To start the discussion...

So, when you got in your car this morning, you glanced in the mirror, perhaps put your seatbelt on, and then started the car. I have a friend that has a whole regiment every time she gets into her automobile, one that includes clicking ahead to her favorite Def Leppard track. My mother has similar patterns when she gets ready to go to bed; it is the same every time. First she checks the doors, then she brushes her teeth, then she prepares the coffee pot for morning and sets two mugs out for her and my father.

It’s not OCD, it is called protocol. If my mother deviated from her ritual, there would be no coffee at 6:15 a.m. (an event likely to cause a war in my house), or worse yet, the unlocked door allowed for a midnight break-in.

According to Merriam Webster, a PROTOCOL is a code prescribing strict adherence to correct etiquette… simply put, it is the PROPER way to do something.

Without protocols in place on a daily basis, the small risks of life would soon kill us all.

To put the protocol discussion into perspective with UAV’s, let’s talk about landing and taking off. With a growing industry, there are thousands of new operators each and every day doing things the same way; they set their aircraft on the ground and take off, landing much the same, but is this the right way to do it?

The creation of the Jonny-On-The-Spot has led to many discussions over the last three years in regards to the professional (or commercial) use of UAV’s. Over the course of the next few months in this blog, we will be discussing the need for safety protocols, sharing stories about injuries suffered during take offs and landings, and how we can see these protocols integrated into new legislation.

For now, let’s focus on the risks.

When taking off from the ground, a few things can cause a threat to the machine or personnel. Dust, grass, gravel or even small amounts of moisture can be sucked into the rotor motors damaging your aircraft and causing it to malfunction. Worse yet, with a small group surrounding the landing and take-off zone, we have found that the movement of people in this area can cause drafts and bursts of wind energy making the UAV extremely unstable in its first seconds and last seconds of flight; a time when the rotors are well within the area of faces, eyes and exposed limbs.

The bottom line? Here at Jonny UAV we are attempting to create protocols FOR you by bringing you quality product solutions that can maintain safety and mitigate future issues.

More to come…