November 10, 2023
Cool Tech Put to Use
What started as a casual conversation with Kendal at Hanover’s Josh Okediran, a Facilities Department staff member, and his supervisor in August 2020 has come full circle in becoming an integral part of the Facilities Department’s operations. Josh had great passion and interest in obtaining his drone pilot license. Through his research, he learned many practical applications and benefits of having a drone program at Kendal at Hanover (KaH).
On November 8, 2021, Josh dedicated himself to a drone licensing program through the Federal Aviation Administration. Upon completing his certification and with funding provided through the budgeting process, KaH purchased its first drone and started to put it to good use.
Drone Use Benefits- Safety and Efficiency
Some important benefits of having a drone include safer and more efficient visual inspections of buildings, taking infrared images of buildings to identify areas of heat loss, search and rescue of residents who may wander, photos and videos for marketing, and landscape planning and development.The goal of the drone initiative is to improve safety, provide cost savings, increase efficiency, provide real-time data, enhance planning and development, and improve customer satisfaction.
Drone Demonstration and Presentation to Residents and Staff
On October 18, 2023, Josh presented and demonstrated the drone program to residents and staff of Kendal at Hanover. He shared information about the FAA requirements for flights and how the Facilities Department had established and approved flight missions, the different features of the drone, some of its capabilities, and images taken of the building and grounds.Josh followed up the presentation with an outdoor demonstration showing how he can both manually operate the drone and how it can fly autonomously based on a pre-programmed flight pattern.
Approximately fifty interested residents and staff attended the program, coming away highly impressed by this forward-thinking approach to Facilities Operations.
