Had a great trip. Flights all on time and no problems with LiPo batteries. Security checkpoints were smooth although TSA should standardize their sensitivity of the equipment used. If my belt does not set up any alarms in Tulsa it should not in Seattle. Not the case. Took time lapse videos at the cabin as well as some outdoor stabilized footage on the Osmo pocket with some Pano shots I’ll be posting as soon as I get home. I’m in Denver for the next few hours right now.
Edit later!!
Heading to Seattle Tomorrow for the Lodge at Mt Rainier. Be there for a week with everyone including my Brother. Should be a really good time. Taking my Mavic Air along for the ride.
Yes, previously I have said how much I love my DJI Spark. Flies very well. I had some problems but those were in each case, my fault. I was able to fly my new drone, the Mavic Air on Friday evening when I arrived home and the rain and wind had stopped.
I had been told the Mavic Air was very loud, the WiFi connection wasn’t that good and the range was bad etc. etc..
I’m here to tell you that all of those negative statements are far from the truth. The drone flew wonderfully smooth compared to the Spark, The Mavic Air was actually quiet compared to the Spark, not much but was quiet. The Wifi was clear with a great signal without my range extenders. I took a short video which I will post here tonight when I down res to 720p, currently it is 4k.
I LOVE it and can’t wait to bring it to the mountain cabin.
Last day of Christmas Vacation is tomorrow and back to work on Wednesday. This years vacation was absolutely fantastic. 18 days off and I did just about nothing except play a bunch of chess and kick back. I purchased tickets to Seattle for Me, Rick and Lindsay for a weeks stay and also for time at the cabin at Mt. Rainier.
For my Christmas present I purchased an Osmo Pocket and a Mavic Air. I have not flown the Mavic yet as it has either been raining or too freaking cold.
I played around with my GoPro Hero 5 and did some time lapse of me making dinner. Prep, Cook cleanup and presentation was about an hour+ in real time and three minutes in the time lapse. It looks pretty cool.
I’m wining just about every game of chess with the SquareOff at level one, I might move up to level 2 tomorrow.
I’ll take some pics of the new toys tomorrow and post but in the mean time I’m going to enjoy my last day.
I must plan my time well in order to keep in shape which means riding my bike and working out on the Total Gym which I have ignored for a long time (Not much room for it). Time to get ready for my trip to Seattle as well.
With regard to that I purchased tickets for me, Rick and Lindsay last Saturday and Dad is looking forward to it very much.
I have never been one to get very sick during the cold and flu season until last year when I was sick for about two weeks straight. Now this time it has been over two weeks and I’m still not completely well.
T’was the Thanksgiving holiday time the last four days and it was relaxing. That means I did nothing, no exercise or anything but this was only because I was SICK the entire four days!
Yes, I was sick the entire holiday time. I had to skip dinner with friends and could not taste anything until last night around 4:00 pm. There was no really good eating, either good for me or good tasting. I am officially not giving any vitals today as I know they won’t be the best.
I came close to losing my Spark again. I went flying Wednesday night and I don’t think the batteries were up to the flight. They were charged but I think the cold weather got the better of them. Anyway about eight minutes into the flight the drone became a bit unresponsive and started to land where she was. Not far away and not any kind of hard landing, just wend down in what looked like a grassy area. I quickly left and headed out toward where I thought it was and ran into a couple that had found it. Fantastic of them, just asked if I was looking for anything and handed it over. I did lose the battery though.
I made some Tater tot Casserole during the holiday weekend, one was made on Wednesday evening but by that time my taste buds were so far gone I had no clue if it turned out good or not. I made the second yesterday and by the afternoon I could taste and was pleasantly surprised by my creation. Not really my creation but one I found online. I’ll edit with the picture I took before placing in the oven.
I have been sick all week. These people at work, they think they are being good for the company by coming to work sick and they give all us health folks the flu, colds etc.. I think I’ll make the comment during the next staff meeting. If you are sick, DO NOT COME IN TO WORK!
Vitals first then pics
Vitals this week:
I had an interesting weekend of flying. I had done all my pre-flight checks, batteries, props, drone body, memory card and everything else I could think of except….. you’ll see..
I started the flight around 6:45 am on a beautiful Saturday morning. It was a little chilly but by batteries were kept warm and just charged the night before. My controller had the parabolic range extenders on and I was on my was to fly over the top of my normal flight area. I lingered around over the flight area, turned to the right towards the freeway (I do not fly over the freeway, just turned towards the freeway). I kept turning toward the right and was heading toward another flight area of mine all the while keeping the drone within visual range. I had been flying for approximately five minutes and this is when the fun started.
My phone died! Yes, the one thing I did not check was the battery level of the phone.
My screen went black and after a little panic attack when the phone died I lost visual of the drone. I kept calm and mashed the RTH (Return To Home) button and prayed… After about two minutes I heard the drone flying over head and then it dropped down out of the sky right where it had taken off from. Missed a little and crashed through the branches of the tree but all was good. I charged up my phone and flew again about tree hours later.
Below is a picture of when signal was lost from my phone and then the crash.
My new toys
Vitals: