It’s just before 6:51 a.m. and the sun is just about to climb above the rolling hills where James Grimsley and I step out of an ATV onto the Choctaw reservation, coffee and drones in tow.
This is the time of day that pilots call “civil twilight.” The 30 minutes prior to sunrise or after sunset are fair game: Registered pilots can fly a drone under standard federal aviation rules. Grimsley and I leave one of the mini-aircraft on the ground, then ascend a five-story wooden platform—which is swaying subtly along with the wind—to send off a second, much smaller Autel Nano Plus, an orange, pocket-sized drone with four arms and 28 minutes of battery life.
