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Scott there are drones crashing in Florida. We're gonna talk about.
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That today, How Batman, there are drones crashing in Florida.
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Oh right, Oh gosh. This is Green Tag Theme Park
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in thirty. I'm Philip and I'm joined by my co host,
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Scott Swinson of Scott Swinson Crane Development. I'm in Los Angeles,
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Scott's in Tampa. We're recording live from our studios and
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this week, you know, the drones. This is I want
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to say a little bit of an old story. But
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we were gonna wait a little bit because as these
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stories always happen, you know, like there's always a chain
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of events and there's things that unfold as we learn
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more information. So I was trying to wait a little
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bit until we got more information. And we do have
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I think more this week, so it's a good time
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to talk about it.
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So absolutely, yeah.
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I mean, all too often, just because we are so
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bleeding edge, we are so bleeding edge when it comes
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to the news, all too often we will end up
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ending stories story excuse me, stories with well we'll see
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how this pans out, or we'll see how they execute
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it or whatever. So now we have a little bit
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more information and we can we can sell like we
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know a little bit.
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More about what we're like, what we're talking about. You never
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know we're talking about. I don't know what we do.
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We just sit here and talking screen.
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But people listen. So that's good. That's good. We appreciate you.
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All right, So let's talk about let's talk about crashing drone,
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shall we. This is not a funny story, but we're
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both just punchy as hack.
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Oh Jesus, yes, okay, let's get serious, so okay.
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On December twenty first, multiple drones from the sky Elements
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show that was happening during the holiday show at Lake
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Aola in Orlando, Florida. They fell during the holiday show
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and they injured a seven year old boy named Xander,
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who required open heart surgery following the incident. On December
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twenty third, the FAA opened an investigation into the incident
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and suspended sky Elements Part one oh seven waiver, halting
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all night drone flights and flights over populated areas. Investigations
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by the FFA and NTSB are still underway. They haven't
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released any full detailed report about this or what they're
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finding to have been in a few weeks, but they
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just are still underway. So sky Elements, since it lost
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its waiver, has since candled canceled its drone shows at
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multiple venues like the Reunion Tower in Dallas and other
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areas in Florida. I'd say a lot of shows in
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Dallas and Florida and kind of like the South region,
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but it had a lot of shows planned for New
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Year's of course and for Christmas, and so they kind
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of swept through a lot of major attractions. Now, Universal
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Orlando Resort removed their drones from the nighttime senensational show,
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the Lagoon show they have there immediately, so like the
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Next Day Universe, Orlando grounded all of those drones and
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to my knowledge, they remain grounded now while this investigation
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is ongoing. They didn't say that there was a specific
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link between the two, as in, they didn't mention that
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like sky Elements was involved or not. And I don't
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think they are because I believe that Orlando operates them
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themselves with their own team. But they did halt them regardless, and.
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Parks are going to do that because again they can't
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they can't handle the any.
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Sort of the crowd issue. Yeah, well, the liability, liability.
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If God forbid something did happen, it'll be like it
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would be the nail on the coffin for drones and
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Universal smart enough, the Universe team is smart enough to
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recognize that. So they're not gonna They're not gonna run
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that risk.
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Yeah.
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So since then, Skylewents has expressed regret and pledge to
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reevaluate its process. But that's basically it. And then uh,
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Xander is fine, now, well fine relatively, he did have
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to have a valve replaced. But the local the local
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community actually is the one that raised the money to
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support the heart surgery through a GoFundMe, which is a
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whole separate conversation about why you know that Skylements or
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somebody else didn't help with that heart surgery and also
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why the insurance company didn't cover it. But that's that's
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a separate podcast. But back to the attractions. So this
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is definitely sent shockwaves through the industry, not just on
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all the shows that they had to cancel, but also
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as you just mentioned about how the other parts that
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are utilizing drones now are like wary about that whole thing.
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And of course Sclements is a reevaluating blah blah. But
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I think what this comes down to, there's a few
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things I thin we can talk about here, But besides
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the impact, it's like, you know, can the FAA really
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regulate these? You know, because fa is notoriously understaffed, and
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then the drones have the technology around them has really
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advanced right over so much over the time, so can
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they how much? You know, I mean, how realistic is that?
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And the big thing that we all know that we've
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been I mean that all of us in the industry,
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even the person that sent this over to us, talked
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about is that the big thing with the drones is
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like fireworks, that they really just.
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Have safety zones.
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You know, they have to have x amount of space
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between the drones and the people. So that's a big
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question that I have, which we're not I probably not
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can know the answer for a while.
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I guess is.
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Were those safety zones intact and they were just wrong?
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Or was the family standing outside the safety zones? Or
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was that were the drones outside the safety zones? Or
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was it some weird amalgamation, which is more what I
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think it is. I think it might be like a
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mix of like the drones drifted plus because potentially with
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the safety zones right, like, you're relying on the crowds
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to like the operations team to make sure the crowds
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are in the right place. I think that's always a
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big problem with events that are not theme parks, in
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that theme parks have physical barriers, but when you're setting
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these things up in places they don't have, it's just
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a lake, you could you can walk twenty feet past
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the tape or whatever.
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Anyway, that's my thing, Scott telling me.
