[GarrettBeck]

I'd be interested in seeing the cost analysis/breakdown of hiring Cessna pilots to take pictures vs. renting Parrot AR Drones with GoPros to farmers, teaching them to survey their own land and provide them with a software built by TerrAvion.

Give a man a fish vs. teach a man to fish

[cornellwright]

We looked into this quite extensively. It's actually surprisingly cheaper to fly a Cessna vs use a small drone. We can cover 100,000 acres in a day with a Cessna, compared to maybe 400 (not including time for battery charging) with a small hand launched drone. Along with that farmers are really busy and not very interested in operating another new tool.

We intend to move to drones whenever they are legal, cheaper and more effective, but in the meantime Cessnas are the answer.

[GarrettBeck]

That's interesting. Congrats on the launch and best of luck!

[terravion]

If you'll let me further explain what <$30 per acre pricing per season means for farmers...

We have client in Livermore, CA who is actually a lawyer but has a 5 acre vineyard at his house. For $150 he can't even afford to do the research on Amazon to pick the right drone with the right sensor, let alone buy it, and operate it.

He is right next to another client, a large integrated grower with a couple thousand acres. No matter what sized drone they picked, if they were going to do a high-revisit service internally, they would have to hire someone full time to run it. We deliver to them for far less than the price of a new employee, let alone all the IT they would have to invest in.

[ajju]

Was looking into this just yesterday after a friend suggested an interesting application of drones. The Parrot drones seem to have a very low range for any practical use such as this. From a few minutes of looking online, I couldn't find any drone platforms available for consumers with a range that can extend beyond 1000 meters. Even the DJI Phantom 2 which can do 1000 meters can only do it in favorable environments.