I am a professional when it comes to building drones ―David Opateyibo, drone builder

David Opateyibo is a professional drone builder who built his first drone at 16. In this interview by ENIOLA OYEMOLADE, he talks about how his love for drones started, the challenges he faces and how drones have proven to be an important asset.

As a young child, David Opateyibo was a technical savvy person. He was technically inquisitive, loved dismantling electronics and used to build toy cars and boats. Little wonder when he later fell in love with drones and wanted to fly. He got to know about airplanes, and there was no day that passed that he would not come out to see airplanes fly.

He conducted researches and he came across radio-controlled aircrafts and also got to know about drones. Over the years, growing towards that line and pursuit, he started building drones and learning from different sources.

When Opateyibo was 16, few months to his 17th birthday, he built his first drone from scratch. He attended an aviation school where he studied aircraft building technology, then his school partnered with Lagos State Polytechnic (LASPOTECH) and the former governor of the state, Akinwunmi Ambode was coming to the school and they needed to display something; something different from what they would normally display.

“So they came to our school and came up with an agreement that we would build a flying machine. I wasn’t the one that was supposed to build the drone, but something came up, so they needed a fast route to go about it. We had some drone component available, so I just took some wood, plywood and others to build it because we had a deadline. The person that was supposed to build it couldn’t make the deadline, so I had to improvise. Before then, I had been working on model aircrafts and learning about drones.”

Opateyibo is a member of Nigeria Unmanned Systems and Robotics Association (NUSA), which like every other organisation, regulate its members and help in brainstorming on how the technology can move forward, among others. They also serve as the middle man between the regulators and the end users, which is those who are flying the drones, building the drones; between the regulators and the experts.

When he is not doing anything related to drones, he takes courses, he read books about business and drone technology, he plays keyboard and he does a little bit of graphics too.

“I offer piloting services to people, I fly drones, I repair drones that are damaged; I also provide responsive and professional training as regards drone flying.”

He studied aircraft building technology from the International College of Aeronautics and he has a diploma in applied aviation science, piloting and maintenance. He has a ground school certificate which is airplane piloting from Gleim Aviation, USA. He has a remote pilot/drone license from Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), USA, which means he is a US certified drone pilot. Born and bred in Lagos State, Opateyibo is also a drone technology expert.

 

The challenges

Just like every job has its challenges, Opateyibo also faces some challenges, such as getting components.

“Most of these components are not manufactured in Nigeria, so we have to order for them. Then, the naira to dollar conversion rate was not helping because it made most of these components, which ordinarily should be cheap, very expensive. I had to save up a lot for a long period of time before I could get certain things. Now, it’s actually getting easier, but when I first started, it was not so.”

Opateyibo also had mentors and guides when he first started building drones. So when it came to technical issues he couldn’t solve, he would reach out to them and they would give him support.

On how he gets funds to build drones, Opateyibo said he used to use the savings he got from his pocket money, stipends and gifts gotten from people.

“As I grew up, I started offering my piloting services for others. The money I get from those jobs was being pushed into getting components for the drones.”

 

Drones, 21st century solution to 21st century problem

To Opateyibo, drones are special because he believes in using 21st century solutions to solve 21st century problems and that is what makes drones stand out, unlike the archaic method of carrying out different things.

“Drones actually bring a lot of things to the table. Depending on the industry, drones can actually improve the accuracy if you are collecting data, increases your safety if you are working in the inspection industry for instance, you don’t have to go close to chemical plants and you don’t have to climb high rise buildings to carry out some things. With drones, you will also be able to gather data real time. You will be able to communicate with your team members real time and once you get the data on the field, you will be able to transfer it to people.

“Drones also save time. For big companies, such as oil and gas or chemical plants, in the past when you want to carry out inspection, you need to shut them down. But now, even without shutting them down, you will still be able to carry out the inspection. It will save time and in the long run, help the company to be productive. You will be able to carry out inspections more efficiently, easily and faster.”

He also believes that building drones and using drones will provide job opportunities for a lot of people, as it is still a virgin industry when it comes to Africa.

“It will help in the economical development of the nation. One of the core pillars of developed nations is technology. When we embrace the technology, our country will go forward.”

Opateyibo believes in being the solution to people’s problem. He also sees himself as someone who can help out to solve the problems of people through the means he can, and for now, it is using drone technology.

He, however, debunked the rumours that his drone is the first-locally made drone in Nigeria.

“I guess it only stuck with people because of a media release. People had been building drones way before me. What made mine peculiar was that it was the first drone to be built in LASPOTECH to showcase to the governor.”

 

“I became an instructor while studying how to make drones”

Opateyibo noted that he didn’t go to school to study drones. He attended the International College of Aeronautics where he studied aircraft building technology and airplane piloting. He had been into drones before he went to the school, so because of this, he had a certain level of knowledge about aviation and flying machines.

“So when I got to school, most of the things we started with were like revision for me and since I was passionate about flight, I was able to scale through the courses because they were not new to me to some extent.

“When it came to being an instructor, it was more like helping my instructor to serve as a guide to others to those who were having challenges and those who could not understand during the class sessions. I was like an assistant to the instructors. Along the line, I grew to become an instructor.

He said being a student instructor wasn’t all rosy because he had to break his time between helping others and focusing on his studies, but he still loved it because it opened a lot of opportunities for him and gave him access to things he wouldn’t normally have.

“Studying at this college helped me in drones. When talking about drones, we are talking about aircrafts too. The aviation industry encompasses both manned aviation where we have pilot flying the drones and flying the aircrafts like we see in the airport. It also cuts across having drones where the pilots are not on board the drone. Drones are aircrafts, airplanes are also aircrafts and they are both in the aviation sector. What I learnt gave me more knowledge because I had a bigger picture of what the aviation industry looks like.”

 

“I am a professional when it comes to using drones”

Asked if he is perfect when it comes to building drones, Opateyibo said “I won’t use the word perfect, but I would say I’m a professional when it comes to using drones and that is because I believe there is still more to learn and learning never stops.

“As far as building drones is concerned, I’m on a good level, but there is more to achieve and I see myself achieving and learning more and doing more with building drones. For now, most of the drones I build are not as advanced as I want them to be so I’m looking into developing more advanced drones that will solve more problems.

“When it comes to the cost of drones, the word expensive is relative. What is expensive to an industry may not be expensive to another, which is why we have different drone platform to solve different problems. I can have two types of drones that are for inspections, one is $1,000 and the other is $5,000. The problem I’m trying to solve will determine the drone I will go for. When people say drones are expensive, we explain to them that this is the problem we are trying to solve and this is the drone that will help you solve the problem. So in the long run, do you think the cost of the drone is high compared to the problems it will help you to stop? Let’s say you are doing an operation, and in using drones, it will save you for example, $10,000 and it took you $2,000 to purchase the drone. If you are looking at the cost, you can be saying you don’t have $2,000 to purchase a drone, but when you look at the advantage that it will bring in productivity and profitability, then it’s a fair play.

 

“Government can support us by providing basic infrastructure”

“In building machines and technology in general, one of the things we need when it comes to government support is paving way for people to have access to what they are supposed to have access to. This means basic infrastructure.

“Once you have basic infrastructure, every other thing will fall into place. Nonetheless, I don’t believe in waiting for the government to do these things. If they are going to support us, fine. All we need is basic infrastructure such as electricity, good data connection, and regulations that support the growth of this technology, not regulations that kill it.

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