The first member’s meeting of the year was held on Wednesday, January 15th. The cooking crew served up a scrumptious meal of North Carolina barbecue procured from Hardisons, with sides of potato salad, cole slaw, and homemade desserts.
Michael Bradshaw
Alicia Bradshaw
The guest speakers for the evening were Mike and Alicia Bradshaw of Am Drones, LLC (Aerial Wildlife Solutions). They gave a presentation on how they use thermal imaging drones in their business for purposes such as pet search & rescue and hunting harvest recovery. With a portable generator and by swapping multiple batteries, Mike indicated that they can operate their Enterprise level drone for 30 minutes intervals indefinitely, day or night. With an infrared zoom camera, spotlight, and GPS capability, the drone is capable of exploring 100 acres per hour in snow, rain, and high wind conditions exponentially faster than searching on foot, and is small enough to be packed into a backpack for use in mountainous terrain. In FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) parlance, drones are considered UAS (Unmanned Aerial Systems). Mike explained that he and Alicia are certified UAS pilots, and operate their drone under FAA regulations and indicated that there are over a million registered drone operators in the country of which approximately half are commercial entities.
Afterwards, Vice President Darden Langston (in the orange vest) swore in two n
ew members, show here left to right: Anthony Patrick and Daniel Outland. Welcome to the Chapter, gentlemen!
