FPV – Riveted

Flying Around Fossil Bay

Laura Domela — Tue, 03 Mar 2015 13:41:50 +0000

Kevin shot some aerial/quadcopter video of us in Fossil Bay over on Sucia Island the other day and made a short video.

The weather wasn't quite as beautiful as as it was for his previous Sucia Island quadcopter video, but this is a different view of the bay on a gray day and gives a good overall feel for where we were moored in the bay (and Ev Henry Point there on the right of this frame, where we hiked the other day):

Flying Around Watmough Bay

Laura Domela — Fri, 27 Feb 2015 14:22:17 +0000

Here's a short quadcopter video Kevin made yesterday while we were moored in Watmough Bay on Lopez Island:

Pretty spot, isn't it?

More Around Patos Island

Laura Domela — Tue, 02 Dec 2014 21:06:37 +0000

We took the quadcopter and hiked out to the lighthouse on Alden Point for some more fun aerial footage.

Oh hey seals!

In this photo, there's one seal looking straight up at the copter. You might have to click for an enlargement, but it's pretty cute.

Another cove-side campsite (Patos Island is a Washington State Park):

The remains of an old car or truck, beside the trail out to the lighthouse:

Kind of funny to have a car on a very small island where there are most definitely no roads.

Hey! The new mooring buoys match the boat's paint job:

Earlier today Kevin did his first from-the-boat launch and it went great! Can't wait to see the footage he got out here!

Taking off from Airship's top deck:

Smooth, successful top-deck landing:

Sunset looking out of the cove:

Birth of a New Drone

Kevin Morris — Tue, 12 Aug 2014 13:00:31 +0000

(Posted by Kevin)

My last drone was lost at sea in March. Apparently we didn’t do a blog post about it at the time, which is a mystery because it was exactly the kind of event we’d normally blog about. We were on the Oregon coast, and I’d been flying the drone over the beach and along the rocky shoreline all day. The GoPro HD camera was capturing the best-quality video I’d ever gotten from a drone – smooth, sharp, no vibration – and the gimbal was keeping the camera nicely level. I had spent a few weeks building and tuning it to get those excellent results. In First Person View (FPV) mode – it could go more than two miles away – with its long range control and video radio links.

On about the fifth flight of the day, I invited Laura out to watch on the “guest” video goggles. It’s like taking a ride on the drone. I was flying it along the beach, and cut out over the water for a bit – the drone was about 1800 feet away from us when the video suddenly went to static – with no warning. We tried various rescue techniques (just in case it was still out there hovering) including activating the “return to home” feature. We waited a few minutes… there was no sign of it “returning to home”.

We reviewed the video link recording (the lower-quality flight video, not the stabilized HD video), and stepped one frame at a time through the last few frames before we lost contact. Studying the telemetry, we figured out what (most likely) happened. One of the connectors where the battery power comes into the drone had apparently come loose and the whole thing fell out of the sky and into the Pacific Ocean. We hiked along the beach at the spot closest to where it went down. There was no sign of it – and the current/waves were pretty extreme out there where it must have gone down.

Here’s the downlink video of the fatal, final flight:

I ordered all the parts to build a new one that week.

Now, five months later, all the parts have arrived and the new drone construction has begun. This one has numerous upgrades over the lost one – including a much more robust connection where the last one probably failed. Here are some photos of the construction process:

Almost ready to bolt the top on:

The new drone – a TBS Discovery Pro FPV Quadcopter – is now complete and has survived the first 16 test flights.

It has almost three hours of flight time logged, and seems to be even more stable than the last/lost one.

We plan to use this one to do more aerial videos and stills of our travels, and probably more fun projects like our “Chasing Ships” series:

More Ships in the Columbia River

Laura Domela — Tue, 02 Jul 2013 18:34:36 +0000

Kevin just finished two three four more videos of ships passing in front of our campsite at Skamokawa. So gorgeous, aren't they?

Also, if you're totally into it and want to subscribe to Kevin's hexacopter video channel on YouTube, you can do that here. (That link is also a link to a "playlist" of the ship videos.)

Here's Ocean Hope:

Here's Celestial Wing:

Here's Hanjin London:

and here's Saga Anorinha:

Makah Bay and Cape Flattery Aerials

Laura Domela — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 02:44:04 +0000

Here are a couple of stills from Kevin's flight with the quadcopter/GoPro from our campsite out to the southern point of Cape Flattery (1.3 miles):

Looking back toward camp:

Kinda pretty, yeah?

Kevin Finished His Aerial Video of Yellowstone River

Laura Domela — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 12:49:18 +0000

(Taken from the hexacopter, of course.) Oh yeah! And the music is again from local faves 3 Leg Torso!

How beautiful is this place?

The Badass Badlands Hexacopter Video!

Laura Domela — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 11:33:23 +0000

Yesterday, as we were leaving the Badlands, we pulled over at a viewpoint so Kevin could stress me out for five solid minutes while he flew the hexacopter and camera out over some of the craziest, jaggiest parts of the Badlands…the part where if there's any malfunction and the thing goes down there is no getting any of it back. I'm not sure why this stresses me out more than it stresses Kevin out, but it does.

The first two starts out over the abyss both gave a blinking red light which meant a battery issue…so he brought it back in and changed batteries both times and started again. I told him I saw it as a sign that he might not want to do this particular flight. He just checked the third battery and went right back out there.

Bonus find while Kevin was looking for music to go with his video: music by a local Portland band we've seen live a few times called 3 Leg Torso!

Aerial Shots from This Morning’s Hexacopter Flight

Laura Domela — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 16:47:45 +0000

Black dot at the clearing where the roads meet is us. (Click images to enlarge)

Looking toward our campground (light spot at the base of the trees toward the top of the picture, below Mt. Elbert):

Arkansas River:

Hexacopter in a Thunderstorm

Laura Domela — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 11:28:00 +0000

Okay not really. Maybe "near" a thunderstorm.

We got back from Cowboy Mounted Shooting in time for another dramatic thunderstorm. It was loud but short, and resulted in a pretty double rainbow:

After the rain stopped, we took the hexacopter out and Kevin flew a few batteries' worth. We found a county road not that far from the campground that ran between some train tracks and the Arkansas River. (Hexacopter/dot in upper right corner of photo below):

It was beautiful out, and I think he got some great footage. While he was flying, I took this photo of the storm cloud next to us. (It was moving away, luckily, but look how cool!)