ydqa ep 34

John Dickow: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome back. Another episode of your drone questions answered. I'm John Dicko here to find the answers to your drone questions. And this question is a good one.

It is what are the rules and regulations to flying a drone at night? And so today I have with me, I have Cody Rettlich. He's the founder of Drone A Dare and also the CEO owner of Midwest Aerial Productions. Cody, thank you for joining me

Cody Retlich: today. Absolutely. Thanks for having me, John. I appreciate it.

John Dickow: I just want to give you an opportunity to talk a little bit about what you do.

with join a deer with Midwest aerial productions. tell us a little bit about what, what that's all about.

Cody Retlich: Yeah, for sure. well, map is my first kind of love. I call it map Midwest aerial productions. Right. that was a business that I started right after college, really essentially work was working in sales for a while, for a company that I really didn't enjoy.

I enjoyed the process of like meeting with people and sales and like, and helping, you know, them, find a better way to do something that they may not know, right, that they need. So, took that in a different way, uh, to the drone industry, really being able to. learn what type of [00:01:00] services and, offerings there would be in the industry, you know, way back when don't want to date myself too much there, but, uh, it was really new, right?

an industry perspective, and it's still pretty much is, in its infancy stages in a lot of ways, ultimately that started out as a local thing to kind of learn, figure out what. drones were going to be used for in different industries. And then that kind of expanded more across the United States of a, of a brokerage model, not your typical marketplace where you just kind of, get a lead, sent to you and you click accept first or submit the lowest bid, you get that job.

Well, we took more of a hands on approach, really found the right pilot for. Client specific needs and then help pilots kind of get reoccurring revenue streams and in ways if we could and Just help them with business items as well. So with that kind of Figured out a lot of ways that we could automate it and help pilots from a software perspective really kind of grow the business side Of their their drone company or their hobby and turn it into a company So that's where drone a [00:02:00] dare came about and we're building that, workflow automation for drone pilots on the business side of their, their business.

John Dickow: Very cool. That's a, that's a cool niche. I know we talk about that all the time in this podcast is how you can leverage drones and, and where you can kind of find your place in a career. using drones. And so I want to circle back to that before we end the conversation, but let's get to the meat of this question.

What are the rules and regulations to flying a drone a night? Are there rules and regulations? can you talk about that a little

Cody Retlich: bit? Yeah, for sure. if you look at what it was, I think it was mid 2021, somewhere around there when those regulations changed, you used to have to get, an authorization or a waiver for flying at night.

Right. anytime that you really needed to, fly was a lot more cumbersome of a process than it is today, but. both, part 107 and recreational drone pilots now, can fly at night without even needing to, apply for that waiver. but you do need some, you know, equipment and, and some things that ultimately allow you to keep an eye on the drone.

I always [00:03:00] also suggest to have a VO, for sure in, in those situations. there's really only two main items, that we really need now today to operate at night, which is that you have to either complete the online reoccurring, training, or update, you know, your initial knowledge test, and then.

have some collision avoidance lighting that at least are visible in, up to, three statute miles. Uh, and they have to be flashing at a rate, that is sufficient to kind of avoid collision so that you can see them from. far enough away. Right. And in a lot of different ways. So, ultimately you can use a lot of different aftermarket, strobe lights for this there, as you probably know, there's a bunch, of drones that are actually inherently built with that auxiliary light. A lot of those don't. Meet those requirements for being able to suffice for night flying. So I would always suggest don't risk it, even if you think that your drone, you know, is bright enough, [00:04:00] because a lot of them don't flash.

A lot of them are just on and off buttons as well. make sure you have the proper lighting, and then also be able to pass one of those tests.

John Dickow: Okay. And when it comes to that proper lighting, I mean, obviously some drones, as you mentioned, don't come with that out of the box.

Do you need to just get a drone that has it built in or could you get something supplemental to the drone? You may have to an existing drone that doesn't

Cody Retlich: have it. for most of the module are all kind of added afterwards, right? Cause you don't need them all the time. I would say it's something that, you know, a lot of the ones that I still fly, we have just a, you know, a Velcro or a command strip on the top of the drone that we would use, kind of take it on and off every time to put on the strobe light.

and ultimately there's a lot of different. Manufacturers that you can get for them, ones that I've used, mostly are loom cubes. They're loom cube strobes. I know people like, I think it's firehouse arcs, and some other ones too that are out there. If you search Amazon drone collision or night [00:05:00] lights, there'll be a plethora of options for you.

loom cube is the one that I've primarily used.

John Dickow: I appreciate that, suggestion before you fly, do your research, check your drone, check its capabilities, Before taking that risk.

Exactly. Now, I mean, just outside of obviously the, the official rules that you were discussing, is there any just kind of tips or tricks or something to think about as you're just flying at night saying that you're meeting the requirements? but when it comes to how you fly the drone or, just things to be careful about?

Cody Retlich: Yeah, absolutely. I always like to survey. The property ahead of time in daylight, right? If I know that we're going to be flying at night and if I can get an image or at least a walkthrough, of the space ahead of time in light, I definitely want to do that because guide wires and, Power lines and things like that you cannot see at nighttime and they're not usually lit up, right?

