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Cut the hype and stop dreaming

When I read a story on this morning's NZH website I breathed a heavy sigh of disbelief.

Take a read of the piece titled Sky's the limit in farm technology.

This story irritates on so many levels and here's why.

Firstly, it's another "drone" story -- possibly for no reason other than "drones" are presently the subject de jour of the world's media. We've seen stories depicting Domino's Pizzas being delivered by drone, restaurant meals being delivered by drone and it seems that any time an editor comes across a piece with the word "drone" in it, that story becomes a "feature" article.

Secondly, this article paints a decidedly false picture and omits a key fact.

After reading the story, readers could be forgiven for thinking that all a farmer needs to do in order to browse his paddocks using a drone while he scoffs his morning bowl of porridge or cornflakes -- is lay down a wad of cash.

Sadly, this is far from the truth.

Right now, any farmer that did buy any such craft and use it in the manner described would, according to CAA, be breaking the law and subject to prosecution.

You see, CAA don't call these things "drones", they call them Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) and you can't use a UAS without obtaining an operating authority which, as I am finding, is a very slow, tedious and frustratingly bureaucratic process.

What's more, to use a UAS in the manner described (ie: in a fully autonomous fashion outside the visual line of sight) would also require a hideous level of compliance for each and every flight. The farmer would have to file a flight plan, safety plan, and NOTAM for each and every flight -- presumably also requiring those documents to be accepted and endorsed by CAA on each and every occasion.

The bottom line to this is that our farmer friend will find it much easier, cheaper and far less frustrating to just stick to the existing method of cruising the fields on his tractor or farm-bike.

Droidworx is selling a dream that, unless CAA's perspectives are radically reviewed, will just never happen.

Perhaps the only thing that could alter CAA's perspective and eliminate all that paperwork and red tape would be my Sense And Avoid system -- but even that is presently a victim of CAA's bureaucracy -- unable to progress until the necessary "authority" is granted -- and that's taking an inordinately long time (albeit probably not by the standards of a bureaucracy).

And finally, I see that Droidworx seem to have entered this concept as an "innovation" in a "Dragon's Den" like setup where various companies and individuals are vying for investment capital.

Well I'm sorry but nothing Droidworx has presented is either new or innovative. Seemingly "off the shelf" gear cobbled together into a multi-rotor craft is incredibly old-hat and there have already been countless examples of people using multi-rotor craft to inspect farms, paddocks and stock.

It seems that the quality of reporting in our media continues to drop faster than a drone with a flat battery.

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