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A podcast about drones and the people behind them. An educational and entertaining take on the current state of drones and what flies ahead in the drone world.
Mark Masterton (00:00)
What are you most excited about drones doing in the
Ian Wills (00:02)
I think the most exciting for me personally, and it's a bit selfish, is people getting into that drone and moving around with that drone.
Mark Masterton (00:09)
Today on the Drone is the Future podcast, we have a special one for you all. We're doing a collaboration episode where we bring on the host of the Coastal Drone Podcast, Mr. Ian Wills.
Ian Wills (00:21)
So we take this GoPro Hero 3. We take a gimbal that came from some Eastern country. The instructions were not in English. Separate gimbal, separate camera,
Mark Masterton (00:30)
Separate camera and a separate game got into the drone.
Ian Wills (00:34)
ripped it apart, put this thing on, soldered it. We had to wrap the GoPro in tinfoil so that it wouldn't broadcast its Wi-Fi and mess up the the drone.
Mark Masterton (00:43)
Ian has made his mark on the drone world in training future pilots and engaging with enthusiasts around the world. We had the pleasure to discuss the exciting frontier of the past and future of the ever-changing world of drones. Drone as the future is made in partnership with drone as a service. Make your survey, mapping, or inspections safer, faster, and more efficient with the help of our team. Elevate what's possible with droneaservice.com.
feel like a professional footballer walking out to the World Cup now with that theme tune. I'm we're
Ian Wills (01:18)
T shirt cannons and like smoke and lasers.
Mark Masterton (01:22)
I'm expecting Shakira to pop out and start dancing now. I'm feeling it's been a while, feeling feeling pumped now. That's good. Welcome to the podcast, Ian. Thank you. Drone is the future podcast. you are no stranger to podcasts as you run your very own as president of Coastal Drone. You you dabble quite a bit. Hoping to learn a bit from you today. But thank you for joining us. appreciate you coming in. can you tell us all about how you initially got into drones and
A little bit about yourself, your podcasts and your drone training school.
Ian Wills (01:54)
Sure. let's roll the clock back to roughly, well, I won't go too far back, but 2014, a commercial helicopter pilot living in Yellowknife Northwest Territories. And I found myself suddenly a free agent. So I had a little bit of free time on my hand. And my wife and I had well, I had a nice little severance package as well. So my wife and I decided, let's not work for a little while. And so my
Father-in-law runs a nonprofit international for Clean Water. It's called Clean Water International on the nose. And and it's in the Philippines. So we decided we were going to travel and do some creative work for them. And I know I jumped right into it, but I am also a photographer as well as a helicopter pilot. And so we went to the Philippines to shoot a whole bunch of B-roll and documentary film work and do some interviews.
And do a whole bunch of video because this was a little bit after, you know, drone or sorry, digital cameras became the point where you could actually shoot some pretty cinematic stuff with like a Canon 5D. So we go there, we shoot for about six weeks, and my father in law brings out this Blade three fifty QX. And it's a drone, it's a white drone, it kind of looks like everyone's favorite, the DJI Phantom. It's got four propellers, it's got a battery, and that's it.
There's nothing else. There's no gimbal. There's no camera. There's nothing. I don't even think it had GPS. If it did, it was an afterthought. And so we decided we're going to use this as an aerial film camera. Cause I'd been obsessed with like the reason I became a helicopter pilot was to become a Cinefax pilot. So fly the the flying cameras, right? Take my love for photography and videography. Take my love for aviation, naturally glue them together. So this was the next step along there that
drones come along. So we take this GoPro Hero 3. We take a gimbal that came from some eastern country that I have no idea where. Like the the instructions were not in English. Separate gimbal, separate camera. And it was made of very heavy aluminum relative for the the drone. And we figured out how to solder it into the power distribution on the drone, ripped it apart, put this thing on, soldered it.
figured out how to get the gimbal to stabilize, all the instructions were in Russian. And we had to wrap the GoPro in tinfoil so that it wouldn't broadcast its Wi Fi and mess up the the drone. And
Mark Masterton (04:33)
Technique.
Ian Wills (04:34)
our flight time went from maybe twelve minutes to three minutes. And this was in twenty fourteen. But let me and it was terrible. So the drone flew away about five times out of ten. It vibrated like crazy. The footage was oscillating like crazy because there was no ND filter or anything like that.
And this was probably the worst footage I've ever shot, but in twenty fourteen it was the best footage I'd ever shot. And I was hooked right then and there. And I'm like, how can I make this better? Every single time we flew, how do I make it better? So that was like of all the things I did while I was there in the Philippines, all the I I did some incredible ground based photography stuff and and was really fortunate to do some incredible footage that I never thought I'd be able to. The drone stuff is what I remember.
Because welling up thinking about it, but we took that crappy, terrible drone to an elementary school in the in the Baggio, I think that's how you say it. But it's it's the forested, unpopulated area. There was an elementary school. And we took off to get some shots. And I remember a million faces pressed up against the glass of the school, of everyone just their minds blown that this thing was flying around very poorly.
Crash several times, be sweating freaking out and and shooting this footage and then them all rushing it after it lands. So that was my start in drones as as we know them today. So
Mark Masterton (06:05)
Pretty epic story to get involved in drones. That's amazing. No, I no, i in a good way, in a good way. I remember back back in twenty fourteen, if anybody here had anything in the air that was a drone or a drone akin, people were flocking around in towns to to see it, especially in places like the Philippines. That's crazy.
