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Bartman

Welcome to MultiRotorForums.com!!
I'd suggest/hope that having a business organization like an LLC, inc. etc would be a requirement for membership.
 

janoots2

Member
I think you would be limiting the orgs membership by using multirotor in the name considering all pilots w/ rc vehicles with a camera could potentially join. Your limiting other current vehicles - planes, gliders, etc... and any future technology that could float a camera.

Unless of course you wanted to be that focused on a certain aerial solution, after all this is MRF.
 

DucktileMedia

Drone Enthusiast
I dont think the FAA is after FPV rc cars. :) It's not an attempt to make a new forum or chat area. The idea is to get content that shows that we are not trying to bomb or spy on people at all. Put all this content on one youtube account that will get the hits. The main difference I see is that thousands of separate videos online dont have as powerful of a message as one unified group under one name.
 

janoots2

Member
Right, all vehicles that could FLOAT a camera as in fly.

Completely agree, same line of thinking I posted on that "parcap" thread a few days ago. Ultimately the videos should be pushed out through PR POC's in leading markets as b-roll footage, with industry reps (POC's) giving demonstrations and media kits. All focused on the benefits, and specifying the term drone not be used.

Ideally all markets will be implemented on the same day to push national coverage.
 
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Photronix

Pilot
Ok before we duplicate effort a few of us are working on an industry association and will be announcing it in a press release due out in the next few days. This stems from our discussions with the FAA.

The website was just created and we are adding content now but its not fully operational. It will be set up as a non-profit and will have several people on the board.

It's early and please just keep it here in the forums for now.

We are officially launching it for NAB.

ARIA - Aerial Robotics Industry Association. Initial thoughts are on the about page.

joinaria.org

Yes I realize there are several efforts going on but we seem to have some momentum going with the press. We are also partnering with flysafetraining.org which will teach the ARIA FlySafe Program.

The general idea is to develop a safety standard that we can all agree to. Join and agree (maybe take an online course or one like FlySafe) and get an ARIA Certification card that you can show to prospective clients. In addition, the ARIA site will act as a pilot hub listing all certified pilots. This can be used by producers looking for a "Safe" pilot for a shoot. If you want to start a school, ARIA provides a safety training course, certifies your school, and you start certifying pilots and craft.
 
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DucktileMedia

Drone Enthusiast
Al, to be clear, I am in no need to become an industry spokesperson. If you have or are working on the infrastructure to give "us" a voice, then great. Since you already have the media's attention, have spoken with the FAA on ???, and own the worlds best flight controller company, I would say you are in a much better position to lead the way. Thanks for paving the way and let us know what we can do to help and not step on your toes in the process. What I would like to offer is a short video strictly voicing our intent.

Yuri
 

janoots2

Member
Social media sparked by videos will be a huge part of educating not only the public, but the dividend paying strategy of educating the media when distributed properly.

WE have to tell THEM what we do, not let them have a field day lumping us in with missile carrying drones. While some of this "lumping" may be lobbied, I bet a good portion is due to not being educated on the difference. Lets face it, the media consists of normal people trying to do their jobs by providing interesting content (at least locally for the most part). Lets continue to feed them a stories such as the golf story. Well positioned and look at the traction the industry got just from a little education. That's an org I could get behind! Great job and excited to see where this takes us.
 
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ghaynes

Member
This past weekend was the FlySafe training course that was being promoted by FlyBoys, Hoverfly and ARIA. If you were there can you give us an update on the course? How was it, worth your time, etc.
 

artross26

Member
I registered for the online sessions of FlySafe. I will tell you it is worth if for no other reason than consolidate our thoughts. I won’t make this flowery and gush. I’ll just give you highlights.

