Last week's webinar on building a resilient drone program workflow brought together four leaders from different corners of the commercial drone industry: construction, state aviation, energy, and systems engineering. Despite their diverging perspective on some topics, the panelists converged on the same core idea: no single piece of hardware or software makes a drone program resilient. Resilience comes from diversification across the whole ecosystem–in training, in documentation, in vendor relationships, and in how workflows are validated on the ground.

The 60-minute discussion included insights from panelists Brian Owens, VDC Field Solutions Engineer at The Weitz Company; Garrett Connolly, Distributed Program Manager at MassDOT Aeronautics; Ania Burgess, Senior Systems Engineer at Altimetis; and Woody Duncan, Senior Vice President of Aegean Energy Group.  

Build Around Process, Not People

A recurring theme was that programs need to survive aircraft turnover, regulations, and even personnel changes.

"The aircraft can be replaced, the regulations change, but what keeps the program running through that is having the established processes that everyone understands," Connelly said. "The key for us has been documenting everything so that the program as a whole relies on the process and not the individual people in the program."

He also pushed back on treating certification as a finish line. "Initial training and certification should not be the end goal. There needs to be a continued focus on currency and upskilling to keep pilots active and engaged, so they can see the drone as a tool to make their lives easier."

Burgess framed resilience as the absence of a single point of failure.

"I like to think of resiliency as not having a single point of failure, so your regulatory posture can't be your downfall," she said. "That way, you can switch to a different platform easily, and not be worried about exemption type or how your site will function at a given installation."

Duncan and Owens both tied this back to team structure and growth pace.

"We are being moderate with our growth," Duncan explained. "Over the years we have seen the need for drone pilots to wear multiple hats, so that helps the resiliency."

Owens emphasized shared training as the foundation for scale.

"Being able to scale is a big part of resiliency. Having a training program that every pilot goes through allows you to scale and to have a larger drone program based on the core fundamentals."

Make Regulatory Change Routine, Not an Emergency

Rather than reacting to new rules with ad hoc briefings, Connolly explained his team's approach to staying nimble and ready for shifts. 

"The key here is knowing that the rules are going to change. Our strategy has been not treating regulatory updates as an emergency event, but instead make them part of our routine by building them into the training that we are already doing," he noted. "For us, that means part of training is dedicated regulation review to see what has changed, and what is in the pipeline. So, when the rule changes, we don't need to start a new course or do an emergency briefing."

For Burgess, standards work has proven to double as an early-warning system in this area.

"This is where ASTM standards can be really helpful. Sometimes the standards precede the rule being released, and regulators like to look to those standards for guidance. If you’re involved in that writing, then it's a good way to know what the future-proofing should look like."

Reduce Dependency on Any Single Platform

Staying up-to-date on evolving compliance regulations on the aircraft side is another vital piece of the puzzle for these organizations. Owens explained how his team at Weitz is always looking ahead to work with different vendors and stay compliant.

"We are looking forward to working with different drone manufacturers so we can look at pricing and capabilities. At Weitz, the majority of our fleet is DJI. [But] we have a couple of projects under the FAA Reauthorization Act that require an NDAA-compliant drone. We are trying to be strategic about what steps we will take while at the same time, building relationships with these compliant vendors so when we need to make the switch we have the tools to do that."

The panel's broader advice was to design around a class of aircraft rather than a specific vendor's airframe.

"Think about interface specs, not the specific airframe specs of the vendor you're working with," Burgess said. "If you think about how you can build your program around a specific class of aircraft, a swap becomes a lot less scary and less likely to require a redesign down the road."

Validate Workflows in the Real World

Although planning is a critical part of staying ahead of all potential pitfalls for an organization, there still needs to be on-the-ground testing. Burgess noted that installation planning can result in some common issues.

"When doing an installation, one of the biggest pitfalls is looking at something on satellite photos and not walking the site with a dedicated checklist of what you need access to in order to have a successful installation," she said. "Things can look really good on paper but may not match up on-site. We often find RF dead zones or that a transmission opportunity isn't going to be what you thought it was going to be."

Connolly added a related warning about language that only looks flexible.

"It’s easy to design something that may look flexible on paper because it says 'at the discretion of' or 'as appropriate,' which makes you think that you are creating something that is flexible. But it might just be vague."

Across all four speakers, the same idea kept surfacing. Resilience isn't a single fix. It's a posture, one built through documentation, recurring training, deliberate vendor diversification, and real-world validation, so no single change, be it a rule, a vendor, a person, or a platform, can take the whole program down with it.

If you weren't able to join us for the live recording of the conversation last week, you can still register by following the link below and gain access to a free, on-demand recording.

Register Here.