Permitting Services Podcast

DPS Drone Modernizes Inspections

• Gail Lucas • Season 3 • Episode 16

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This episode of the Montgomery County Department of Permitting Services (DPS) Podcast focuses on the department’s new drone, which is modernizing the permitting process by increasing safety, efficiency, and environmental sustainability during inspections and training. 

The “DPS Drone Modernizes Inspections” episode is hosted by Gail Lucas, chief of the DPS Customer Support and Outreach division. Lucas is joined by DPS Land Development Division Chief Linda Kobylski and Field Supervisor Johnny Campos, who is one of the department’s newly certified drone pilots.

Tune in to learn how DPS is utilizing drone technology to document compliance, monitor construction progress, and enhance training, all without the need for ladders or navigating difficult terrain. 

Previous DPS Podcast episodes have covered a variety of topics, including accessory dwelling units, building safety, contractors, eSolar, new codes, residential fast-track permits, special event permits, use and occupancy certificates, and vendor licenses.

Do you have a question or idea for a future DPS Podcast episode? We want to hear from you. Email us at dps.podcast@montgomerycountymd.gov.

Gail Lucas:

Welcome to the Montgomery County Department of Permitting Services podcast. I'm Gail Lucas, your host. I'm also the division chief for the Customer Support and Outreach Division here at DPS. We have a very exciting podcast today because we have props with us today. Joining us on the podcast is Linda Kabylski, who is the division chief for the land development division, and Johnny Campos, who is one of our field supervisors. Yes?

Johnny Campos:

Correct.

Gail Lucas:

Thank you for joining me today. We have, and you can see it sitting in front of us, a new acquisition in DPS. We have a drone, a drone that we will be using for training purposes, for inspection purposes, for site surveys. And these two good folks are here to talk about that drone and tell us about the drone program here at DPS. Let's dive in. Linda, tell us about the new drone program. How did it get started? Where's the idea come from?

Linda Kobylski:

So, first of all, thank you for having us today. I am personally very excited to talk about this uh new launch of um a new tool that we can use to do our inspections, particularly in land development. Um, the idea actually came from Mr. Campos. It was his idea. He brought it forward. And fortunately for us and the department, we had senior leadership in this department. Um, specifically Esan Mozetti, our um deputy director at DPS, supported it fully. And we moved forward on purchasing it, getting training for it, and um are actually starting to use it now for some of our trainings, educational purposes, and in the future, absolutely for permitted sites.

Gail Lucas:

Johnny, is this the future of DPS? Is this the future of permitting?

Johnny Campos:

Oh, yes, this definitely will be the uh future of permitting services. I'm very happy. Uh, thank you for having me here. Very happy that Linda gave me this opportunity to actually, you know, first I saw it as a as a like like a dream. I'll be like, hey, what if we could do this? And she accepted it. So I was very happy. And and then, of course, there's a lot of uh training like she mentioned, and administrative stuff to get done before we actually make it happen. So yeah, but definitely this will be the future.

Gail Lucas:

And you're one of the certified pilots. We have two with DPS. Who else is a certified pilot?

Johnny Campos:

So we also have Mr. David Birch, he's the manager of the residential inspections, and he's also another certified pilot. So currently we do have two certified pilots within our within DPS.

Gail Lucas:

Okay. How has this changed your job? How has this changed your inspection process?

Johnny Campos:

Well, it's actually uh it's making it easier for us. Okay. So as you know, before this joint idea, well, actually how it came into play was uh we went out to a site and it said, what you know the contractor wanted to remove a sediment trap. One of the um requirements to remove a sediment trap was we need to make sure the entire area is completely stabilized. So I said, Hey, do you guys happen to have a drone so you can fly over? Because I can't really see. You know, exactly, because we're talking about 10 acres going into a trap. He said, uh, let me look into that. So he came out and he hired a contractor with a drone. And of course, it took some aero imagery, like Johnny, you see everything's mostly stable. I said, Oh, this area could really help. I was like, hey, what if we have a drone? Right. So that way we could, you know, and that's how the idea got started. And then I said, Linda, help me. So this is, you know, this, and I and I showed them the story, and they said, Let's try it out. So here we are now.

