Plant protection drone pilot: spraying hundreds of acres of farmland per hour, to become a qualified pilot requires experience accumulation

Plant protection drone pilots are becoming a new choice for young people.
In 2019, drone pilot was officially identified as a new occupation by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, and this once “minority” occupation entered the public’s vision. This professional group, known as “flying hands”, is often dominated by “post-80s” and “post-90s”. The emergence of “flying hands” opened a new door to agricultural mechanization. “Flying hand” operation of plant protection UAV, in addition to the completion of sowing, fertilization, etc., can also achieve lifting and handling, greatly saving manpower, material resources, and financial resources.
Recently, the reporter interviewed a number of plant protection drone pilots in Weifang, Binzhou, Zibo and other places, through them, an in-depth understanding of how the plant protection drone pilot is “cultivated”.

Drones serve the agricultural sector
Drone pilots are mainly “post-80s” and “post-90s”
Mr. Feng in Weifang, Shandong province, told reporters that he has a team of drone pilots. In 2018, he bought his first drone on a whim. Today, his team has grown to 30 or 40 people. Mr. Feng said: “When I first started to contact this industry, there were very few local plant protection drones, and basically I could count them. Now, plant protection drones have become common in Shandong Province.”

Mr. Feng is a young man in the drone pilot team
This new agricultural technology with low threshold, high efficiency and considerable income has attracted a large number of young people to join. Mr. Flying hand Han of Binzhou, Shandong Province, introduced the age structure of his team to reporters, “All young people, the age structure is 22 to 25 years old.”
The reporter learned that to become a professional pilot, it takes about a month to get a drone driving certificate in order to hold a certificate. This does have a threshold for older people. Feng said: “The oldest ‘flyer’ in our team is more than 70 years old, but he has quit now, and is still mainly young people.”
Hundreds of acres per hour, a hundred times more efficient than labor
Mr. Shao in Zibo, Shandong Province, is a personal pilot, “Many plant protection drones use RTK Beidou high-precision positioning, if encountered obstacles, it will automatically avoid, will not repeat spraying, will not spill.” When planting, fertilizing, applying medicine and other agricultural and forestry plant protection work, the plant protection UAV can conduct plot mapping in advance, and then fly autonomously according to the mapping route, and can also use manual control flight if necessary.
Mr. Shao also emphasized the advantages of plant protection drones compared to artificial plant protection, “drone spraying can atomize the liquid medicine, and the amount of medicine is much less than artificial plant protection.” In addition, the blade of the drone has a strong wind force, and when you blow down, even the bottom of the crop can float medicine.”
Reporters query the relevant data, plant protection drones are generally the use of spray spraying, can save 50% of the pesticide use and 90% of the water consumption, at the same time, the atomization of this liquid medicine, can strengthen the penetration of crops, the control effect will be better.