Opening up a Wyoming regional
I am here in Laramie.
Regards,
-d.

It has been pretty cold and windy here lately so I have only been able to make a few very short flights but everything seems to be working well.  Waiting for the four months of non-winter to arrive.
Regards,
-d.

Figure out how to have the Mavic circle me automatically while target practicing, worked pretty cool.
Regards,
-d.

Howdy all, took a hard landing in the snow and it was a beast getting the gimble mounted again, unfortunately I did not realize it until I had taken a few other videos, now those are all shaky.  Ah well live in learn.  So, like does anyone else live in this state?  helloooo.......
Regards,
-d.

There are two of us!  

Woo hoo, well Howdy! Have you taken yours out yet? I am thinking of taking a look at Vedaveue next.
Regards,
-d.

Took the Mavic back to the range today, to windy to trust tracfly, however I got some great video of a father and son doing mixed drills from 10 meters above and 10 meters out. Where is a good video hosting site (free.)

Turkk71 Posted at 2017-2-5 13:41
There are two of us!

Turkk71, have you taken you Mavic out much?  Any good spots you have found in Wyoming with less wind (haha, I jest) but seriously there have to be spots more sheltered than others.
Regards,
-d.

Took the Mavic out for one or two minutes yesterday, wind was gusting to 27+ mph and the Mavic was starting to sound like a two stroke weed eater so I took it down.  I will continue my lonely vigil reporting for the great state of Wyoming; you guys should come visit, I have five acres in the middle of town we could have a cook out or something..... sigh.
Regards,
-d.

From the great cold high plains I am back; 30 + mph gusts so flying would not be productive. I did pick up a shield tablet, hoodman visor and one of the aluminum tablet mounts everyone seems to be taking about; I will try it out when the wind dies down. Until then.
Warmest regards,
-d.

bunny too Posted at 2017-2-6 05:30
Turkk71, have you taken you Mavic out much?  Any good spots you have found in Wyoming with less wind (haha, I jest) but seriously there have to be spots more sheltered than others.
Regards,
-d.

Been out a couple times locally around Gillette didn't find any issues with airport just notified, and they were cool.  Went to the Bighorns and did some snowshoeing and worked well, but found that landing on snow was not very easy so I hovered it then caught it by hand and it worked pretty well, little nerve racking but not bad.  Of course I received it early last week and it has been blowing like mad during that time.  Here is a link to my latest flight  the other night, nothing special, but concerned about some issues with camera.  This  video is clearly highly processed for fun, but!!!  The second one is from our snowshoeing trip.  Note that in many spots that I didn't process out the reddish shift in the center of the frame.  Not happy about that, but i am beginning to think it is directly related to either cold or firmware issues with d-log or both.  I have pre-ordered a Karma and  although will not be my backpacking drone, should offer a bit better footage.  

All that being said...I am very happy with the flight of the drone and have had it out at 19 degrees with 25mph winds without issue.  

I have ordered the ND filters that will cure some issues with the jello effect in the mountains with snow, at least that is my expectation.  Ordered the DJI version of them so who knows when they will show up ;)

Gillette
Bighorns

Beautiful footage, check out the posts on calibration fixed all my issues, however the cold weather will do weird things, make it jittery and sometimes give it odd tints but that may be snow reflection or refraction. Is the Karma still being released? My order was canceled so I ordered an Inspire 2 but I might go back to gopro if they are selling it. Stay warm my friend.
Regards,
-d.

I have also ordered a set of ND and ND/P filters so we will see. I also caught it by hand once and it was sketchy as heck, I thought the drone would break one of my fingers or tear itself apart; I use one of the oval folding car  windshield screens I found in the garage for snow landings (which are all landings.)  
Regards,
-d.

Hello again, rapping at you from the frozen high dessert.  It is supposed to get into the forties today but wind still gusting up to 37+mph so I am grounded again, when I figure out how I will post the one cool video of the handgun range that I have taken.  All my other videos are pretty boring as any filming at altitude I do the wind is too strong.  However I will endeavor to persevere.
Regards,
-d.

