Ever wonder why you can’t get the Drone Goodies?

You can; you just need to throw money at it. Maybe pay a carpetbagger show enough money (sponsorship) to garner the well-deserved title of “thought leader” (aka paid stooge), or sponsor (pay for) up a one-on-one meeting with FAA employees courtesy of the AUVSI, host of the $150 a day online FAA UAS Symposium.

https://www.suasnews.com/2020/06/sponsor-your-way-to-a-one-on-one-
meeting-with-federal-employees/

If you don’t like the slow road and you have VC money burning a hole in your pocket, you can hire a consultant or join an advocacy group that charges you big bucks to learn the aviation and public policy racket on the job. Who knows, maybe you’ll make the society page someday too!

But we read all about the progress…

Drone delivery is happening everywhere you can walk the package over. Anyone that tells you that drone delivery is above board (follows the law) is lying, deluded, a wishful thinker, or just some confused businessperson trying to figure out how the
hell this shit show is supposed to work. Most of the deliveries are in walking or electric scooter distance. One of the big coffee chains could pay folks minimum wage
to walk the coffee over and, in that scenario, still make money on the deal.

The delusions can be of varying degrees of grandeur, directly correlating to how much money you’re getting charged. Some of these folks are double-dealing and hiring moonlighters to get the waivers. Just read the FAA’s Administrative procedures manual to figure out how the whole game works, just kidding.

When the UASIO and other FAA managers say, “it’s all about safety,” that loosely
translates to the job security of good old-fashioned CYA! We’ve seen several examples of lax oversight directly jeopardize the safety of the NAS, and the FAA does everything they can to cover it up.

BVLOS blues –

https://www.suasnews.com/2020/10/the-ineffective-bvlos-precisionhawk-waiver-
story/

Cut and paste your way to riches –

https://www.suasnews.com/2021/05/can-you-cut-and-paste-your-way-to-big-
drone-money/

Maybe I got my wires crossed, but I thought flying BVLOS without VOs wasn’t allowed #DAA. Or maintenance on aerial application aircraft was supposed to be performed by an A&P? If you read the FARs and or waivers, there are some stipulations to keep the fabric of the NAS safe, secure, and running like a Swiss watch. Well, that is what they tell the fools at the commercial drone expos. We all know the Best Buy flyers don’t like to buy tickets to shows that aren’t upbeat. News flash, even the Best Buy flyers are starting to figure it out, and that it turns out is bad for business.

Hey, buddy, are you a sage or something? No, it is on par with asking the birthing person, how did this happen? We all know how it happened; we just don’t want to
talk/think about it. Why is that? Because the only people making money are literally
flying under the radar or are in on the cohort gravy train. It is all about relationships, and money plain and simple.

Money is not the only key; just look at old Bezos. He only got to play Major Tom, hero, for part of just one day. My money is on drone delivery blowback on that one, and not lack of spending. The Amazon policy guys have been adept at throwing everyone else under the bus; careful whom you hire! Besides the drone shysters, there are shysters shystering without licenses.

You could spend someone else’s fortune trying to make a fortune that may not pan
out.

How come no one is doing anything about the dysfunction/corruption?

Good question, and I am here to tell you why. The folks making money know they
are getting the hard-earned and gilded bro deal. So once the butt cheeks have been
vigorously smooched, you don’t want to rock the boat. Who wants to brown-nose
more than they have to, well besides AUVSI? Kind of like an EVLOS flying game of
the Emperor’s new clothes.

They won’t tell you this because they have the “secret sauce” (public bootlicking is
unbecoming even when it is seen as being done for profit) for making a little dinero.

At the same time, the rubes and domestic aerospace ecosystem flounder. If the
rulemaking goes common sense, many of these business folks stand to lose the only
sanctioned market share they have.

Everyone knows rulemaking above-board means the arbitrary and capricious gravy train comes to a screeching halt. Then your PHawk style dying-show will have to compete against real business folks. If the DAC drone celebrities can’t make it while losing bags full of VC money and no regulatory oversight, what type of chance do you think you have, rube? Then you have to ask yourself if your off-ramp strategy can make the jump to AAM?

The valuation train wreck has already started to unfold there, so you’d better act quickly.

Many of the “thought leaders” and industry luminaries know this. I’ve asked CEOs
for money to help combat the cohort cronies and backroom dealers, but they think
they have enough VC money to outlast the FAA rulemaking. Be careful who you do
business with, as they don’t care. The same pertains to the Chinese drone monopoly.
Without toeing the Party line, they are out of the sphere of influence, ergo out of
business. Very few Blue sUAS or even other Chinese companies, for that matter, can
compete with the DJI even within a vibrant ecosystem.

https://www.suasnews.com/2020/07/shenzhen-speed-is-your-global-supply-
chain-all-rancid-and-clotted/

Man alive, it was like magic, and boy howdy, it turns out after all of the #ChiComms
talk that the PRC is solely in it for altruism and pretty pictures.

https://www.suasnews.com/2019/08/did-dji-bamboozle-you-too/

Golly, they make such good aircraft (or toys) for the money. Some of the American
drone experts have a plethora of excuses. One of my favorites is the old “there is no
money in hardware” saw. Heck, you had the world’s largest advocacy group doing
everything they could to kibosh the domestic commercial drone industry using the
canard of safety being so hard to safeguard the DoD vendor members 1000% mark-
up. The DoD FBO was slow on the uptake too but never the less figured out they
were getting taken for an expensive ride. The FAA and State Department (ITAR)
closed markets to the rest of the world for even the lowly hobby manufacturers.

AMA went along with it for the CBO (Community Based Organization) goose to lay
the golden egg. All egg no gold. Well, except for the consultants.

But the FAA said RID was going to usher in BVLOS?

Do we as a group ever get tired of looking stupid? That RID thing is so bad that FAA
managers and legal want their names redacted from the record. These folks are at
the teat, and they are concerned for their privacy, but not random minors. No
worries, though, Mayor Pete dropped the hammer on the FAA and asked folks to
resign. LOL!!!

https://www.suasnews.com/2021/07/remote-id-foia-2021-005150/

I am drilling down on the FOIA requests for those folks wondering where the heck I
have been. Besides that, I’ve just stepped back a little to spend some time in the
woods. The High Sierra’s as well as the rest of the geography here in California are a
gift from God and really the only thing that makes this expensive latrine tolerable.
@TheDroneDealer on Twitter or the sUAS News group on LinkedIn is where you
will find me