While preparing for our vacation in North Carolina, I packed my lightweight inexpensive HD camera quad, hoping to get some interesting video and still shots. Unfortunately, a hard landing early in the week caused one of the blades to bend, and I forgot to pack spares. Thankfully, with my little quad, the blades are lightweight plastic, and easily bend back into shape, allowing it to be flown again almost immediately. Unfortunately, the bent blade led to jello on any videos I took the rest of the week. But, I did manage to capture some still shots at a little park where we stopped one day. My son loved the train, and I loved taking a some shots of the train. If you look in the lower left corner of the picture, you can see part of the HeliStorm family as well.
While flying on my vacation, I imagined what my son or daughter might have at their disposal when they take their families on vacation someday. I can envision a time when small lightweight UAS are carried around in much the same way pro-sumer cameras are today. Easily controlled, these, "personal drones," will become invaluable to the amateur photographer, and it will not seem unusual to pull out a cellphone sized flying camera, get a few cool aerial shots, and be on your way. I think larger UAS will have their place in commercial applications, but I also think we have yet to envision what people will develop as the technology becomes smaller, smarter, better, and cheaper.
If you would like to see a few other aerial shots from my vacation, and read some more of my late night ramblings, you can check out my webpage here.
Thanks for reading!
Comments
l have no problem with small quads, in fact I seem to have a false sense of safety flying them sometimes up close to my self.
If anyone cares to look, I have added a couple more shots from my trip. The second row of cloud photos were taken in North Carolina, in the backyard of my sister-in-law's house. One of the stops on our tour of the Tar Heel State.
http://neverscenesolutions.wordpress.com/2013/08/01/storms-seen-fro...
Thank you TCIII. I take that as a great compliment. I think I may start adding a, "safety precautions taken," section to the bottom of posts. While some will always find fault, it may alleviate some concerns of those viewing, and maybe give others a moment of thought regarding their flying.
@HeliStorm,
I like your flying philosophy. I wish that all R/C pilots could be as thoughtful, then our hobby would have a lot less problems with the public and the government!:-)
Regards,
TCIII ArduRover2 Developer
CliffN...I have spent more time than money currently, on building a micro-sized quad for aerial photography. One smaller than my current setup. The quad used here carries my HD keychain cam a good 7 minutes without issue. My micro can carry my stock HD keychain cam for about 90 seconds before dying, and it is only slightly bigger than a cellphone. I could strip the keychain camera of its case, and may do that eventually, for additional flight time, but I have also been looking into better motors, and an upgraded FC. Basically, I need to rebuild it from the ground up.
TJIII...I will ask him. I brought up the guy with his toy because he is the opposite of how I want people to view me. He has no apparent concern that his toy could easily hurt someone. Any place I have flown, I have asked permission first. Most people when I explain my safety concerns, and especially upon seeing the small size of my quad, say something like, "that thing? Sure, go ahead." In fact, the guy I asked, in the museum attached to the park in this post, said he has seen people fly sport kites there without asking permission, and he saw one of those smack someone in the side of the head. He felt those were likely more dangerous than my quad, but there are no ordinances, so they continue flying.
looks interesting always thought micro size quad doing aerial photos just about anywhere
@HeliStorm,
It sounds like you have given some forethought to the possibility of a crash and you have taken steps to minimize any potential damage which is good.
I would check with your insurance agent to see what coverage they may recommend for your multicopter. I know that you can buy public liability insurance for model R/C planes.
Regards,
TCIII ArdurRover2 Developer
To give an idea of size, my whole setup, including camera, is less than a hundred grams.
TCIII...thanks for the advice. I give thought to my flights before taking them, and proceed with as much caution and forethought as possible. The quad I fly is extremely lightweight, and I consider it to be safe for this type of flying. I am thinking long and hard about moving up in size with this hobby, because I want to feel free, and safe to fly almost anywhere. The bigger the multirotor, the less I will fly, I imagine. I have flown larger CP helicopters, and have mostly abandoned them due to lack of confidence in my piloting skills, and lack of space to fly them.
What type of flight insurance would be recommended by the community? I know asking the guy who flies his massive 3.5 channel coaxial toy at the playground won't get me an answer, as he likely doesn't carry insurance for flying. Seriously, that thing is as long as my kid is tall, and he has it out all the time. But, that flying meat cleaver is just a, "toy," according to him. A bit of digression there, but I would love to assure people I have safety in mind, insurance included, when I ask if I can fly somewhere other than wide open spaces.
Sorry,
A possible word of caution here.
Since you might or will be flying over public property and near other visitors, it might be wise to ensure that you have sufficient property damage and personal liability insurance to cover any damage that may occur if your mulitcopter goes out of control and possibly crashes. An accident of this sort could ruin a really good vacation.
Just a thought.
Regards,
TCIII ArduRover2 Developer