It's not easy being a Green droner...

Ok some people like drones and some people would even like to bring portable generators to the landing area. Meaning they can squeeze a few more flights and the cost of generating power from fossil fuels...
In the past when people mention it, but I cringe a bit as a 45 percent efficient diesel engine is powering a switch-mode power supply with reasonable efficiency convert down to DC voltages and reduced further in the battery management system... With unknown factors of the energy to refine the Diesel and the cost and transport of the fuel or your car and equipment... I find the whole aspect of energy into transport a little discomforting...

But can you go completely green with your drone...? Set aside the Shipping of your drone from china or your own transport of your car... There might be methods that you can use renewables via the charging process or at least something to strive for...

Its fair to say I am advocate for renewable energy, for which I started as a way to save money and carried on reading the arguments for renewals both financial and environmental...


The first method is to charge with your house solar panels... its likely that most people don't have solar panels and  the majority of the public might not benefit the same way as solar home owners do... Or there maybe a few people experimenting on portable solar energy via their mobile holiday homes or camping power equipment...
 rigging out the solar panels for transport can be a reward in itself... As Glamour camping or Gl-amping may include activities such as droning flying in the spoilt for gadgets world of a modern day camper... Has hiking goes hand in hand with some people, so why not bring a portable drone to some far off location and do a flying sefie...


For the droner with a electric car its much more likely you do have solar panels and that your car it self, can charge your drone via its 12v outlet... (as well as most other cars)  From my car there is a 12v lead acid battery with I presume powers the console and possibly the headlights... Dji have charging units that can use 12v car outlets, which seem to me the best way to transfer DC to dc or the car battery to the Drone battery...While other people sort out a DC inverter then their regular DJI charger, which defeat the object as energy is lost due to the conversion of DC to AC power and then back to DC for the Aircraft battery itself... But its understandable if someone who cant be arsed to buy a 12volt charger...


For the rest of the public its simple a matter of waiting for a sunny day and charge... Certain countries like Germany or Iceland, Sweden, Costa Rica even the United kingdom have improving renewable energy sources... On sunny days in the spring or summer you will see some reports would say 100% renewables powering the country... Its a growing pheromone that people are starting to get on board with...

But most countries agreed to the plan of Banning petrol and diesel by 2040... While France, has a plan to cut coal power by 2022..
Besides the fact that every sensible country making plans for the future, I have to conclude that the energy made now is getting cleaner... Either way your drone could be powered conveniently by fossil fuel generator or my a renewable source , the results are the same... Flying for a fun afternoon... Its up to the mad few of us that would lead the way to clean drone fights, by buying solar panels and portable batteries...

For me its not about being green or trying to do my bit for the planet... Its more of a engineering challenge that I can use of the shelf items and arrange a power source I can take with me to have a fun afternoon... The results are the same and I get a back up power system in case of Blackouts (which happens from time to time)... Or simply buy more aircraft batteries, charge from your home and fly longer...

I went on a date and took a drone... so can a pilot score with a chick?

 

  

Ok so if you ever have nothing planned with a blind date would you take your camera...? The answer for me is yes... I thought getting a girl involved with photography would be nice as well as showing off my skills and to get her involved taking pictures... 

The good thing is that it took the stress off trying be impressive on the date... The bad thing that taking photos was more fun then the general conversation... The majority of the time was to tell her abut the general rule of thirds and other nuggets of information...  The rest of the time was trying to drop subtle hints that I liked her... 

The afternoon started off well but she could only stay a hour or two before she went off to work... This meant I had a time limit and its hard to anything within a hour glass in your mind... I had a choice to play it cool or just go with the flow... 

Anyways the time was ticking and I though the photography isn't doing anything to impress her so its time to bring out the drone... Maybe seeing the local park with my flying skills might equate me to some sort of hero status or something... She  just happily carried on snapping with my camera and ignored me...  Hold situation was flawed as I was occupied with the drone and she was busy making pictures of the park... I ended up giving her a lesson on how to fly a drone and she dam well near crash the thing... 

