Obviously, the notion that we “infiltrated” the 3DR facility in San Diego is nothing but a filmy excuse for me to use all of the video filters that came pre-installed with my copy of Pinnacle Studio 15. We were actually welcomed with open arms by Joseph Aletky, the company's director of flight operations, who had introduced us to the Iris the prior year in Las Vegas.
Joseph also arranged for us to get an Iris+ to test out, which you saw on our YouTube video way back in December – so we think of him as a good friend to the crew. After he sees this video, we'll find out whether or not the feeling is still mutual.
An interesting bit of back story on this video: although we only got around to releasing it today, it was actually shot prior NAB. While we were exploring the factory with Joseph, Techinstein spied a 3D-printed prototype for an unfamiliar quadcopter, with what appeared to be a top-mounted battery. Of course, now we know it as the 3DR Solo.
Another interesting fact: this 3DR facility is located just a couple of miles from our good friends at GoProfessional Cases, and representatives from the two companies meet regularly, which is why there is a GPC case ready to go just as soon as a new 3DR bird is released.
One of the highlights of our visit to Southern California earlier this year was having the opportunity to visit our good friends and sponsors, Rick and Beth, at GoProfessional Cases (http://goprofessionalcases.com/). I also thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to prowl around on their factory floor, and watch how their very excellent multirotor cases come together – from digital designs to precision-cut foam with their trademark blue cap.
As is usually the case when I visit a factory, I came away impressed with the awesome power of the machines that they use (and their potential for mayhem – check out the “Convoluter!”)
If you notice that I seem a bit obsessed with water-jet cutting throughout this video, there is a reason behind my mania. We had just been at AMA Expo prior to our visit, and it was disingenuously insinuated by a party who shall remain nameless that cutting foam with water somehow made the foam “wet” – and gave it the potential to damage your drone.
First of all, that's straight-up nonsense... I'm sure the sponge you keep in your kitchen sink gets wet when you use it, but then it dries out and it's dry again – this foam is no different (except that it doesn't soak up water like a sponge – but you get the idea). There is no “magical water” that somehow remains hidden inside the foam, waiting to ruin your flight control system, just because the foam was cut using a water jet.
The fact it's nonsense aside, I was personally offended because I consider Rick and Beth and everyone else at GPC to be my friends. They are our sponsors, so I respect you for being skeptical regarding my judgment in this matter, but I tell you with the utmost sincerity that you couldn't hope to meet more wonderful people.
I've known them for more than two years now, and in every instance I've ever seen, they've done the right thing for the right reason. To know that someone would stoop to a whispering campaign about how water-cut foam is dangerous for multirotors really annoyed me.
So, I definitely went into this video wanting to set the record straight on that point. Hopefully, I was successful, and didn't drive you to distraction by saying, “So, isn't it true that water-jet technology really is the greatest thing since sliced bread?” every 30 seconds.
As you can see, our whirlwind adventure at the New York City Drone Film Festival (http://www.nycdronefilmfestival.com/) is at its end, and we're back at home in Portland, Oregon. Courtesy two external, 32,000 mAH batteries, I was able to keep my laptop alive for the entire duration of our flights both to and from the East Coast to have this video ready for you to enjoy upon our return.
Although our schedule didn't leave much time for sightseeing, we had a great trip to New York and the film festival became a sort of living “Who's Who” of the unmanned aerial photography community. RotorDrone has pulled together a collection of links to all of the winning videos, as well as some still photographs from the event, which you can see by following this link: (http://www.rotordronemag.com/nyc-drone-film-festival-winners-announced/).
As you saw in the video, we got to speak with and seek advice from lots of people who attended, as well as catch up with old friends and meet some people in person with whom we only had the opportunity to interact with online up until now – like Steve Cohen of NYCDUG (http://www.meetup.com/nycdug/) and the team from RotorDrone magazine (http://www.rotordronemag.com/).
Left on the cutting room floor on this outing was our very good friend Rich Hanson of the Academy of Model Aeronautics (http://www.modelaircraft.org/). We got an interview with him during our trip to the Seaview Rotary Wings RC Helicopter Club (http://flysrw.com/) in Brooklyn and the wind got so bad that the audio was unintelligible. Sorry, Rich! Fortunately, we'll have an opportunity to catch up with him again in two weeks, at FlySafe (http://flysafetraining.org/) in Atlanta.
Having those tickets gave us the privilege of “walking the red carpet” – being announced and standing in front of a backdrop festooned with sponsor logos while people photographed and videotaped us. My plan for capturing that moment succumbed to an interlocking series of failures, which is why I had to dream up that intellectual property rights canard you saw in the finished video. Anyway, it was fun – and if you possess imagination sufficient to picture us standing in front of a backdrop festooned with sponsor logos, then you didn't miss anything.
There is one more thing to call your attention to in this video: the last two minutes and 40 seconds. It's a time lapse “oner” that includes views of both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans as we depart New York City and land in San Francisco.
All the credit for this goes to Techinstein, who set up a Mobius with a suction cup mount prior to takeoff and kept it rolling the whole time we were in the air using an external battery. We were blessed with clear skies across most of the country, so you can see a remarkable amount of detail on the ground.
Finally, we've got a couple of still photographs to share from our brief, fabulous trip to New York City:
That's yours truly, along with Beth and Rick from GoProfessional Cases. For some reason, Rick and I are holding NYCDFF cupcakes, and I never got to eat one!
