It took nearly three hours that morning to deliver the deck. The marker has been moved, the GPS is synchronized. The drone made a wobbly ascent and flew over the ground observer (referred to as a “crossing watch” by the flight crew), who was stationed in a truck on the road to meet FAA requirements for maintaining visual line of sight to the drone . It hovered briefly over the target and then dropped the cardboard package from a height of about 10 feet.
The experience “was really disheartening,” says the former employee. “But it was not unexpected. We had breakdowns almost every day.”
Lockeford, a town of about 3,500 people about 40 miles south of Sacramento, is built around light industrial shops, cherry orchards, nut farms, and strawberry fields. It was chosen as one of Amazon’s first two delivery locations because it is flat, close to an airport and usually dry, according to a former employee involved in the selection process. (The other live commercial delivery location, in College Station, Texas, was chosen for similar reasons, plus its proximity to Texas A&M, a university with a robust aerospace program.)
The first official drone delivery customer in Lockeford signed on for the service after Amazon promoted it at its children’s science fair in September 2022. He asked for anonymity due to his job in criminal justice for security reasons. He thought drone delivery might be the future: “And I’ll say to my kids, ‘You guys have the first ever Amazon drone delivery.’ A little cool bragging rights for them.
Later that month, an Amazon representative visited his home on Taylor Ranch Road, a five-house cul-de-sac. The representative surveyed the site – a 2 acre plot with a swimming pool, trampoline and chicken coop – to confirm that the garden had the necessary air clearance (no overhanging tree branches or power lines) and a 10 foot clearance to install a metal stake, a plastic plate with an Amazon logo on it and a landing pad with a QR code-like fixed marker that the drone would fly to before going down to drop. He signed a waiver requiring him and his family to stay out of the backyard during scheduled delivery times. Once approved, he received an email with a link to a private Amazon landing page listing items available for drone delivery: “Toothpaste, lots of condoms, that sort of thing,” he says.
The man’s actual first deliveries — an Amazon Fire TV Stick and a pack of gum received earlier that fall — were unofficial, as Prime Air had not received FAA approval to fly drones commercially. And after the December card game drop, he used the service again to buy a fridge filter, which arrived in an hour, as promised. Each time, a small fleet of Prime Air pickups with visual observers had shown up at his house to keep an eye on the drones. Deliveries are possible from Thursday to Monday, but not if it is raining or windy, which has been a constant in Lockeford this year.
In addition, retired Dan Zamarripa, also one of Prime Air’s first customers, says he used the service to buy batteries, moisturizer and a toilet handle. The reason Zamarripa continues to use it seems to have less to do with the luxury of an hour-long drone delivery, and more to do with the four $50 gift cards Amazon gave him — essentially free drone delivery credits — and a personal quest to help “work out the bugs.” When Prime Air employees come to his house to observe the drones, he talks to them. He says, “One time they were in 58, 59 minutes and I said, ‘You’re lucky I live down the street.'”