Turkk71 Posted at 2017-2-7 15:02
Been out a couple times locally around Gillette didn't find any issues with airport just notified, and they were cool.  Went to the Bighorns and did some snowshoeing and worked well, but found that landing on snow was not very easy so I hovered it then caught it by hand and it worked pretty well, little nerve racking but not bad.  Of course I received it early last week and it has been blowing like mad during that time.  Here is a link to my latest flight  the other night, nothing special, but concerned about some issues with camera.  This  video is clearly highly processed for fun, but!!!  The second one is from our snowshoeing trip.  Note that in many spots that I didn't process out the reddish shift in the center of the frame.  Not happy about that, but i am beginning to think it is directly related to either cold or firmware issues with d-log or both.  I have pre-ordered a Karma and  although will not be my backpacking drone, should offer a bit better footage.  

All that being said...I am very happy with the flight of the drone and have had it out at 19 degrees with 25mph winds without issue.  

I very much enjoyed the snowshoe footage although the soundtrack made me fear for a terrible Jack London 'To Build a Fire' type ending, then it just went black so I hope everyone made it out.
Regards,
-d.

bunny too Posted at 2017-2-9 09:05
I very much enjoyed the snowshoe footage although the soundtrack made me fear for a terrible Jack London 'To Build a Fire' type ending, then it just went black so I hope everyone made it out.
Regards,
-d.

We survived!  

During my first flight of my Mavic Pro I noticed a radial discoloration in both stills images and video.  The footage was in snow covered forest.  It appears that this is a systemic problem with the camera.  DJI references the angle of incident, which may or may not be the case.  I would expect the sensor to be on par with an iphone at the very least.  I decided to do my own very non-scientific experiment to determine if I could reproduce at room temperature under incandenscent lighting.  The video below is my attempt.  I must admit that I cannot make a solid determination here.  If anything I can say that my field results are very inconsitent compared to my studio test.  Looking at the still imagery it is clear that the DJI raw files are being rendered as expected under any color profile they should be the same, and in this case they are.  It is also clear that their jpg engine is cooking the images as expected and based on the jpg images they have clearly identified the problem and are correcting with jpg.  That is great, unless you happen to have purchased the system to be able to utilize a raw image.  Note the D810 raw image is much more true to life, understanding that the D810 is a superior camera and a larger sensor, it is also a Sony sensor.    At the end of the day, I have not clue what is going on.  I suspect colder temps have some effect, and it is possible that the angle of incidence is the cause.  I do submit that the excuse that it is systemic with all small sensors is preposterous, due to evidence from gopro footage that does not exhibit this hostility with the images.   Forgive the audio, I am not set up for this type of work. https://youtu.be/5G4fWUsZnMI :34 to really see the issue https://youtu.be/SrFfXlK22xU

Turkk71 Posted at 2017-2-11 12:36
We survived!

Well I feel your empirical reasoning is spot on however your photographic knowledge and terminology far exceeds my sphere of reference.  I will try to study up so I can contribute an intelligent comment other than "Sure looks cool (which it does)."
Regards,
-d.

Howdy All, finally had some niceish weather up here yesterday, 5 MPH wind tops and almost 40 deg F!  Took the drone out to the range again and got some nice video I am editing and hope to upload soon, do any of you people use digital microphones one the ground to capture audio and if so can you recommend one?
Regards,
-d.

Hello Bunny too, I do not have any recommendations on a mic, but am interested as well let us know if you find a good one.  Met a guy yesterday with his new DJI Phantom Pro.  Good guy, and nice to see another drone in the air in WY.  Stuck in Ft. Worth this week, I brought the Mavic, hoping for some good weather to fly.  Hard to find unrestricted airspace in this part of the country.

Turkk71 Posted at 2017-2-13 15:35
Hello Bunny too, I do not have any recommendations on a mic, but am interested as well let us know if you find a good one.  Met a guy yesterday with his new DJI Phantom Pro.  Good guy, and nice to see another drone in the air in WY.  Stuck in Ft. Worth this week, I brought the Mavic, hoping for some good weather to fly.  Hard to find unrestricted airspace in this part of the country.

