Drone pilots unlock new careers for youth

Luo Xikun is familiar with the operation of the drone

Yesterday, the 2024 China International Fair for Trade in Services (hereinafter referred to as the "CIFTIS") was officially held. A reporter from Beijing Youth Daily found at the exhibition that with the "low-altitude economy" written into the government work report for the first time at the National People's Congress and the National People's Congress this year, logistics chain-related enterprises have begun to closely layout. Logistics chain companies including SF Express, China Postal Express, Meituan, Yunda and other logistics chain companies have all "displayed" equipment related to the low-altitude economy such as drones without exception. With the application of drones in the field of logistics chain, the resulting demand for new occupations such as pilots and drone software engineers will also increase significantly.

Yesterday, in the special exhibition of supply chain transportation, a variety of drones, unmanned vehicles, unmanned sorters and other equipment attracted attention. China Post Express Logistics (EMS) exhibited two UAVs, one medium and one small, among which the Post T100 medium-sized UAV has the advantages of long endurance and large load compared with small UAVs. It can complete higher-performance missions and flight payloads, and further improve the ability of material delivery, situational awareness, temporary communication recovery, and search and rescue in disaster areas. The small M10 is a six-rotor multi-purpose networked drone, which can be used to solve the mail problem in remote mountainous areas and rural areas and shorten the delivery time. At Meituan's booth, its self-developed fourth-generation drone can fly stably in moderate rain, moderate snow, level 6 wind, low light and other environments from "-20°C to -50°C", and can adapt to the natural environment requirements of more than 97% of domestic cities. The relevant person in charge of Meituan said that in August this year, Meituan drones opened Beijing's first drone delivery route on the Badaling Great Wall. At the same time, as of the end of June this year, 31 routes have been opened in Shenzhen, Shanghai, Guangzhou and other cities, and more than 300,000 orders have been completed.

For the future expansion of drone application scenarios, many companies regard low-altitude areas as a very important and undeveloped space, "Low-altitude development can greatly improve the efficiency of urban distribution. Urban low-altitude logistics networks will be one of the most important opportunities for technological innovation in the next decade. The relevant person in charge of Meituan said. According to him, the existence of drones is mainly to make delivery scenarios with strong demand for timeliness or difficult manpower to do better. "For example, delivery over mountains and mountains, food delivery in scenic parks, or special scenarios such as night medicine delivery and service for closed areas, because of the higher timeliness demand for emergency medicines and fresh food, drone delivery is better. The combination of drones + life service scenarios will be the best path to build this logistics network, which is something that Meituan has been exploring since 2017. ”

In fact, a reporter from Beiqing Daily learned that many logistics chain companies are committed to developing their own drones, and the speed of update and iteration is very fast. They either set up laboratories or cooperate with manufacturing companies to carry out the research and development of logistics drones, and at the same time plan to develop large-load and long-range drones. For example, YTO has taken the lead in building the first international engineering laboratory in the field of logistics, and has carried out research on the application prospects of drone express delivery. And this means the rise of technical professions such as drone software engineers, drone hardware product managers, etc.

At the same time, with the increase of drone application scenarios, drone operators, commonly known as "pilots", will also appear more and more in supply chain enterprises. It is understood that the current scale of Meituan's drone pilot positions is about dozens of people, and some of the pilots are career transformations completed by riders after systematic training and professional assessment. In fact, Meituan has already started to lay out relevant training, and in late June 2022, it jointly issued the group standard of "UAV Urban Low-altitude Logistics Operation Regulations" with the Chinese Society of Aeronautics and Astronautics. On this basis, Meituan has also carried out in-depth school-enterprise cooperation with Shenzhen Polytechnic on the basis of the two standards to broaden the employment space for graduates to enter the field of automatic delivery.

"In the future, if there is a low-altitude business to carry out, we will definitely form relevant teams according to the needs, and pilots and other professions will be indispensable." The relevant person in charge of YTO said.

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Luo Xikun: One rider in a hundred miles becomes a pilot

Luo Xikun, born in 1993, was a Meituan rider. In April 2022, a job posting for Meituan to recruit drone pilots turned his career path around: four months later, he became one of the company's first online delivery drivers to pass the pilot exam. In the next two years, due to the iterative update of technology, he changed step by step from an in-line of sight pilot, an over-the-horizon pilot to a test pilot.

After a month of training, he transformed into a pilot

Luo Xikun went out to work hard at the age of 18, and his first job was a restaurant cook introduced by relatives, where he studied and worked for nearly 6 years. In the meantime, he felt panicked about the repetitive mechanical work every day, and was afraid that he would be eliminated by society by relying only on manual work, so he took the self-examination for a design major in 2016, and then studied for a bachelor's degree in financial management. In 2018, he chose to do his own catering and also harvested his first pot of gold. In 2021, the catering industry fell into a trough, and Luo Xikun's small restaurant was unsustainable. In order to keep his livelihood on the line, Luo Xikun became a Meituan rider, "I go out to run 8 to 10 hours a day, although it is hard, but the income is relatively stable and relatively free." Luo Xikun commented on his rider work.

In April 2022, a job posting for Meituan to recruit drone pilots suddenly made him feel that a window in his heart was being pushed open. He has been interested in machinery since he was a child, and he signed up with the mentality of trying it out. In this way, after more than a month of theoretical and practical training, he passed the Civil Aviation Administration's "Civil Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Piloting License" (CAAC) professional examination and obtained the corresponding qualification certificate. In August 2022, Luo Xikun officially transformed into a pilot in Meituan's drone business.

