• Friday, July 11, 2014
  9:30 AM to 4:30 PM

• Sherman Island County Park
  West Sherman Island Road, 94571, CA

Full Meetup Link Here

From "Nerds-For-Nature" Meetup:
Fresh Sierra snowmelt and other runoff flowing down the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers meets the salty seawater of Suisun Bay near the Antioch Bridge. This tidally and seasonally shifting demarcation between the two major types of aquatic habitat is known as the Low Salinity Zone. The location of this freshwater boundary also determines how much water can be diverted to support agricultural production.

A near-king tide on Friday, July 11th (chart) in combination with the ongoing drought will bring the salt level closer to Sacramento than normal. To investigate this interesting situation we will join with the California Department of Water Resources, California King Tides Project, high school students, and citizen scientists to:

• Fly a small quadcopter that will land on the water to measure salinity, temperature, and flow gradients in this habitat transition zone.

• Use aerial cameras to image the area during high and low tides, which can then be processed into large highly-detailed orthomosaics as well as 3D-mesh photogrammetry models.  

• Bioblitz and otherwise observe and discuss the local flora and fauna to help understand the affected habitat.

• Try other fun apps and gadgets -- smartphone microscopes, electronic field guides, DIY water sensors -- bring it along and we'll try it out!

Join us for this historic gathering of students, environmental professionals, and nature nerds as we explore this rich and dynamic ecosystem!

I've noticed a trend - that many journalists are much more interested when an Editor-in-Chief of a long-respected technology and culture magazine quits his job to play with toys drones.  Also just heard a primer segment hinting at a bigger audio piece to be aired on Marketplace later today.

[audio https://googledrive.com/host/0B9L7Ju7dsRLVbEpGVlhxTkYtZFU/2013-01-08b-tcr.mp3 ]

"These days, we tend to think of "drones" in a military context. But drones are popping up in a number of fields, including firefighting and newsgathering. A new company that makes them is run by a former editor of Wired magazine and a 26-year-old engineering whiz from Tijuana. Reporter: John Rosman"

Original article

There was an ESRI (ArcGIS) conference in San Diego a couple weeks ago - videos of the plenary sessions have just come available.  

Notable is the UAV section of the mid-morning session - fast forward to minute 78:
http://videoembed.esri.com/iframe/1604/000000/width/480/0/00:00:00
(http://www.esri.com/events/user-conference/agenda/plenary-videos.html)

Several things were demonstrated, notably the live video feed connection to ArcGIS using an ESRI plugin called "full motion video add-in".

The connection is possible because of a metadata stream referred to as "MISB" (http://www.gwg.nga.mil/misb/faq.html).  I wonder how difficult this stream of data is to glean or convert using APM2 telemetry and a fixed camera?  (I suspect camera position is also worked into MISB data)

Has anyone tried this?  I'd like to try with the municipality I work for - but would love to not have to reinvent that wheel, also...
cheers,

jake

This seemed to get very little uptake in the mainstream media... perhaps for the better.  Nevertheless, I thought it was worth sharing here:

From the article:

Two Marin County men were cited by federal authorities over a drone helicopter buzzing around Alcatraz Island, the National Park Service reported.

The operator of the remote-controlled helicopter, which is equipped with high-definition cameras, was Devin Hedrick, an aerial photographer who lives in Greenbrae. Hedrick's service, Hover Effect LLC, offers airborne video and still photography for real estate listings, music videos and television shows.

On Tuesday, working from a boat on the bay, Hedrick was operating the electric helicopter for a client, Bruce Paquett of Sausalito, whose project involves images of Alcatraz. According to park service spokeswoman Alexandra Picavet, the helicopter, which has a rotor span of about 6 feet, was flying low around the island, frightening the birds and swooping over the tourists' ferry dock.

The U.S. Coast Guard, carrying a National Park Service ranger, approached their boat and confiscated the video. After watching it, the park service issued citations to both Hedrick and Paquett.

"Their own footage showed us what they were doing, which was scaring the shorebirds from their nests and getting too close to the people on the dock," Picavet said.

Hedrick was cited on suspicion of disturbing wildlife, operating aircraft within 500 feet of a boat dock, creating hazardous conditions and operating an aircraft within the Federal Aviation Administration-imposed closure of 2,000 feet above the island.

Paquett was cited on suspicion of filming without a permit.

Alcatraz is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which is managed by the National Park Service.

Hedrick, reached by telephone, said he thought the boat was 500 feet away.

"There certainly are some things I should have been more clear about, instead of just taking the advice of the boat driver," he said.

Hello everyone.  First - this is my first post, and this weekend (including today) marks my first flight(s)!

I'm thrilled, and having fun (mostly).  Here's my first ever flight:  (then my question)

Now, my question:

It would seem that every time the main battery gets low (I'm running two - one for AMP2 & receiver, and 4S for ESCs/motors) one of the props quits sending the copter into a death spin. I've been fortunate that only a prop & gear has busted on my two hard "landings" - but I can't believe that the proper behavior for low voltage is a death flip (one motor stopping).

So - can you help? Is there an audible alarm anyone has rigged for low voltage - i.e LAND NOW! ??

Thanks in advance for all the guidance paid forward and all to be received!

Cheers, jake in Sonoma County, CA