Though still young, Fiona is mature beyond her years. She was taking pictures when the camera was almost as big as she was. She has been studying dance for the past 9 years, involved in art and illustration (including for a book on a local park) and has always shown a penchant for aviation. She and her father started playing with a GoPro Karma drone in 2018, they quickly outgrew its visual capabilities. However, it was not until the great lockdown of 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic, that she and her father started taking the idea of a drone business seriously.

She had already mastered the art of making great-looking videos with her father’s equipment, was comfortable with using the green screen in the studio and had a pretty good handle on lighting and photography. Now all she had to do was learn basic aviation knowledge (something her pilot father was more than willing to teach her as an augmentation to her on-line science classes). She loves maps and her steady hand and still young and excellent vision makes her a good hand at helping with piloting and acting as a visual observer working for her father (part 107 small unmanned vehicle pilot in command). Though not old enough to get her own license yet, when she is, she plans on taking over the bulk of the business letting her father get back to doctoring.

Fiona Blackburn