Linda Kobylski:

Right now, Linda, what are you using the drone for? Typically, well, right now we're still training with it. Uh both Johnny and and Dave Birch take it out at least weekly to test run it to make sure that they are uh fully capable of uh using it. This is an expensive, believe it or not. This is not a gigantic drone sitting in front of you, but it is an expensive piece of equipment. So we want to make sure that uh they are fully capable, even though they got the certification, they need to practice with it.

Gail Lucas:

Yes.

Linda Kobylski:

Um, we have used it recently to record some very large sites for training. We're doing some cross-training and land development with our right-of-way folks, um, with sediment control and right-of-way inspectors. And um, that drone sitting in front of us took some very good quality imagery to uh show them some of the stuff that we do in sediment control and stormwater, eventually going to use it at permitted sites. We will give our customers advanced notice. The um applicant will get a phone call or an email from us saying we plan to visit your site for an inspection tomorrow, and it will be used. We'll we'll do the inspection with a drone.

Announcer:

Okay.

Linda Kobylski:

Um and I will also say the the benefit, it's fast. We've had some very, very large sites that probably would have taken Johnny or someone on his team literally maybe weeks to fully walk the site. And we got drone footage of one of those sites within six minutes and very, very good quality. Um, it's also capable of measuring for us. So we we deal with dirt and moving dirt and disturbance and things like that, and it can measure volumetrically as well, so we can see exactly how much approximately of disturbance you have at a site using the drone. So right now we're still in the baby steps, but eventually I I fully expect this will be used um very robustly. And again, it's helping us streamline, it's helping us do our work more efficiently, and it helps Johnny and his team not have to traverse through sites that might be very weedy, sleep steep, steep slopes, tick infested, snake-infested sites, and they can do the same work using this device in front of us.

Johnny Campos:

And to add to that, Gail, um like she mentioned that presentation that we did to cross-train uh our other um our sister division, um, it would have taken me probably three or four days to capture all the imagery and to capture the idea that we were trying to show the other inspectors, I did it within two hours.

Gail Lucas:

Okay, so we know it has a camera. What other what other capabilities does this drone have?

Johnny Campos:

That's a great question. So the drone itself is equipped with high-resolution camera, it has thermal imagery as well, and also it we could zoom in to almost 20 times. Okay. Um, so it I've been using it without having you know to fly low altitudes. I could fly up to 400, but um in certain areas we could only allow to 200. So we're trying to follow FFA regulations, of course, all times. But it has um it came with also a software we're gonna be able, like Lyndon mentioned, that we're gonna be able to measure quantities of volume in the area of disturbance. So it has all this, all this capabilities, which I'm very excited. It also flies up to 45 miles per hour, it has autopilot, so I could program a mission uh within the software and then just say start. It will fly by itself, take the images that I've set through the mission, of course, under supervision at all times, ready to um cancel a board mission and stuff like that, but it has really good capabilities.

Linda Kobylski:

And what's really nice about that, what he just said, is he could go back to that same site, that flight's already in the machine, so he can run it again. Okay. And make sure the super silt fence is still standing where it's supposed to stand and identify, you know, how much has the site changed since the last time he did it.

Gail Lucas:

You also said it may be used eventually for residential. Tell me how it can be used other than for land development stuff.

Johnny Campos:

So um, I don't want to speak for David, but I I've he would talk about it. Sometimes he has to do like green roof inspections. Okay. And also um uh uh tower inspections. Right, and solar panels. Solar panels, yeah, perfect. Yeah, so he said he's gonna be using it for that. He's still we're still developing, you know, we're still like I should Linda mentioned, we're still on the development phase. Yeah. We're gonna see the fully potential. We're probably about 50% of the potential, but there's a lot more to we can learn from this.

