Last week, I was in Autryville, watching a drone competition. That is misleading. I was maybe five miles from Autryville. The place I was at, known as TRC — which stands for “The Range Complex” — has an Autryville address. Autryville is in Sampson County, barely. We were in rural eastern Cumberland County.
Normally, when I am in Cumberland County, I am visiting the Army and Fort Bragg, which is the economic engine that has driven Fayetteville and the surrounding counties for a century. Where I was for the drone competition was a little less than 20 miles east of Fort Bragg, across I-95.
If you are going to fly a lot of drones, it helps to be away from things. When I left the paved highway and swung onto the gravel road into The Range Complex, the road went on and on, through fields and woods…