Hi Friend.
I hope your week has been going great. Thanks for signing up to be notified when the book "Using a drone in Civil Engineering" will be released. (The title has been getting some A/B testing with two slight variations.)
There is a quote from somebody wise who said "experience is the best teacher, especially when it is someone else's experience."
Maybe that was Yogi Berra? If you happen to know, I'll be glad to learn from you.
But more to the point - and why I'm writing today - this book needs to have a healthy number of real-world experiences, lessons, and examples of drones being used in civil engineering applications. Successes and yes, even failures. The more of these we can put into the book, the better it will be for all of us.
Here's one I'll share with you now. The owner of a construction supply company wanted to use a drone for some aerial photography of her stockpiles and inventory selection. Her adult son volunteered to be her drone pilot.
The day the shiny new drone arrived was very exciting. They opened it up and decided to give it a try right there in the parking lot.
Sure enough, it powered right up. So they turned on all the systems, got the apps downloaded that they thought they needed (just enough to give it a try...) and said "here we go!"
Up in the air it went. But then the new pilot felt the drone was getting a little too far away for comfort, so he hit the "return to home" button.
Can you guess what happened next? The drone instantly beat a line due west - flying away from the group at its maximum speed.
Straight to China... D'oh!
They were in California. We all know it didn't make it. And just that quick, their $800 drone said "bye-bye."
Hopefully that experience won't be repeated by you. But it may save another reader of the book from a painful experience like that. Failing to go through the proper initialization and setup procedures is not a smart shortcut to take.
I have a personal request and favor to ask of you, Friend. Keeping everything anonymous and confidential, can I get a lesson or data point from you?
Here are the topics where I'm still looking for more examples or data points. If you have experience you can share here, it will be a big help to the other readers of the book. - the startup cost to get your drone program launched (estimated vs actual if you have that)
- the recurring cost to keep it going (estimated vs actual there too if you can)
- your estimated and actual schedule to get it operational (if you are still building it, the calendar time spent so far is valuable too)
- your biggest lesson learned so far
I know these may be painful and humbling points for you. But they are reality. Despite our best efforts, we humans still have a very difficult time accurately estimating how long and how much money projects take. I suffer from the same flaw, I admit.
That's why I want this book to be a real value and honest eye-opener for people. No sugar coating.
In return for helping me and the other readers out with your experience, I'll be happy to send you a free copy of the paperback in the mail when it's published. A free book with the knowledge that your story is part of it! That's a nice treat for 2018, right?
The project management section of the book is almost 50% done and it's going to be finished next week. Please email or call or text me by the end of Monday next week if you can. I greatly appreciate and anticipate hearing from you.
Thanks, Brett
P.S. I'm on Pacific Standard Time. My cell is 210-753-0843. You can text me any time and if it's not convenient or cordial for me I'll reply when I'm available soon (or awake). Email replies take a lot longer for me. It could be up to 8 hours because I only check email during breaks from "real" work.
P.P.S. Here's another more quantifiable data point for you. There is a department of natural resources in a US state who is now using drones within their agency. It took them 18 MONTHS to go from decision to operational status. Knowing more data points like that would be a great value to include in the book, so I hope you'll share something about your experience with me soon. Thanks again, Brett
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