The Drone Trainer Podcast

If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you! Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here! Sandor Otvos is a Hungarian drone pilot, that is currently living in Austria. He is a chemist, and is currently working at one of the Austrian universities. He's been lucky enough to live and work in several countries, allowing him to consistently fly his drone in new places! Sandor has been flying for a few years now, and started off flying the original Phantom 1 drone! I started with the Phantom 2, so we discussed what it was like flying without a video downlink. Lots of trial and error, and not know what you really had until you got home with your SD card. The best part? When you found something that worked, you had to try and remember what you did with your settings, and try and replicate it the next time you went out to fly! He's currently flying the DJI Mavic Air, and loves the portability. He's also made the switch to FCC mode

If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you! Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here! Clay Sweetman, based in New South Wales, Australia, is a drone pilot who also sells drones for a living. Two and a half years ago, Clay had a hip replacement, and during his downtime he pulled the trigger on his first drone. He chose the DJI Mavic Pro as his first drone, and has had an absolute blast flying it ever since. The biggest Mavic Pro feature that Clay likes, is the camera's portrait mode orientation. If you have a look at his instagram, you can see that he loves it as all of his shots are straight down in portrait mode. If you're not flying a Mavic Pro and want to shoot portrait mode, you have three options. First,  you can take a series of photos and stitch them together, or crop them into a portrait orientation, or lastly just rotate your drone 90 degrees if you're shooting straight down. Easy! Clay loves shooting during

If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you! Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here! Mike Pehel is the newly appointed chairman of InterDrone, a massive drone show based in Las Vegas, NV. While Mike isn't a drone pilot himself, he has vast knowledge and can provide a 20,000' view of the drone industry. Why isn't he a drone pilot? Well, he lives on Long Island, and is unfortunately dominated by controlled airspace. Yes, there are ways around it, but as a recreational pilot it can be too much tape to deal with just to get off the ground. The good news for us is that Mike is concentrating his efforts on InterDrone. InterDrone is the largest commercial drone event in North America, and will be held at the Rio in Las Vegas, Sept 3-6, 2019. In this episode, we chat about everything from drone delivery, to drone pilot licensing. Licensing is a topic that I'm fond of, as I feel there is room for improvement in countries that

If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you! Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here! Adrian Jones is a drone pilot from California, who has recently started his drone business. He's working full time in the IT industry, but is looking to make a break and start working with his drones full time. Since starting out with drones, he's flown the Mavic Pro, Phantom 4 Pro, and now the Mavic 2 Pro. When he gets the ball rolling, he's looking at creating a unique system on his site to let Realtors choose their shoots. His plan is to shoot a series of movements and scenes, and then allow realtors to pick which shot they'd like to employ. He's also knows that some Realtors will allow him creative freedom, and won't use a system like that, but he hopes for those that are hands-on this will be a great system. Since he's new to the drone world, I asked Adrian if he wishes that he would have done anything differently. His recommend

If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you! Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here! Tim Eccles is a drone pilot from Cape Town, South Africa, who had an interesting start in the drone world. He was gifted a drone in January 2018, but wasn't able to fly it at that time due to a bad battery. He let it sit for a while, but once getting it going he's been having a blast flying and selling his prints. Living near some beautiful beaches, Tim is almost exclusively taking photos at the beach and waterfront. Lately he's been experimenting with umbrellas and desaturating his photos. I find this is a great technique as it really lets the photo speak for itself, rather than relying on some crazy oversaturated colour. Hilariously enough, Tim has self declared himself as a terrible drone pilot! For that reason he sticks to photos and doesn't do much on the video side of things. If you're interested in learning how to get out of t

If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you! Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here! Ryan Walsh is the CEO of Valqari, a drone delivery solution based in Chicago, Illinois. Ryan and his team have developed a drone delivery solution to solve the last mile or last meter problem. I have to admit, before speaking with Ryan today, I had been very skeptical of drone delivery as a whole. I could predict it's success in rural environments, but the urban environment was where I predicted it would be difficult to impossible. Now after speaking with Ryan, I have a different outlook on drone delivery as a whole, and think that we're going to be there sooner than I or many expected! The key to Valqari's success isn't flying drones beyond visual line of sight, or navigating between distribution centre to the general delivery area, but rather the last few inches of delivery. Ryan and his team have developed a mailbox receiver syste

