## PUBLIC INTEREST AND HOW THE PUBLIC WILL BENEFIT

This exemption request will permit Shay Moody to operate UASs commercially for the purpose of aerial inspection, videography, photography, aerial mapping, and agriculture assessment. I will provide a service that is beneficial to industries, organizations, and farmers that are seeking to use UASs for these purposes with a legal and safe option. This will benefit the public with the controlled operation of UASs and increase integration into the NAS. The integration of UASs into the NAS will not only replace traditionally more expensive options, it will enable work to be done and decisions to be made in ways that were simply impossible to do previously. The commercial deployment of small unmanned aircraft system s offers the public a new, highly efficient and relatively inexpensive platform for collecting, analyzing, and utilizing data and photographic/video imagery. The UASs utilized will all be battery

- powered and serves as a safe, efficient, and economical alte rnative to the manned aircraft traditionally utilized to obtain aerial imagery. A grant of exemption would allow Shay Moody to contribute to the reduction of manned aircraft needed to perform the aerial acquisition of data, video, and photographic content and subsequently reduce the volume of manned aircraft in the NAS. Conducting aerial acquisitions with UASs, instead of manned aircraft, will greatly benefit the public by drastically reducing the levels of air and noise pollution generated during tradition al aerial video and still photography flight operations. By using battery power and electric motors, UASs produce no air pollution, and is the most viable environmentally conscious alternative to the cabin class, six cylinder internal combustion engine air craft that are typically utilized for aerial video and photography, while burning approximately 20

- 30 gallons per hour of leaded aviation gasoline. The UASs, while reducing the carbon footprint of aerial acquisitions also sharply reduces noise pollution , a s they are propelled by battery powered electric motors rather than an internal combustion engine. By using UASs to perform aerial acquisitions, the substantial risk to life and property in the air and on the ground, which is usually associated with tradit ional manned aircraft flight operations, will be substantially reduced or completely eliminated. The UASs all weigh less than 10 pounds and have less physical potential for collateral damage to life and property on the ground and in the air compared to the manned aircraft that typically conduct similar operations (weighing approximately 6,000 pounds with a wingspan of approximately 42 feet, a length of 34 feet, and a fuel capacity of 180 gallons. Previously, such services as high

- resolution digital aerial a cquisitions were limited and affordable to a relatively small group of agencies, companies, and organizations with significant operating capital. The granting of this exemption will enable Shay Moody to change this by deploying his UASs in ways that make a erial photography and other UAS services accessible and affordable to a significantly larger portion of individuals, organizations, and businesses. Themany new forms of aerial content would have immediate and direct benefits to service

providers, business owners, consumers, and farmers. The use of UASs will allow Shay Moody to plan and implement an aerial agricultural program using precision agricultural mapping services and high resolution aerial imagery in order to assist farmers in management decision

- m aking to increase production and crop

- scouting efficiency. Often times, diseases or insects begin deteriorating plant health within one part of a field and spread over time. If an agronomist is only able to see a few areas of a field, the chances of overlo oking a major problem are incredibly high, but if the entire field can be depicted from an UAS, plant health issues can be fixed before they expand, reducing yield loss. Every stressful situation that a plant encounters reduces crop yield. By using a UAS, Shay Moody will be able to assist agronomists to eliminate and reduce plant stress by implementing crop protection programs to make their customers more profitable. By using real

-time aerial imagery to see the onset and occurrence of plant stresses, Shay M oody can better help farmers maintain a high yield (more production), and in turn, high profitability, in a safe and efficient manner. The end goal would be to provide the maps produced from aerial imagery to qualified personnel to create variable

- rate pre scriptions using an agronomic mapping program. The prescriptions can then be loaded into one of the cooperative’s fertilizer spreaders so that fertilizer is applied to the correct areas at the proper rate. Overall, UAV technology offers a substantial econo mic benefit to the agricultural industry. With the use of UASs, Shay Moody would be able to save farmers and agronomists a great deal of time scouting fields. Furthermore, due to the fact that aerial images are geo

- referenced, agronomists can pinpoint a pr oblem area on a map and then walk or drive directly to that area to see what issues are happening and potentially correct them. Along with efficiency, UAS technology offers the potential for maintaining high yields. This is not only important from a financ ial standpoint for growers, but from a production standpoint. With the world population continuously increasing, it is essential that farmers be able to maintain higher yields in order to continue to feed a hungry planet and to keep up with the world deman d for high quality food and fuel products.