Additional Pics - New Tent - From the Air

dmassey321

Had fun with the drone today as well. 

Cyclonic

Pretty cool, takes nice photos.

Playc

Cool photos.   Did you take them from drone? 

RollingLagrima

dmassey321 said:

Had fun with the drone today as well. 

Where else do you use it to take photos? Those are really clear.  I would like to take aerial photos near lakes/oceans. It is hard to learn to maneuver without tons of crashes?

USWildflowers

Were you able to drive stakes into that gravel driveway? Otherwise, how did you stabilize the corners of the tent?

ChanW

Hmmm...

I can see many uses for a drone while camping.

• Scope out the best campsite while in the office registering
• Park it over the showers/latrines to see when they're not occupied
• Collect firewood
• Look ahead on the trail for bears
• See if there're any blueberries left at that prime blueberry spot
• Wait to leave til the dump station is vacant

I gotta get me one of those! B-)

Nomad

Chan - Be aware that many campgrounds disallow them. All National Parks have banned them. The FAA is formulating regs/rules but they're not there yet. Also, one problem with drones is limited battery life so limited flight time. I'd love to have one but the flight time has me holding back.

ChanW

Good to know.

Not sure yet what my feelings will be the first time I see one overflying my nice quiet, rural, private, home and property. The guy with the lawn mower next door is bad enough. And the guys with the ATVs zipping up and down the road.

Rural ain't what it used to be.

Drones could change the whole picture of privacy, so to speak.

USWildflowers

I know what my feelings will be if my private property is overflown. Unfortunately, my shotgun is out of service.

ChanW

Well, with the fact that they often have a camera on board, it might be hard to avoid the felony charge with the shotgun approach!

Mouseketab

I worked on a proposal for Texas A&M and our company for the FAA Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) Test Site program. Yes, the FAA has 6 test sites across the country now for testing UAS. Both commercial and military. They are coming!

Nomad

Carol - Went by the test areas in ND a few weeks ago. UofND is a big aviation university and lots of tech startups in Fargo concentrating on various drone systems/software. Very interesting area, gonna be big once they get it all figured out.

Playc

USWildflowers said:

I know what my feelings will be if my private property is overflown. Unfortunately, my shotgun is out of service.

You may want to read this first:
http://www.wdrb.com/story/29650818/hillview-man-arrested-for-shooting-down-drone-cites-right-to-privacy#.VfR-STUkX18.mailto

USWildflowers

Playc - Interesting story. I suspect more is at play than shooting the drone at low altitude over his property. First, discharge of firearms was illegal where he lived. Second, discharging the firearm in that area could have been unsafe. Also, after he shot it the drone landed elsewhere; possibly it wasn't really over his property when he shot it down. While the city or Kentucky might have different airspace laws than those that rule in the absence of specific legislation - in the U.S. we generally own the airspace over our property to a height of 500' (above that the FAA controls it to allow aviation.) Anyone overflying it at a lower altitude without permission is trespassing. What he probably should have done, and what I likely would have done in spite of my gut-reaction hyperbole about the shotgun, was track it back to whomever was flying it and advise them that they were trespassing and would be prosecuted if their drone returned.

That being said, dmassey321's photos don't appear to be either invading anyone else's privacy, nor was he trespassing over private property. Assuming the park where he was camping didn't have regulations otherwise, and he wasn't within the prescribed quiet time, that drone use seems quite reasonable.

dmassey321

Sorry for the delayed response all...  
Tent was staked around the large rocks near the roadway...

As for the drone...it's a Yuneec Q500 with a 4K camera.  It is not nearly as loud as some other manufacturers' drones and once it is up to 60+ feet, you really can't hear it at all.

As for the privacy issue... I totally understand all sides of the argument.  I am in several of the photos above and the drone is less than 40 feet up.  While you can see me, I would challenge anyone to really be able to pick me out of a lineup.  In other words, unless the drone is hovering very close or up next to your window, there is not much it is going to see.  Obviously, if you upgrade to the higher cost octo-copters that can carry full size DSLR's that's a different story but your going to be pushing up well over $5K before the camera.   I only flew during the day...there were not any other folks around...they were all off exploring the area.  It was a heavily wooded area and I took it up quickly and was beyond the tree canopy for the most part (except when photographing the T@B).   Generally speaking, we are into photos/video of landscapes and when people show up in the footage, we usually dump that segment.  I realize though that there are real creeps out there that would not be like us.  It will be interesting to see how all this shakes out in the next several years.   I am a member of the AMA (Academy of Model Aeronautics) and follow their Safety Code.  I am also fairly heavily insured. 

We have found a multitude of places to fly it... we fly mostly to get the photos/videos as opposed to being into flying it for flying's sake.  

As for flight time, I have two batteries and each provides approximately 20 mins of flight time.  As long as you are not in a state park, national park, within 5 miles of an airport, in a jurisdiction that bans unmanned flights, and probably many more situations, you are good to go.  I say that in jest because finding great areas to fly that you actually want to photograph can be difficult.  I err on the cautious side of things and if it feels wrong, it usually is.  

cheers to all,
Dave 

Sebastian

I didn't read all the responses but I will later.  My feeling about drones....are you observing the legal requirements and aren't you taking a lot out of the "back to nature"/"risk of being away from the city"; are you invading another's privacy to your advantage of getting the "best" campsite.  : "Best" is subjective; camping is adventure and sharing by choice (not the invasion of drone sharing

dmassey321

Sebastian,
Yes, I follow all legal requirements and registered with the FAA on the first day they opened the registration.  My tail number is permanently affixed to the bird and I have realtime GPS tracking affixed as well. 

And yes, I encourage you to read all the comments.

cheers
dave

Fatman1966

Cool way of looking. Nice 

IrishCamper74

Some of my friends have them & have shot some really beautiful footage with then. They're a great creative tool for the amateur videographer. I thought about getting one but with a GoPro, possibly 4K but def HD wide angle lens, pivoting camera head buuuuuuut I remembered..... all my spare change is going towards the T@B !!

ericnliz

ChanW,
You forgot one, CHASING ZOMBIES!

ChanW

Yes! I wonder if you could set up a pair of drones to automatically 'defend' your campsite. They could dive at encroachers, like an angry mother blue-jay. 
- Keep people from cutting across your campsite to get to the latrines.
- Keep your firewood pile secure
- And, as you say, keep away the zombies, at least until after the first cup of coffee.

I bet you could find an app for that. Ah, the future of camping...

ericnliz said:

ChanW,
You forgot one, CHASING ZOMBIES!

ericnliz

  

Ratkity

Ok.. gotta have a "Drone Picts Capturing Running Zombies" badge for T@B Univ!

Michigan_Mike

My nephew has three drones and works in the film industry, travels a lot and has worked on many Hollywood film sets.  He's also got his FAA license and amassed the required flying time hours to meet their licensing requirements.   With the federal regulations changing and restrictions around airports, air fields and various facilities things are changing all the time which is probably a good thing given that they are sold to the public and some people push the envelope and could endanger others and aircraft in the areas they are flown in.  It is amazing what you can do with a drone and I actually had one fly down my road one afternoon and up the hill and back past my house.  Never did figure out where it came from.  

ericnliz

Probably a ZOMBIE!