· Helps start some procedures to follow for all. With these I think the public will feel much safer.
· The rules, checklists and common sense they imparted (in writing) will be an excellent place to start with the FAA. We don’t want worrywarts stealing our abilities to have fun.
· Sets guidelines and behavior if want to fly for hire when the FAA finally allows it (I am an optimist).
· Discussed cameras, copters. Places to get hard to find parts and what’s necessary and what you don’t buy or at least not yet.
· I have always had difficulty with the “C” on batteries and wonder why it was not called ampere. Got a good explain and an easy no brainer way to calculate charging rates. When I went to Engineering school there was no such thing as LiPo batteries. Pretty much everything was lead acid or a variation (I am old guys)
· The three guys Mike, Rob and Charles were very good trainers. Sometimes amusing, but most of all they were patient to answer questions and thorough
· They were timely. I don’t think they ever missed a start time by more than 5 minutes. Which means if you are online like me, you can hit simulators at home if you wish (maybe ever run out and get some air time) at the same time they take breaks
· The picture quality and sound were excellent. Hearing clearly what was occurring in the room was not an issue. Even when some behind the camera answered them.

So I will not write a book here. Obviously I was impressed. What they said they would deliver was exactly what they did and a bit more. I originally scheduled to go in person and had some physical issues that precluded me from going, but I see they are coming to Chicago in October (hopefully the weather will be nice) I will be there eagerly and go through it in person.

FLYSAFETraining.org
 

Yes, I was there, and it was well worth it for me!

Even though I am very I am new to this compared to most of you, I still see this as a great experience for anybody. We had in the class pilots with much more experience than me, and plenty of those looking to get into the business that didn't come with much experience (if any, in some cases). The classes covered everything to basic information about aircraft types (heli's, multi's) and manufacturers, to selection and maintenance. Lot of the MR technical stuff, and photography stuff, I had a good grasp on, but due to the experience base present, it was great to have and some of the newer ones learned a lot in this area. The classes also covered the business side of stuff, which for me was an area of weakness, but for others was their area of strength.

Then there was a huge section on safety procedures and regulations. As you can gather from the title, that is the main thrust of the course, and was sprinkled throughout the whole weekend. FlySafe has developed some basic regulations, and has been working with AMA and ARIA (both which were also present at FlySafe, Al from ARIA / Cinestar, and Rich from AMA) to develop these. The desire is that these would lay some of the foundation for the FAA process in setting up regulations in the arena of commercial usage of remote control aircraft for video and photography. The FlySafe team has done a great job in this area, and was clearly open to continuing to shape these as needed to meet the demands of the industry. AMA's presence and ARIA's presence also helped ensure consistency and a natural progression of regulations from recreational, to commercial and production. Since it is clear that the FAA will be requiring a certification process for this that encompassed aptitude as well as operational regulations, FlySafe also included written and practical tests.

For me, the biggest benefit of the whole weekend came from the interaction, networking, and relationships that were established. For me it was the first time I could sit down and "talk shop" ad-naseum (sp?) and compare notes from other operators and methods and procedures they put in place. The FlySafe team is comprised of people that work in this business and were able to talk first hand to things they have learned, and the do's and don'ts that come from that. For me that was great, not to mention the others in the group that I was able to talk to about their choices in MRs, how they go about their business, etc. Even though I don't have tons of experience, I felt I was able to positively contribute as well, both in the classes, as well as the one-on-one times where others would come up to pick my brain and want to learn from me.

Tim
 
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Droider

Drone Enthusiast
Great stuff. Thats what is needed. Great to share and thats how at the end of the day we all act responsibly, fly safe and not hack Joe Public off.

Wish we had something like that going on in the UK but over here the biggest RC flying club still shun us MR fliers!

Dave
 

Blayne Chastain

MR, Heli & Sailplanes
Just returned from FlySafeTraining.org. I went as I've been moving forward with putting together AP rigs (both Heli and MR) and sought to learn as much as I could from those who are doing it well/successfully. Majorly impressed by FLYSAFE's professionalism and well thought out regulations/policies/proceedures. Even as someone who has been flying RC for 30+ years, I came away with a wealth of knowledge to apply to my current efforts. Was good also to meet Al (Aria/HF) and Rich (AMA) (in addition to the FLYSAFE team). Al, being a sailplane pilot as well, we had a bunch to chat about! Hope many of you reading this join with FS and Aria so that we can work collaboratively with the FAA, setting safe & professional standards.
 

