Interdrone 2018

Yep, back at the drone show for the second year.

Interdrone2018 was held at the Rio Casino/Hotel in Las Vegas Nevada for the fourth year.  The event promised to attract attendees from all over the world so we definitely needed a place this large (it’s also kinda handy having your room upstairs after a long day of classes).

I arrived a day early and was very glad I did.  The Memorial Day weekend was winding down and the hotel desk was just a nightmare of check-ins and outs on Monday.  I talked to a couple of other attendees who said they waited over an hour in the line to get their room.

Tuesday was the official start and we spent all day in class for the integration of small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (sUAS or UAV) or drones into the federal airspace and the public safety role.

Pre-conference class

Wednesday started the conference proper and we had the opportunity to attend many different classes and topics ranging the gamut from public safety use, mining, crop management, photography and many more subjects.  There were keynote speeches from the head of The Federal Aviation Administration as well as a number of the industry leaders.

first class of conference

Some interesting information; there are a little over 100,000 part 107 pilots nationwide and they estimate that only 25 percent of those pilots are actively flying.

One of the biggest focuses of this year’s conference was how to integrate the UAV into the federal airspace.  There are many proposals out there that are being looked at.  many industry insiders feel that we must have automatic electronic identifiers on board our commercial drones so we can interact more efficiently with manned aviation.  Some other thing that are going to happen are concerning beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) and flying over people.  We are going to need recovery systems on board to safely bring our aircraft to the ground in case of an in-flight emergency.

There were many opportunities to network with our fellow pilots from around the world and interact with the industry leaders in technology and aircraft systems.  The “where are you board” was full of  business cards and it was fun to see all the shirts from different companies and public service agencies from all over.

where are you from

It wasn’t all drones though.  I was able to connect with a great photographer/drone pilot out of Australia (@fionalakeaus on twitter) and we headed out to Red Rock Canyon NCA where we got to see not only the beautiful landscape but also the famous desert tortoises of the area.

Fiona Lake doing what she does, taking pics

After our excursion to Red Rock we headed back to town and got some down time before heading out to the Henderson Executive Airport and starting the night time flying course put on by Sundance Media Group.  Sundance put together a very professional night flying course with great material and some of the best instruction I have ever had the pleasure of attending.  these folks put on a great course that I would recommend to anyone.

we wear our sunglasses at night

The convention and training wrapped up and everyone headed their own ways.  This conference is one of the best I have ever been to.  I met some great people and saw some great new products to ask my boss for.

See you all next year.

BFD