Terry's Journey in Retirement

Chapter 574

1/1/2021

Drone

this opens up a whole new chapter

link to my First Drone Flight video

Colleen surprised me with this Christmas present and it could take over my life or at least could become a major hobby if I'm not careful.

This vehicle is highly rated for it's performance and outstanding built in camera with a half inch sensor on the free floating gimbal. Shot in 4K 60fps but Youtube max resolution is half of that at 1080p 60fps.

My iPhone is loaded with the DJI Fly app and mounted on topo of the controller. Thus I view and control on screen what the drone sees. I can change all the camera settings interactively. The mp3 video files are recorded on board in a tiny micro SD card that will hold hundreds of flights. A button on my controller unit in hand tells the craft when to record via the electronics. Downloaded files to desktop or computer I edit via Apple iMovie adding music from "a relative." It's not high level video editing but sufficient.

Yes, the DJI Mavic Air 2 UAV unmanned aerial vehicle is a Chinese product standing for Da-Jiang Innovations. Yes many Chinese products are shoddy, but not this one. Maybe they stole the technology; maybe they will use the technology for military applications. They are like all foreign countries: our adversary, our friend, our competitor.

I was flying in a "warning zone" on my first flight but using caution. Geo Flight Zones explained. Everything about a drone is extremely complex, however it's also very smart. I had Colleen launch and fly solo in just 3 minutes simply by pushing the stick forward. Another button will return to the launch site and land by itself. 

I knew well from kayaking about the nearby private low risk airport where private planes only occasionally take off and land on grass.

Since this is a small  (but not tiny exempt drone)  greater than  .5 pounds up to 55 pounds, I did register with the FAA very simply for $5 online.

I live in a similar warning zone for the high risk airport, Albany International right near the glide path yet I'm able to launch from the deck setting my controlled altitude to less than 300 feet. 

An attempt to photograph in the Vischer Ferry Nature Preserve a beautiful clump of tall pines covered with a recent coating of snow was foiled because it is in the "Authorization Zone" the inner circle and my drone software would not let it off the ground. I could have actually lifted off if I registered and flew with caution under a certain altitude.

This interactive Geo Zone Map   is right in the DJI display, I think better than the FAA ESRI ARC DATA website 

link to Airdata.com drone flight data imported

A unbelievable ton of data is generated from just one flight. Referred to this guy for advice on how to do it. I believe I found a way to clear the volume of data sent to my phone as it was interfering with the storage and iCloud limits. Only sent one flight up so far for data extraction of my 30 sorties. Youtube explains all.

Here is one of the myriad of the indepth data outputs from seconds of flight time, altitude, distance from home port and joy stick position.

A composite of more data output including weather, wind speed, battery voltage, etc.

Unbelievably Airdata.com was able to show data points of interest from my flight in 3d from the exact location of my flight...somehow ?