Ian Wills (06:22)
needed
an electrical engineering degree or a willingness to set your house on fire, basically, because not three flights later we blew it up. It
Mark Masterton (06:31)
I was about to ask, is there any funny stories from that that particular trip? You say it flew off five times how
Ian Wills (06:36)
Did. So we were doing one shot and of course there's no drone laws back then in the Philippines and and I had no clue. Like we were we were truly eyes of a beginner at this point. it goes out into the jungle, I'm shooting and we put these carbon fiber props on thinking it would make it better. But at the time I didn't understand that you would need to statically balance your propellers. So this thing takes off and it's doing this and it's dancing all over the place. And it's fine, quote unquote. And
I take off and then all of a sudden I'm out over the jungle and a of course you can't see what it's shooting. You have no d idea whatsoever. It's just set
Mark Masterton (07:13)
'cause there's no monitor.
Ian Wills (07:16)
your bomb sights basically and hope that that you get something of the shot and you you take what you can out of it and the gimbal wouldn't even move. then I'm watching and all of a sudden it just inverts and goes straight down into the tree canopy and and of course I'm freaking out and and
thinking now gonna it's gone forever. There's no chance I'm gonna get it. This is third like the Philippines jungle. It's gone. And all of a sudden it inverts itself again and it's back up to hover. So it lost like a hundred feet like a rock inverted and then right it itself. And now I'm okay, come back, come back. And I can't even tell which direction it's facing. It's so far out. And there's nothing. So it's just me getting it back knowing I've got six minutes of flight time with this GoPro on. I get it back. I land it perfectly
And and I'm not even realizing it, but there's now there's a man sitting or standing there, sitting on his horse, and his horse has landed and the drone is here, the horse is here, and the horse is completely indifferent to the fact that this flying drone has just landed right beside him and I didn't even see it. I was so stressed about just getting that thing back on the ground because I didn't want to lose my father in law's GoPro and his girl.
Mark Masterton (08:26)
Well this is all being played out in front of the father in law. my god. So We've come a long
Ian Wills (08:30)
Yeah.
Mark Masterton (08:33)
way. You've come a very long way. Mm. Now you're running a company that teaches pilots how to pilot drones safely. I mean that's quite a long way from the wild, wild west of twenty fourteen, isn't it?
Ian Wills (08:43)
Well, I think the best teacher can learn from their mistakes and ensure that their students don't make the same mistakes that they do. So I try to put myself out there as much as I can and put myself into risky situations with the drones. I've I I'm not afraid of crashing them. I've definitely done that more than a few times. and and accepting the fact that this technology we're only gonna learn by making mistakes. So like finding the limits of it for sure.
Mark Masterton (09:12)
what led you to becoming a teacher online as well? I mean, away from the courses that you offer at Coastal Drone, you're also educating a an entire audience out there on YouTube and through podcasts and stuff. What led you to have you always been interested in creating videos and and content online?
Ian Wills (09:30)
I blame my parents. So I'm a product of two teachers. Right. my my father got me very early into computers and technology in the early eighties. I was very fortunate that my mom took a huge risk and bought like a brand new Macintosh, not MacBook, not anything, just Macintosh, in like eighty eight, eighty nine and took a huge cut out of her pay to be able to afford that for us. So I'm very thankful that I was exposed to technology at a very early age.
And instilled that wanting to be able to transfer knowledge from them, like knowing what that is and so important. in two thousand, well, once I came through high school, went through, I was really fortunate to go through like an early technology program through Cisco and Microsoft. And same thing. I've had some incredible teachers throughout my my learning career and and seeing how important that is to be guided by the right people. I started one of my first
information technology jobs was working at an online school in two thousand six to two thousand ten. We were a public school, like a normal elementary school. We had three thousand students, but we had no classrooms. We had I think we had, well, I guess five hundred to a thousand IMAX that we would give out to the students for their curriculum to be delivered electronically. Right. So in two thousand eight, I was very familiar with using like
online schools like Moodle or other technology like that. And so same thing. Just we were early in the internet, like early, like 2008. We're past the bubble at this point, right? But being able to deliver all this learning to and do it virtually, I saw that scale. And and it's it's that's not even how I came to be at coastal, but it was just as an interesting background that that parallel came in.
Mark Masterton (11:28)
you say you come from a family of teachers and you think it's important to for the teacher to make their own mistakes so that they can speak from a place of experience. do you get a lot of joy out of spreading knowledge to to people about drones? 'Cause the the if you were to go out on your own and try and teach yourself all this regulation and stuff right now, it's quite a difficult place to start.
Ian Wills (11:52)
There is a pretty well I would say that four years ago the learning curve was pretty steep in terms of the knowledge and the regulations. I I I won't ignore the fact that there's tools now like AI that make the that they're starting to flatten the curve a little bit when it comes to the accessibility side of it. But yeah, the the human connection side of it and the knowledge transfer and being able to
show someone something that like it's incredibly rewarding to like love working with kids, for example. And I don't get to do it in this industry because we're we're training pilots that are building their careers. But showing someone my kids' age the a drone for the first time, being able to show them how to fly and and just experience the the fun side of it is is yeah incredibly rewarding.
Mark Masterton (12:46)
And working in marketing and training certification in a changing sector that's like changing every week, every hour, sometimes every minute. How do you keep ahead of the curve when it comes to like regulation and things like that?