So, knowing exactly where you're landing from where you're taking off from and really planning your, your operation and your flight, in the daylight. [00:06:00] Is something that I would always suggest to do to make sure that, you know, that you're flying safely and, you know, you don't, crash and avoid some injuries or, some damage in some ways.

that's tip number one safety, make sure you plan ahead and get all that. as well as then I always like to bring additional lights other than just the ones that are actually on my drone. a couple of reasons for that one being that like, I want to illuminate my landing area and where I'm also going to be taking off from so great to know, just from that perspective of exactly where we need to be in an overhead, but then also just letting a lot of people don't love to let people know that they're flat.

They're the ones flying the drone or whatnot, because it can cause people to come over and talk to you and why not? But at night. I actually, want to let them know that we're flying safe. Like it's illuminated, we're doing the operations still don't really care for them to come over in some ways and talk, but usually that's why we have a VO, to kind of let people know that [00:07:00] we are flying and, taking those precautions, Another safety thing that I think is, an easier way to avoid landing in an area where you might not know there's a crack there or it's in the lawn by accident and it, you know, wrecks a propeller or something like that. So, I would say for sure those are the top two, but then I'm always, going through a normal checklist at the beginning, of the flight that I would do for any other flight.

I'm just, Doing that a little bit more detailed with the lighting and that type of stuff from a maintenance and self perspective. Absolutely.

John Dickow: I mean, it's a lot of just kind of just covering your bases and, something that you should be doing, even if you're not, flying at night.

I, always have new drone pilots, people who are excited to get their drone out of the box and start flying it, understand the drone, understand, the software that goes with the drone and things that are as simple as setting your. return to home and things like that, making sure everything's accurate and calibrated.

Yeah. To not get ahead of yourself.

Cody Retlich: Well, and I think you bring up a good point too, at nighttime, safer is flying higher. as high as [00:08:00] you can really go because, you're just gonna be able to avoid obstacles a lot easier. Then if you're trying to get those low cinematic, type shots or whatever you're going for, if it's a, you know, type of inspection or something where you need to fly at night, ultimately either have a zoom camera or an optical zoom camera or something on different lenses where you're, you can get a little bit closer without flying closer at night, because if you can fly higher, you're going to avoid.

Obstacles, more easily.

John Dickow: That's great. I really appreciate it. I wanted to get to this last question, for our audience who is, who is often, you know, beginner pilots and, and people who are looking to apply drones to their own careers or start a new career with a drone, which is something that you did.

what advice do you have for, our audience who are looking to do something like that? and you found a really cool niche.

Cody Retlich: Yeah. don't be scared to put yourself out there and worry about what, are all the obstacles in front of your way, uh, be able to figure out and learn kind of one, your geographical area.

What is most needed as [00:09:00] well as what are you the best at? What do you enjoy doing? I have friends and family that have done the same thing for a very long time and they're not very happy with it, right. But if you're trying to get into a new career and you're trying to.

Fly drones for, a living and start a business. You still want to enjoy it, right? if you hate inspections and you, you don't enjoy it, or you don't really know what you're doing, you can obviously learn those skills and knowledge, but if you don't enjoy it, or if it's not where you necessarily maybe have the most experience in, stick to what.

What that would be, what you're the best at, if that's flying for, film and production, or you came from the construction world and you know what project managers want to see and how to gather that data or, whatever it is, I would also tell you that.

Don't be afraid to connect with as many other drone pilots as possible. A lot of people think, well, no, they're my competition, they're doing the same thing and I don't want them to know what I'm doing. I wholeheartedly disagree with that. I think you should reach [00:10:00] out to them and I think you should offer up what you're doing because it might not be what they're doing.

And even if it is, people get sick, people go on vacation, people have double booked jobs, right? So being able to, hey, be a back pocket resource for them, I think is a huge, opportunity that they might already have clients and work that they can pass off to you and start building your book of business a little bit easier and a little bit faster.

John Dickow: Awesome. No, that's a, that's a great point. I think that that's something that hasn't been said too often. I asked this question is, is building those relationships. And that is a cool thing about the drone launch Academy too, is that we are, always trying to reach out to other people. I know you've, you've been a guest instructor, at DLA and, and sharing your knowledge and opening yourself up to, our members.

drone community is really cool in that way that, we're all kind of helping each other. I

Cody Retlich: agree. Yep. You can get a lot faster and a lot more efficiently, right? If we, work towards the same goal together rather than apart. So for sure. I love

John Dickow: it. Well, Cody, I really got to appreciate you, coming on, you're busy, with your work.

And so I [00:11:00] appreciate you coming on and chatting about this question. It's, straightforward answer, cover your bases, do your research, you know, it goes beyond just rules and regulations, but just kind of, common sense of understanding your surroundings and, your flight plan. so thank you for answering this question.

And to our audience, we can answer any question you submit here about drones. You can go ahead and submit that question, ydqa. io. We'll see it, we'll find someone who can answer it. or if you're part of the Drone Launch Connect community. go ahead and type it in there. Again, speaking of community people, uh, talking, uh, with each other and sharing information, we'll see it there and, we'll find the answer to it in the meantime. We'll see you in the sky.