Gadgets. Upgrades. Fads. Some people love to get the next new thing as soon as they can, some people wait to see if it’s a lasting improvement or a passing craze. Me? I’m the kind of person who waits. I didn’t buy Laser Discs when they were hot, nor did I think SuperBeta was the way to go. I haven’t replaced my DVDs with Blu-ray. I never bought an iPod because my Sony CD player still works like a champ. And I would still be driving a 1990 Ford Taurus if a storm hadn’t blown over a tree onto it (thank you, Oklahoma weather). So when it comes to drones, I’ve been skeptical.
Toys or Tools
On Christmas night, an email went out to the folks in my neighborhood – has anyone seen a missing drone? The email described where it was last seen and asked for help locating it. Yep, that’s what I would have expected. Drones may have been the hot Christmas gift, but after you play with it for a little while, what are you really going to do with it? And how many of them had unfortunate accidents?
A View From Above
Well, this would be a pretty short column if the story ended there – but it doesn’t. It turns out that drones actually can be very useful, helpful, and educational. I’m a convert, and it’s all because of Vaagen Brothers Lumber.
Posted on YouTube, the first link I watched was entitled, “Logs to Lumber - An aerial journey through the sawmill.” Wow, that was great! It took me right back to the Lou Grant TV show circa 1980, which started every week with us watching trees become newspaper. Just check out the cover of this month’s issue of The Advertiser for a photo from the video, and below is a photo from the yard.
In fact, Vaagen Brothers has an impressive “Start to Finish” series of short videos that clearly show how our industry uses sophisticated and precise machinery to produce high quality products. They demonstrate environmentally sound harvesting and processing practices. They show jobs using heavy equipment (which also look like fun toys) in the great outdoors alongside computer jobs running the technology side of things. And it’s all filmed at an actual business in Colville, Washington – thanks to those drones.
Education and Insight
Since taking on this topic, I’ve learned a lot of companies have started using drones for their businesses. Another of our advertisers, The JobLine, has found its commercial-grade drone to be a valuable tool in the recruitment process. [Please contact Thom if you’d like more information on that.]
It turns out that drones can help us educate customers about what we do, recruit employees to join our industry, and respond to nay-sayers who doubt all that we contribute to our communities. There is science, and dedication, and experience, and skill in our industry – and it will be even better when more people can really see that for themselves.