From Cockpit To Controller: Former Pilot Finds A New Way To Fly : NPR
Tony Zimlich
On a recent sunny afternoon at a solar farm outside Philadelphia   Pa.  commercial drone pilots Tony Zimlich and Gunner Goldie  are preparing for flight.
Dressed in hard hats and matching yellow vests   they  run through a series of safety and equipment checks  and survey the surrounding terrain and airspace  before picking up what looks like a pair of oversized video game controllers. Then  with a streak of beeps and whirs   their  drone â about the size of a milk crate â rises steadily into the sky above.
 Their  mission: to carefully sweep the skyline above the solar farm  taking photographs and gathering data to help  their  client identify defective solar panels and guide repairs.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Courtesy of  Tony Zimlich /Tony Zimlich Courtesy of  Tony Zimlich /Tony Zimlich
Tony Zimlich didn't expect to be a part of that transition. Unlike many of his younger colleagues  who got their start playing video games and flying remote control aircraft  Zimlich cut his teeth in the cockpit of a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter. Part of his military tenure was spent flying medical evacuation missions above the deserts and valleys of Afghanistan.
On a recent sunny afternoon at a solar farm outside Philadelphia   Pa.  commercial drone pilots  [TGT]  and Gunner Goldie  are preparing for flight.
Dressed in hard hats and matching yellow vests   they  run through a series of safety and equipment checks  and survey the surrounding terrain and airspace  before picking up what looks like a pair of oversized video game controllers. Then  with a streak of beeps and whirs   their  drone â about the size of a milk crate â rises steadily into the sky above.
 Their  mission: to carefully sweep the skyline above the solar farm  taking photographs and gathering data to help  their  client identify defective solar panels and guide repairs.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Courtesy of   [TGT]  /Tony Zimlich Courtesy of   [TGT]  /Tony  [TGT] 
 [TGT]  didn't expect to be a part of that transition. Unlike many of  [TGT]  younger colleagues  who got their start playing video games and flying remote control aircraft   [TGT]  cut  [TGT]  teeth in the cockpit of a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter. Part of  [TGT]  military tenure was spent flying medical evacuation missions above the deserts and valleys of Afghanistan.