About

Location

Cape May, NJ


About Me:

I am a retired firefighter and writer with a background in education, fire-training and SAR. I've wanted to learn to fly fixed-wing aircraft most of my life, but never had the time, or money (having a family and putting the kids through college) to take the required lessons. Looks like this hobby might just be the next best thing for me to explore!


Please tell us a bit about your UAV interest

As far back as I can recall... I've been captivated by flight. As a young boy I was actually given the opportunity to help my neighbor and his son construct, from scratch, a home-built (passenger) airplane they designed and successfully flew for several decades. Over the years… I’ve taken to the air at every opportunity, but I’ve never been able to get enough time in flight. I’ve built a few RC, balsa aircraft and enjoyed flying some ’store-bought’ models with the family when the children were younger. Now… I’d love to explore the ’higher technology’ aspects of the hobby and at some point, build a drone of my own. I was always fairly skilled with tools of all kinds and as a result, became increasingly involved with creative experimentation and attempts at modification and invention of all sorts of things. I’m most ‘at home’ designing, building, or tinkering with some project in my shop and now that I’ve entered the ‘ranks of the retired’, I’d like to focus on ’flight’ once more. It may well be that the computer-based technology which drives the innovations of drone-flight is beyond my immediate grasp, but I’m still hopeful that my interest might bring me closer to understanding it all. It sure seems to be an exciting hobby. I can’t wait to begin learning from the folks here and who knows… maybe at some point I’ll be able to share what I’ve learned to help others with their endeavors.


Activity Feed

Kevin Solar commented on Euan Ramsay's blog post Yesterday the highs...today - the lows...
"Wow! That is a shame. Sorry for such a bad crash. On the bright side... quite a bit can be learned from a crash. The more of these experiences we have the better we get at avoiding them in the future."
May 30, 2013
Kevin Solar commented on Michael Edwin's blog post New Training Center & Testing Grounds for 3D Robotics/DIY Drones Coming Soon
"While at: http://www.suas.mx/training--testing-facility---mexico.html
I was trying to look at the way the curriculum was designed, but I discovered the site is pretty much password protected. Hummm..."
May 30, 2013
Kevin Solar commented on Bob Doiron's blog post My PVC V-Tail Quad
"Bob...
This looks very much like a quad-frame my daughter and I built in 2010 with 'left-overs' from a home plumbing job! Very nice!"
May 30, 2013
Kevin Solar commented on Chris Anderson's blog post Flight of a "Cyclocopter"
"Just a follow-up I came across while researching a Boeing project...
(5-17-2013)
Cyclorotor Earns Top Honors for 2013 Service Academy Engineering Capstone Project Competition
 
According to an article at: …"
May 30, 2013
Kevin Solar commented on Joshua Ott's blog post Thirty Days (#19): Office IR
"Perfect for Fire and SAR applications!"
May 29, 2013
Kevin Solar commented on Acorn's blog post My First DIY Quadrocopter - Part Three (The Maiden Voyage)
"Getting your son directly involved makes the experience even more awesome! Keep up the good work!"
May 27, 2013
Kevin Solar commented on Dries Raymaekers's blog post Drone mapping in Peru
"Especially enjoyed the images of the Caral Archaeological Site! "
May 26, 2013
Kevin Solar commented on Jack Crossfire's blog post 3 axis brushless gimbal
"Highly impressive!"
May 25, 2013
Kevin Solar commented on Chris Anderson's blog post Interesting-sounding drones conference in NYC in October
"Nice to see something like this being held on the east coast! Not too far from my neck-of-the-woods. Interesting."
May 24, 2013
Kevin Solar commented on Chris Anderson's blog post Flight of a "Cyclocopter"
"Interesting post. It got me reading more on the topic.
While I’m certainly not suggesting that the ‘cyclocopter concept’ has any particular advantage over more traditional designs… there still exists an intrinsic value to looking under and around as…"
May 23, 2013
Kevin Solar commented on Joshua Johnson's blog post DIY Drones News - Weekly #1 - Venturing Forward
"Thanks for the nice comments, folks. Much appreciated!"
May 23, 2013
Kevin Solar commented on Joshua Johnson's blog post DIYDrones Chat Feature Info
"I think being able to select a 'chat' environment, for realtime discussion, can be a big plus. If it can work for folks without negatively impacting upon their other forum experiences... I feel it's a great option. "
May 15, 2013