Techinstein did get to eat a NYCDFF cupcake. He poses with it here, moments before devouring it. Is it just me, or is Techinstein a magnet for photo bombs?
It's all about the swag! If you imagined I was going to leave the theater without a commemorate ball cap and t-shirt, then you don't know me very well!
We pause for a photo out in front of the theater with David and Sarah Oneal from “That Drone Show.” It was wicked cold outside, but Sarah stoically refused to put on a shawl or a jacket – staying committed to her little black dress until the final interviews were in the can.
This holiday season, the number one gift under the tree is going to be a multirotor: large and small, for children young and old. This is a sure sign that our passion for this technology is going mainstream. In the long term, this is great news: the more people who have first-hand experience with these systems, the easier it becomes for us to argue for their safe, beneficial and non-intrusive use in society.
However, in the short term, it means that a quarter of a million novice pilots are about to take to the skies. Here at the Roswell Flight Test Crew, as enthusiasts and proponents for this technology, we feel that we owe it to them — and to ourselves, and to the future of this industry — to do everything we can to help them get started on the right foot.
Therefore, today we are launching “Drone for the Holidays” (www.dronefortheholidays.org), and we're hoping that you will join us to offer these new multirotor pilots in your own community a few hours of orientation and basic training.
If you'd like to sign up to hold an event in your community, follow this link: http://bit.ly/1CziKvV
The goal is a nationwide effort, set to occur on Saturday, January 3, 2015. Whether you're a local Academy of Model Aeronautics flying club, a Drone User Group Network chapter, or just a group of friends who enjoy this fast-growing segment of the RC community, we hope that you'll join us to make this project a success.
This will not only help these new pilots learn to fly in a safe and responsible manner, but the scope and scale of this undertaking will prove to the Federal Aviation Administration and other critics of this new technology that we, as a community, can come together and regulate ourselves without heavy-handed rules and restrictions imposed from the outside.
Here is what you need to do to participate:
Find a location to host the event, such as a local museum of science and industry, or even a gymnasium at a school in your community. During the holidays, there are going to be plenty of spaces like that available.
Use this form (http://bit.ly/1CziKvV) to tell us a little bit about yourself and your event. We promise to keep all of your information confidential.
The Academy of Model Aeronautics will send you a packet of membership brochures for you to hand out at your event. By getting these new pilots to join the AMA, we'll ensure that they continue to have access to good training and safety information, and build up our political clout in Washington, D.C.
We'll make up customized flyers and handouts to help you get the word out, and send them back to you in .PDF format. Follow the links above to see samples of what they'll look like.
Take the flyers and handouts around to local hobby shops and toy stores in your area, and asked the proprietors to steer new multirotor owners to your event, so that they can learn to fly safely.
We'll also send you a media kit to help promote your event, including a draft press release and letter to the editor in .DOC format. Customize them with the information about your group and send it out to the local media in your community: television, newspapers and radio stations. Not only will they help you get the word out about your event — they may even want to interview you about the hottest gift of the holiday season!
Use the hashtag #holidaydrones on Twitter to share information about how your event is coming together and to build awareness about the project.
Along with the media kit and flyers announcing your event, we'll provide you with handouts for the day of the event itself, so people have something to take home and refer back to when they are flying.
On the big day, get together as many skilled RC and multirotor pilots as you can. Bring along as many docile, palm-sized aircraft and simulators as you can get your hands on and have fun. You're sure to meet new friends and most likely find new members for your club or group. Tweet early! Tweet often!
Make a record of how many people turn up for the event: experienced RC pilots serving as instructors, as well as how many people show up to participate. Tally adults and children separately, so that we can show we're bringing the next generation up right.
Shoot some video of your event. Most likely, your cell phone is capable to capturing HD video and that will be just fine. Go on camera and tell us who you are, where you are, what you're doing and how many people showed up. Make it fun! We'll collect video from everybody and put together a wrap-up piece on the Roswell Flight Test Crew YouTube channel.
These are exciting times for the hobby drone community and RC flying community as a whole – become part of it by signing up to host a Drone for the Holiday's event today!
Follow this link: http://bit.ly/1CziKvV to register to host an event in your community. Questions? Send us an e-mail at:
As regular viewers will recall, we met up with Joseph Aletky from 3D Robotics at the FlySafe training event held earlier this year in Las Vegas, and he gave us a sneak peek at the company's new Iris Plus quadcopter.
Just recently, he managed to send us a demo unit to try out for ourselves, which is actually the very same aircraft we saw in Las Vegas, as it happens. Alas, we have to send it back to the mothership now that we're finished putting this review together for you – which is a shame, because I really like this bird!
You're not going to tear up the sky with it, but it's a very graceful camera ship and as you saw for yourself in the video, it is capable of producing some extremely smooth footage.
Also, we just barely had time to scratch the surface of the autonomous flight mode – but clearly there is a rich trove of capability there that elevates the Iris Plus from being a mere “toy” to a potentially useful tool for a range of professional aerial imaging tasks.
All of that in a lightweight, RTF package that can be yours for $750. To kit it out like the one you saw in our video – with the GoProfessional case, the FPV monitor and the GoPro sports camera, along with a couple of other accessories – would set you back more like $1,800.
That's not cheap, I realize, having once purchased a full-sized, manned automobile for $300 myself, but for that price you're ready to travel the world with a robust, real-time aerial imaging tool tucked inside your luggage.
Not bad – and if you'd suggested that you could have such a thing for $18,000 five years ago, they would have looked at you like you were crazy. It's enough to make you wonder where we'll be five years from now...