BOP

Member
I attended the program and was very pleased with the amount of information, the style of presentation and quality of content. Charles, Mike, Rob and Mike did a fantastic job and were easy to talk to and took a great deal of care to be accurate with presented info.
I am very pleased that Rich from the AMA was there to discuss some of the challenges facing our industry (unmanned aerial photography). I feel very confident that he and the AMA are great ambassadors for our emerging industry.
Al with Hoverfly and Charles with FlyBoys both shared their experiences with the FAA. I'm delighted that both of them have taken the responsibility to take the high road and build an organized certification program that will help current aerial production companies and emerging aerial entrepreneurs and align our protocols, methods and procedures to legitimize this exciting business opportunity. It is important that the FAA sees this as a professional industry and not a group of misfits that operate their platforms in dangerous and irresponsible ways.
I also like the fact that being a FlySafe certified pilot sets me apart from my competition and shows that I take my business serious and that I operate my equipment in a safe and responsible manner. Also becoming a member of ARIA fortifies this professional image as well.
I urge all current professional aerial imaging groups and manufactures of turnkey units along with part manufactures to get on board and help get new and existing pilots certified and also to become a member of ARIA. Force in numbers is the only way we will prove to the general population and FAA that we are taking this serious.
Hats off to all of you!
 


Greg Underdahl

New Member
I was at the FlySafe workshop this past weekend and can't say enough good things about it. First off, the instructors for the course, Charles, Mike, and Rob were very professional and eager to share their knowledge of RC aerial photography. I learned a lot of information during the 3 days that would have been impossible to glean from anywhere else. I found the class on how to run an RC aerial photography business especially helpful. In order to make RC aerial photography a legitimate business in the eyes of the FAA, there needs to be a set of rigid standards for professional RC pilots. FlySafe and ARIA are helping to legitimize RC aerial photography by requiring pilots to undergo a certification process. It wasn't easy, but I was able to walk away from the FlySafe workshop with a flight certificate that I believe will one day give my aerial photography business more credibility. If you're looking to gain more knowledge about RC aerial photography, want to become a better RC pilot, want to network with likeminded folks, and/or get certified as a safe and responsible RC aerial photographer, FlySafe is where it's at. FLYSAFETraining.org
 

Wish we had something like that going on in the UK but over here the biggest RC flying club still shun us MR fliers!

Last meet I had, there were 3 fixed wingers already there. I turned up with the quad. Noses were looked down. Snide comments were made and ignored.

30 mins later, they were all shovelling the only remaining working parts of their very broken birds into multiple small bags and going home. I was busy talking to the wife on the phone as the quad hovered patiently above. I waved them off a few minutes later, while my quad was still auto-landing...:highly_amused:
 


RoverTFord

New Member
Why we need FLYSAFE

Great discussion topic. Cool to see that FLYSAFE is getting on the national radar.
I had the fortunate advantage of the first FLYSAFE event happening here in my town and was able to go to the whole weekend.

There were several things we all took away from the event that will all be valuable in moving forward in this [almost] industry. I couldn't recommend it higher than I do.
Especially for those of us that see the potential for business and are excited about the limitless applications of this growing technology.

For the past months, my business partner and I were kind of scratching our heads wondering how to make this a legitimate thing. We've all read the stories of "the FAA swooping in on a little business and shutting them down." It was super valuable to hear more accurate depictions of those kinds of stories and to put those thoughts and fears into perspective as well, while finally understanding a lot about the difficult position that the FAA is in too. They exist to advance the world of aviation, and they are also learning how to tread through this advancement in technology and commerce. I believe that if we are patient, responsible and vigilant in our pursuit of a respectable, responsible and viable industry, that we are on the brink of something amazing, exciting and good for everyone...much like the invention of anything revolutionary.