Gail Lucas:

Okay, I'm gonna ask, and you can tell me no. Can we fly it now? No. Unfortunately.

Linda Kobylski:

All right, but I will say this because this is another benefit for the department. Johnny and Dave are the two certified pilots. Okay. Um, other divisions here at DPS and even uh Department of Environment appro approached us about our drone, and they may not use our drone. We're not gonna loan it out to them, but we can from time to time. If they have a site they like a flyover, we can do that. Okay. Um, our zoning division here at DPS, this would be a very useful tool for them as well because they enforce site plan work. Sure. So um there are many, many uses for it, and I fully expect DPS is gonna take full advantage of the technology. Um, because we we, especially here in land development, I'll I'll uh talk up my team here a little bit. If we can find technology to help us do our jobs better, we're all about that. And we move forward with it when we are allowed to. And this is just another example of that.

Johnny Campos:

Correct. I want to add to that as well. You asked if I could fly it here. So I want to take this opportunity that uh David and I had taken uh several courses and preparations to become certified by the FAA. Okay, so we were both part 107 licensed uh drone pilots. Took us a while to get it, but you have to go through a uh severe training and of course taking an exam uh with the FAA. So uh there's certain regulations we need to follow, especially since we're so close to DC. So there's within 15 miles, 30 miles, there's different regulations um based on it. So and also I want to add also, um we have a site that is the perimeter controls is 2.8 miles. Okay. Now, to have an inspector walk 2.8 miles every two weeks, it could be exhausting. It could not be I don't even probably complete it maybe within a full day. Right. This drone could do it within 30 minutes.

Gail Lucas:

Okay, Johnny, can you share a few examples of how DPS is using the drone or plans to use the drone? But before you do that, give us a little more information about your job and specifically with the land development division.

Johnny Campos:

That's a great question, Gail. So one of our duties as uh sediment control and stormwater management inspectors is that every site that is over 5,000 square feet requires sediment control permit. So some of these sites, of course, are really tiny set 5,000. But now we're talking about the three-acre, five-acre. So one of our jobs is to make sure that all the sediment controls are in proper state every time we go out. And of course, following up to make sure they're doing the proper maintenance. So some of these sites, like I said, is you know, large. We have a site that is 2.8 miles radius, and then we have something we have 2.8 miles of super silfans running around them. Okay, some of these sites have a uh something called a sediment trap, which is pretty much a large temporary pond that is built temporarily during the construction to collect the sediment. So now, how do we properly inspect those? You know, there are zones where there's steep slopes, like Linda mentioned, or very large sites. So that's pretty much what we do. Now, how do we get to those sites that are be you know, steep slopes, dangerous situations, because they've been there for sitting for many, many years? They get growth, you know, trees and branches. So that's what Blue Jay is here for.

Gail Lucas:

Ah, we have a name.

Johnny Campos:

Yeah, call sign Blue Jay. So Blue Jay is gonna be used for to reach reach those hard-to-get places. Okay. Uh, do proper inspections close by those hard-to-reach places or dangerous situations so we we don't put our inspectors in harm's way. So we're gonna be doing this on permitted sites, and I'm looking forward to develop more as far as technology goes, you know, into uh uh drones for confined space and stuff like that. So the sky's the limit, no pun intended.

Gail Lucas:

Okay, I'll take that pun. Thank you, Linda. Thank you, Johnny, for joining us on today's podcast. And thank you, our listeners, for tuning in. If you want information about the DPS drone program, or in fact, any information about DPS programs, please go to our website MontgomeryCountymd.gov forward slash DPS for information about permitting services, programs, permits, cool things that are coming down the pipe. And if you enjoyed this podcast, please share it with your friends and neighbors and subscribe so that you always get the latest edition. If you have a question about the podcast, or if you have an idea of something you'd like to see on our podcast, please send us an email to dps.podcasts at MontgomeryCountymd.gov. Remember, DPS is your project partner.

Announcer:

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