You could of given me a Oscar for holding in my emotions but I got back my drone in one piece... Anyway a long story short, I think I missed read the signs and thought things went well enough for a kiss goodbye... But she buggered off before you could say "Harvey Weinstein", thinking the opposite way to what I was feeling... 

later on her message back on the date was clear she dont want to date someone for now... And I cut my losses and learnt from the experience... And I blamed it on the fact girls and drones don't mix... or if they do then it must be some unique special unicorn kind of luck that they do... either way I'll think twice about whipping out your mavic to impress anyone except middle age men or kids who haven't seen a drone before...

       

Its Febuary... Time to declare your love or celebrate the new year...

Yay its February!!!, its time to declare your love or celebrate Chinese new year...
For most people its one or the other... Or realistically celebrate the new year by declaring your love of a new drone...
Either way it means January has gone and spring is round the corner... Hopefully The weather might pick up and sunsets ending at 4pm-ish will start to go back later towards 6pm at the end of the month... Slow activity at the beach will start to pick up and maybe its more then dog walkers  walking around the beach... 
At the moment The gadgets from the C.E.S Consumer Electronics Show has shown that drones have still got things to offer like the Yuneec's Typhoon H +,   Fire-Bird (a fixed wing drone) or Autel robotics a mini foldable drone called "The EVO", whose specs are very similar to GJI's Mavic Pro...
Or a Memorable drone by Power vision which looks like a flying Egg very much like the children's TV character"Ludwig" Which was a cartoon of a robot egg character which flew down via propellers to play with the local animals in the park... All exploits being narrated by a mystery birdwatcher and the back ground music composed by Ludwig van Beethoven... ( yes I am showing my age...) Or for a Better analogy something that came out of the Game Portal like one of the Turrets or one of the game characters...

But the DJI still held its position with the new Mavic Air, The cheaper Osmo mobile 2 ( with Zoom function) and the Ronin S  ( which is a gimble on a stick for DLSR cameras ( or at the very least DJI;s take on it)... Of course there were other gadgets but my interest was on the drones...

January came with a New drone wish list and left with the Crappy weather,,, Its up to February to turn it around and give us poor droners, especially in the UK... A decent day to fly one day in the week...
So skimp on the chocolates and flowers and save up money so you can make a stupid asteroid movie clips and flood the Facebook Forums with your version of a tiny planet... Or just celebrate Chinese new year with one of their pre made New year tunes in the editor section and have a Good February everyone...

The DJI workshop... I came for the education, I stayed for the free (empty) goodie bag

DJI is trying to emulate Apple with their style... 

but not the Apple of today... The Steve jobs era where each phone seems like an improvement year on year...

Today it’s Drones and with each new design comes new innovation... Smaller form factor, better stability and intelligent navigation features... 

DJI breakthrough drone, phantom series still is a big seller and with the mavic pro and spark... Consumer drones have never been more popular... if you go to a typical DJI store after visiting a Apple shop... in my case it’s not too difficult in Hong kong... you’ll notice the similar design of a uncluttered display on a white backdrop..,

Anyway the DJI flagship store at their Hong kong branch has a few classes demonstrations of the basic operations... Don't expect complex film techniques or maneuvers or a class in doing a dolly zolly zoom... Instead be grateful to get a free (but empty Goodie bag) I think my workshop was advertised as a photograph workshop... But really it was two blokes going about the conservation of African Cheetahs and a American who was showcasing his DJI promo videos ( the one DJI video with a horse in it...) The class consisted with probably rich hobbyists doing it for fun... (no Pfco holders or Part 107 holders)... The video was ok but due to Data bottle necking the TV was struggling to get the right frame rate and it was clearly strobing as the Apple lap top was displaying the fancy DJI videos... I ended up wiping the notes to the workshop class as I didn't learn anything...

I did realize that this videographer was lucky and started at a time when not many drone videos where about... DJI approached him and how he got a DJI gig... I presume its different now as very Droner or middle aged dude on the planet is now showing their videos on you-tube... including myself... And whats up with you-tube breaking ties and DE-monetizing the videographers who have just started to pick up traffic on their web pages?... Either way if you have the opportunity to go to a Workshop and sit through a class... I would urge you to go, at least only for the free goodie bag and a chance to talk to a videographer whose doing well for himself... Perhaps ask DJI them selves to invite other droners with tons of experience to do a talk... because Ill do it for a laugh...