Blogs

Hey Everyone!!  It has been a challenging last two weeks.  My father has been real ill and finally he is on the mend.  It was touch and go for a bit but we are glad he is getting better.  I appreciates everyone's kind words and thoughts during the last month.  We have also had lots of baby goats and sheep to tend to on the farm.  We have been able to catch up with the team website and we have the team bio's as well.  I also have some bio's on a couple of the advisers.  We are working on getting the sponsors page working with links to the sponsors and the rest of the sponsors  on the page.  Thank you everyone for your support and we look forward to blogging the build.  Below is the Team Bio and a link to the team web page.

Aerial Vista Challenge Team Page

Aerial Vista Challenge Team

2014 Wildlife Conservation UAV Challenge

Joshua Johnson – Team Member

Joshua Johnson is currently 22 years old and going to school at Hennepin Technological College for CAD Engineering.  He has been involved in the hobby side of UAVs since he was 14 years old.  He is the founder of CADDrones.com, which is an open source community for drone enthusiasts who are knowledgeable in CAD and 3D Printing.  Drone applications that help people and animals are his main focus in regards to his work on his personal UAVs.

Jonathan “Jono” Parrott – Team Member 

Jono attended the University of New South Wales with a degree in Aviation Management and currently resides in Canberra, Australia working in the aviation industry as an Air Traffic Management Officer. He has been participating in UAV’s for search and rescue use with a non for profit local group, CanberraUAV, for a few years now. They placed first in the Kingaroy Outback Challenge a couple of years ago!

Kayla Fuller – Team Member

Kayla is a student of the arts and a citizen of the earth.  She has worked with The Lankford Group for over four years.  She has an extreme passion for animals and Mother Nature.  She has worked to educate people about the benefits of living within our environment.  From living off the grid to stewardship of the animals both wild and domesticated.

Kenny White- Adviser  

Kenny has been into computers since there were computers.  Kenny has traveled extensively in the last decade and has gained a greater appreciation of the earth and how our actions in the west are dramatically affecting people around the world through climate change.  Conservation of the Earth and her resources extend beyond just the climate and the environment.  He wishes to preserve the many distinct cultures around the world and introduce them to the West.  His art makes the viewer confront the questions of which cultures are really enlightened.

Simon Hedstrom – Adviser

Simon is a student and engineer in Sweden.  He was on the original design and build team that brought us the RVJET airframe.  He has worked on many design and engineering projects to make UAV’s more effective and FPV more practical for the everyday user.

Toby Lankford – Team Leader

Toby is the founder of The Lankford Group and its many subsidiaries.  The Lankford Group is an idea lab that develops companies with an eye towards the environment and its workers as equal and valuable stakeholders in the business process.  Among the socially and environmentally conscience companies are a focus on local food production and distribution.  As such Aerial Vista, another of the companies has been using UAV’s to solve many community and agricultural challenges.  From using UAV’s to survey, saving many man hours and vehicle hours, to mapping erosion loss and water shed effectiveness.