Just finished my second commercial drone mission this afternoon, a commercial real estate shoot for DroneBase. Super pumped right now because it went pretty well this time. My first mission was hugely stressful. I'd just got my M2EA and was using it for the shoot. For the "cardinal directions 10' above ground" shots, I had to hover over a fenced-in swamp overhung with trees with really thin, long twigs everywhere, plus right behind the site was Interstate 80 and I had to get beyond that for a bunch of shots, plus it was threatening to cloud up and ruin the shots, plus there was some kind of power lines in front that went up like 100'. Plus a flock of birds that suddenly took to the air and began circling my drone with a little TOO much interest. Plus airplanes in the area. Plus first-paid-mission jitters. The outcome was successful, but I came down with the flu or something two days later, and I kind of suspect it was brought on by stress.
This time it was so much better. The site was on mostly flat ground with low buildings all around it, a few trees across the road but nothing too gigantic. We did have high winds (as my controller kept warning me), but my P4 held up well enough to get the job done. I only have 2 batteries for my P4, and I was afraid that they'd be depleted before the mission was done, due to the high winds and cold temps (we got 5-6" of snow the night before last). But no, we made it, so yay.
This was kind of my "am I going to be able to hack it as a drone pilot?" mission, and I feel now like "not merely hack it, but LOVE it." I don't really have any questions or anything, I'm just posting because I'm still feeling the rush and I need to vent a little of the adrenaline. Shout out to everyone else who's just getting started in this business. I have a couple roof inspections scheduled for next week, so we'll see how that goes.
This time it was so much better. The site was on mostly flat ground with low buildings all around it, a few trees across the road but nothing too gigantic. We did have high winds (as my controller kept warning me), but my P4 held up well enough to get the job done. I only have 2 batteries for my P4, and I was afraid that they'd be depleted before the mission was done, due to the high winds and cold temps (we got 5-6" of snow the night before last). But no, we made it, so yay.
This was kind of my "am I going to be able to hack it as a drone pilot?" mission, and I feel now like "not merely hack it, but LOVE it." I don't really have any questions or anything, I'm just posting because I'm still feeling the rush and I need to vent a little of the adrenaline. Shout out to everyone else who's just getting started in this business. I have a couple roof inspections scheduled for next week, so we'll see how that goes.
