Foreign captain quits pilot job to work as a farmer in Vietnam

Surprise decision!

At 3 a.m., Mr. Richard Emuel Jones and his wife, Ms. Pham Thi Thuy Quyen, struggled to carry a drone (remote-controlled aircraft) weighing dozens of kilograms onto an off-road vehicle to move to a cashew orchard in Binh Phuoc province. Today, Mr. Richard had a contract to spray pesticides for a cashew farmer here. Due to the mountainous terrain, the vehicle carrying the drone had to be very careful and could not go fast, so he and his wife had to wake up very early.

Mr. Richard climbed up the scaffolding to personally control the helicopter to spray pesticides.

Mr. Richard looks much younger than his 59 years. People who first meet him cannot believe that he is a senior captain of international airlines. Born in Honduras, an island nation in Central America, Mr. Richard Emuel Jones became a pilot very early. At the age of 19, he took part in his first flights. At the age of 27, he was granted a captain's certificate and for more than 20 years after that, he was the main pilot of international airlines. Recalling his time as a pilot, Mr. Richard said: I used to fly for airlines such as TACA Airlines, IndiGo Airlines, and most recently AirAsia. At that time, I mainly flew the Malaysia - India route, which is quite close to Vietnam, so I had many opportunities to visit your country. I have traveled to many places in Vietnam and found that agricultural production here is very diverse and rich. However, farmers have not applied much technology to production and still do it in a traditional manual way. Since then, I have cherished the intention of doing something special for this country.

In 2018, Mr. Richard came to Vietnam to attend a cosmetics fair. He found an interpreter, who was Ms. Pham Thi Thuy Quyen, his future wife. That was also when Mr. Richard confided in his investment plan in Vietnam: Establishing a unit providing remote-controlled aircraft systems, spraying pesticides for agricultural production areas, helping farmers save costs and especially limiting harmful effects on health.

His wife advised him to consider carefully, because the pilot job was bringing in a stable income of tens of thousands of USD per month, the working hours were spaced out and it was not as hard as working in the fields. At that time, Mr. Richard also received an offer from Maldives Airlines, followed by an invitation from Vietnam's Bamboo Airways. However, his decision was surprising: to give up all the attractive jobs to fly Drones in Vietnam. At that time, pilot Richard Emuel Jones' total accumulated flight hours were 21,000 hours, of which 14,000 hours were spent as a captain!

Earn 1/10 of a pilot's salary, still choose Drone

In 2019, Mr. Richard began to import the first Drones to Vietnam, the most expensive one costing up to 500 million VND. He began to feel the difficulty in accessing the procedures to request permission from the management agency to take off the helicopters to spray pesticides. Not only that, changing the awareness and working methods of farmers is the biggest obstacle. Mr. Richard shared: Agricultural production cannot lack the care and spraying stages. Using Drones brings many benefits to farmers, spraying faster, saving more water, the Drone control system is flexibly programmed, detailed observation by camera and satellite application. Thanks to that, Drones can avoid obstacles, spray more thoroughly in areas with many pests, and most importantly, save costs for people up to 60%.

Former international airline captain passionately talks about Drones

According to Mr. Richard, in the world , agricultural production areas apply Drone technology to production, but in Vietnam, farmers do not understand it. Once, Mr. Richard and his wife were operating a spraying plane in a garden when the garden owner's wife observed for a long time and then asked to stop spraying. She thought that the spraying plane did not wet the plants, it was not effective!

The terrain of the production area in Vietnam is also not flat, so to control safely, Mr. Richard has to assemble scaffolding and climb very high to observe. The work is dangerous and hard, but Mr. Richard is still enthusiastic to go everywhere to contact farmers. from the Central Highlands to the Southeast border. Many times it was so hard that his wife, Thuy Quyen, wanted to give up. But Mr. Richard told his wife: Don't make me choose.

Talking to us, Thuy Quyen - Mr. Richard's wife - confided: I also don't understand why my husband is so passionate about Drones. He said that if he could only earn 1/10 of his pilot income from Drones, he would continue doing it. When the pandemic happened, I thought he would give up, but in the meantime, he took advantage of the time to study for an international Drone certificate. He said that there will come a time when Drones will become popular in Vietnam and management regulations will be more stringent, so we need to prepare right now!

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/co-truong-nuoc-ngoai-bo-nghe-phi-cong-di-lam-nong-o-viet-nam-1851432783.htm