Answer the question from the ground
PDS started with Andrew hoisting his dad onto a hot roof by hand, just to rule out a leak. Every flight is planned around the question the client needs answered, so nobody has to climb up to find out.
Our story
All that, to prove a chimney wasn't leaking.
In 2014 Andrew Kobza came home from college and went to work for his dad's construction company. On a 95-degree day he hoisted his dad up by hand onto a roof that was likely closer to 120. His dad looked around, came back down and said, "I knew it wasn't the chimney leaking."
Andrew had been around aircraft since he was a student pilot, and he thought: all that to prove something wasn't leaking. An RC helicopter, or one of those new quadcopters, could have answered it from the ground. He bought his first drone that week.
By 2015 he was flying construction inspections with drones. When Hurricane Irma hit in 2017, he completed 250 roof inspections in the two weeks after the storm. That stretch showed what drones could do in the field, and how clunky the deliveries still were for the people receiving them.
Two things came out of it. In 2018 Andrew foundedFAST, our sister company, from a joint passion for 3D modeling (Andrew picked it up in college, experimenting with CAD and 3D printing) and drone inspection data. And in 2019 Andrew started building our own software, so clients could open, compare and share their data in one link. Those tools became the Viewers.
Today we fly inspections, site documentation and aerial media across Florida, and nationwide through drone program management. Survey-grade mapping stays Florida-only through our sister company,Florida Aerial Survey Technologies.
