Todays' drones are more than just toys

The compact, fourarmed machine’s quartet of rotors buzzed their work song as they carried a camera into the sky to look over Lake Brittany, providing a spectacular view of shimmering water for the camera mounted along the machine’s underside.

Standing atop the dam, Dylan Shaddox, 23, manipulated the levers that control his drone, guiding it along and watching the camera’s feed on his phone, looking for those perfect shots.

Shaddox’s photography earned accolades when he started posting on social media. He’s since created a Twitter account and Facebook page just for his drone.

“I like to take pictures of the clouds, sunsets and sunrises,” he said.

But beyond that, he’s also taken an interest in providing photos relevant to the community. When people asked about progress on the Bella Vista bypass, he said, he took his drone to check it out. He’s also had requests to take photos of homes.

“I’m happy to talk to anyone,” Shaddox said.

The hobby started, he said, when his interest was piqued by a series of aerial photos. He got a drone for Christmas last year, but he bought his current unit — a DJI Phantom 3 Standard — in January. This one is bigger, he said, and the wind affects it less.

“I was kind of scared at first,” he said. “I didn’t fly it really high.”

The quadrotor’s onboard computer, he said, sends him a variety of data, even aside from the video feed. At a glance, he can see how high he’s flying and how far the machine is from him — and if he starts to reach the edge of his range, he’ll get a warning chime. Moreover, his battery level is available at all times.

“I like doing this,” Shaddox said as he tilted the tiny aircraft and let it zip across the dam’s airspace, “but it burns faster.”

In order to comply with FAA standards for unmanned aircraft that went into effect last month, he said, the drone’s altitude can’t exceed 400 feet. Furthermore, it can’t be flown at night, or out of his own view, and it must have an FAA number displayed.

“The FAA says you can’t go over 100 miles per hour,” he said, “but I don’t think I’ve ever gotten that. That’s pretty fast.”

While there are plenty of things for someone to do with one of these machines for fun, they also have a number of applications.

Drew Shoptaw, a network security specialist with a background in robotics, has been into quadrotors since 2006. He’s also one of seven licensed commercial unmanned aircraft operators in Northwest Arkansas.

“There’s a difference,” Shoptaw said, “between what a $60 toy can do and what a multi-thousand-dollar workhorse can do.” batteries

Shoptaw, who lives in north Bentonville, said he’s done a variety of work with his drones, including photography, using photogrammetry to improve crop efficiency, and surveying land.

Work like this, he said, can be done far more efficiently. For example, in the case of surveying, Shoptaw said he can do what would amount to a full day’s work for a sight survey crew in the span of about seven minutes.

The price of work like this, he said, is dependent largely on the complexity, and the market is too young for there to be any real standardized rates at this point — but it’s also likely to be far less expensive than traditional methods.

“It’s one of those things,” he said, “when you get good at it, you say ‘wow, I can make some money doing this.’”

But for someone looking to get into flying drones, he said, it’s ideal to start as a hobby, and to start with less-expensive equipment.

A lot of good, entry-level units, he said, include safety features that can limit the speed, as well as the distance they can cover.

For Shaddox, it’s still a hobby. He’s currently making a living as an assistant store manager trainee at Walgreens, and driving for Uber in his spare time. But flying, gathering aerial photos and sightseeing in his hometown is still taking up plenty of his other spare time.

“Once I got the drone,” he said, “I was like ‘this is a cool picture I don’t think anyone’s seen before.’”