Ian Wills (13:00)
So it is an incredibly fast paced industry, right? If you look at we've gone from twenty nineteen is when the rules switched for for drones. And we went from everyone having to have a special flight operation certificate and go through hundreds of hours of paperwork and hoops and get to know your inspector's middle name, let alone the their their firstborn's name. So you're you're constantly communicating with the regulator to
Now, if I want to fly downtown here in Vancouver, I open an app, right? I've got my license, I've got my pilot certificate, I've got a standing approval. I just open the app and look at it and see if the airspace is open and closed, which it's not right now. We're we're shooting this during FIFA, of course, so things aren't exactly normal. A lot bound. But that routine concept is is something that
only happened in what are we at? We're at seven years since twenty nineteen. And and we've gone from a handful of pilots that had that approval, probably hundreds, if not thousands at the most, to we're at a hundred and thirty to a hundred and forty thousand pilots, a hundred and forty to one hundred and fifty thousand registered drones, not including the the micro drones that don't have registration. There's twenty thousand advanced pilots
We're at five hundred and counting level one complex pilots. Like the numbers are just we're never gonna be millions, but but you compare that to how many commercial helicopter pilots are in Canada. And there's roughly twenty five hundred for all of Canada that are like holding a valid medical and and able to fly commercially right now. And and you you compare the the scope of the industry and and the the dollar value per year of the commercial well, just the aerial work market.
Right. And if you say, well, an operator does a thousand hours a year and does a couple million dollars a year in revenue from one helicopter, and that's twenty five hundred pilots that are available to fly that versus 130,000, 140,000 pilots, because any drone pilot in Canada can make money with drones. There's no you gotta have a commercial pilot license or anything like that. It's you can from day one start making money with drones. So it the
This will become as ubiquitous as flashlights in police cars. Wow. So yeah. It's the the rate of growth is just phenomenal. It's incredible trying to keep up with it.
Mark Masterton (15:34)
your deep background in helicopter piloting for over ten years and then also your IT background, how did these all help set you up for success with with coastal drum?
Ian Wills (15:48)
So,
Mark Masterton (15:51)
How
did they inform you leading you going into that business?
Ian Wills (15:55)
I
well, you could say I I fell into it in some ways. So twenty twenty commercial helicopter pilot. just started with a new company here in the Fraser Valley, did my recurrent training with them. I ferried the helicopter is gonna fly for the season up to northern Alberta to get ready for the fire season to so that would be quote my machine for the year. I come back home and my
Operations managers and say, well, just take a couple weeks so that your your flight and duty limits aren't going to be a problem when you get to work because it's going to be a busy summer. that never happened. That was April 2020, I think. So you can imagine that things didn't go as planned that year for everyone. but prior to that, I had spent about six or seven years kind of in a management role doing marketing, business development for another aviation company.
and a bit of a quasi operations manager role. So I'd I'd been at all levels of aviation and and done the logistics, the planning, the marketing, the business development. It kind of all fell under a a a lot of roles that were never really official roles and and made for some fun times there. But it it led to between that and the twenty years of IT, I'm like, all right, let's I gotta do something. I can't keep getting laid off.
when when things are when times are tough in the helicopter world. And and my we were starting a family. We were trying to start a family. I had a choice between going to Somalia to fly helicopters or staying here and during the pandemic and not going to Somalia. So it was tough, honestly, because as a as a pilot you want to fly. But I also wanted my family to start and I and I had concerns about
traveling abroad and worrying about like communicable diseases and and mosquitoes, which was what I was going to deal with. Right. So we I elected to stay home and get my advanced drone license. And that led to hanging out with Coastal Drone and basically doing my flight review with Ho Coastal Drone and and bringing my helicopter knowledge to my preparation of the flight review, which led to do you want a job?
Yeah.
Mark Masterton (18:18)
You're pretty good at this. Do you want to work for us?
Ian Wills (18:19)
Yeah,
do you this is you're you're pretty well prepared. Kate, the the the former co-founder of Coastal, she did my flight review and she's This is out of a thousand ish flight reviews I've done the best I've ever seen. And I'm like, Well, thank you.
Mark Masterton (18:32)
Yeah.
Ian Wills (18:33)
it was like twenty-five pages of operations manual to a c the Canadian Aviation Regulation Standard for a helicopter company. So it was a bit overkill. So I've I I've seen some of my candidates that I reviewed almost as good as that or better.
So I I make sure that they know that, but it's it's it was a bit overkill. we then got talking and I had already promised myself I'd go back to university and finish some unfinished business because I I took off to be a pilot mid school and I'd I've never been one for like declaring a major and sticking to anything. So this was kind of like, okay, now's the time. I had already enrolled and promised myself to do that.
so I I went to school through the winter, finished that. I had the blessing of like EI and everything else to do that properly. So it was very stressful and a lot of phone calls to go through that at that time, but but I did it the right way and and feel good about that. Yeah. by we also found out I was pregnant or my wife was pregnant. Yeah,
Mark Masterton (19:37)
Yeah.
Ian Wills (19:38)
that'd be awkward.
Mark Masterton (19:40)
Correct yourself.
Ian Wills (19:42)
My
my daughter was born two weeks after I finally started full time at Colstal in May twenty twenty one. And so I had to take a week or two for that and and then I was back at work and then we I found myself working full time at Colstal since then, twenty twenty one. So
Mark Masterton (20:03)
You've built a whole podcast and a whole teaching system there. what do you think drones sometimes get a bad rap in the in the media and you do a great job of answering a lot of the questions that people have around them on through your videos on YouTube. what do you think some of the biggest misconceptions are when it comes to drones? From both inside the industry and and outside of it?
