mapping data that actually answered provided the answers to the underlying business questions.More industries are now beginning to understand how they can utilize unmanned aircraft systems. “These ‘ah-ha moments' happen in little bits. With the use of drones becoming more prevalent and those within the industry working to make effective use cases more apparent, over time more people will understand drone technology can give them far more than just pretty pictures.Listen to Drone Insights and Technology Episode 003 to hear some interesting specific use cases.TODAY'S GUESTSteven Katz, Founder and Chief Pilot, Sky Ladder DronesSky Ladder Drones is a commercial UAS service provider based in Los Angeles specializing in drone mapping, construction progress photos, asset inspection (both visual and thermal) and training. Sky Ladder Drones uses only FAA Part 107 certified pilots, has Level 1 Thermography Certified staff and holds a FAA Daytime Waiver for permission to fly at night.

On this episode we are joined by Vice President of Sales at Measure, Abigail Lacy.We explored some nuanced topics in the ever-expanding drone industry—how can you distinguish the contenders from the pretenders? And how can drones be presented in a way that avoids overpromising and underdelivering in an industry that undergoes constant growth and innovation?“There's a lot of fluff in the industry that makes people believe that delivery with a drone is going to become commonplace tomorrow,” Lacy said. “That's actually not the reality. It's still very much in the R&D phase. That's just one example of the kind of misinformation that's been built up around drones.” Lacy also shared key questions to ask a drone or software provider, along with best practices for brokering successful partnerships and making sure your business needs are met.Learn more by listening to Drone Insights and Technology episode 002.TODAY'S GUESTAbigail Lacy, VP Sales, MeasureMeasure is an aerial intelligence company that builds software to automate drone operations workflows. With end-to-end program management, user-friendly flight control, and in-platform data analysis, their comprehensive software solution, Ground Control, helps businesses save thousands of hazardous man-hours and create millions of dollars in operational benefits.

Drones can take thousands of images or hours of video of things that previously would've been unthinkable.But what good is all that data if you have no way to sort, analyze, and prioritize it?Ken Falk, CEO and Founder of Scopito, has a platform that allows users to understand what they have and quickly find what they need to detect.“Drones allow you to capture much larger amounts of images in a much higher quality than was financially feasible before,” he said. “You need all of this data in high quality and high volume to start doing predictive maintenance work.”Learn more about the impact of data on drone projects by tuning in to the Drone Insights and Technology episode 1.TODAY'S GUESTKen Falk, CEO and Founder, ScopitoScopito is the leading software platform to store, analyze and share visual inspections. Ken initially offered drone inspections as a service for power line inspections, though soon realized that the industry needed an effective way to manage data. Leveraging his computer engineering background developing mission-critical systems for the defense industry, Ken and his team developed the innovative Scopito platform. Now Scopito is available to drone operators around the world to help them effectively manage thousands or even millions of inspection images.