S / Safety
Most drone operators sell flight time. We sell flights you don't have to worry about.
An SMS isn't a binder on a shelf. It's a working framework with four parts: a safety policy that sets the standard, risk management that identifies hazards and mitigates them before the aircraft leaves the ground, safety assurance that checks whether our controls actually worked, and safety promotion that keeps training and lessons-learned moving. In plain terms: we plan the flight, we plan the risks, we fly the plan, and we review it afterward.
When you hire a drone operator, you're putting an aircraft over your property, your crew, or your crops. If something goes wrong without a documented safety process behind it, the exposure lands on you. An operator with a real SMS means the airspace was checked, the weather and obstacles were assessed, an emergency plan existed, and the whole thing was documented — so a hazard is far less likely, and far more defensible if a question ever comes up. For commercial and government work, a documented safety program is frequently a hard requirement, not a bonus.
UUAS is led by [Rory Johnson], an FAA Part 107 Remote Pilot in Command and a Master of Science in Aviation candidate at Middle Tennessee State University, concentrating in Aviation Safety and Security Management. He also serves as UAS Team Lead Safety Officer for the State Defense Force Foundation, including multi-agency emergency-response work such as the Fall Creek Falls exercise (May 2026). That background is the difference between a hobby pilot and an aviation safety professional running your job.
We plan the flight, we plan the risks, we fly the plan, and we review it afterward.