The Sight Picture Podcast

Kevin Padilla
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The Sight Picture Podcast is a podcast about aviation and the people who make it work, from the flight deck to the ground station. Host Kevin Padilla is the founder of AeroVis Drone Solutions, a veteran owned aerial services company, and a career aviator with a background in military aviation, helicopter air medical operations, flight instruction, and unmanned systems. The conversations here run the way aviators actually talk to each other. Honest about the work, specific about the details, and free of the polish that usually gets applied when a camera is on. Guests come from across the industry. Line pilots, mechanics and maintainers, dispatchers, air medical crews, instructors, safety and quality managers, drone operators, and people building the hardware. Episodes cover flying careers and how they get built, decision making and human factors, safety management systems, airspace and regulation, training pipelines, and what it takes to move between the manned and unmanned sides of the business. Unmanned aviation is a large part of the show, because that is where the industry is expanding fastest. Subjects include photogrammetry and mapping, infrastructure and energy inspection, agriculture, public safety response, event and executive protection, hardware development and 3D printing, and counter UAS detection and support to protection teams. The show also covers how unmanned systems are reshaping modern conflict, with guests who have operated in contested environments and can speak to what this technology looks like when the stakes are real. This is built for pilots at every stage, aviation professionals outside the cockpit, commercial drone operators and program managers, transitioning service members deciding what comes next, and anyone who buys aviation services and needs to know what a disciplined operation looks like. The title comes from the operating concept. Beyond visual line of sight is where aviation stops being casual and starts demanding real planning, real procedure, and real accountability. That is the altitude this show flies at. An AeroVis Drone Solutions Production. More at flyaerovis.com.

Episodes

  1. Nov 1

    From Military Aviation to Drones: What Carries Over? | Eric Jameson

    What carries over from military aviation into civilian drone work? In this episode of The Sight Picture Podcast, I sit down with Eric Jameson to explore that question through his experience in Air Force intelligence and the drone industry. Eric shares how he learned to make technical information useful to the person receiving it, and what happened when he brought military debrief habits into a civilian business meeting. We also discuss how he evaluates drone companies and why understanding what a customer needs from the data should come before choosing the aircraft. The Sight Picture Podcast An AeroVis Drone Solutions Production Industry forecasts and manufacturer assessments reflect the speakers' views at the time of recording. This conversation is not current legal or procurement guidance. Chapters 00:00 Introduction: what carries over? 01:37 Eric's Air Force path and mission planning 10:13 Learning unfamiliar jobs and translating experience 15:20 Building a drone program and finding your strengths 20:11 Making decisions, mistakes and useful debriefs 23:45 Evaluating drone companies beyond the aircraft 27:15 What distribution adds for manufacturers and resellers 34:22 Building demand for a drone product 40:05 Reseller requirements and training standards 43:20 Eric's view of DJI and the wider drone market 46:48 The changing operator role and useful drone data 51:08 Recognizing veterans' skills and closing thoughts

  2. Oct 6

    Life After the Military: Building a Future in Drones | Chris Lewis

    Chris Lewis spent his military career learning to work as part of a team. Then he got out and had to figure out where he fit. That transition is the heart of my conversation with Chris on the next episode of The Sight Picture Podcast. We talk about how his service shaped him, what the move to civilian life actually looked like, and why he built Vets to Drones to help other veterans find a path into the drone industry, from training all the way through business development

  3. Sep 18

    Why Drone Operators Lose Jobs | SkyyTask Founder Geno Costello.

    Geno Costello was selling houses when he picked up a drone. Not to become a drone operator, but because the listings he was working could not be understood from the ground. What he learned inside his own industry became SkyyTask, a platform that connects businesses who need aerial work with the pilots who can do it. We sat down with Geno to talk about what he saw from above that changed how he sold property, why he built infrastructure instead of scaling his own operation, and what breaks when you try to build a marketplace in an industry this young. Then the part every operator should hear: what a losing bid looks like to the person who sees thousands of them.

  4. Sep 7

    From Su-24 Navigator to FPV Drone Pilot: Inside Ukraine’s Drone War | Sight Picture Podcast

    Yehor wanted to be a pilot from the time he was old enough to know the word. He earned his way into the Ukrainian air force academy and finished it, then flew the Su-24 and the An-26. That is the whole dream, start to finish, and he was living it. Then the war came and he walked away from the cockpit to go stand with his brothers on the front line. He volunteered. His wife was expecting their child and she did not want him to go. He went anyway, and she stayed with him through all of it. They are still together today. On the front he started flying drones, and the men around him could not make sense of it. A real pilot, an academy graduate with fixed wing time, sitting in the dirt with a controller in his hands. To them a pilot was someone who lived at an airfield and flew things with people inside. To Yehor it was the same job with a different aircraft, and the mission in front of him was the one that mattered. In this conversation Yehor walks through the path from the academy to the front, what transfers from crewed flight to a small unmanned aircraft under fire, and what does not transfer at all. We talk about how quickly the drone side of the war moves, what the men in the field figured out on their own without a manual, and how you keep your standards when nothing about the environment is standard. We also talk about the cost. The decision he made at home, the version of himself that came back to it, and what it takes to hold a marriage together while doing this work. Yehor is the kind of aviator this show exists for. He built the career the hard way, and when it counted he put it down and picked up the mission that was in front of him. An AeroVis Drone Solutions Production. More at flyaerovis.com. Send me his last name and callsign if you want them in, and confirm the paragraph about his wife is cleared with him before it publishes.

  • 4 Episodes

About

The Sight Picture Podcast is a podcast about aviation and the people who make it work, from the flight deck to the ground station. Host Kevin Padilla is the founder of AeroVis Drone Solutions, a veteran owned aerial services company, and a career aviator with a background in military aviation, helicopter air medical operations, flight instruction, and unmanned systems. The conversations here run the way aviators actually talk to each other. Honest about the work, specific about the details, and free of the polish that usually gets applied when a camera is on. Guests come from across the industry. Line pilots, mechanics and maintainers, dispatchers, air medical crews, instructors, safety and quality managers, drone operators, and people building the hardware. Episodes cover flying careers and how they get built, decision making and human factors, safety management systems, airspace and regulation, training pipelines, and what it takes to move between the manned and unmanned sides of the business. Unmanned aviation is a large part of the show, because that is where the industry is expanding fastest. Subjects include photogrammetry and mapping, infrastructure and energy inspection, agriculture, public safety response, event and executive protection, hardware development and 3D printing, and counter UAS detection and support to protection teams. The show also covers how unmanned systems are reshaping modern conflict, with guests who have operated in contested environments and can speak to what this technology looks like when the stakes are real. This is built for pilots at every stage, aviation professionals outside the cockpit, commercial drone operators and program managers, transitioning service members deciding what comes next, and anyone who buys aviation services and needs to know what a disciplined operation looks like. The title comes from the operating concept. Beyond visual line of sight is where aviation stops being casual and starts demanding real planning, real procedure, and real accountability. That is the altitude this show flies at. An AeroVis Drone Solutions Production. More at flyaerovis.com.

Information

  • Creator
    Kevin Padilla
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    4
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Kevin Padilla
  • Show Website
    The Sight Picture Podcast