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Traveling with Drones

Happy New Year!  We hope you had a wonderful time over the Christmas & New Years holiday.  We escaped to the snowy mountains and had a blast!  Head on over to our AerialScope YouTube page to watch our new Vlog series and watch the latest video while up there!

So, traveling with drones is what we are chatting about today.  We figured, since we are out of town what better way to talk about this subject! You have two options when flying on a plane with drones.  Checking bags (in which a hard case is recommended) or carrying baggage on (a soft case should suffice).

Let’s talk about the heart of our drones, the batteries.  Lithium Ion Polymer batteries CANNOT be checked and they should be drained around 30-40%. Regardless if you check your drone or not the batteries need to stay with you. Some people like to cover the battery terminal with tape for added protection, up to you.  If you’re not sure, just check your airline regulations/TSA to verify.  Another thing with batteries is getting a good plan in place for battery management.  Always have extensions cords with you and have a plan for how you want to charge your batteries.  There isn’t always a place to plug in so keep that in mind.  Lots of dronies use generators as their supply so they don’t have to go very far.

We like to have a small repair kit with us when we travel.  Honestly, you should have this on you at all times anyway – you never know when you might be needing to make some quick repairs!

It’s also a good idea to pack extra propellers – this is good practice for anywhere you go you just never know when you are gonna need new props.

It’s always a good idea to see what the FAA recommends in terms of flying with your drones. To read what they suggest click here

Happy flying!

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Favorite Apps

Happy Wednesday!  Today’s post we are going to highlight some of our favorite apps.

Editing:

  • Snapseed is one of the best photo editing apps out there.  It has so much to offer packed into a little tiny app!
  • Instagram is great to edit images/videos and also add text & gifs.  Once you edit a picture or video in Instagram stories there is a down facing arrow that if you click it saves the video to your camera roll! Easy as pie.  Once you save it you don’t have to post it – you can delete it and utilize the saved image/video in your camera roll for whatever you like.

Weather:

  • UAV forecast is our first app we open.  It gives us the KP index (an external force that can possibly reduce your satellite signals, it also measures geomagnetic storms caused by solar activity) which is super important to check before you fly every time.  Even a hobbyist should be checking KP index for the day to avoid a flyaway or possible crash.  (To read more about KP index click here for a great website called Space Weather Live.  They dive deeper into the science behind KP index and they also go through what the numbers mean.)
  • Second weather app is Dark Sky, this one seems to be super accurate and very up to the minute in terms of their information.  NOAA Weather app is also ok but if you don’t pay for their PRO I don’t think the free is updated as much and it does crash a lot.
  • The last weather app is Carrot – and we just like it because she delivers sarcastic funny weather. Sometimes you just need a laugh, especially when dealing with unpredictable weather!

Office:

  • CamScanner is a great app for on the fly if you need to create a PDF of something.  You can take a picture of a document and then email it as a PDF (or several other types of files).
  • MileBug is a great app for keeping track of mileage
  • Evernote is an alternative note taking app where you can add pictures, links etc.  It is a great way to digitally organize your thoughts, ideas or lists

3D Models:

  • Sketchfab! We love using Sketchfab to house our 3D models.  You can follow other people and get some great ideas for models as well as look at some awesome work people are putting out there.

Thanks for reading through some of our favorites and we would love to hear some of yours!  Comment below and let us know which apps you can’t live without!

 

*We are in no way associated with any of these apps/websites or paid to talk about, review etc.*

 

 

 

 

 

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Winter Tips for Tech Devices

Happy Wednesday! Today we have some tips for those of you who live in a colder climate.  When the temp starts to drop we need to be aware of how cold our technology is becoming!  If you let your devices get too cold they can malfunction or worse yet – break!

Laptops:

  • Don’t keep laptops in the car when it’s not running – if you must keep it in the car wrap it in a blanket or sweater.  Or, you can invest in a laptop warmer (which do exist!)
  • Bring your charger because cold air sucks battery life like nobody’s business!
  • Turn it off! I know what you’re thinking ‘but isn’t it working and staying warmer if it’s on??’ short answer yes – long answer – if you are moving around and active you *could damage the computer’s data.
  • Don’t turn your computer on the second you walk in the door – let it warm up a bit as to not encourage condensation 

Phones:

  • Like laptops, phone batteries can drain easily in the winter so have a charger on hand
  • Keep your phone warm by keeping it in your pocket, purse or backpack.  You may even put it in a wool sock for added warmth!

Drones:

  • Fully charge your batteries
  • Hover 30-60 sec before you fly
  • Keep batteries warm!  When on location, we keep our heat on in the car and throw the batteries up on the dashboard

Hope these tips were helpful!  We love our winter weather up here in New England and we also love our technology! Stay safe and warm and keep your gear in check!

 

 

(some laptop tips taken from Popsugar)

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CT Army National Guard

Happy Wednesday! We had the pleasure of working with the CT Army National Guard and RC Propbusters this week in teaching 6th – 7th – 8th graders all about careers in aviation!  This has been a theme for us this month.  When both Bryan & I were that age, technology was obviously not where is it today.  With the ever evolving classroom we can’t even begin to imagine the possibilities at the kids fingertips!

David from RC Propbusters demonstrated flying, and we handled the technical side like, what are drones as well as discussing the job applications.  Among those applications were 3D modeling, thermal imaging, aerial video/photo and construction progression.  Together, we had the students:

-interact with 3D models

-learn how to read a thermal scan with our Flir thermal imager

-watch videos containing aerial photo/video

-got a sneak peak of what construction progress looks like for a construction company

All in all we had a blast the past two days teaching.  A special thank you to the Army National Guard, RC Propbusters hobbyist pilot David and also to the CT Airport Authority for partnering with us.  Looking forward to seeing the youth of tomorrow in aviation careers!

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Teaching Classes

Happy Wednesday! Hope where ever you are today has been a good one!  It is 80 degrees and sunny here in New England and we are almost halfway through October which is crazy!  Tomorrow we will be teaching 3 classes at a local High School.  We will be talking about what it’s like to own a UAV business, the uses for UAV’s, demonstrating and also encouraging career paths in aviation.

These young minds have a lot on their plate and we are excited to give them a break from their usual classes to spend their time with us and have some fun.  I have a background in education so this is a breeze for me!  We love educating anyone on the use of UAV’s.

In 2 weeks we will be speaking at another school two days in a row.  We are teaming up with RC Propbusters  pilot, David Grainger and he will be showing the youth some fun tricks with his racing drones.

So stay tuned for pictures & videos from the school programs! Have a great rest of the week!

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Google Gravity Games 2018

We just got home from North Carolina where we had the pleasure of filming the 2018 Google Gravity Games!  You’re probably asking yourself, ‘What are the Gravity Games’?  Well, it’s an educational competition to get younger generations excited about Science, sponsored by Google.

The Gravity Games are especially relevant because kids these days need more Science, Art and Music in their lives.  Funding for lots of these programs has unfortunately been cut so this kind of event is awesome at sparking creativity and helping those students achieve more than they could ever dream!  With a variety of hands on activities, science tents, music etc this event is an all day town takeover in North Carolina and we feel so blessed to be part of it again!

Below is last year’s 2017 Gravity Games video so take a peek and get excited for the 2018 video! Also, know someone who would like to enter? Check out their official NC Gravity Games website below and good luck!

NC Gravity Games

2017 Gravity Games :

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0wziv5fL9c[/embedyt]