06/06/2017
We have a very vocal critic so I am posting a little history about falcon Vision UAV.
Before starting Falcon Vision UAV I researched drone technology for 2 years. I ended up choosing to focus on the Aerial 3D mapping, terrestrial scanning and photogrammetry. Not just because it was the most challenging but because the demand was there.
I ran the business model by my shark tank entrepreneur group that I am in. We went through all the legalities and everything checked out. We researched the laws and guidelines for the states that we were going into and set forth a proof of concept plan. We found Licensed surveyors to work under in each state we went into. We also didn't need a part 107 because the demonstrations were FREE. We also had plenty of pilots with 107s to work under. This is a sore spot for experienced surveyors who have been using UAVs for survey work for years. I won't get into that lol
A year ago the software and UAV technology was not quite ready but I knew it was advancing fast. My team put 45,000 miles on my truck this last year doing FREE demonstrations of UAV technology and going to UAV expos. We did demonstrations all over the country to anyone that would listen to us. The key word here is FREE. I know this confused or angered at least one local drone pilot. He just couldn't understand how we were getting all of these meetings with huge companies and work. Well now you know lol....(I know he monitors my page through someone)...It was all FREE. We got to show off our stuff...Establish a relationship and clients got free data (which we used it to improve the software) It has been a Win Win for everyone. Except my friend on the sideline trolling my page...
To be honest some survey firms hated the technology and some embraced it. Almost all were intimidated by it. Some had UAV departments but the UAV's and equipment were just sitting on the floor or on a shelf. Some of the meetings did not go well. Some see the technology as a direct threat. In some ways it is but thats innovation. All industries need to adjust and adapt to technology or get left behind.
Fast forward to today. Many of the firms who hated the technology and said it would never have survey grade accuaracies are calling us back to do demos. The software has evolved a lot in the last year. Only now the FREE part is long gone. We have a long list of survey firms/businesses that we work with now and are going to help build UAV survey departments.
The hard part is you can't learn this stuff over night. Flying takes developed fine motor skill neural pathways and spatial reasoning, the software can be complex and is constantly changing and survey processes are also complex. Luckily my partner has 27 years experience in survey and has been using UAV's for survey for many years.
Sorry for long post but this critic has been doing everything he can to try and smear falcon vision uav. All it has done is get clients to dig deeper into us personally and what we can do. Clients now make us pass even more rigorous tests. It has only made us a better company over all. So I do owe a lot to this guy for always keeping us on our toes.
Any new industry is high risk. I can not predict the future for Falcon Vision UAV. All I do know we will continue to learn everyday more UAV, survey, mining, geology and complex software algorithims.
In every adversity is a seed of equal benefit has proven true once again