Sky View

Our son, David, works for a commercial landscape company. They use a drone to map locations for their jobs and to get images of the properties where they have projects. Our son is a drone pilot for the company. He uses a variety of software to plan the drone flight and to map the results. He can program a flight from takeoff to landing and once programmed, the drone does everything on its own. Or, he can fly the drone manually, and by looking on an iPhone screen attached to the controller, he can tell the camera to take a picture. Once the flight is complete the data he has collected connects with other software and he can create maps and diagrams. Fascinating!
The other day he stopped by with the drone and took photos and videos. I was in awe of the entire process. I was also in awe of how adept my son is with all of this!
First he programmed a circular flight around the buildings on the property. He uses coordinates to tell the drone where to fly. He can tell it at what altitude to fly and how fast. Here he is showing me on the iPhone screen that manages the flight, what he has preprogrammed.

The yellow circle is the path the drone will fly. 

David takes the drone out of the backpack,

and attaches the propellers. 

Within minutes the drone lifts off.

Up, up and away!

This is a link to the video the camera recorded on the flight. 

The file is too large to upload to Blogger. 

https://youtu.be/OX5HGQwfzV8

Next, our son took over the controls, and while looking at the iPhone screen, selected individual photos to shoot. We Dreamers were enthralled with what he was doing. It seemed strange to sit on the porch and see images on the iPhone screen of what the drone was seeing, even on the other side of the house. 

And, here is what the drone saw:

The last program our son used required that the drone fly in a pattern, back and forth, from one end of our property to the other. The drone took shots periodically, 116 in all. David will "stitch" the pictures together with other software and create an overhead view of our property.

Here are two of the 116 shots. It will be very interesting to see the finished "map".

I enjoyed seeing the pictures of our property. I have always been fascinated by Google satellite shots, but these allow one to zoom in a bit more. I also loved seeing how at home my son is with the software and the drone. He has a unique skill set!