Switching gears to a story out of Florida, where a large drone dealer can no longer fly drones over 55 pounds after multiple alleged FAA violations. FAA officials showed up at a training session hosted by the dealer and learned the pilot in command allegedly didn’t have registration for the drone, and he was flying it too close to a non-participating farmer. For some perspective, we reached out to Adam Gittins, president of Harlan, Iowa-based drone dealer HTS Ag. Adam says this case serves as a harsh reminder to make sure all your boxes are checked before operating a drone.

“Let me make an analogy here about what was happening. This person was driving a vehicle with no license plates on it. But not only did it not have license plates on it, it had never been registered. And when they got pulled over, they also did not have their driver’s license with them. They did not have proof of insurance. They did not have their registration. And they were driving on the wrong side of the road.”

“There was a whole bunch of small things that should be fairly simple and fairly easy to do that led to the action that the FAA took on it. My experience in working with the FAA, I’ve done that a few times, their heart, their goal and their desire is to educate people. They don’t want to take action against people. I’ve seen them offer a tremendous amount of grace to people that just didn’t know. But as large as a company as this was, these were things they should’ve known.” 

For more information, and key takeaways from Gittins, we posted a link to the case in the article for this episode on No-TillFarmer.com. 

Watch the full version of this episode of Conservation Ag Update.