If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you! Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here! Erin Knoetig is a high school teacher from Nashua, New Hampshire, teaching her students about all that is drone. It started off as an idea with one of her co-workers, and is starting out as a part time program until the end of this school year. So far the program has been a great success, and starting in the fall it will be a full time credited class at Nashua High School North! When she first started brainstorming the program, Erin jumped in and got her Part 107 drone license. During the show she didn't divulge which school she used for that, but as many of you know my recommendation is Remote Pilot 101. Everyone that I've sent their way has crushed their FAA Part 107 exam, so if you're looking to get yours, check them out! Back to Erin's drone program, she discusses how she is creating the materials, as well as what's easy and what

If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you! Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here! Phil Alder is a drone pilot based in Victoria, Australia, running Gippsland Drone Services. While Phil doesn't have his commercial licensing, you'll hear that he is still able to work as long as he is obeying all the Australian drone rules. He is obviously limited in what he can do, but he's still making it happen while operating legally in rural areas. Working mostly in real estate and property work, Phil is flying his drone for a lot of large farms and rural accommodations. He's concentrating most of his work down in southeast Australia, but has also recently been contacted to complete a large farm shoot in Queensland to the north. Commercial work aside, as you can see on his instagram account, Phil is a wicked aerial photographer. Phil shoots a lot of his stills for pleasure, but as you can see it has translated into a lot of comm

If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you! Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here! Sparky Sorenson is a drone pilot form Dallas Texas, currently fling the DJI Phantom 4 Pro and DJI Inspire 2 models. Sparky has been flying since 2014, when he was in a band and taking a lot of cross state roadies. During these trips he started to explore video editing, and eventually added on a drone! His first drone, like mine, was the Phantom 2. Flying mostly cinematography, and mapping missions, his choice in the P4P and I2 is obvious. The quality and calibre of footage you can get from the I2 is exactly what his film and television production clients want. The P4p and it's global shutter is also perfect for his mapping missions. Speaking of mapping, Sparky is utilizing the Propeller Aeropoints for many of his jobs. If you've taken my Drone Mapping 101 course, you'll recall that I also use Aeropoints during the training to show yo

If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you! Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here! What is CES 2019? CES 2019 is the world’s gathering place for consumer technologies, and I will be there to check out all of the new and existing drone tech. The show runs from January 8-11 at the Las Vegas Convention Center (and many other venues), and I'll be hitting the exhibitor floor every day to take in all that is drone. With 4500 exhibitors, and over 180,000 attendees, this is going to be massive! What I'll be doing at CES 2019! Throughout the show, I'll be providing live updates via social media, including photos, videos, and possibly some interviews and demos of the latest drone equipment. Be sure to follow along on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn to get all the latest drone news from CES 2019. Also, if you're going to be at the show, be sure to reach out to me via social media so that we can meet up for a chat a

If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you! Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here! Walt Snider is an IT professional and Office 365 trainer based in Miami Florida. He is a photographer that has a lot of interest in drones, and has a LOT of questions! In this episode we're going to turn the tables a little as Walt will be asking most of the drone questions, and I'm answering them off the cuff. Yeah, no prep so you can hear me fire off answers in real time instead of having a lot of time to prepare. As you'll hear, I love talking about drones and have a good time in this podcast episode with Walt. Anyway, we cover a lot of drone related topics, and get into everything from definitions to specific drone behaviours and how to choose which drone to purchase. We start off talking about return to home features, and quickly get into drone mapping and modelling, photogrammetry, drones with and without GPS, and much more.

If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you! Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here! 7 Essential Winter Drone Flight Tips Flying your drone in the winter can be one of the most rewarding times to fly, however you must be adequately prepared! We fly our drones in the often brutal Canadian winters, so have decided to share our top winter flight tips with you! Yes, these tips come from experience, not just what we've read on the internet 

If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you! Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here! Houston Brown is a luxury real estate photographer and drone pilot, who has carved out a niche shooting multimillion dollar ranches in the Dallas area. He started off as a ground based photographer, and branched out into drones once realtors started expecting aerials added to their marketing materials. In addition to just shooting luxury real estate, Houston is marketing himself as a luxury photographer. How do you market yourself as a luxury real estate drone photographer? Well, he starts by providing premiere services to his clients, and spending upwards of 2 or 3 days at each property. Yeah, you read that right! He isn't spending a few hours there, he is spending multiple days from sunrise to sunset to ensure that he captures everything in the best light. When properties are selling in excess of $20,000,000, this kind of effort is