Ian Wills (20:30)
Well, it's funny, I heard on your podcast recently, Dr. Eric Saxak mentioned how he he hates the the phrase drones.
Mark Masterton (20:37)
Yes.
Ian Wills (20:37)
And and I I emphasize with him. I I think that there there is an immediate negative connotation from it. A good example is the other the other day I was out in my backyard flying a Nevada FPV and I thought I saw something whip through the the camera and I I immediately thought all my neighbors throwing a rock at the drone.
And turns out it was a very angry hummingbird. It wasn't a rock. But I landed immediately. I'm like, okay, now I gotta go talk to this guy because like that's not cool if that's what it is. And like there's also like federal concerns with that too. And I don't want to be that guy to tell that, but at the same time I want to respect their privacy. Yeah. But it is an ongoing challenge because the immediate thing that we see a lot of phone calls about is drones being flown near people's homes. Mm-hmm. I've experienced it. I've had people come up to me and say, Well, what are you doing?
Why are you doing this? Why why here? Why now? Why why is it pointed at my house? Well, first off, it's not pointed at your house. You could here's my screen right now. You can actually
Mark Masterton (21:38)
Exactly.
Ian Wills (21:39)
Yeah,
you can see inside.
Mark Masterton (21:43)
We're spoiling it here.
Ian Wills (21:45)
They
they certainly get upset about and they have valid concerns because this is still new. This is still new technology. And and so the misconceptions I find is that we like to say that the average person is just not that interesting, first off, unfortunately, to break it to you. But
Mark Masterton (22:03)
Special.
Ian Wills (22:04)
yeah, you're not the main character in this story of the world around you. The drone is not pointing at you, most likely. It's probably looking at something even more boring, like the roof of a building.
Like an air conditioning unit. Like, what's that serial number? I gotta get that. Yeah. and then the reality of it is there is like the the privacy concerns, the social anxieties around that. And and we're gonna see a rubber band effect in the industry. For like we're gonna push forward, we're gonna hit a wall, we're gonna find something that that is certainly beyond the scope of what we should be doing, and then they're gonna pull it back. But we're also gonna see things happening like
The the general public, and maybe this is the better misconception. You can't just pull these things out of a retail store and send them into the air. So the Mini Five Pro, the Mini Four Pro, the Mini Three, these micro drone categories. Canada has we are incredibly blessed with this freedom to fly sub two hundred and fifty gram micro drones without pilot certificates, without registration. That's unique.
It's it's nowhere else that I'm aware of in the well in the Western world for sure and and in Europe, can you do this without certification? You need a pilot license or a certificate. There this constant backlash that I see through because of course we advertise, we have YouTube, we have the YouTube comments section. there's this the
The anti-authority, anti-compliance aspect to it, which is in everything, right? There's like I won't admit, but allegedly I probably got involved in street racing as a kid. So I I understand that. But there's there's a concept of it why does a government need to control my drone or my hobby or my toy? And it's not what they're concerned about. The reality is
Industry is driving the regulator to say, We want to do this. I have a six hundred kilogram drone that I want to launch and carry this hazardous payload potentially over the city. Well, no, we don't want to be liable for that. and that's why the rules exist is because they don't want the cons the the the transference of liability to say, Well, we didn't talk to these guys because we have no rules in place that force them to talk to us to say, Yeah, that's
not okay to run that over a crowd of people. Yeah. So the regulators, they're their their goal is safety. It's not putting the thumb down on innovation. They're trying to spur innovation constantly. We I have pancakes with them all the time. Every year we we have the annual aerial evolution conference and and I'll sit down with them and and we'll talk about how can we make this better? How can we innovate better. So
Mark Masterton (25:06)
You're a great middleman between the regulators and the everyday drone pilots.
Ian Wills (25:10)
I try to be the translator. Absolutely.
Mark Masterton (25:13)
I'd liken you to sort of like a Robin Hood when it comes to like regulations and dumbing down not dumbing them down. Making them simpler and digestible for for everybody out there.
Ian Wills (25:25)
It's an incredibly
boring topic. Let's be real.
Mark Masterton (25:27)
Yeah,
there's many, many pages to get through.
Ian Wills (25:30)
Why would why would anyone tune into a podcast about drones? Right? Like either of ours. Like why why are
Mark Masterton (25:36)
Why
are you here?
Ian Wills (25:38)
Why are you watching this?
Mark Masterton (25:41)
thanks for sticking around.
Ian Wills (25:42)
It's
it's the
We're here because we're passionate about it. And everyone that's watching this is probably also passionate about this. Right. This is like you got a big yellow drone on the wall. I'm not sure if it's on camera, but like like it's cool stuff that's happening all the time. There's every day I'm seeing someone doing something with drones that I hadn't thought of. And and I'm constantly amazed or impressed by by something new happening. If if that wasn't, I wouldn't be here. Right. It's it's it's gotta be new and exciting.
Mark Masterton (26:17)
you do a great job of addressing questions in the comments as well. you had that one particular one about the new regulations on Chinese made drones in Ontario. and a lot of people had a lot of things to say about it, but you you chose selective questions and you and you responded in a in a good way. is that something that you're looking to incorporate into many videos going forward?
