Thanks for the analysis! It's a travesty that you and I aren't geographically close because I believe we would be fast friends. Ditto on your concise analysis of our situation, sadly. The Tetons have come up several times in our travel discussions actually, neither of us have ever been in that part of the country.
Thanks for the analysis! It's a travesty that you and I aren't geographically close because I believe we would be fast friends. Ditto on your concise analysis of our situation, sadly. The Tetons have come up several times in our travel discussions actually, neither of us have ever been in that part of the country.
Met a couple yesterday that were visiting from Dallas, and a gentleman that was visiting from Columbus who works with Honor Flight in Columbus while I was walking around here. Lighting in the third building is definitely noticebly different now.
It is with regret that I post that Lt. Richard "Dick" Cole has passed away at 103. All of the Doolittle Raiders are now reunited in the heavens. God speed Lt. Cole.
I was at the museum yesterday looking at the Doolittle exhibit, and this voice in my head said "I never thought I'd live this long to tell this story." Today, he has passed away. Godspeed Lieutenant Colonel Dick Cole.
“Gentlemen, I propose a toast. To the gentlemen we lost on the mission and those who have passed away since. Thank you very much and may they rest in peace.”
Today my assignment was 100% drone cinematography and it will continue for several more days as the winds and WX permit. Probably flew four hours today alone. This morning was perfection, Texas Blue laced with occasional Cirrus drifting through on light and variable winds. This afternoon was still very pretty but the winds were kicking up at 10-15. The Phantom sounds more like an angry hive than an angry hive when the winds head up. Four hours of drone work is pretty exhausting, but I have to say that it was gratifying to see how far my technique has come since I began flying them.
I was reminded of a quote from a buddy of mine who spent a great deal of time flying Phantoms (the F4 variety) in Southeast Asia. There were, apparently several flight regimes in which the Phantom would reach out and smite it's pilot if they weren't handled correctly. My buddy said that he was scared to death every time he knew he would be flying in that end of the envelope. He confessed that to the head of his squadron and his response was........"If something terrifies you it simply means that you haven't spent enough time there..........." Kind of how I feel about drones
Looks like you handled it well. No blood drawn and good smooth video👍👍. Maybe time to up the game to the Inspire Series🤑🤑. The ability to swap lenses and achieve unbelievable stability in the breezes will set it’s hook in deep and quick.
Good Morning Mike! Yes, thanks! The P4P behaved perfectly even in the elevated breeze that showed up in the afternoon. Today is forecasting winds 25G35 so I think I'll rest on my laurels I found myself a bit hamstrung by battery life yesterday. I have five batteries but with that much back to back flying you go through them pretty quickly. I ordered three more chargers from B&H which will allow me to keep the pipeline full, probably should order a couple of additional batteries as well.
Funny you should mention the I2, I was doing some in depth research last night on it. Would you recommend the 5s or should I bite the bullet and go all in with the 7s? A couple of things got me thinking in that direction yesterday. First, I have an increasing workload for my drone, and the additional wind capability would make it more usable. Truthfully, the biggest factor that kept popping into my mind was, as great as the P4P is, in the client's eyes it looks like a unit from the shelf at BestBuy. I would guess that showing up with a loaded I2 is a bit of a game changer and, at least impression-wise, separates the men from the boys. My client dropped by a couple of times yesterday and I kept thinking, "Is he thinking I can pick one of those up at the local hobby store and do this myself for much less than Jim charges me." I gotta believe that those thoughts don't pop up when an I2 is in the air. The additional capabilities with interchangeable lenses, retractable gear, almost double the resolution, kind of make it an appealing acquisition for the kind of work I'm doing and who I do it for. You definitely take that "Oh, I got my kid one of those for Christmas last year......." off the table.
I thought of you yesterday Mike, thanks for your encouragement on the drone front!
On the way home from work today, I swung back by the museum. Luckily for me, I have to drive by the museum on my way back and forth to work, and when I'm done in the mornings, if I want, I can go by
I went today to get a picture of the memorial out in Memorial Park, but went inside to get a map of the park. The volunteers told me there'd been a wreath put up by the indoor exhibit, so I had to go there too.
That's encouraging, thanks for your insight and kind thoughts. So now the question is (and I'll have to somehow restrain myself a bit) if we stay in the center of Paris, is there french countryside that we should see and photograph? How might one do that efficiently? We probably don't want or need a vehicle most of the week.
Jim, not sure if your time will allow, when we (me and my family) were in France 8 or 9 years ago, I made sure we went to see the American Cemetery in Normandy. It was a sober experience. I am glad my kids could see the sacrifice the Greatest Generation made to keep the world free.
Personally, I enjoyed Prague more than I did Paris...
First Pic here shows Omaha Beach, obviously not the way it was on D-Day. I am taking the picture atop a concrete bunker that reflects its field of fire as horizontal to the approach of our Soldiers. Nowhere to get cover.
Second picture depicts the bunker on top of which I took the prior picture.
Third picture, the price of Freedom. "They will never grow old."
Jim, you are wise to keep the P4P in the hangar with a breeze like that in the forecast. I have 4 batteries for mine and try not to do marathons like yours. Mine has been neglected since the Inspire 1 & 2 followed me home. If you want to make an impression, they are the way to go. Better resolution, choice of lenses, greater stability in wind etc. I flew down to Orange County for a job and the customer’s face showed what was on his mind. I gave him what he asked for with the P4P but let him know later that it has been replaced with the Inspire 1 & 2. (They both take the Olympus mft lenses.). Being primarily a still photographer they meet my needs. The X7 and it’s proprietary set of lenses is a spendy package. The Super 35 Sensor shines in the video department with Pro-Res and Cinema Raw licenses (add $1500) And don’t forget the Cinestation and a handful of DJI SSD’s to get the most out of it. All in all the X7 is an expensive proposition. The Inspire 2 with the X5S and 12, 17, 25, & 45mm Olympus lenses makes a stable and reasonably affordable package. Sadly, even the Inspire 2 with dual batteries can’t match the battery life on the P4P but it is close. You can move up to the Inspire 2 with the X5S camera and upgrade to the X7 later if the market demands it.
Jim, I don't have experience with drones, but if you go with one that use Micro 4/3 mount, feel free to ask around for suggestions and opinions on available lenses, a few of us have knowledge in that area
Either the regs changed or I misinterpreted something that I read a while back, but yesterday I received an email notifying me that I needed to do 24 month recurrent training to maintain my commercial UAS certification. I had a little time so I clicked on the link, did the FAA review, took the recurrent exam and baddabing/baddaboom, good for another two years. There has been a tremendous amount of progress from the FAA on the drone front, I have never seen the Feds move this rapidly on anything before. I guess if an industry has enough money behind it, things can get done. Six years ago at the Denton Air Show there was an FAA guy who had just had Drone regulation dropped in his lap, at that point it was somewhat equivalent to being sent to Siberia it seemed. I asked him how the FAA was going to contend with tens of thousands of drones flying around the airspace, his answer was, "smother them with regulations!" His opinion was that they just could not let it happen. Fast forward to 2019 and the multi-billion dollar drone industry, money does indeed talk.