If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you! Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here! Camilla Dellion is a currently living in the Maldives, flying and capturing some dynamite ocean shots. She is originally from Sweden, but as you hear in this interview she's a world traveler who already has her sites set on her next location. She is currently selling her beautiful prints back home in Sweden to help support her lifestyle in the Maldives, and taking every opportunity that she can to go to Indonesia for projects. Camilla is currently living on an island that is about 1km long, and 200m wide, so she has an abundance of oceanfront landscape to shoot with her drone. She is cognizant of the drone rules in the Maldives, and is luckily living far enough away from the closest airport that she can legally fly her entire island. She's one of the lucky ones that has both the Mavic 2 Pro and Mavic 2 Zoom drones, and switches back

If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you! Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here! Tony Gardiner is a drone pilot and director on the Australian television show, Home And Away. Tony has been working on the show for a few years, and has worked his way up to director. Don't let that fool you into thinking that he's just directing all the awesome drone shots that you see on the show though. He's also on the drone controls, flying and capturing all the shots that they need for the show! Tony is currently flying the DJI Inspire 2 and Mavic 2 Pro, after upgrading from the original Mavic Pro. When he's not shooting footage for Home and Away, you can find him on the beach at sunset flying and shooting his own personal projects. If you're a fan of checking out awesome drone photos on instagram, be sure to check out Tony's page over there!

If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you! Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here! Mika Kurkilahti is a Finnish drone pilot based on Turku. He is one of the partners at a digital agency, and is incorporating drone flights and footage in his creative work. He has been working in his digital agency since 2002, and has been working with drones since 2014 when he picked up a DJI Phantom 2. Since starting with the Phantom 2, Mika has upgraded to the Phantom 3 Pro and now the Phantom 4 Pro. He discusses how well the P3P worked for him, and how beneficial DJI Care was when he had an unfortunate crash. DJI care starts at only $59, and can be well worth it in case of a crash. I didn't purchase it with my last drone, however after speaking with a few others like Mika recently, it seems like a no brainer for my next purchase.

If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you! Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here! Mike Poore is based in Pembrooke Pines, near Fort Lauderdale and Miami in south Florida. He's a drone pilot, and the brains behind Mike's Aerial Photography LLC. Mike has been flying and operating for about a year now, and started off with a Phantom 3 Standard that he picked up on Amazon. Since then he has upgraded to the Mavic Pro, and recently to the Mavic 2 Pro. Working primarily in real estate, Mike is creating photos and videos of his client's properties from a variety of angles and vantage points. He's shot for high end condos (check out that picture on the right!), and also a variety of waterfront properties. Mike stresses that when you're creating materials for realtors or real estate marketing purposes, a quick turn around is essential. With how fast the market can move, and the difference that drone footage can make, it's i

If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you! Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here! Keith Perry, as you may remember from a video blog post that I shared a few weeks ago, is flying a Mavic 2 Zoom. He was one of the first drone pilots that picked up a Mavic 2 Zoom, so with how passionate he is about drones I wanted to chat with him on the podcast as well! Keith's company is Hudson Valley Drones, based in upstate New York. Keith is concentrating on real estate, but is also working in solar panels and surveying for solar companies. If you're interested in solar panel work, be sure to check out episode 38 with Sinuhe Montoya as well.

If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you! Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here! Michael Brown is an Australia based drone pilot, who identified a need to help drone photographers get their work on walls around the world. Michael found that there are creators that are producing some excellent materials, but don't have an easy way to market, print, and ship their work around the world. His response? He created Riptide Prints! As I mention in the introduction to the show, this is a follow-up episode to my chat with Merr Watson in episode 42. Merr spoke positively about her interactions with Riptide Prints, and was a huge fan of taking 80% of the profit for herself. Seriously, 80% profit!

If you're looking to make the jump from sporadic revenue to scalable and consistent growth in your drone business, TDT Pro is for you! Check out The Drone Trainer Pro right here! Tyler Leipprandt is a Michigan based drone pilot, who is working in real estate and also shooting landscape photos with his drone. Tyler was a teacher for 5 years, and then made the transition into instructional technology. From there his love of drones and tech grew, and the rest has been history.