I have been smitten with the whole idea of being able to see the world from a new perspective.
As an amateur photographer and videographer the very notion of having a unique vantage point a hundred meters or so above my subject is nothing short of breathtaking!
So far I have picked up a couple of these "drones" and will putting together a DIY project once the bloody parts arrive from China. Patience is a virtue of this hobby. One must exercise it frequently between legislative rulings, crashes and shipping from the remotest regions on earth.
On the positive front the good people at Transport Canada have relaxed their guidelines regarding the use of these aircraft. The news broke last week and I am very pleased with their sensible ruling. 2KG and below are good to go! Just exercise a little sense, no flights into airports, above prisons, large crowds are anywhere likely to confuse traffic. If commercial, get a flight permit. Seems reasonable to me...
Today I am looking around the house for items to make my first FPV ground station. I have a number of cases that can be repurposed, a few laptops and some 7AH SLA 12 volt batteries. This site has been instrumental in my decision to make such an item and to building my own drone.
Creating hundreds of videos for my YouTube channels is also a favourite past time. Now that I can fly my cameras the videos have taken on a new life. People from nearly every walk of life are excited about this growing hobby and terrified.
Media tends to cover the stories of conflict with the hobby. A drone crashed here, a drone outside my window, town votes to make location a no fly zone with a bounty on small aircraft by offering licenses to hunters who shoot them down. These are the type of scare stories I see in the mainstream media. Hardly a balanced representation of the hobby.
My personal experiences regarding this hobby have been wholly positive. It is a rare event to find someone who is not amazed by the concept of aerial photography/videography. However, I have had the odd run in and so have my friends (what few I have...LOL).
My Blade 350QX took off from my yard a week ago and decided to do what it sometimes does, land somewhere else! I grabbed my iPad mini and iPhone and decided to go look for it (of course). I pull up Google maps and located my area and make an educated guess as to where it might be based on my last visual and the slope of descent. I have the area narrowed down quickly and start the search.
The first area is a company. I head straight for the office and have a word with the staff, letting them know my predicament. They are very receptive to my request and give me some guidelines to avoid any legal issue. Stay outside the fenced compound so on. I search and find nothing.
Adjacent to this location is a lane with a driveway.
I cross the lane to ask for permission from the home owner and he meets me in the drive very irate.
He asks me about the camera on the aircraft and starts accusing me of spying on his property. He tells me he has the aircraft and I thank him but reads me the riot act anyhow.
The funny part is, the aircraft landed in the lane, not really on his property. I was not "spying" on his property and like I said, it landed in the lane, not his yard. I had not made any attempt to trespass because I am always willing to let someone look for things on my property as long as they tell me.
Some people really are paranoid or suffer from a functional mental illness. More on that term in a later blog...
When I played back the video (which I have net yet released) it was his aim to keep my aircraft and was quite snarly about it. My business cards plainly mark the aircraft top and bottom and I live less than half a kilometre from the person. He and his cohort were going on about spy craft and property trespass and such.
My naivety must be legendary because I would see no reason to keep such an aircraft or item that has subsequently landed on my property. He must be a relative of "Boo Radley". I did not think these people really existed, my bad.
So if a plane crashes on this fellows property I guess he will be looking to keep it...
In the end, reasoning with a person of this sort, who has abandoned reason is a bit like giving medicine to the dead.
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