Ian Wills (26:42)
Yeah, and I'll be first to admit like AI helps a lot with that. Right. There's there's incredible technology because some of it is insurmountable. Like like that particular video, there's hundreds of comments, I think. So it was that would be unmanageable to to sort and filter and start looking at what needs to be addressed right away.
Mark Masterton (27:01)
Was that one of your most engaged with videos, would you say?
Ian Wills (27:05)
it's
definitely the recently the most engaged. our audience, I think I've come to learn, wants to have a counter opinion. So there's there's this there's a steady stream of spoon-fed information and product placement and everything else. And and you look at like YouTube's become a bit of a marketplace more than it is a a creator space. Yeah. And and everything's formulaic.
And I've watched YouTube for since day one. And so I I've seen it all and I've I I watch YouTube from an analysis perspective. And so the comments are I have to engage as much as I can with our audience because otherwise we aren't real unless we actually engage. It's so easy at this point to be considered just like a faceless channel that is an AI managed channel.
And and we're here. We're real. And the comments we see I see every single one of them. I literally get them on my watch because I'm tied into the channel. So I'll be driving and see that.
Mark Masterton (28:15)
they really put the cat amongst the pigeons there.
Ian Wills (28:17)
Yeah, exactly. And it's just the it's a good indicator for us of what the the sentiment is going to be around this. And and I'll give you a good example. The other day I was talking to one of the inspectors and and our advertised event SFOC video that came out recently talk reminding everyone that if you're flying near FIFA, there's you probably need an advertised event SFOC.
That video wasn't what I'd planned on shooting that week. I wanted to talk about remote IDs sooner. And I I got a call from an inspector and said, Hey, please, can you like jump the queue and like talk about this in your own words? Not we're not telling you to say anything. Just we are seeing an incredible amount of last minute SFOCs because people have no idea and they're getting them at the last minute.
And and also we're getting a lot of like calls from enforcement because people are flying in the the restricted airspace. and it's funny is I'm like, well, I plan on talking about remote IDs. no one really wants to know about that. I'm like, I'll tell you what. I'm pretty sure they do because my comments are telling me that that people want to talk more about this. And you look at our engagement, and that SFOC video was a bit of a flop. And it was
visually I think more comprehensive than most of our videos, but like five, six hundred video views on it. And I don't worry about like getting a hundred thousand views on the video. for me it's the slow burn. Like every piece of content I put out has to have legs for the longs because in the YouTube space, you put a video, like if you do a vlog, it's it's useless tomorrow. It's dead. Yeah. Right. I'm not Casey Nysat. I'm never gonna be
Mark Masterton (30:04)
Like we wish we were.
Ian Wills (30:07)
But but
my viewership is always gonna be like if we get a couple of thousand views over a month, if we get a couple thousand views a day, that's amazing. But I'm not I'm not looking at it from an ad revenue perspective. I'm not looking at it from like a sponsorship. I don't intend to ever take sponsorship on our channel. We've had a couple outreaches, but it's it was on brand, but at the same time like I we're again, we're gonna lose that genuine appeal and and
The fact that we're we are who we are.
Mark Masterton (30:38)
That was an inspector reaching out to you, realizing that a lot of pilots watch your channel and applying for special flight certificates out of the World Cup and they're like, Can you please tell the folks not to do that?
Ian Wills (30:52)
Yeah, and not to be a nanny, but just to be a reminder, a gentle reminder.
Mark Masterton (31:00)
Drone Papa. What should we be doing? Yeah. If you were to roll back the clock ten years to when you were a a drone pilot and you could fix one of the problems that you faced with a modern day drone, w what would that be? Ten
Ian Wills (31:17)
You mean as a helicopter pilot?
Mark Masterton (31:19)
years ago. Yeah, you must have come across many issues that today could just be solved, maybe?
Ian Wills (31:23)
Yeah. Well, so it's interesting. For the last three years I also managed a helicopter company whilst running Coastal Drone. And it was kind of like a jump back in to to fill in some gaps there in terms of the team. And the aerial work aspect of helicopters, there is a there is a horizon to it and there is a sunset to that horizon. I I don't know when and I don't know how.
But I do know that when you look at the economics of it and you look at the the concerns for safety, I've lost friends in aerial work, flying helicopters. I I know of and not just friends, but people I know of have lost more of those. And so that side of it, if you take a helicopter that is sitting over top of a long line, over top of a drill, in the middle of nowhere with one engine and
That is sitting there for two, three hours with a pilot sitting inside that helicopter. And eventually, by just the the law of averages, eventually that helicopter is going to fall out of the sky. Right. We do everything we can to be as safe as possible, maintain it as well as possible, mitigate that risk, but but lightning will strike someday. And why did that pilot have to be inside the helicopter when he could have been or she could have been on the ground with a a DJI style controller?
Still a fully autonomous, full size helicopter lifting two thousand pounds. And and now you've gained what, two hundred pounds for extra fuel on board? You've gained a little bit more of a risk tolerance because there's no human inside that aircraft. The innovation is is yeah, it it there's nothing stopping that right now other than either technology or regulations. So there's it's not an if, it's a when. So
Mark Masterton (33:17)
in the years that you've been working at Coastal, how's the company's mindset changed from where it began to where it is now? 'Cause the regulations have changed like like crazy.