Speaking of this career change experience, Luo Xikun himself defined it as: twists and turns. According to his account, there were about 1,000 riders who signed up for the job at that time, and he was selected in the first round to enter the top 100. Then in the offline interview session, he only got the eleventh place, and the quota was limited to only admit the top ten, "The interview is practiced immediately after 10 minutes of instructor training, using the simulator to actually control the drone to fly the specified action, for me with 0 foundation, it is really difficult." Luo Xikun said that three days later, he received a notice that he was not admitted, and he was particularly sad, "I don't want to accept it!" However, luck still favored him, and a week later, the HR manager told him that some of the top 10 people were unwilling to undergo intensive professional training and had opted out, and Luo Xikun started his training journey as a substitute.

Luo Xikun recalls that the training at that time revolved around the CAAC exam. "It's kind of like a common driver's license test, but there are more dimensions to consider when operating a drone than driving a car." At that time, he went out at 9 a.m. every day and trained until 5 p.m. "If I learned well in the course that day, I would go to run takeout for a few more hours, finish work at 12 o'clock in the middle of the night and go home to sleep, if I didn't understand it, I would go home and continue to brush the question bank." In this way, Luo Xikun passed all the exams in one session and became the first person in the class to get a certificate.

Two years triple jump as a test pilot

"At that time, according to regulatory requirements, it was necessary for someone to watch the drone with the naked eye at all times during the flight process to ensure that after a problem, the on-site pilot could take over at any time and solve the problem as soon as possible." Luo Xikun said that he was riding an electric car and chasing a drone with a remote control, "It feels similar to the previous food delivery, but the spirit is different, and I am a little proud." ”

At the beginning of 2023, Meituan passed the approval of the Civil Aviation Administration of China and was allowed to do over-the-horizon operation of drones in the city. During those days, my complexion turned whiter. ”

After a long time of sitting in the background monitoring, Luo Xikun began to crave the feeling of controlling the remote control again, so he applied for a transfer to become a test pilot.

According to Luo Xikun, the work of the test pilot is mainly divided into two parts, one is to be the "eyes" and "ears" and gatekeepers of the R&D colleagues. Second, before the opening of the drone delivery route, the test pilot should participate in the route information collection and other work. "Before each new route is opened, we need to conduct in-depth research on the places where the drone passes, and design the flight route as much as possible on the route in the city that is open and has little signal interference, so as to reduce the impact of the environment on the flight safety of the drone." Luo Xikun said that the design of the route should also consider the feelings of the surrounding residents, and how to reduce noise and maintain a sufficient "sense of distance" with residents are all details that need to be considered, "Therefore, we often use the method of 'going around in circles' to design the route." ”

What impressed Luo Xikun the most was the temporary opening of a route in the square at a landmark, "At that time, we needed to fly a remote-controlled drone into a semi-enclosed space at night and accurately land in a space of two square meters. But not only is the signal poor at the scene, but the light is also not good, just like letting the drone participate in the 100-meter sprint blindfolded, and cannot deviate from the runway in the process, and the time left for us is only one week. Luo Xikun said that for this new challenge, R&D and other departments also came directly to the venue to work. The end result was a successful completion of the set tasks, which gave me a great sense of accomplishment. ”

Continue to study and enrich vocational skills

"After going from rider to pilot, my whole person has changed. In the past, I had to keep running or doing, but being a pilot requires me to constantly think and learn, because the models and functions are constantly updated, and if I don't learn, I will fall behind. Luo Xikun said that now reading books has become his daily habit, and he has to spend time every week to study past flight cases and sum up experience, "The requirements of work for us are rather slow, but stable." There can be no fault at all. ”

"On the one hand, in the past, I used to run orders on the streets and alleys with my mobile phone, and it was clear where the signal was good and where there were few sensitive areas, so the efficiency of route information collection would be much higher; On the other hand, I used to have a lot of contact with customers and had some ideas about what needs could not be met by the traditional delivery model, so I was better able to participate in the discussion and put forward some ideas to the engineers when the new route opened, which made me more and more interested in this job. Luo Xikun said.

When it comes to the prospect of the profession of pilot, Luo Xikun is full of expectations, he said, the application of drones in the field of distribution is increasing, "At present, the number of orders in scenic spots and parks is very high, and drones solve the problem that ground distribution cannot be accurately delivered due to the large area of scenic spots; At the same time, we are also using drones to help hospitals send samples, and after patients collect samples at the community hospital at their doorstep, drones can send packaged test specimens to professional hospitals in batches for testing in just a few minutes, which not only improves the efficiency of testing, but also improves the patient's medical experience. Perhaps in the future, relying on drones, laboratory tests can also be like ordering takeout, and patients can enjoy the testing capabilities of large hospitals at home. Therefore, pilots have a lot to do, and the requirements for pilots will become higher and higher. ”

Luo Xikun said that from a rider to a pilot, in addition to matching his interests and increasing his salary by about 20%, his career plan is becoming clearer and clearer, "UAVs now have a lot of professional certificates for me to take the exam, and one of my wishes this year is to be able to take the UAV instructor certificate." ”

This edition of the article / this newspaper reporter Xie Li

Photo courtesy of Luo Xikun

(Beijing Youth Daily)