Unlock Drone Program Efficiency in the Energy Sector
On July 31, 2024, UAV experts from the energy sector came together to share their experiences using AirData. Richard Turner of CAN-USA, Yoshi Schechter of Alamo Airborne, and Chris Marquart and Fred Farin of SDG&E’s Aviation Services joined AirData’s Trevor Hall to discuss their workflows in the following areas:
- Unified UAV Data: Uses Beyond Compliance
- Post-Flight Analysis: Impartial Accountability
- Pilot Training and Currency
- Parting Advice: Live Streaming and Pilot Activity
Panel Introduction
Richard Turner has 17 years of experience in offshore mechanical integrity and structural inspection. He specializes in deploying drone technology to enhance safety and operational efficiency in the oil and gas sectors as both a business owner and instructor.
Yoshi Schechter started in the drone industry in 2014 as an early adopter of drone-based cleaning and painting systems. He's now recognized as a specialist in aerial inspection and thermography for the oil and gas and energy sectors. He currently serves as a senior business director of Alamo Airborne, specializing in industrial aerial inspections and data delivery for the energy, telecom, and utility sectors.
Chris Marquart was a firefighter and medic with twenty years of experience before becoming a commercial UAS pilot. He started a drone program in 2014 with a small aircraft loaned from the military called an “Instant Eye” with an attached non-gimbaled Go-Pro. He now works with SDG&E’s UAV program, helping to pioneer new drone applications.
Fred Farin started in the drone industry in 2013. Fred is a UAS operations support specialist with extensive experience in piloting sUAS in aerial photography, utility inspections, and wildfire mitigation programs. Fred has been working in SDG&E's Aviation Services department since 2021, specializing in program enhancement, instructor vetting, and various aerial inspection missions.1. Unified UAV Data: Uses Beyond Compliance
Our speakers emphasized the time-saving benefits of AirData. Many of our customers used AirData’s tracking and reporting features through different stages of their companies’ growth. At all sizes, being able to automate the collection of flight records, performance KPIs, and safety data was a huge win for efficiency and effectiveness. SDG&E, CAN-USA, and Alamo Airborne all use AirData heavily in the realms of reporting and compliance.
However, they have also found uses beyond that for AirData’s data analysis tools. Richard uses AirData to process information from simulated flights, while Yoshi has used AirData’s data analysis to aid in pilot payment, insurance, and marketing.
Yoshi Schechter [13:51]: We're managing 24 Pilots or something like that, and I can't even tell you how many airframes we've put through the system. It's an area that we do a lot of “not-flying” work on. It is a management issue to retain and to have good records for that. We try to run it like manned aviation companies.”
Our speakers stressed the importance of setting up automated systems for data capture in AirData. Collecting and organizing the necessary data to meet regulatory requirements is a time-intensive task. Enabling automatic logging and reporting through AirData saves Yoshi valuable time when storing documentation and submitting it to clients and the FAA.
Richard Turner [43:32]: You guys have been awesome with adopting new platforms. I know we worked together to bring the Elios 3 online, which was a big one for us, especially being a GPS-denied aircraft. Initially, we were manually logging every bit of our maintenance based on those menu screens, and it was extremely intensive given the number of flights. Being able to pull those debug files, dump that data in, and have AirData adjust was a tremendous win….
We fly hundreds of flights at a time, and ingesting all that data means we have a lot of cycles on these batteries, which have to be discarded after 50 cycles. There’s a lot to adjust and play with in terms of numbers.”
Richard’s team reached out to AirData for assistance managing flight data for the hundreds of flights and simulations they perform with the Flyability Elios 3. AirData’s engineers were able to work with Flyability’s product team to expedite the integration of Elios 3 data into AirData’s flight logging and maintenance modules. Automating Elios 3 data collection allows Richard and his team to focus on training and flying. You can view the full list of aircraft supported by AirData here.
Chris Marquart [41:33]: The tracking definitely makes us way more efficient than before when we first started off.… I didn't have much time to spend with maintenance logs and tracking and building a program. I was kind of letting AirData work in the background for me. The logs would go up there to the cloud, we view them later, and then we would just make a plan at the weekly meetings for what we have to do ahead of time. So it made us way more efficient despite our small size.”
Chris and Fred started their drone program with a small team. Time was a scarce resource, as they had to balance flying with administrative work among three people. Being able to “let AirData work in the background” allowed Chris to step in for flights when needed, and gave the entire team time to plan for future growth.
Yoshi Schechter [52:00]: We are using the data by pulling it out of there and pushing it to a system that we use for a number of things like all the way down to how we pay our pilots. We want to know that these flights were done and they've got this many flights, and they're getting paid per asset, or whatever the case may be.
We use the data that we put into AirData for marketing purposes and the number of flights and how many miles we've flown and it just makes good content for our marketing efforts.
[35:00] Since I'm the business side of our business. I always look at this kind of data like ‘Can I make an insurance claim?’”
Yoshi’s team takes flight logging further by using flight data to corroborate pilot activity for payroll purposes. AirData can be used as an impartial way to confirm flight counts, mission locations, and time in the air, along with other metrics.
AirData also offers APIs that can be used for data visualization, aiding in the creation of graphic and written content for marketing.
Yoshi also notes that having an impartial record of events provides a strong basis for insurance claims.