Ian Wills (33:29)
When we started twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen, there was the basic and advanced certification side of it. So a drone pilot could either fly away from everything in green space or have an advanced and fly near people near airports over people in controlled airspace. In twenty twenty five the rules changed, so now the advanced pilot has incredibly they've gained a lot more privilege. We've gone from a limit of twenty five kilograms up to one hundred and fifty kilograms for drone ops.
you can now do what's called extended visual line of sight, so you can go farther out to two nautical miles. You've got the sheltered airspace side of it as well, so you can fly behind buildings and do some incredible stuff with that. The the the advance has grown so much, but then as of twenty five, we've added the level one complex operation, so beyond line of sight, so out to four nautical miles in a visual detect and avoid environment. And farther once the technology catches up with the regulations, which is only just happening like
Last week there was a declaration I think that went out for a drone to be able to fly beyond line of sight using technology based. That that that growth has enabled, like you said, a a massive shift in mindset. We're going from I need this to be able to have fun. I need this to be able to do basic, not like but basic jobs under the advanced regulations, to I'm stringing power lines from pole to pole across valleys. I'm
washing buildings at two, three hundred feet using this fifty kilogram drone. I'm we're doing life saving critical like heart transplant beyond line of sight. Right. There's some incredible stuff happening with that. So Coastal's mindset has shifted from get the certification, get the be able to fly, figure it out yourself, to like the mindset that keeps beating in my head is your drone career starts here.
So you're you're starting with just certification, but we've got a the the network, the community, we we broker the jobs and now we're getting into the point where we're the glue not only for the regulation side, but in empowering pilots to be able to build their own businesses. We started offering pro drone pilot courses three years ago. and and they're continuing to evolve. So we have one that's
literally the equivalent of like business one hundred where you start your own drone business, how to make ten thousand dollars in drone. Right. And that's just the start. So we we are looking beyond just being the certification house and providing what can be a comprehensive collegiate level education out of the drones without being a a post secondary education.
Mark Masterton (36:12)
you spoke a little bit there about like drones power washing, drones maybe doing like a heart transplant somewhere. what what are you most excited about drones doing in the future? What industries would you most like to see them tap into and make a difference? Talked about saving lives earlier. I th
Ian Wills (36:30)
think
the most exciting for me personally and it's a bit selfish is EVTAL or advanced urban mobility. So people getting into that drone and moving around with that drone. And it it won't be a drone at that point. It'll be a a crewed aircraft that happens to be electric and be computer controlled. But again, we're so close to that. I I I have a 70 kilometer commute and I cannot wait to be able to hop in some sort of quad octo
type copter in my backyard, take off and land at the building network and be able to do that in about twenty minutes instead of about an hour and a half. So
Exactly. Right. We've already got self driving cars. So and it'll be easier to have self driving aircraft because you don't have the variability of people. It's the regulations have to catch up and then energy density is probably our our last mile.
Mark Masterton (37:24)
Have you taken a trip in a driverless car?
Ian Wills (37:26)
Yeah, I have a a Tesla. So it it's about eighty percent of my driving now is it's I begrudgingly pay for the subscription.
Mark Masterton (37:33)
So it's so sweet though. Yeah. took a first ride in a Waymo a few months back and surprisingly how quick you get used to that. So I can imagine getting very used to a a flight to work made.
Ian Wills (37:45)
Yeah.
With the car side it's about it's like having your sixteen year old on their second day driving every day. So it's not quite their first day, but it's definitely not like you can take your your mind off it. So
Mark Masterton (37:57)
Yeah, might take me a while to get used to that then. so let's say I bought a drone for the very first time at a store. what should be my very first steps? And I believe you've someone close to you had that very same thing happen to them. They bought a drone for their very first time.
Ian Wills (38:18)
Well, the education side of it is definitely the big part of it. It's you you need to get out there and recognize that this isn't it is a toy, but it's not a toy. Right. There's consequences to it. in the retail space, there's not enough happening in terms of educating the customer. There's no big warnings. There's nothing outside there. we've made efforts over the years to try and be in the retail space right beside the drone and have signage and say, Look, you know, you're
You're buying this drone or this toy that it actually needs a license. Or even if it doesn't because it's under two hundred fifty grams, there are consequences to and and now enforcement for like serious consequences, financial consequences that can happen because no one ever envisioned ten years ago that micro drones could fly miles away. Right? We just we just weren't there. The thirty dollar specials, the little tiny ones, they'd fly for about thirty seconds and that's it.
Mark Masterton (39:16)
No one in the Philippines wasn't going far, was it? No.
Ian Wills (39:18)
No, and if it did, it would be a crater. So yeah, the the getting online, of course, you can go to coastal drone and do the the training and certification. We have all levels when it comes to that, but the point is just get educated. There's so many resources out there. the business owner means gonna tell you, of course, to go to coastal, but but there are tons of free resources out there and and just
Start asking questions and and come to it with a mindset that there's a lot of opinions out there, but the hard facts are probably gonna be on Transport Canada's website for Canadians.
Mark Masterton (39:58)
Drone as the Future is made in partnership with Drone as a Service. Make your survey, mapping, or inspections safer, faster, and more efficient with the help of our team. Elevate what's possible with droneasaservice dot com.
Ian Wills (40:13)
So my dad, he is just about he's he's an almost I think if he's just crossing it, he's an octogenarian, but he's a former teacher, like I mentioned. He was keen on technology through the eighties and nineties. Wouldn't necessarily say he's great with it. I became built in tech support very quickly. And so
Mark Masterton (40:38)
Preaching to the choir there, buddy.
