The British Steelies Society

This will probably interest Malcolm as I know he has been into drones for some time.

Xmas 2022 I fancied getting a drone but my lovely wife poo pooed it and in retrospect I'm glad she did. Xmas 2023 she withdrew her poo poo and suggested I should get a drone. I had been originally looking at getting the DJI Mini 3 Pro but over the last year they have released the Mini 4 Pro which has a lot of improvements over the Mini 3 Pro including 360° obstacle avoidance, two new 10 bit colour recording formats, HLG and D-Log M amongst other new features.

The DJI mini series drones weigh in at under 250 grams which means you don't need a flyers license, (to get this you need to pass an online exam), it does still require you to register with the CAA as a drone operator but that is easy to do.

So, I am still learning to fly this thing, it is quite complicated as it has many options but I'm getting there. The gimbal which keeps the camera steady is exceptional and even when you do some fast moves it keeps the video steady. It can record up to 4k 60 fps and in slow motion mode at 4k 100 fps.

I bought the bundle which includes a controller with a built in screen, 3 drone batteries with a charging hub amongst other accessories. I also bought a set of ND filters which allow you to, amongst other functions, set the shutter speed to 60 frames per second, (when recording at 4k 30 fps), which is necessary to get motion blur making the recorded video more realistic. I also purchased DJI's insurance cover which allows for 4 replacement drones over 2 years at a low cost should the drone get damaged, it also has flyaway cover should the drone get lost, an example of this would be if it should end up sinking in the sea! The cost for a replacement under the flyaway cover is a bit more but still a fraction of the new cost.

Enough waffle.

I took the drone out the other day on it's 2nd flight, unfortunately I had been experimenting in the house with some of the parameters and was playing about with manual focus, I forgot to set this back to auto focus, (rookie mistake!), so the beginning of the following video is a bit out of focus until I zoom back out and focus becomes clear. This is footage of Glenrothes Town Centre and the Town Park.

A few weeks ago a friend of mine asked me to play some Dickey Betts on my Tokai Les Paul that I bought recently, so I downloaded the backing track for Jessica and played the lead guitar using the Tokai. I've put the resulting recording onto the drone footage.

Anyway, here it is,

Thanks Ken. I can't play steel atm as I recently had my left big toe nail removed, (ingrown!), too sore on the pedals. So I've been playing quite a lot of guitar, I bought a really nice Tokai Les Paul, put a couple of Gibson Burstbuckers in it and it sounds great. Difficult to hear the quality when I've got it heavily distorted but it also sounds really nice clean and is a joy to play.

Yeah, Calum told me a story about a friend with a drone he took out on his yacht to do a bit of filming. It got caught in the wind and ended up in the Atlantic ocean, they did get video from it up until the point it crashed into the sea!

Stories like that made me take out the insurance scheme which DJI the drone company offer. It pretty well covers all eventualities. It's been a lot of fun so far, looking forward to the better weather though, a bit chilly up here atm.

Hi Geoff, try this, Gyrocopter is more fun than drone,

Geoff,with reference to Malcolm’s previous suggestion I enclose a photo of his present mode of air travel , I hope your on the mend now, take care and please avoid low flying aircraft

Aye, looks the biz Malcolm, then again when you've got all the kit, size doesn't matter so much, (that's what my wife tells me anyway).



Seriously, looks like a lot of fun, wouldn't mind giving that a go. (As long as I had a parachute just in case!)

Mcneilwaeasteel wrote:Geoff,with reference to Malcolm’s previous suggestion I enclose a photo of his present mode of air travel , I hope your on the mend now, take care and please avoid low flying aircraft

Thanks my man, am doing not too bad atm, only thing is that the chemo destroyed my immune system, the stem cell transplant built it up again but all the info that my immune system built up over my life re previous viruses, infections etc was lost, so every time I catch a virus or cold it takes a while before my new immune system gets a handle on it. I had to get all my childhood vaccinations again. I got a really bad virus over the Xmas period which was terrible and went on for ages, it's still bothering me a bit. However, better than the alternative. Roll on summer though so I can get this drone up in the air more often, atm my fingers get so cold the touch screen on the controller sometimes doesn't respond. Hope you are doing well, hope to see you at Gartcosh sometime this year

Geoff, will speak to my instructor to see if weaponary can be fitted to repel those pesky drones. . Spoke to Mitchell Smithey today, he said to give you his best regards, possibly be in Ireland and Scotland in March touring with a guy from Texas. Hope your health continues to get better Regards Biggles.