Against the wind...

If you said, "Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band, recording in 1979, released in 1980, from the album Against the Wind, and Seger's only #1 album to date," you get 1,000 bonus points.  If you just said, "Bob Seger," you get 25 bonus points.  Trivia counts.  ;-)

Today, I had an "against the wind" experience.  High wind warnings, along with fire danger warnings, in the area today.  Hot, dry, and windy.  Too windy for me to take the drone up.  Well, until this afternoon around 5:00.  The wind had dropped to 15 to 18mph, and I figured I give it a shot.  Besides, Joan got me a landing pad, and I wanted to try that out, too.

I don't know why, because there was no particular danger, but my "Spidey Sense" was tingling.  I had watched a few videos on using this drone, including in wind... I really wanted to give it a try.  I went out to my "practice spot" (I'm still practicing, 'cause I haven't had it out where the scenery warrants it, other than on the scoots).  Yep, the wind was blowing at least 15.  I put out the landing pad - it is weighted on the edges, which keeps it in place in the wind.  I turned on the controller and the drone... liftoff!  At a head-height hover, it was moving around in the wind, trying to hold its position.

This was a practice session: I am trying to get smoother on the controls, and get a feel for the coordination necessary... coordination?  It isn't like flying an airplane, dude.  No, but if you want to climb, turn, and tilt the camera down, it takes smooth moves with both thumbs and a couple fingers.  Mostly, I practiced maneuvers, landings, and take-offs.  The wind made it challenging to put the drone on the landing pad... I got it there, but a couple of the landings weren't pretty.

I did take a few photos while I had it up there, just for the practice of using that move, too...

You can see my new landing pad in that photo above - it's the orange circle.  Besides giving me something to aim for, it keeps the blades from getting into the grass; yeah, this drone is small and low to the ground.

I had that same "Whew!" feeling in my stomach when I made that last landing... similar to how I felt back in my student pilot days and made it back to the airport after my long solo cross country (and 3 landings at 3 different airports, including a couple with control towers) in building wind conditions.  Well, not exactly the same feeling... pretty sure I wasn't going to get lost with the drone; my student pilot days were way before GPS.  ;-)  What?  No, I didn't get lost back then.  Although I recall feeling relieved when I saw the name on the watertower near one small airport.

Baby steps, as I build my drone handling skills again.

What about Rufus's walk?  Yeah, I took him for another walk when I got back from flying the drone...

He's a good boy!

Stephanie got excited when I texted her that we added another cat to the family.  She was less excited when I sent her a photo...

The "new one" is the little black one on the left... he is carrying a bird in his basket; the big orange one has a mouse.  Rufus has Joan and me.  :-)