

TerrAvion (YC W14) Launches Aerial Imagery As A Service For Farmers - cornellwright
http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/04/yc-backed-terravion-launches-aerial-imagery-as-a-service-for-farmers/

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terravion
The biggest surprise for me in starting this business was how expensive drones
are. I used them in the Army and I love them, but when we did the math about
using them in the business they do not come close to an old Cessna with a
pilot looking for hours.

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ajju
Congratulations. Just yesterday I told a friend about Terravion but I thought
you guys were using drones.

Are there any drone platforms with >1 hr flight time and >1 mile range
available for non-defense use?

By the way, the TechCrunch article mentions a per-pass price for other
services, but doesn't clarify whether Terravion's price is per-pass, so it
actually makes it sound like you are more expensive by comparison.

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cornellwright
Something like the Insitu ScanEagle is probably the drone closest to being
effective for our application:
[http://www.insitu.com/systems/scaneagle/capabilities](http://www.insitu.com/systems/scaneagle/capabilities)

However, they're still quite expensive and not really cheaper to operate than
a Cessna, and then there are the legal issues. I personally think that once of
the things that will drive the cost of drones down quite a bit will be when an
autopilot maker comes out with a way to retrofit Cessnas and other proven, GA
airframes into OPVs (optionally piloted vehicles).

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ajju
"Each ScanEagle system costs US$3.2 million (2006)"
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_Insitu_ScanEagle](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_Insitu_ScanEagle))

Indeed!

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jackhammons
For those interested, here is a paper that explains the importance of ariel
imaging for crops. [http://www.lighthillrisknetwork.org/uploads/Crop-
Insurance-A...](http://www.lighthillrisknetwork.org/uploads/Crop-Insurance-A-
Briefing-paper-Nov-2013-\(FS-KTN\).pdf)

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GarrettBeck
I'd be interested in seeing the cost analysis/breakdown of hiring Cessna
pilots to take pictures vs. renting Parrot AR Drones with GoPros to farmers,
teaching them to survey their own land and provide them with a software built
by TerrAvion.

Give a man a fish vs. teach a man to fish

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cornellwright
We looked into this quite extensively. It's actually surprisingly cheaper to
fly a Cessna vs use a small drone. We can cover 100,000 acres in a day with a
Cessna, compared to maybe 400 (not including time for battery charging) with a
small hand launched drone. Along with that farmers are really busy and not
very interested in operating another new tool.

We intend to move to drones whenever they are legal, cheaper and more
effective, but in the meantime Cessnas are the answer.

~~~
GarrettBeck
That's interesting. Congrats on the launch and best of luck!

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strebler
I know a number of aerial photo companies who have done this type of work for
decades - what's new here?

My knowledge from local farmers is that they already pay for experts who
amalgamate a variety of data sources (soil testing, aerial, satellite, etc) to
assess & treat their crops. I mean, does a farmer even know what is NDVI or
how to interpret it?

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cornellwright
What's different is doing it as a subscription and at a high revisit rate.
Farmers can interpret NDVI and what's actually more amazing is the amount a
grower can tell about her fields from just a visual photo. By providing a time
series of 30 weekly images it makes changes readily apparent and doesn't
require expert consulting (beyond the extensive expertise that farmers already
have) to make better decisions.

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daveyfuller
Perhaps ranking on this site is an important metric for up-and-coming
startups, but it seems silly get mad about it. As long as you keep your
customers happy, and putting out a solid product, people will notice.
Congratulations on the launch.

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jacquesm
ASK PG: Just to be clear, is this a thread where we're supposed to be
supportive?

Or will you kill this thread too because it is about a YC company?

If you have showdead set to off, this is in reference to:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7179063](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7179063)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7178341](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7178341)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7178004](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7178004)

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pg
As you know, I didn't kill those posts because they're about a YC company. I
killed them because HN is a news site, not a support forum for YC companies.
And the reason we don't want that sort of post is not to conceal problems with
YC cos, but because (as we saw) this sort of indignation-inducing fluff is so
easy to upvote that it will take over a site if you allow it.

It is a super lame move to try to hijack a thread about a newly launched
startup to get attention for some unrelated grievance. You wouldn't like if it
someone did that to you.

~~~
jacquesm
Your first argument would hold more water if you consistently did this, rather
than willy-nilly as observed so far.

As for hijacking this thread, there was another thread that was perfectly
suited for the purpose, you killed it, besides you've removed my ability to
post so I had this left as a means of last resort. Think of it as a hack, this
is 'hacker news' after all, isn't it?

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tptacek
The hack you just described has a name. It's called "trolling".

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napoleond
_It 's called "trolling"._

Not really. Or rather, the question of whether or not it was trolling is the
subject of [current] debate. (It depends on whether it was off-topic or not--
clearly 'pg thinks it was, and some people think that since he is the
owner/creator/BDFL he is right, but lots of other intelligent people disagree,
which is the whole reason this thread exists. I'm not really sure it matters,
but calling 'jaquesm a troll is pretty strong.)

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gsaines
Congrats on the launch guys, best of luck!

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vollmarj
Congrats on the launch guys!

