PP Don Martini Speaks to Rotary on the Growing Unmanned Drone Industry.
On an overcast Monday, 22 Lexington Rotarians, 2 visiting Rotarians and 1 guest enjoyed lunch of grilled sausage, oven roasted & mashed potatoes, asparagus with cherry tomatoes, mixed fruit and great cookies.
Our meeting began with President Lori ringing the meeting in, P.P. Nick C leading us in the pledge, P.E. Michelle starting us off with one verse of America and P.P. Dan O giving us a great invocation.
We were visited today by Toast Master Noj Zachariah, who will be conducting a presentation at the upcoming District Conference. District Governor David Gardner suggested he visit the Rotary Club of Lexington to see how a real Rotary Club works.
Fines & Happy $$
- Sec Murry was fined for not having someone from each table to introduce the guests. P.S.A.A. Charlie led us in the welcome song.
- P.P./Sec Dan B. donated $1.00 because P.P. Chief Paul from the Burlington club knew all of the words to our welcome song.
- P.P. Frank donated $20.00 American for a trip to Italy, and donated a few quid too.
- P.P. Spencer donated for a happy 10th anniversary.
- P.P. Jim $5.00 for a cast removal.
- P.P./Sec Dan B. $20.00 for the LHS football team beating Brockton.
- Meaghan $2.00 for new member Ugur taking notes of the meeting.
- Visiting Rotarian P.P. Sharon from Concord donated in memory of her father and for the support that the Lexington Club showed.
Announcements
Next week are the senior cook outs;
- Tuesday is Countryside Village, Off Woburn St.
- Wednesday is Vynebrook Village, Off Waltham St.
- Thursday is Greely Village, Off Bedford St.
The start times are all 4:30pm, with dinner serving starting at 5:00pm. This year P.P. Jim F. & Meaghan reached out to the senior center to see if there are any residents that live at these complexes and cannot make it to the cookout. We would make arrangements to deliver food to them. A big thank you to Brookhaven and P.P. Jim for donating the food again this year.
- Friday, November 3rd is our annual Cash Raffle at the Lexington Golf Club.
- Saturday, November 4th is the Veterans Breakfast again at the St. Brigid’s Keilty Hall. Please make the time to come help serve at this great event and to honor our local veterans.
Speaker
P.P. Don Martini was our guest speaker today. His talk today was all about drones. P.P. Don owns and operates a company Advanced Aerial Systems in Bedford, MA and his son Brian operates out of Phoenix AZ. Anyone can fly a drone, but there are many different restrictions and uses. The uses fall under recreational, commercial and public service. P.P. Don explained that if you’re flying within 5 miles of an airport, you have to notify the tower of that. The F.A.A. considers the drone’s aircraft. The bigger drones have transponders built into them and can be seen on a control towers radar. Also, they are not to be flown ant night or out of range of sight. These aircraft can range in price from $10.00 for a toy to $15,000.00 for a professional commercial model, into the millions for military operations.
Advanced Aerial Systems operates using the drones to photograph many construction sites, waterways, equipment and buildings providing updated photos and/or videos of area or project. Shooting photos and video usually requires 2 people to facilitate the operation, one to pilot and on to operate the camera(s). P.P. Don detailed some of their work, shooting the underside of a sky crane looking for a defective sensor, floor by floor shots of a construction project for residential views and waterscape shots from a local lake. Answering questions, he explained that the cost of work can be anywhere from $50.00 per hour on up to thousands of dollars. P.E. Michelle was concerned about privacy and the possibility of looking in on people in their homes. P.P. Don explained that with the 4-6 rotors, that spinning at over 18,000 rpm you’re going to hear it coming. That would make it very hard to spy on you P.E. Michelle! Editor’s note: “That’s what curtains are for Michelle.”
The 50/50 of $65.00 was won by Steve K.
P.P. Bob O’K