Well folks... it's coming to the time that I will be riding off into the sunset. I will officially be retiring (at age 72) on June 1st after 49 years in the Environmental Services industry and will be passing down the company drone to the next operator.
I began flying a drone (Phantom 2 Vision Plus) for my company back in 2014 when the CEO said to me "Maybe we should buy a drone, and you can be the one to fly it", to which I responded "Hell yeah!!!" Unfortunately, the first PV2+ ended up in the Great South Bay when I lost it in the sun during one of my initial practice sessions, and pulled back on the left stick instead of the right. Oops. Sorry boss. But for the past 10 years, I've enjoyed documenting our environmental cleanup work with closeup views from inside dangerous work zones, while personally standing far enough away at a safe distance. I've always tried not only to capture the work we do, but do it it with an artistic touch with unique vantage points that would be difficult if not impossible to experience first-hand. It was just my way of making the dirty mucky cleanup work we do more interesting for the client. Unfortunately, I cannot post any of that work as examples because it is all Privileged & Confidential per client agreements.
I will say the most memorable project I flew was a huge industrial environmental monitoring and cleanup job in Columbia Falls, Montana. I had never been to that part of our country and the majestic scenery was right out of a postcard. I had really been looking forward to flying there, and a few days before my trip I asked a co-worker who had recently been there what I could expect at the site. At the end of our discussion, she happened to mention "...and you will be provided bear spray to carry around with you." Bear spray????????? "Yes, for the Grizzly Bears." she said. Well, I'm a city boy and did some research that night. Montana is the most-populated state in the contiguous United States when it comes to Grizzly Bears -- a fact that I was unaware of when I accepted the job. Apparently, when a Grizzly Bear charges at you, it is sometimes only a bluff. But you can easily tell the difference between a real charge and one that is a bluff. If you are still alive afterwards, it was a bluff.
In the end, my flights went well and the client was very pleased with the drone videos and photos I had taken. But I was super nervous while walking through fields and woods to set up for my flights and luckily didn't run into any bears during those 3 days.
Anyway, I have really enjoyed my conversations with the people of this group in sharing thoughts, ideas, and solutions to problems during these pioneering times of drone flying, and I will miss that. My best wishes to you all, and big thank you to the group moderators who spend a lot of their time here behind the scenes keeping things running smoothly. It's a great forum. I'm sure I may peak in occasionally until I break the habit.
Happy trails.
Bill
I began flying a drone (Phantom 2 Vision Plus) for my company back in 2014 when the CEO said to me "Maybe we should buy a drone, and you can be the one to fly it", to which I responded "Hell yeah!!!" Unfortunately, the first PV2+ ended up in the Great South Bay when I lost it in the sun during one of my initial practice sessions, and pulled back on the left stick instead of the right. Oops. Sorry boss. But for the past 10 years, I've enjoyed documenting our environmental cleanup work with closeup views from inside dangerous work zones, while personally standing far enough away at a safe distance. I've always tried not only to capture the work we do, but do it it with an artistic touch with unique vantage points that would be difficult if not impossible to experience first-hand. It was just my way of making the dirty mucky cleanup work we do more interesting for the client. Unfortunately, I cannot post any of that work as examples because it is all Privileged & Confidential per client agreements.
I will say the most memorable project I flew was a huge industrial environmental monitoring and cleanup job in Columbia Falls, Montana. I had never been to that part of our country and the majestic scenery was right out of a postcard. I had really been looking forward to flying there, and a few days before my trip I asked a co-worker who had recently been there what I could expect at the site. At the end of our discussion, she happened to mention "...and you will be provided bear spray to carry around with you." Bear spray????????? "Yes, for the Grizzly Bears." she said. Well, I'm a city boy and did some research that night. Montana is the most-populated state in the contiguous United States when it comes to Grizzly Bears -- a fact that I was unaware of when I accepted the job. Apparently, when a Grizzly Bear charges at you, it is sometimes only a bluff. But you can easily tell the difference between a real charge and one that is a bluff. If you are still alive afterwards, it was a bluff.
In the end, my flights went well and the client was very pleased with the drone videos and photos I had taken. But I was super nervous while walking through fields and woods to set up for my flights and luckily didn't run into any bears during those 3 days.
Anyway, I have really enjoyed my conversations with the people of this group in sharing thoughts, ideas, and solutions to problems during these pioneering times of drone flying, and I will miss that. My best wishes to you all, and big thank you to the group moderators who spend a lot of their time here behind the scenes keeping things running smoothly. It's a great forum. I'm sure I may peak in occasionally until I break the habit.
Happy trails.
Bill
