New vistas open up at small companies that use drones
NEW YORK — That drone flying around a suburban house might not belong to a wannabe pilot — it may be a tool that’s become indispensable for a small business.
Many small companies have either built their business around drones or use them to do tasks they previously accomplished by regular planes and helicopters. The unmanned aircraft also take the place of humans who might use scaffolding or navigate difficult terrain to get a close look at a structure or damage from a disaster. Dr ones, whose prices range from under $100 into the thousands of dollars, can be cheaper, faster and safer ways to make inspections and take photos and videos.
Mark Stoner’s chimney repair company uses them to assess the work a potential customer needs without rigging a scaffold or having a worker climb onto a sharply angled roof.
“We started using them in dangerous or difficult situations where you can’t get a person very easily,” says Stoner, co-founder of SirVent in Nashville, Tenn.
Cameras on the company’s three drones can show cracks or other damage and peer inside a chimney. The drones are controlled by a smartphone or a tablet computer. “It’s just like playing a video game. They’re very easy to fly around,” Stoner says.
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The Federal Aviation Administration has issued more than 5,000 exemptions, or permits, for commercial drone use since it began regulating nonrec- reational use of drones in September 2014. Companies must file petitions with the FAA to be allowed to use drones, or as the agency calls them, unmanned aircraft systems.
Large companies also use drones in the course of their work — Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos has said he hopes to deliver packages using drones. But because drones have only started getting notice the past few years, they’re still something of a novelty.
Meares Auction Group, which auctions real estate and other property, has posted videos of properties shot by drones on its website, including one that had sweeping vistas of a house and its grounds and gave viewers a sense of what it would be like to go up the property’s long driveway.
Going where people can’t
For some companies, just being able to do their work more easily is reason enough to use drones. For example, they come in handy when toxic spills from rail cars or pipelines occur in hard-to-reach areas and thousands of gallons of leaked chemicals or fuel prevent crews from assess- ing the damage and starting a cleanup.
“We’ve had several of those where they don’ t allow anyone in because of health and safety issues,” says Bryan Martin, emergency response director at Superior Environmental Solutions, a Cincinnati-based company that cleans up spills.
Superior began using a drone three years ago, equipping it with high-definition cameras that show the extent of the spills and equipment that measures air quality. The drones send that data wirelessly to Martin’s teams so they can determine whether it’s safe to start approaching a site.
A company that owns a drone is more nimble because it doesn’t have to rely on private plane or helicopter services, says Brian Webster, executive vice president with KWA Construction in Addison, Texas.
Better and cheaper photos and video
C.L. Burks Commercial Roofing uses a drone for progress reports to owners and managers of the buildings it works on, including high-rises and shopping centers.
“In the past, we used a company with a plane and a camera, and that gets pretty expensive,” says Jut Carnes, a vice president of the Alpharetta, Ga.-based company. Burks was working on nine projects throughout the Southeast and Puerto Rico, and it would have been too costly to shoot video to all its clients at once without a drone. It costs $500 to shoot photos of one building from a plane.
Some companies have been launched purely to fly drones for a variety of customers who want aerial photos or videos but don’t want or need their own aircraft. DroneLinx, a service based in New York, takes shots of cellphone towers, bridges, oil rigs and utility lines that are difficult to get careful inspections of, CEO Steve Metzman says. His company’s surveying services start at $2,500.
Metzman, a commercial helicopter pilot as well as a registered drone operator, also has local law enforcement agencies for clients.
“They’re using drones to get immediate aerial views on crime scenes,” he says.