Daily Archives: January 28, 2018

 

I’m having a blast with this whole drone deal!!!  Let me explain!  All my life I wanted to be a pilot, and when finally learnd to fly and went on to do two books on America with Wes and Mark, I loved flying,  but in all  honesty, I was a little nervous every flight!  Flying an airplane, even when you are very careful, has risks.  I miss flying, but I really missed seeing our world from up there!!

 

For a few years I’ve thought about buying another plane to get back to aerial photography, but a number of factors have held me back.  Airplanes have gone up in price, considerably, in spite of  a bad market for ultra light planes!  The cost ot hanger a plane gets higher all the time.  If you have a ultra light that can be put in a trailer, you save that money, but a good trailer costs from 2 to 5 thousand dollars.  Planes must have an annual every year, which is a good chunk of change. It just gotten to financially hard to own and operate a plane.

 

The drone industry to the rescue!!!  You can buy a very good drone that shoots 12 megapixel stills and 4K video in a stabilized platform for less than $1,000.  Then add a few extra batteries and all the accessories you might want and you can still stay under $1,500.  The best drone for this kind of work DJI makes (the leading drone company), can be had for under $2,000.

 

Now I can take a drone that fits in the palm of my hand anywhere in my camera bag and with an app on my iPhone cane see if I am in a place where drones can be flown legally.  It takes me less than 5 mimutes to prepare the drone to fly and I can operate the drown up to 40o feet agl (above ground level) which allows making images very much like what I did out of the ultra light, but I’m safely on the ground!!!!

 

A bird’s eye view of my house down through the trees!

 

 

 

 

Really having a ball!!!!!!

 

Blessings,

 

the pilgrim