The Drone Ranger
The Drone Ranger
Eddie Hanebuth, the Drone Ranger of Alabama and your Southern Alabama drone pilot.
Folks say there’s a masked rider in the skies over Southern Alabama… and his name is Eddie Hanebuth. With roots in both Mississippi and Alabama, Eddie knows Gulf South hospitality: show up, shoot straight, and treat folks right.
Before he ever saddled up a drone, Eddie started Digital Quest in 2000, which had offices at NASA’s John C. Stennis Space Center. There he produced over 17 books, all software tutorials, mostly on Geographic Information Systems (GIS), plus one on robotics, one on motor control, and two on 3D printing. He led a team of writers and personally wrote, edited, produced, and marketed the books. The SPACE/STARS series was the educational part of a U.S. Department of Labor apprenticeship program.
That background in GIS, mapping, remote sensing and geospatial technology makes him a natural fit for aerial work. He’s spent years looking at the world from above; now he just gets to fly there.
Eddie joined Technical Training Aids (TTA), founded in 1963, back in 1988, and helped start its industrial division, Prototyping Solutions, in 2002. He is retiring at the end of 2026 as an independent contractor, stockholder, and officer of both. Plenty of folks would kick back on the porch. Eddie? He’s saddling up a new adventure: The Drone Ranger of Alabama, launching in the first quarter of 2027.
His trusty steed is the DJI Air 3, a dual-camera drone that shoots 4K video. Whether it’s a listing in Gulf Shores, a roof in Mobile, a build site in Baldwin County or a wedding in Fairhope, the Drone Ranger rides in, gets the shot, and rides off into the sunset. Hi-yo, Drone-er! Away!
A sampling of the GIS and geospatial software tutorials Eddie produced at Digital Quest.