Glorious!...

First, I should dedicate yesterday morning's videos to Alpine ski jumpers everywhere.

 

After getting advice from Thomas A. Edison, I modified the skids so the camera wouldn't see them, then went to the Valley of Fire.

 

When this drone photography works, it's awesome. The learning curve is steep, but the payoff is worth the pain.

 

I think.

 

 

That was in an open area a half-mile or so from Elephant Rock. When I tried to film the Elephant itself, the Phantom couldn't see enough satellites to navigate. So it sat on the road, searching the sky,  until I gave up and moved. Sigh.

 

 

From this open area along the road, the Phantom was able to lock onto enough satellites to look back fondly as I steered it.:

 

 

 

This is indeed a Valley of Fire. This is looking East, across Elephant Rock; in the distance is a portion of Lake Mead. Beyond the lake lies Arizona.

 

 

This does show what the drone can do.  Having spectacularly colorful parks nearby helps a lot. I still a lot to learn, though.

 

The adventure continues. I hope.

 

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Making progress slowly...

I'm sure Thomas A. Edison had days like this. You think of a way to stabilize the Phantom on landings (it has a tendency to tip over on its nose), and think you know just how to solve it.

 

I attached some long skids. They stabilized the landings just fine, but:

 

 

Let's call that an Ooops. Fortunately, Calico Canyon is near my home, so I can go back with the new, more spread skids and shoot it again.

 

These hills are the back side of the Calico Hills overlooks on the ten-,mile drive through Red Rock Canyon.

 

 

Edison would be proud. Proud, I tell you.  I have also developed a highly sophisticated and therefore proprietary viewing system so I can keep some of the !#!$!%!^! sunlight off the cell phone screen (the Android is clamped inside the box)

 

 

 

The offending skids actually worked brilliantly on this landing, but--now I have curved the front ends wide to see if I can retain that benefit but get them out of the videos.

 

 

Perhaps Mr. Edison will drop in and help?

 

 

 

 

 

Wheeeeeee!...

Had a coaching session this morning with Jason from Drones Plus. Very valuable.

 

Then I went to my very own (borrowed) helipad and launched!   Selfies are now passé, dronies are the new new thing.

 

 

The Gimbel system on the Phantom's camera is very impressive. If you hover the drone, you get a pretty steady video image:

 

 

But enough of me. I then took the Phantom over to Calico Rocks in Red Rock Canyon, where my kids have enjoyed happy climbing. The biggest problem still is making out the image on the Android screen in bright sunlight. Jason tells me everyone struggles with it.

I would have liked the camera angled a bit higher here (and could have done it with the touch of a fingertip), but couldn't see the problem til I got home.

 

 

Further up the road is another overlook of the Calico formation. Now that I've had a try at these cliffs,  I'll get them again on a day with proper sunlight and more piloting experience.

 

 

 

I'm still trudging up the learning curve, but I can see the sunlit uplands now...

 

 

Look, Ma! I'm a bird!...

This was my third day of flying the Phantom and first day working the on-board camera. I took it to nearby Red Rock Canyon, and let 'er fly!

 

 

Since I'm still a newbie, I did some unambitious hovering and panning, just to get the idea of the camera's powers and controls.  I only used the joysticks--I'll move up to the gyro control soon, where just moving the Android phone steers the drone..

 

After the video of the take-off, I tried a still photo:

 

 

Pretty cool. Then I went back to video, hovered at 200 feet or so, and slowly panning across the scene.

 

 

Inevitably, we have to land, so fasten your seat belt and let's go for it!

 

 

Of course I stuck the landing. Ye of little faith lost again. Captain Sully Sullenberger II knows what he's doing.

 

Well, let's not get carried away here. At least he has learned some basics. I'll try new things and places and build my flying skills. It's like buying a terrific underwater camera but not having the diving skills to get close to the marine life.

 

More adventures to come!

.,

Finishing the first-flight story...

After I posted the first portion of the initial Phantom flight, some wag (you know who you are) suggested that I hadn't posted the rest because the landing had been ugly.

 

Au contraire, bucko! Captain Sully Sullenberger II brought all souls aboard home safely, as you see here in the final portion of that video:

 

 

The wind is strong today, so I'm grounded, but I'm looking forward to the first camera run.

 

By the by, the toughest problem so far is that the camera controls on the Android screen are impossible to see in bright sunlight. I even made a hoodie out of cardboard, but the image still drowns in glare. More work to do on that.

 

 

 

 

The Journey of a thousand miles...

...begins with a baby step like this. I took the new Phantom out for an initial short, cautious flight this morning.  It was a pure pleasure:

 

 

 

 

It helps if one remains a perpetual adolescent, of course. In me, they have their perfect pilot.

 

The staff at DronesPlus here in Vegas have been invaluable. They patiently led me through the usual beginner confusion, so that I can start using the camera next time I take the drone out.

 

More adventures ahead!

The view from the sky...

After visiting all of the scenic wonders I've explored in the past few years, I realized that another dimension could be achieved by flying a photographic quadrotor. The technology is now vastly improved, and offers a breakthrough in scenic photography. 

The problem is, if you crash a DJI Phantom Vision 2, you make a very expensive pile of junk.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESKl2dza16U I hate to see a grown man cry, especially if the man is me.

So, I'm in the training-wheels stage, flying a little Hubsan X4 to understand how to control these very sophisticated beasts.

 

 

It would, of course, be much easier if I were fourteen years old. I'm not. So I will work my way up the learning curve.

 

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step...