Condo Media - November 2016 - 20

BIRD'S-EYE VIEW

rones. They are not a new
tool, but they can be used to
provide more clarity defining
problems in order to take action for
your association. Yes, there are many
negative opinions about drones, which,
in my opinion, are based on misinformation.
Our company has used drones at
various condo and construction sites
as a diagnostic tool, gathering necessary information to make informed
recommendations, and we expect to
continue to use them more often going forward. They are an invaluable
resource for both service providers and
associations, as long as they are used
responsibly and with authorized purpose. I have also used one in my role as
chairman of the Landscape Committee
at Walden Woods in Milford, Mass., to
bring additional clarity to the challenges we face there.
DRONE USE AND REGISTRATION
I have been flying an early model drone
for three years. Originally, I used the
drone to aerially document snow
clearing operations on solar panels for
a retail store located in Framingham.
This was the first store in the national
chain to erect solar panels in snow
country, and we were learning how to
remove snow from the panels. The issue
for the retail store wasn't so much to get
the solar panels producing electricity
right after the storm as it was a matter
of customer safety. If the snow was left
on the panels, it would break loose and

slide down the panel's incline and onto
the pavement. Since the solar panels
were mounted above the customer
parking area, a customer walking below
the panels could get covered in this
sliding snow. As a result, snow had to be
offloaded from the solar panels before
it had a chance to break loose and slide
down onto the pavement.
I found the drone to be valuable in getting an aerial perspective not otherwise
available from the ground to document
solar panel clearing procedures for the
store's management. After that, we began applying the drone in other work.
The rapid expansion in drone
technology prompted the FAA to require registration of all drones at the
beginning of this year. It was a simple
procedure of logging onto the FAA
website and entering information into
the FAA database. The FAA generated
a registration number, which was
required to be attached to the drone.
According to the FAA, over 550,000
drones have been registered. More
recently, the FAA issued Part 107
rules for drone pilots (see sidebar).
If a drone pilot uses the drone for
commercial purposes, the pilot must
secure an FAA pilot's license with a
drone (UAS) rating. The requirements
are to pass the standard knowledge
test for aircraft pilots with an extended set of questions specifically related
to drones. FAA testing for drones was
initiated the first week of September
this year. When the pilot candidate
passes the written test, he is subject

Drones are an invaluable resource for both
service providers and
associations, as long
as they are used responsibly and with
authorized purpose.
20

CONDOMEDIA

to a personal background check by
the TSA, and the FAA has the option
to call in the pilot and his drone for
inspection prior to final issuance of
the license. In the first three weeks
of testing, the FAA issued over 5,000
licenses and expects to license 15,000
pilots by the end of the year. This is
not a hobbyist aberration. Drones are
here to stay, and contractors will use
them heavily in the future.
NEW APPLICATIONS
FOR COMMUNITIES
Contractors are already formulating
new applications for drones daily.
Consider an association needing a roof
inspection to determine the source of
a leak. Ordinarily, a roofing contractor
would be called in to do the inspection,
which would require ladders, a twoman team, and several hours positioning and re-positioning the ladders for
access to and inspection of the area in
question. With a drone as an inspection tool, the roofer could simply fly
the drone around the roof area, all the
while capturing video of the fly-by that
will be reviewed later in the comfort
of the office. A recent posting on the
CAI National Members Open Forum
from a manager in Utah stated that a
flat roof inspection that normally took
eight hours to complete in person was
reduced to a 15-minute procedure when
he used a drone.
Consider an arborist called in to
determine the safety of a high limb
hanging over a building or walkway.
Traditionally, this would take a bucket
truck and several hours to position
the truck and execute the inspection.
The alternative would be to send a
climber to climb up the tree. With
a drone, the arborist can fly up the
trunk of the tree to the crotch area of
the limb and do a 360-degree inspection of the area of concern while
capturing HD video of the situation
for later review. To get a diagnosis in
minutes rather than hours means less
wasted time for the contractor and a
less expensive charge to the association for the service.

Condo Media - November 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Condo Media - November 2016