Ian Wills (40:41)
He would I would program as V C R almost all the time. and so yeah, he messaged me the other day and said, or I was on FaceTime with him and he's like, Look what I got and he got a drone for his birthday and he got a a mini four or mini three pro for his birthday and I'm like, awesome. So
Mark Masterton (41:01)
It's it's definitely set up here. Yeah.
Ian Wills (41:03)
Definitely
under 250 grams, which is great 'cause I don't need to worry about you doing something that for the most part you'll be you'll be fine. Yeah. But here, let me enroll you in my course. Why why don't you take our micro drone course and get started there? And then you know what? While you're at it, here's the basic course. Why don't you take that too bad? And go do the test. And and let me like 'cause I I'm really curious because he's got a background in in obviously education, but also we grew up on the water and and and boating. So
We're not unfamiliar with Transport Canada even at the maritime level. So I I'm sure he won't have any problems with the the legal side of it. But the really interesting thing is, and this is probably the one challenge that anyone w wanting to get into drones, you do have to be technology friendly. they're you gotta think of these things as essentially flying MacBooks. And so we get a lot of new customers calling up and saying, Well, I I was in a
like I was a mechanic for thirty years and I hurt my back and I I can't do that anymore. I want to get into drones. That's totally f awesome. And it's getting better now, but four years ago I would have cautioned them and said, Well, you you kinda need to be pretty good with tech. And and it's getting more accessible now. But it is still n we're not quite there. the activation side of it, the software and firmware updates, yeah connecting to the Wi Fi. So if you're if you're of the next generation, I'm sure you'll be fine. So
Mark Masterton (42:32)
How is your dad getting on with his first ever drama?
Ian Wills (42:34)
I don't know if he's flown it yet. I'm gonna go see him next week. He's on the island and we'll see how it's going. But I do know that I think he's hit the same wall that many new drone pilots have, where they buy the hardware and then they get overcome with anxiety about what they're doing with the drone. Is it safe? Is it legal? Is someone gonna shoot it out of the sky? And honestly, back in I think I got my first mini in two thousand eighteen whenever it first came out, and that was the first real micro drone.
I had the same anxiety. Even even coming from having flown other things before, and flying six thousand pound helicopters previous to this, I was still like, I don't know what I'm like, this is this is very daunting.
Mark Masterton (43:17)
of new tech and it's really powerful and it can do a lot of things exactly and you want to make sure in full control of it. Well next time we have you on, maybe we'll get an update from how your dad's doing. Yeah.
What's you've grown your audience massively since running the Coastal Drone podcast, and you many YouTube videos. What's been your favorite part about interacting with the drone community?
Ian Wills (43:45)
I had my first recognition in an airport two years ago. Ooh. And I was it was very unnerving.
Mark Masterton (43:54)
Yeah.
Ian Wills (43:56)
and and I completely flubbed it because I was just so thrown by it. And it was like, Ian, right? And I'm like, Yeah.
Mark Masterton (44:04)
First name terms is pretty scary from a stranger. Yeah.
Ian Wills (44:07)
and it was it was someone who was a fan of the channel and that was awesome. And I I I regret I instantly regretted my interaction because I didn't I wasn't rude to them, but I was also dealing with I had a two year old at the time on my shoulder just melting down completely. So I'm like, I'm sorry, I've got to deal with this. because I I love to talk and and I love to talk about drones and I would have loved to hear their story about what they're what they're doing and how
assuming that they either took our training or or have been following our content, how has that empowered them in this space? That's that's what I really want to know is hopefully we've either shown you something new or given you the confidence to fly or empowered you to do something either that's financially great for you or good for the the greater good.
Mark Masterton (44:56)
Hey, who knows? They might be watching this now. Hopefully. All these years later, like,
Ian Wills (45:00)
Cheers, and I'm sorry.
Mark Masterton (45:05)
What excites you about the future in terms of drones and regulations changing? We've had that the big shift in terms of B V los recently. are there things that you're looking forward to down the line that are could change everything again?
Ian Wills (45:19)
Bigger, better, faster, farther is is really what it we're looking at constantly. So I went down to commercial UAV Expo last year. We did a bunch of interviews. I think we shot sixteen different interviews, and unfortunately, I think only twelve of them made it to the edit. And every single person we talked to down there had a drone that was well into the three, four hundred pound category and bigger.
And they were w dealing with hybrids, they were dealing with gas power, they were dealing with these massive batteries. So the the the capability was shifting. And the and the thing that blew me away down there, every single almost every single one of them had no idea that Canada had a hundred and fifty kilogram drone limit. So these these all these manufacturers were building these towards FAA waivers to be able to fly them under under that rule set. But I mean, you know that as of November this next year
You'll be able to fly these every day in Canada. And then you're kidding. We we gotta move north.
Mark Masterton (46:21)
Is that a big opportunity for Canada then?
Ian Wills (46:23)
It's
it's incredible. Yeah. The the ability to fly cargo payloads not only beyond line of sight, but also just to be able to pick something up heavy and move it 500 meters away, up the hill or across the farm. That that is that logistics is is what I'm most excited about. empowering new different ways to apply things. tomorrow or Thursday, I'm not sure yet.