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Well, yeah, no, that's absolutely true, and I mean even
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I think it's I think it's interesting that you made
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the connection right away, because that was what I was
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going to do first, was the connection between fireworks and drones.
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Everyone was thinking that drones were going to be the
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replacement for fireworks, which I've said from the get go
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they are not. And what we've seen now is, you know,
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as the technology and the implementation continues, we're seeing drones
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as an addition to fireworks. You know, you mentioned universal
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that show. They are used pretty much like a slide
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show in the middle of a giant fireworks and light
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and water show. So that's that's one element that I
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think is important to recognize is and to make things
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even more interesting than the technology that I've seen most
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recently are the drones that now fire fireworks from them.
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So it's just but it's really no different than when
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fireworks started to become very popular in parks. There was
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a lot of there's a lot of safety elements that
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have to go into it. I know that you know Disney,
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for example, They've got this down to a science with fireworks,
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to the point where you know, if the wind is
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blowing so much a certain direction, they know exactly where
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to clear. They know they can and I know this
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from having managed stage man not stage managed, but project
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managed enough firework shows at Bush. The moment the wind shifts,
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there has to be real time changes made to how
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you fire fireworks, which which shells you can and cannot fire.
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We used to design shows, for example, firework shows that
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had that had low, medium and high shells, so that
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if the wind got above a certain level we would
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cut we would immediately. There was a stop button where
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we just cut the high shells and the rest of
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the show fired as as planned. I don't know enough
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about drones to be able to say that that's exactly
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what can happen here. I have been involved with a
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couple of different drone shows. One of them was at
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SeaWorld in Abu Dhabi, and I know that the one
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of the biggest concerns they had was.
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Not only.
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What they were flying over, but the proximity that they
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flew to each other. Now I don't know what happened
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at Lake Yola. I don't know exactly whether they collided,
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whether it blow you know, as you say, did it
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blow off?
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Did it blow off? Course?
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Was there a programming or a guidance failure of some sort,
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I don't know. But one of the other issues that
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we have to at least throw in, and I know
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this only because again I was involved with the show,
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is that there was a specific ruling as to the
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proximity they could be to one another, so that if
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one did get too close, it did one of two things.
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There was a risk of collision, of course, and the
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second was that one might pick up the other's radio signal.
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Basically it's control, so two would become one and that's
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not good. But I think that this is another I
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think this is another stumbling block. And I do not
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mean to be cold hearted towards Zander or his family
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at all, or anyone who may have any mishaps from
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a drone show. But it's also we have to look
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at this as this is new technology. It's going to
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have to have new rules. We're going to have to
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continue to develop, just like we did with fireworks. We're
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going to have to continue to develop to develop rules
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and laws and expectations because you know, we've all heard
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that drones. You know, the endgame for drones is clearly
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not theme park shows. The endgame for drones that I've
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seen is Uber basically, so that or delivery for packages
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and that sort of thing. So for that kind of drone,
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obviously I think the FAA does have to be involved
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because that's not flying even over private property. That's flying
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over multiple layers of private property, it's flying over state
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and government owned property, It's flying everywhere. So when it
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comes to can the FAA or should the FAA be involved,
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there's no question in my mind they should be involved
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in that regard. Anything that carries a payload. Any drone
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that carries a human being or for example, carries fireworks
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should probably fall under FAA. Now can they do it,
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I don't know the answer that that you bring up
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a very good point, Philip. They're they're understaffed and we
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all know it. So so that's so that's a challenge there.
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But as far as impact on the industry, I think
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that it is I won't say it is a nail
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in the coffin, but I think it is definitely a
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red flag. And I think it would be irresponsible for
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parks not to go back and reevaluate their safety protocols
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uh and reevaluate the safety protocols of the outside companies
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that are that are doing these because you know, only
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the Gymungo parks have the.
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Ability to do.
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To do the the to do their own drones. You know,
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most most parks and most most organizations will use an
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outside contractor because they just don't have this, the the
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manpower or the expertise to do this in house, unless
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you happened to be one of the big boys, one
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of the big parts. This also raises a very interesting
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question for me, and that is the flying dragon that
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we've seen tested for EPIC, is that going to fall
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under FAA because it's not over a controlled environment. It's
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my understanding is it flies over guests. Now, I don't
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know that yet because obviously the park hasn't opened, but
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looking at the way they're testing it, it looks like
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it's flying over inhabited land. So I just think it's,
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like I said, I don't want to overreact to this.
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I think it is a terrible thing that happened. It
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should not have happened. And I think even you know,
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and the even sky elements would say, well, absolutely, this
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should not have happened. They're going to be on the
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side of safety as well, because they recognize if drone
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shows are considered unsafe or illegal or requires so much
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sanction or so much permitting or so much insurance, and
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we'll talk about that in a second, then their company
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goes under, you know, they they so they're going to
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be interested in in safety as well. It's just like
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everybody gets mad at theme parks when there's severe weather
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and they close down rides. Well, that's that's out of safety.
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That's not just a piss off guests, you know.
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That is that is a that is a safety issue,
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not just to save money and piss off people.
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Yeah, exactly exactly. So I think we'll I think we'll
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have to.
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See what, uh, what's going to happen here. But this incident,
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I will tell you right now, this incident has just
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made every single drone show significantly more expensive to run,
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and not because of the staffing, not because of the
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over you know, the regulatory oversight, but simply because of