DFW was crowded when I was a kid in the '70s I imagine it is a nightmare now, it would be cool to get some airtime in Texas however at least the weather has to be warmer, I shall keep you posted on a mic if I find one.
Regards,
-d.

Latest video, change the music a lighter toon just for you!

@bunny too If you watch from 1:06-1:12 or so over the lake you can see the other P4P I mentioned earlier. It is flying left to right.

Turkk71 Posted at 2017-2-14 17:28
@bunny too If you watch from 1:06-1:12 or so over the lake you can see the other P4P I mentioned earlier. It is flying left to right.

Man the colors pop in that video, and I know it is silly but I love the way the dogs come running right when your Mavic takes off.  Good Video, thank you.
Regards,
-d.

LOL that is funny but I think the dogs made the shot, and the best part is it was an accident.  Thanks for viewing.

Howdy all, no wind yesterday so I went to go flying and I kept getting disconnected from the app, so I went to the firing range and the front sight fell off so I went home and read a book.  Sigh....

Howdy All, rapping at you from the frozen high desert of Wyoming, it has been very cold and windy so I have not had a chance to go out recently; did get my polorpro filter set so I have that going for me.  Still having issues with my Nvida shield crashing with the latest updates, trying to decide if I should switch to the iPad mini 4 or pro or wait for the crystal sky to come out, probably be around the same price and as I do not use apple for anything the dedicated crystal sky may be the better choice; especially if they include GS Pro with it.  If not, the iPad pro with ground station pro might be the better option.  Any of you mugs out there have experience with GS pro and the iPad mini or Pro?  Holler back at me.
Regards,
-d.

Over here on the other side of the state from you fellas.  Sublette/Teton County.  It's been too cold and snowy to do anything drone related for awhile now.  Jumped at a small sunshine window on Saturday.  A minute and 43 seconds into the flight and the camera shutdown.  Too cold (9 degrees) so brought the bird right back and grounded it.
I decided not to wait for the dsl filters and went ahead with the polarpro.  Haven't got to try them yet.
I'm in the process of building a tripod mounted sunshade box for my 12" iPad Pro, for using here at the ranch.  The iPad mini works nice but I'm excited to frame up a few photo ops on a larger screen.
~Bugs

BugsMc Posted at 2017-2-27 16:11
Over here on the other side of the state from you fellas.  Sublette/Teton County.  It's been too cold and snowy to do anything drone related for awhile now.  Jumped at a small sunshine window on Saturday.  A minute and 43 seconds into the flight and the camera shutdown.  Too cold (9 degrees) so brought the bird right back and grounded it.
I decided not to wait for the dsl filters and went ahead with the polarpro.  Haven't got to try them yet.
I'm in the process of building a tripod mounted sunshade box for my 12" iPad Pro, for using here at the ranch.  The iPad mini works nice but I'm excited to frame up a few photo ops on a larger screen.

Howdy BugsMc, sounds like you have quite the set up, I just got the six pack of polarpro and love the quality, have not had a chance to do much outside filming with them yet but they slip on and off beautifully.  Be interested to hear how GS pro works on you iPad pro.
Regards,
-d.

Still colder and windier then heck here; winter is the best eight months of the year here.
Regards,
-d.

Howdy all, with the new firmware and app update hopefully I will be out flying soon.  Hope to see you all out there.
Regards,
-d.

Morning Cowboys,
Here is a roll I put together from footage taken during a recent outing.  Not planned to make a drone roll, but thought I would share with you guys.  I think you will like it.  Shot and processed in 1080p.  
Have you guys noticed a difference in power since the newest firmware?  I notices my unit was struggling in 20mph winds yesterday, and had not had any issues in the past at that speed.  Anyway.

Turkk71 Posted at 2017-3-17 04:04
Morning Cowboys,
Here is a roll I put together from footage taken during a recent outing.  Not planned to make a drone roll, but thought I would share with you guys.  I think you will like it.  Shot and processed in 1080p.  
Have you guys noticed a difference in power since the newest firmware?  I notices my unit was struggling in 20mph winds yesterday, and had not had any issues in the past at that speed.  Anyway.