I'm gonna go out with one of our partners and we're gonna fly the agris T one hundred, so the spray drone. And we're not spraying crops, we're actually gonna spray a chicken barn. And so what we're gonna be doing is we're testing the difference between an untreated and a treated chicken barn with this new chemical that's like an insulator to help bring the the temperature inside the chicken barn down so that chicken nuggets aren't pre cooked when they arrive at the store. So
But what we're gonna do is we're gonna spray this on using the T one hundred. So when I'm asking questions of my partner and they're saying, Well, we don't need to change the nozzles. I'm like, well, is it gonna foam? Is it too thick? Like, what's it gonna do to the drone? So we're gonna find out. But it's it's doing all these different things that we never thought about. And and there's been a good business for that person. They're they routinely use the the agris to spray shade onto greenhouses. And that's a job that effectively they've stolen from helicopters.
That's been done for years with like a Hughes MD five hundred helicopter. It's like a million dollar helicopter. You've got you're probably looking at ten to twenty thousand dollars a day for the farmer to to hire the helicopter to come and do this. And now we're probably a fraction of that for the for the drone.
Mark Masterton (48:05)
Just in a different attachment on a on a drone.
Ian Wills (48:07)
And the and the drone can sit in the parking lot in the truck waiting for the weather conditions to be perfect. So you're not wasting material. Whereas the helicopter is like, No, I'm on my way right now, right? 'Cause I gotta get this spray boom rig off the helicopter 'cause it's gotta go to another job tomorrow. So today's the day it's happening.
Mark Masterton (48:23)
Damn. Back to podcasting, just lastly, who'd who if you were gonna have a dream podcast guest somewhere down the line on the Coastal Drone podcast, who would it be and why?
Ian Wills (48:39)
That's really good question. I'm terrible, like I said, with names and with people in the spaces. I I think that I was really fortunate to have we had Vic Moss come on last year. And Vic was a rock star for us. He he provided the perspective from the American side of of how things are going when it comes to there's a lot of anxiety down in the States about drones and restrictions and and banning of certain manufacturers. And and so it was great to have him on.
I'd love to have more creators in the space on from around the world as well. one would probably be Trent Palmer. He runs Copter Kids, it's a drone service provider in the US that basically works in the aerial cinema industry.
And then he also has a YouTube channel where he f he flies he started with a kit fox and now he's got a carbon cub that he flies. So he's more in the recreational side of it and he's a creator in the space and the the grind is there and he's built a massive audience. But I'd I'd love to talk to him about the drone side of it. So that'd be a cool one to have on.
Mark Masterton (49:51)
Nice, nice. Well, we really appreciate you coming onto the drone is the future podcast.
Ian Wills (49:56)
Appreciate getting the call.
Mark Masterton (49:58)
I hope it's the first of first of many. And I think you're doing fantastic work in making all the rules and regulations palatable for drone pilots entering the business and helping them grow their business as well from zero to, you know, ten thousand dollars and and more. So keep up the great work and we hope to hear from you and your dad and his drone flying in the future.
Ian Wills (50:20)
Yeah.
Mark Masterton (50:23)
Drone as the future is made in partnership with drone as a service. Make your survey, mapping, or inspections safer, faster, and more efficient with the help of our team. Elevate what's possible with drone as a service.com
Hey drone as the future. Leaving you a message from your future. Just curious for Ian, can you tell me if you could have one home chore or activity taken care of by a drone? Which one would it be? Hmm.
Ian Wills (51:04)
That's okay. One drone activity like taking care of my chores.
Mark Masterton (51:10)
Mm.
Ian Wills (51:12)
We already talked about commuting, so that's that's one for sure. definitely yard work would be I I I really I I in my neighborhood I'm I'm watching as zeroscaping is becoming more and more common because of the the the the hassle that it is and then water conditions and restrictions and limitations. And of course robot lawnmowers are already a thing, but
I feel like that's still a growth space and I really want to maintain green space in my yards and I want to make sure that I have a lush backyard. So maybe the agriculture side of it, a little micro spray drone that's not a T one hundred that's like ripping around my backyard and hitting my kids' trampoline. So
Mark Masterton (52:00)
Just press a button, yeah. It seeds your lawn. Press a button, it fertilizes your lawn.
Ian Wills (52:05)
Like a multi
multi-tool drone, modular drone that has a little spray nozzle, it's like a leader, right? Or a little snippers that goes along the grass and just like or like identifies weeds and everything else and like trims your your shrubs, like just everything. If I I totally think that's doable. It's just how good is it at not like cutting all my wife's roses off? So or overdoing it on the shrubs.
If it could get rid of the r the blackberry weeds behind my house, that'd be phenomenal.
Mark Masterton (52:37)
wouldn't it just? Yeah.
Ian Wills (52:38)
Like just a flying chainsaw or something like
Mark Masterton (52:42)
But no end the wife's roses, please. Yeah. Drona Hans?
Ian Wills (52:47)
Yeah, instead of Edward Scissor hands, you got Edward Drone hands. Yeah. That's what I'd call it for sure. Right. I'd I can't remember. I think our our robot vacuum's called Jarvis, so this would be Edward Drone hands in the backyard.
Mark Masterton (53:13)
This has been the Drone as the Future podcast. Today's episode has been produced by Ryan Whitten, coordinated by Samantha Holomay, filmed by John Rawlinson, and features original intro music by Josh Santos. Thank you very much for tuning in, and if you'd like to follow along our journey, fly over to that subscribe button wherever you're listening so you can be updated to hear what flies ahead.