Flying into the future

By Emma Peterson. 

From marketing photos to pigeon dive-bombing, learn how drones have found a place in the roofing industry.  

The EagleView Assess™ Program is flying above the industry when it comes to using drones to make inspecting and assessing the rooftop safer and more efficient. But how did we get to this point? In Season 6, Episode 5 of Roofing Road Trips®, Heidi J. Ellsworth talked all things drones, past and present, with Tim Cossette of EagleView. Tim is the regional sales manager for the west in vertical construction. He explained what this all means, “Along with my team, I support about 9,000 contractors over 11 states in the west. That's roofing, contractors, siding and solar installers.” And one of the biggest tools that is emerging for these professionals is drones.  

Historically, drones have been used to take static before and after photos of projects. Tim explained, “When they came out and started to get adopted by a contractor, it was more of a marketing vehicle.” But as technology advanced things like camera resolution also improved. From there, it was only time before people began to realize that drones could do more than they previously had. Tim explained, “As resolution has gotten better and the drones themselves have gotten better, now there's a lot more things that we can do and a lot more things we can see on the roof with it.” 

Tim and EagleView are in the beginning stages of taking this a step further and making aerial drones a standard tool in the industry. Tim explained that one of the hardest parts of this is gaining the trust of those working in the field. This is why he and his team try to get out and do demos as much as possible. He described an experience in Oregon right when the Assess program was beginning, “I get there and there are probably 40 people in their parking lot to see this demo. I put the drone on its case, send it up in the air. What I'm not thinking about is on these power lines, there are like 30 pigeons and birds hate drones.” As the birds began dive-bombing the drone, Tim could also feel his hopes of winning the contractors over. But, he described how “the drone actually picked them up as it's being dive bombed, and in the process, it avoids them, but it gets pushed into the power lines. I'm like, ‘I'm going to nick a power line and lose my job.’ I can't even look. But it does exactly what it's supposed to, avoids the power lines, avoids the birds, does its thing and comes back and lands on its case.” Tim described this as his lightbulb moment, where he knew for certain that drones were going to be a crucial tool in the industry.  

Read the transcript or Listen to the podcast to learn more about how getting started with the EagleView Assess drones.