Equipment World Digital Magazine
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/389791
October 2014 | EquipmentWorld.com 20 The FAA has said that it plans to allow commercial UAS use once it has drawn up proper regulations for the aircraft. The deadline for those regulations is some time in 2015. Until then, it's a promising though somewhat confusing time for those pio- neering use of the technology. Neverthe- less, UAVs are already flying over construc- tion jobsites. The tinkerer Though he's been in the construction indus- try for 30 years, Evans' background is com- puters. He's been the IT manager at Spaw- Glass for 20 years and was instrumental in ushering the general contractor into the digital age. "I had a strong background in electronic drafting and Business Information Modeling (BIM) when I came here. Every project we do, if we don't have the plans available from the architect, we integrate aerial imagery of a site prior to construction and try to integrate a 3D model over that," he says. "That's something I'm working on for the future. To digitize a geographical ter- rain of an area for construction so we could bring that into the model." Evans explains that he got into aircraft modeling as a teenager and, spurred on by a passion for photography, he's actu- ally been flying model planes with cameras attached to them since the 1990s – well before the technology made its way into the general public's consciousness under the name of "drone." "I think I had my first quad-rotor heli- copter three years ago," he recalls. "Back then, I just wanted to build what I called a 'flying camera.' I didn't even think to call it a 'drone' then because it was still a few years before the military term 'drone' got transferred to little 5-pound devices that are actually UAVs." Evans says he spent between $1,500 and $2,000 to build his first UAV from custom parts. Including that first rig, Evans' fleet has now grown to six, including one that cover story: drones | continued aircraft or for classifying whether one is a drone, UAS or other- wise. The FAA has filed an appeal to the decision. June 18, 2014: FAA releases "Interpretation of the Special Rule for Model Aircraft" pointing out that while Congress has prohib- ited it from regulating model aircraft, it "is not a complete bar on rulemaking" since rules the FAA makes in the future that ap- ply to all aircraft could potentially effect model aircraft as well. Associate professor Javier Irizarry with two of his UAVs inside the CONECTech construction lab at Georgia Tech. The FAA's stance on unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) over time (continued)