Engineering Spotlight: Chase Fiedler

VTI is thrilled to welcome our newest engineer, and first engineer dedicated to frontend development, Chase Fielder. Get to know a bit about Chase in this Q&A

What inspired you to pursue a career in this field?

I grew up building and flying radio controlled aircraft with my grandfather. Since middle school, I’ve been designing and building my own RC aircraft, and planned to go to school for aerospace engineering. I caught the computer science bug while in university, and though I was leaving the aerospace engineering path, I always wanted to find my way into the aerospace industry eventually. My first internship and first job out of college was with a startup called Skyward that dealt with drone fleet management. I enjoyed being close to the industry I loved, and was even more excited when I began to integrate with the drones directly. I’ve been trying to find my way back into the industry ever since.

What projects or achievements are you most proud of in your career so far?

While at Skyward, our parent company Verizon, asked us to propose a possible live demo for the CES keynote to show off their 5G network. In the span of a few weeks, we built-out a system whereby one user could design and upload a waypoint mission to another user’s ipad and drone. Our president handed Verizon’s CEO an iPad running our app on stage at CES, where he pressed the “Launch” button, while a live feed showed the drone taking off and flying the mission. Having a live demo go so well under all that pressure was super gratifying and remains one of the most exciting things I ever got to work on.

What are you looking forward to working on at our company?

I was impressed by VTI’s vision for aiding situational awareness in the cockpit. I know personally, I would want pilots to have every tool at their disposal to make aviation as safe as possible, and I’m looking forward to working with the team to make these tools effective, accessible, and ubiquitous.

What do you enjoy doing outside of work? Any hobbies or interests you’d like to share?

I like to spend time with my fiancé paragliding, rock climbing, snowboarding, building legos, and getting cozy in the cabin with our two year-old newfoundland.

What are you hoping to learn or achieve in your new role?

Overall, I want to work on something that at worst, makes a pilot’s job just that little bit easier. The industry has so many tools and safeguards in place already that help make aviation incredibly safe, but if my work can add just one more layer of protection, I would consider that a truly worthwhile achievement.