And that's where FLYSAFE comes in. The last thing this new world of RCAP needs is a bunch of yahoos, strapping a camera onto their RC rig and going at it alone. Because of it's newness, because of a lot of public perspective about the use of "drones," the people inside this growing industry need to be ambassadors to the country of how SAFE, non-intrusive, helpful and revolutionary (in a good way) this is.

FLYSAFE quadrupled our understanding of how to do this responsibly (1. being responsible to our expensive equipment 2. Responsible to the rules, regulations and guidelines already in place for RC from the AMA, the FAA and even some set by different cities/towns/states. 3. And responsible to the industry of other professionals that are in this with us, nationally and locally). FLYSAFE also gave us an incredible amount of confidence in moving forward as a legitimate business, and how to best accomplish that even with the industry as it is today.

You all know how much the equipment is to do RCAP in a professional way. In my opinion, one of the biggest returns on my expenses so far is FLYSAFE.
I realize how mush this just sounded like a commercial, but know that I have no relationship with the people who put the event on, other than I went to the event. I'm not getting any kickbacks from this endorsement. I just really think it was a great event.
 

frolfware

New Member
As an attendee of the first FLYSAFE event, I can definitely back up the positive statements of the others on this forum so far. During the conference, I jotted down the parts of the workshop and training that were pros and cons in my opinion. Here they are:

Pros:
-- Covered a whole bunch of information about batteries. Storage voltage, max voltage, min voltage, what it all means, etc.
-- Made soldering look easy in person, with no edits and gave information on how to do it easily.
-- Discussed the "business" end of RCAP and provided personal experience and stories to give real life examples
-- Provided some general guidelines for rates that could theoretically be charged
-- The guys putting on the course were cool, experienced in the field, great pilots, knew their info and shared personal stories
-- The attendees as a whole were a great group and were varied -- experienced pilots, experienced photographers/videographers, newbies and all in-between.
-- Everyone was there to try to legitimize RCAP and its uses, which is the biggest plus of the workshop, training and FLYSAFE certificates in my opinion.
-- Provided a list of options of multi-rotors and helis that may be best suited for AP
-- Provided websites for parts, connectors, downlinks, platforms, and all needed for RCAP that are reliable and easy to order from and work with.
-- Lots of simulator time to practice for the beginners and to get a hang of a multirotor
-- Rubbing elbows throughout the weekend with like-minded people. There are a whole bunch of big ideas on the table and many of them are on the cusp of becoming true.
-- One of the main leaders of the AMA (Rich) and ARIA (Al) talking about regulations, laws, experiences and providing lots of information was priceless

Cons:
-- Lack of information about editing the video once it is taken (deshaking, stabilization, colors, shadows, etc.)
-- Camera options were only limited to a couple main talking points
-- Camera settings could have been explained better and in more detail
-- The language of the FLYSAFE document and some of the rules in it need updating, but it is a great start and I am excited to see rules on paper that will help this be a true profession in the future
-- Sometimes felt intimidated to bring up imperfections in either the FLYSAFE regulations or when talking about platforms and their uses. This should be an open forum for all to express their opinions openly and have everybody willing to listen and make the best possible way forward for RCAP
-- Written testing was not overly difficult, but questions should aim only to educate, not to confuse as they sometimes did. I think the safety information should be the #1 most important area of testing and discussion. Also, it wouldn't hurt to have some of the test questions be written to make sure the attendees fully understand the information at hand.

There are other uses for RCAP that go beyond the means of FLYSAFE, such as Agriculture use, Search and Rescue use or other law enforcement use, so it is not meant for everyone. FLYSAFE is meant for line of sight only, which is the most safe and probably the best way to approach new laws and legislation for multi-rotors and other RC equipment. However, you can't go wrong with a certification that shows you know how to safely fly an aerial platform.

All around, FLYSAFE was a fantastic start to what we all hope will lead to better options for RCAP in the future. Thank you to Charles, Mike and Rob for kickstarting this amazing idea and we all give it nothing but positive vibes in the future. I would recommend this workshop and training for all who are looking to learn more information about RCAP and those that want to be professional and safe while doing so.
 

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