UCD ag engineering professor Ken Giles and colleagues have been testing a remote controlled helicopter for pesticide application in challenging terrain like hillside vineyards. 

I'd heard about this research and knew there was going to be a field demo at the Oakville Experimental Vineyard (UC Vit and Enol Dept) in the Napa Valley.  It sounded really interesting and I was hoping to be able to go but, unfortunately, duty called and I was I was out of town that day and not able to attend.

However, there was a nice article in the Sacramento Bee yesterday about the research (link here). 

Even better, the UC Davis News and Information Service posted a really nice article (WITH VIDEO) of the demonstration - click here for that link. 

Take a look - like me, you may find yourself newly noticing how lame and helicoptor-less your own weed control program is.  You can imagine a number of potentially interesting applciation in crop and non-crop situations with this kind of technology.  

Very cool research!  

Brad

Photo by Sac Bee photographer Randall Benton