Entering China
The roar of the rotor rotation became louder and louder, and with a “whew”, a plant protection drone left the ground and quickly flew over the wheat field, and a thin cloud of water mist sprayed out from under the fuselage and gently fell on the green wheat seedlings. At half past seven in the morning, in Yixi Village, Qingxia Street, Dayi County, Chengdu City, Sichuan Province, 29-year-old Zhou Mengxin stood on the field, focusing on controlling the flight and take-off and landing of the drone. Not far away, Zhou Mengxin’s husband, Sun Zhongchi, also skillfully controlled another drone, deftly bypassing the power lines and spraying over the wheat field.
Spring is getting stronger, the temperature is rising, and the prevention and control of wheat rust in Sichuan has reached a critical time, and the “post-90s” couple (referring to professionals who use drones for agricultural pest control) to start the new year’s “farming” mode and show their skills on the field.
High efficiency depends on machines, but also on people
4 minutes, 24 acres, this is the operation efficiency of Zhou Mengxin’s plant protection drone flight, which is worth the workload of traditional manual labor for a day. After the 4-minute operation was completed, the plant protection drone returned to the supply point accurately, loaded with pesticides, and soared into the sky again.
“Time is money, and high efficiency depends on machines, but also on people.” Zhou Mengxin said that although the spraying efficiency of plant protection drones is extremely high, their load is limited, and they need to frequently return to the supply point to replace pesticides and batteries, which is a great test of teamwork.
“Others say that we are a ‘husband and wife’, but they don’t know that our team is still a ‘father and son soldier’.” Sun Zhongchi laughed and said that it was his father and father-in-law who were assembling pesticides and batteries at the supply point. During the operation, the 4 people are pinned with walkie-talkies around their waists to communicate at any time and supply remotely, which greatly saves time and effectively improves the efficiency of the operation.
To ensure that nothing goes wrong, they also meticulously check whether the drone arm is stable, whether the fan blades are running smoothly, and whether the sprayer sprays the exact dose before each operation…… Every night before going to bed, the couple has to plan the next day’s homework schedule to ensure that the time is used efficiently.
“Generally speaking, two pilots in charge of our farmland may only work five or six hundred acres a day, but we can do seven or eight hundred acres.” Zhou Mengxin said proudly.
It’s a husband and wife, and it’s also a partner
Now, the couple has stepped into the drone plant protection industry for nearly 3 years. When it comes to their first encounter with drones, they still remember it vividly. At that time, Sun Zhongchi was still working in Tibet, and during a casual chat, he learned that his friend’s company was very short of flying guards, and the prospects of the drone plant protection industry were very good. Do you want to take the opportunity to change careers? He hesitated, but he didn’t expect that when he said to his wife Zhou Mengxin, who was doing odd jobs in his hometown, his wife not only supported it, but also proposed that she should also learn drone piloting.
“It’s better to choose a promising industry and master a craft than to wander around.” Although Zhou Mengxin, who was born in 1996, is two years younger than Sun Zhongchi, she is always the one who is more decisive and able to make decisions in the family.
In drone operation, Zhou Mengxin is also quite talented, and he soon became a teacher. “The first drone our family bought was for me, and when I became proficient, I gave my husband the same model. At first, he studied for a week, and he was very careful when operating, flying slowly, and I was anxious to look at it, and he was always there to tutor him by hand. Zhou Mengxin recalled with a smile.
In the face of his wife’s ridicule, Sun Zhongchi always responded with a smile: “Sichuan men rake their ears, and they have such a good wife and such a powerful partner.” ”
Knowing that her husband’s waist is not good, Zhou Mengxin will take the initiative to take the initiative when mixing pesticides, while Sun Zhongchi will assign some flat wheat fields to her, and he will be responsible for those areas that need more movement. With mutual understanding and cooperation, the two gradually formed a tacit cooperation model. Zhou Mengxin drove the model with a stronger load capacity to spray over the flat farmland; Sun Zhongchi, on the other hand, flexibly controls the lighter aircraft to shuttle through the scattered farmland with complex terrain and many flight obstacles.
As night fell, when they returned home from a day’s work, they would sit side by side, sort out and analyze the data together, review whether there were any deficiencies in the day’s work, and discuss the problems they encountered. “We are both husband and wife, and we are very satisfied with such days.” Zhou Mengxin said.
More load, more happiness
“At present, there are 3 UAVs with a load of 60 pounds at home, which is the basic model that accompanies us through the novice period, and one was bought a year ago, with a load of 120 pounds, and the requirements for flying defense hands are higher, which is a confirmation of our technological growth, and next month, we expect to purchase a more difficult new model.” When it comes to the parameters of plant protection drones, the couple are like a few treasures, their eyes are flashing with love and confidence, and behind them is the transformation process from a raw hand to an expert.
Now, looking at his wife’s familiar appearance when operating a drone, Sun Zhongchi can’t help but quip: “Who would have thought that in the 10 days when she first got the drone, she blew up the plane (due to improper operation or machine failure and other factors caused the flying model aircraft to fall to the ground abnormally) 3 times, and each time she went to learn how to maintain it by herself, and then she flew better and better, and she couldn’t blow up the plane once a year.” They not only have to improve their flying skills, but also learn agricultural knowledge, know when to spray what pesticides, how to accurately proportion, and flexibly adjust the proportion of pesticides sprayed in flight to ensure that the accuracy is in place.
“Go to the fields more, communicate with the farmers, and learn more about agriculture.” These three sentences have become the “operation guide” that the couple taught to the flying defense fighters who came to “learn from the experience”.
Zhou Mengxin’s social media search records are full of knowledge about drone flight. Speaking of his current work and life feelings, Zhou Mengxin blurted out – “Proud! She said that she felt that her life was like a model of a drone, with more load and more happiness. Now that I have a skill, I have a small team to protect the farmers, and I am happy and the farmers are also happy. Zhou Mengxin said.
At the same time, a beautiful “space dream” is sprouting in the heart of their 6-year-old son, which is the “seed” that has been sown after countless times of seeing his parents operate drones in the field. Looking at his son’s longing eyes, Sun encouraged him to study hard, and perhaps in the future he could fly drones and build them himself.