If you were only getting 20 mph winds you  were lucky, Laramie we were getting 50 + I was teaching a class on firearm safety and the target stand flew off the ground and hit me in the head.  I have not had to cover that in class before.
Regards,
-d.

bunny too Posted at 2017-3-17 07:17
If you were only getting 20 mph winds you  were lucky, Laramie we were getting 50 + I was teaching a class on firearm safety and the target stand flew off the ground and hit me in the head.  I have not had to cover that in class before.
Regards,
-d.

Gotta love March!  I can only imagine the look on the groups face when that happened!

We're not getting a lot of wind here on the other side of the state, but the heavy, wet snow has kept my bird grounded for nearly a week now.  I did fly down the river last week and caught a single elk out on the ice.  I was testing out the auto focus button and didn't think it through. The video jumped all over the place as I was playing with the focus location.  Lesson learned.  I snapped a shot of the river opening up.

BugsMc Posted at 2017-3-23 19:16
We're not getting a lot of wind here on the other side of the state, but the heavy, wet snow has kept my bird grounded for nearly a week now.  I did fly down the river last week and caught a single elk out on the ice.  I was testing out the auto focus button and didn't think it through. The video jumped all over the place as I was playing with the focus location.  Lesson learned.  I snapped a shot of the river opening up.

Awesome picture BugsMc, the contrast and layout are superb (I like how the left third is hectic, middle third less so and right third is peacful, same with dept of feild the back third is very busy and less so as we move forward).  I think the wet snow is moving south at we just got some this morning.
Regards,
-d.

Nice shot, look forward to seeing your future work.

Hey, I just joined this forum and found this thread.  I live in Laramie too and am anxiously awaiting the arrival of my Phantom 4 Pro, due next Tuesday.  I don't have any drone flying experience yet but back in the 70's I took flying lessons from Sam Evans in his PA12 out at Howe field.  I made several solo cross country flights in that little red tail-dragger, one up to my hometown of Sheridan.  

Prior to that I made 136 sport parachute jumps when I was a guest of Uncle Sam at Ft Ord California where  I accumulated about 53 minutes of free fall time.  I was manager of the Photo Service at the University of Wyoming before my retirement.  Bottom line is I've always been fascinated with flying and aerial photography so drone flying looks like the perfect hobby for me now.

Nice shot, BugsMc.  Turkk71, I'll bet that are some interesting landforms around the mines in Gillette.  Unfortunately I can't view your videos.  My latest Nikon is a D810 too.  

Ed

Hey there WyoFlier.  Looking forward to your future photos.  Sounds like you've had some pretty awesome flight adventures.  The P4P is my first drone as well.  The camera on it is pretty awesome.  I picked up the Polar Pro Cinema 6-pack filters last month and have been having fun experimenting with them.

WyoFlier Posted at 2017-4-14 06:54
Hey, I just joined this forum and found this thread.  I live in Laramie too and am anxiously awaiting the arrival of my Phantom 4 Pro, due next Tuesday.  I don't have any drone flying experience yet but back in the 70's I took flying lessons from Sam Evans in his PA12 out at Howe field.  I made several solo cross country flights in that little red tail-dragger, one up to my hometown of Sheridan.  

Prior to that I made 136 sport parachute jumps when I was a guest of Uncle Sam at Ft Ord California where  I accumulated about 53 minutes of free fall time.  I was manager of the Photo Service at the University of Wyoming before my retirement.  Bottom line is I've always been fascinated with flying and aerial photography so drone flying looks like the perfect hobby for me now.

Hey WyoFlier, Shoot me a pm and we can meet up and go flying together, Laramie is a small town, we can not be that far away from each other.
Regards,
-d

Sorry for the delayed reply.  I got my Phantom and am having a lot of frustration tying to get it working.  I think there's a problem in the aircraft.  I'll try a few more tests tomorrow and if I can't get it working then I'll box it up and send it back to Amazon.  

And I'm sorry too, Bunny too, but I can't figure out this PM system on this software.  I'll send you my email address if I can ever learn how to send a PM.  I got yours and read them but I can't find a reply function.  

Ed