Young man pilots drones to fly into career that delivers

SHENZHEN — After bouncing around through various gigs since the age of 18, Luo Xikun has finally landed his dream job — flying drones in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong province.

Now 31, Luo has already participated in the development and testing of 18 drone express delivery routes for Meituan, a leading Chinese e-commerce platform.

Luo started as a kitchen assistant, and later became a food deliveryman at Meituan. While working, the young man kept studying in pursuit of a bachelor's degree.

Curious about mechanical devices since childhood, Luo had always hoped to find a job related to mechanical operation. He decided to give it a shot to fulfill his longstanding dream when Meituan started to recruit drone pilots among the company's food deliverymen in April 2022.

After more than a month of intensive theoretical and practical training, he passed the professional exam on drone piloting by the Civil Aviation Administration of China and achieved the qualification certificate. He was then selected to be an emergency drone pilot for Meituan amid fierce competition.

Since then, both his work environment and life track have undergone great changes. "I used to spend 8 to 10 hours a day on roads delivering food. Now I need to think and learn constantly, otherwise I will not keep up with changes."

He studied previous flight cases and summed up the experience regularly. "Flying is not a small thing, and it allows no mistake," he adds.

With accumulated drone delivery experience, Luo recently transferred to a new position focusing on the drone flight test and new route exploration, which led him to a fantastic place — the Great Wall.

"I never thought that my first time of climbing the Great Wall would be as part of a team launching a drone route there for express delivery," he says.

On Aug 16, Beijing launched its first drone logistics delivery route in the Badaling section of the Great Wall, which enables tourists to receive summer relief items and emergency supplies within minutes. A single trip to the spot used to take around 50 minutes on foot.

Before the launch, Luo and his colleagues spent half a month conducting surveys on the route. Every morning, he started climbing the Great Wall at 6 or 7, taking about 40 minutes to reach the preplanned drone landing site to commence his work.

To Luo, it is "a challenging but exciting experience". Previously, drone route planning and testing was mostly conducted in cities where there was no altitude difference between takeoff and landing sites. However, this route along the Great Wall would have an altitude difference of 200 meters.

The fickle mountain climate, such as high winds, sudden hail and rapidly enveloping fog, also posed challenges to the survey and test flights.