The Life of a Flight Instructor and an AgriDOM Pilot
AgriDOM Pilot Story
William Ivan Aguilar
“We have just landed safely”. This is every aspiring airline pilot’s dream to say to their passengers after a successful landing. The fulfilling experience to make the sky your “office”, enjoying the perks of flying, an amazing view of the sky, and the chance to get to meet new people & cultures around the world. It is indeed the coolest job in the world.
A 25-year-old from Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines, William Ivan T. Aguilar, is on the venture of becoming an Airline Pilot. Meanwhile, with the current situation of the pandemic all over the world, it has opened him doors and new opportunities in his career. He is currently working as a Flight Instructor in Mactan Aviation Technology Center, Inc, in Davao City, Philippines. Little did we know, he never dreamed of becoming a pilot. His first choice of profession was to be a nurse or businessman. “I wanted to be a businessman to manage our business however my dad said no, so basically being a pilot wasn’t my choice but ended up loving it ever since I tasted my first flight”.
Drone Technology: The Future of Modern Farming in the Philippines
The current situation made a digital transformation inroad into the agriculture sector of the country. As the new normal arises, around forty thousand drones have been delivered worldwide and the number of demand in production and buying of agricultural drones have increased.
The Philippines has seen the use of carabaos & manual operations transition to machineries and automated ones. Farming drones have always been in the market but it has been bypassed for years, not until the pandemic happened.
This pandemic gave him an opportunity to share his knowledge and expertise as a pilot to his students. Three months ago he had the opportunity to be a drone pilot where he served a family owned farm in Davao, exporting cavendish bananas to China. He is now considered as a modern day farmer through smart farming. Through the help of AgriDOM Solutions Corp, Ivan learned how to fly the Agras T20 in just a matter of days. “It was actually very easy to control the drone since we pilots are used to multitask and have one of the most efficient coordination in any given field plus flying or controlling the drone doesn’t involve risking our lives since we control it from the ground unlike in an actual aircraft if you commit a mistake there is no turning back”.
Ivan is now the current drone operator of the Dejesica farm with 500+ hectares farm together with his co-pilots and young farmers. He knew way back that drone technology is used in farmlands for day-to-day operations, but he never had any insights on how they work. According to Rey Kent, farm owner, using to spray banana trees made the work easy and gave extremely positive feedback resulting in a reduction of labor cost and minimizes the risk of chemical run-off and ensures conservation of water resources.
A Silver Lining in Difficult Times
It was something new and interesting for him, so he took the opportunity for him to develop more of his skills and widen his knowledge. “As I said it was quite easy to learn and operate the drone. What was challenging is I was a bit tense in maneuvering the drone, since it might crash with just a pilot error, but eventually I knew the right way with the guidance of the AgriDOM instructor and technical staff. Flying a drone is similar to flying an airplane, it felt like I went back to my childhood days. Just playing with a remote controller airplane, it’s fun under the sun spraying with DJI AGRAS T20”.
The young pilot added that the industry of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Operations, particularly in agriculture is not just creating opportunities for farmers but to pilots as well. The emerging industry is in need of a job force sufficient to the growing need of operators and technicians. This is an evident impact that UAVs like agricultural drones not only benefit the farming industry but creates job employment in the sector.
Date Published: July 12, 2021
Written by: Darla Faye Golfo