Richard Turner [50:23]: I’ll use one of my clients as an example. They want to know how many flights were flown on their facilities each month and the type of flights, whether it was beyond visual line of sight, confined space entry, or whatever it may be. We categorize all that, and a report is generated monthly. They don’t need serial numbers or pilot specifics, just general records for their KPIs. AirData generates this report, we reformat it slightly, add a header, and export it to them. They love this feature. It takes a big burden off us as we don’t have to manually comb through the data.”
AirData allows the creation of customized reports for flight data, equipment maintenance, and FAA compliance. Automating the reporting workflow and easing regulatory overhead has been a major win as customers can save countless hours of combing through paperwork.
2. Post-Flight Analysis: Impartial Accountability
AirData shines as an impartial “black box” repository for flight data. This proves to be of tremendous value when forensic reconstruction of an incident is required, and also provides useful training materials. Our speakers shared accounts of aircraft being downed by firearms, as well as tackling risky offshore inspections. The Alamo Airborne and SDG&E teams also use AirData’s ability to replay flight routes and control inputs as a training resource for newer pilots.
Fred Farin [23:32]: Another neighbor found the aircraft that had fallen in their backyard. They retrieved it, and an investigation ensued. Flight logs were pulled, and the aircraft was physically inspected to determine what went wrong. Basically, what we're seeing in the post-flight analytics was a power system failure, which matched with the .22 caliber bullet found in the back of the aircraft's battery.
Our supervisors reviewed the data to verify that it was not pilot error or a system malfunction, but indeed a kinetic neutralization. Fortunately, no one was hurt, and everyone was safe.
Even when an aircraft does not go down, these flight records are still crucial…. This interface is much easier to use because we can review the 3D aspects of the flight lines in Google Earth.”
Fred and Chris discussed increasing incidences of drones being deliberately targeted with firearms. AirData’s detailed flight records act as a “black box” to allow better forensic reconstruction of events. AirData provides an HD Flight Player for timestamped play-by-plays of flights. Flight routes can also be exported as KMLs from AirData, allowing the analysis of 3D flight paths in Google Earth and other GIS applications.
Yoshi Schechter [36:48]: We use the post-flight analysis in a different way than both of these guys. We use it as kind of a “lessons learned” and a training tool for our guys. So, if you go back to that previous slide where you have the HD player up you can see in the top right stick movement and you can actually see what your pilot was doing at the time…. We will take an example of one of our really good clean pilots that’s super efficient and that uses half the batteries that maybe a new guy would.”
Yoshi’s team uses post-flight analysis to train pilots in safe, efficient flying. AirData’s HD Flight Player tracks time-stamped stick inputs every tenth or two tenths of a second, allowing student pilots to closely emulate control inputs.
3. Pilot Training and Currency
Established sectors, such as energy, have equally established regulatory requirements. Richard and Yoshi have used AirData's pilot management, flight reporting, and document management feature sets to show they are meeting safety and training requirements. As with flight data tracking, being able to generate and view pilot activity reports is an enormous time saver. AirData has also recently released a new module that allows for the tracking of internal and external training certifications, further simplifying the pilot management workflow.
Richard Turner [10:56]: We're in a little different area than the rest of these groups are in the sense that our pilots tend to spend more time training and practicing and simulating than we do flying these missions. The majority of our work is in classified areas and hazardous atmospheres, so we do a lot of prep work, a lot of training simulator time, and we're able to use AirData to track all that… and go back and show that information to a client.”
The dynamic nature of off-shore inspections means CAN-USA’s pilots have to keep their flight skills sharp and polished. Richard and CAN-USA conduct a rigorous schedule of safety drills and flight simulations. Being able to provide proof of training to clients is a key point for their business relationships.
Yoshi Schecter [12:52]: There's so many different requirements depending on the company that we're working for. Oil and gas stuff, as Richard knows, can be pretty safety-intensive: a lot of documentation, a lot of paperwork. Other companies are more insurance-intensive. But all of them require some sort of certification or training. Richard is actually kind of my hero, the way he uses AirData to track that stuff.”
Yoshi gives credit to Richard for the systematic way they track pilot training. Our speakers note multiple times that one of the core benefits of AirData is the time they save by automating data input and output.
4. Parting Advice: Live Streaming and Pilot Activity
Our session ended with some Q&As from the viewers, as well as parting advice from the speakers. Fred discussed SDG&E's use cases for one of AirData's most sought-after features: low-latency live streaming. This allows sub-1 second latency transmission of video from a remote controller or mobile device with AirData UAV installed. No additional equipment is required, and viewers can watch the streamed footage securely via the AirData UAV mobile app, in the web browser, or by piping the video feed through a customized dashboard.
Fred Farin [54:57]: ....A fantastic feature we've adopted regularly, is the live streaming feature. We've used it for patrols and inspection patrols for OHVI [overhead inspections]. It's a great training tool to get new remote pilots up to speed as far as like image framing or what the flight path is, as well as like reconnaissance for our security group doing live streams to folks at the office. It's a great tool. For anyone on the call, I highly advise reaching out to AirData to explore this feature.”
Fred’s team uses AirData Live Streaming for flight training and mission planning. Customers frequently use Live Streaming for facility inspections, to monitor construction and building activities, and to provide vision of untraversable terrain. Live Streaming is also used by many of our first responder groups for reconnaissance, surveillance, and search and rescue. As with data analysis and reporting, our customers are innovating rapidly with their uses for Live Streaming.
AirData extends our thanks to Chris, Fred, Richard, and Yoshi for their contributions to this webinar. Their insight was engaging and invaluable, and founded on substantial real world experience.
If you would like to learn more about using AirData in your operations, drop us a line on our contact page.