Western Railroad Discussion > My First Drone Foam

Today I took my DJI Phantom 2 Vision Plus to Alviso, CA and recorded my first train videos.

First Video is train 727 which is a southbound train headed to San Jose.

Second is train 729, also a southbound train.

There is no audio on these videos, so don't bother adjusting the volume. I need to work on doing a smooth pan. Hopefully I'll get better at it.

One thing I was paying attention to was how the wildlife reacted. There were plenty of birds around and I expected them to fly away or become agitated when I took off, but there was no reaction at all. Birds that were floating on the water nearby continued to just float. And no, they were not duck decoys. When the train went by they did scatter. While I was flying up high they even flew directly underneath the quadcopter.

Jim Maurer

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Great job!

Nice videos, welcome to the quadcopter world.

I am often amused at how birds react to my copter. Sometimes they'll steer completely clear, but sometimes they'll come closer for a look -- but not too close.

Still, I'm waiting for the day when I ended up with minced crow or chopped gull.

Posted from iPhone

Or shredded tweet?

Carl Shaver
Lombard, IL

Amazing how stable the videos are. . .

Good job!

I would love to see the video for as long as it lasts.

http://www.krtv.com/news/drone-crashes-into-hot-spring-at-yellowstone-national-park/

Posted from Windows Phone OS 7

Drones are like oil trains.

Scores of them do their thing daily without incident, but when one goes awry it can become the poster child for all kinds woe.

Posted from iPhone

Very nice, thanks for posting

Very nice.

The background curvature is very pronounced. Is that due to the camera used or does the height of the drone cause that?

Also, has anyone had any "issues" with anyone else over the use of a drone?

Steve

WIDE angle lens, that's how GoPro usually works, but there is a setting for standard viewing field. And it's because of that WIDE angle lens that the horizon appears curved. But to see the curve of the earth, you need to be up around 60k to 80k feet. I've been to 45k, but can't remember if the horizon was flat or not. Must not have looked too different or I would remember

Ed

How difficult are those drones to learn to fly? I'd, personally, hate to pay all that money...around $1300, I believe, and crash that thing the first time out.

Very nice video...I am amazed at how steady it was...panning was okay...in my book.

By the way, how do you monitor what your aiming the camera at?

Sorry for the dumb questions.

Those are questions I'm interested in as well. Great videos, nice job!


Jay

>>Also, has anyone had any "issues" with anyone else over the use of a drone?

From my perspective flying one of these, the world is divided into two types of people — the curious who want to talk and ask questions, and the finger-wagging types who want to give you a piece of their mind.

The curious are usually interested in the details — how high does it go?, how much time on a battery charge?, what does it cost? — and I'm happy to chat with them. Sometimes if I'm flying or trying to line up a shot, I'll say I can't talk while flying. But I usually chat with folks who are genuinely interested or curious.

And then you have the finger waggers. Sometimes they'll start out with a sinde remark. A couple of weeks ago an Amazon employee visiting Seattle was in the news for flying a copter near the Space Needle. A few days after that I was at Carkeek Park when some clown asks me if I know the Amazon guy who was in the news. Yeah, like we all know each other. I told the guy "yeah, he's my best friend," and that seems to have shut the guy down. He didn't have a comeback.

I have grown to develop little patience for the finger waggers, and now I usually give it right back to them when they start. You can usually tell right away which way the conversation is going to go by their opening line.

Last week at Carkeek Park a woman approached me huffing and puffing. I'd almost swear there was steam coming out of her ears.

"What are you doing? Are you practicing?," she demanded to know as I was positioning my copter over Puget Sound to shoot a BNSF freight train.

I told her I was taking pictures. That seemed to further enrage her and she demanded to know what I was taking pictures of. I just gestured to the mountains, water, train — everything, I'm capturing the scene. Next time a finger-wagger demands to know what I am taking pictures of I think I will just ask them whether they demand to know what everyone with a camera is taking pictures of, or just those of us with airborne cameras.

Then the woman said how this is such a beautiful and serene spot and how I was ruining it. It was a little hard to hear her over the roar of the BNSF diesel engines going by. She completely missed the coal dust blowing off the loads heading north.

I told her we all have to learn to coexist. She said "yeah I know everybody has rights, but still."

I asked her "still, what," and she stormed off.

The Carkeek Park woman was a bit of an extreme case, but I've encountered a few others like her.

I can understand someone being upset if I was buzzing their bedroom window or hovering above their backyard barbecue, but in a public place, a public park, you are in the public and you have zero expectation of privacy. If you are in a public place, out in the open, there is no expectation of privacy. People can, and do, take your picture. There is really no difference between a woman with an iPhone, a guy with a telephoto lens, or a camera on a drone — if you are in public you could end up in somebody's shot.

As for cops, I've never had any trouble. One time a San Luis Obispo cop stopped where I was flying to chat, but he was the curious type who wanted to know how it handled in the wind.

Still, I try to pick my launch sites carefully so as to avoid trouble. Launch from a public place, i.e. don't trespass and then launch. Avoid crowds. Pick somewhere safe. Really, it just boils down to using common sense.

And when all else fails, I follow the FAA guidelines. So if a cop does stop and give me trouble, I can say I am flying within the FAA guidelines, and at least sound like I know what I'm doing.

The guidelines are voluntary, but at the moment they are really the only rules around: http://www.faa.gov/documentlibrary/media/advisory_circular/91-57.pdf



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/10/14 11:05 by walstib.

The FAA Guidelines you cite are from 1981. Way out of date. Though there are good recommendations, times have changed and so will the guidelines to comply with modern concerns.

I'm all for the use of drones in our train watching hobby. They add a new perspective and are very entertaining.

A drone is not just to hang a camera in the air as if on a "platform". Motion is crucial to make the video interesting.

ChrisB

Yes, the 1981 guidelines are probably out of date, but they are the most recent thing out there in terms of rules or guidelines that I am familiar with.

On a related note, the public comment period on proposed new rules was just extended by 90 days. I don't have the particulars at my fingertips, but it should be easy enough to find by Googling.

As one might imagine, the drone rules issue is a hot topic in the various online drone pilot forums and such.

Posted from iPhone

Thanks for sharing. Another aspect of the wide angle lens is that objects will appear farther away (smaller). But you have zoom. I can picture drone videos (though in the minority) at Winterail or Summerail with music in the near future.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/10/14 19:58 by wabash2800.

A group of us eat at the Mexican restaurant near this location every Wednesday. We know the area well. What day do you take pictures here?

Nice videos!!!

The built in camera on this model quadcopter has a 140 degree field of view, so it's a wide angle lens. If it's pointed up or down you'll get that curvature. The camera is not a Go Pro, but I think the quality is close.

Jim Maurer

I haven't had problems with this one. It's easier than a fixed wing RC plane and a whole lot easier than a regular RC helicopter. DJI has an app that you can use on iPhones or iPads and also one for Android. It streams preview quality video to the phone so you get a "first person view". It is kind of hard to see the screen in bright sunlight, however.

Jim Maurer