Chung Jui-hsin’s (鍾睿昕) career flying drones has sent him around the world, including to Turkey, where he was invited to perform a drone show to celebrate the country’s Republic Day.
Twenty-seven-year-old Chung studied information management at university and worked part-time at a drone company checking that the batteries of each drone were installed correctly, before graduating in 2019.
It was this trivial job that led him to work for a drone company in Dubai and perform in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates over the following three years, he said.
Photo courtesy of Chung Jui-hsin
After programming their routes, lighting and special effects, he can control 500 to 1,000 drones at the press of a button, Chung said.
The job requires him to work long hours, and he mainly practices at night to make sure the audience is taken by surprise during a show, he said.
The main challenge is managing the precise timing of the drones and responding to unexpected situations, he said.
Precision is everything during drone performances, Chung said, recalling a New Year’s countdown event in Dubai last year when he and his colleagues had to rehearse 10 times and calibrate the timing with the DJ.
While performing abroad, communication has always been an uncertain factor, he said.
While he could communicate in English in Dubai, as there were many migrant workers from the Philippines, not many people in Turkey and Pakistan spoke English, he said.
Sometimes the translators they hired were unable to translate technical terms correctly, he added.
Other problems included being held up for hours before being allowed to perform at a military school, which left him little time for rehearsal, he said.
When he performed in Istanbul, the humidity at night forced the team to keep wiping the drones down before the show to prevent them from malfunctioning, he said.
“Adapting is of utmost importance in this job. It cannot be completed by simply sticking to plans,” he said, adding that there are no standard operating procedures.
Chung said his parents have been highly supportive since he embarked on his career, cheering him on at performances in Taichung, New Taipei City, Nantou County and Yunlin County.
However, his parents were reluctant for him to work in Dubai as they worried that they would be apart for too long, he said.
He said he finally convinced his parents by telling them: “I should go out and see the world while I am still young.”
Working with clients from around the world and exploring new places during his free time has expanded his horizons, Chuang said.
However, he has also felt helpless when encountering setbacks, but could not tell his family and friends in Taiwan due to the time difference, or if he could not fully express himself in English to his friends in Dubai, he said.
When he called home after a performance in Istanbul, he heard his father proudly say to another person that “my son is in Turkey,” and his eyes filled with tears, he said.
Along with a relatively handsome salary and opportunities to perform around the world, his enthusiasm for drones and support from family members and audiences are what motivate him to forge ahead in the field, he said.
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