Putting a Drone Under Your Child’s Christmas Tree

Phoenix, AZ—Okay, I have to confess that my two camera drones have brought out the child in me!  I put one under my own tree last Christmas.  I’m middle-aged but have become hopelessly hooked on these incredible things.  I now own a DJI Phantom 2 and a Blade 350QX quad-copters that use those great GoPro cameras. 

For some unknown reason these multi-rotor camera drones have not caught the affection of women like they have men.  I don’t understand this since women are generally more creative then men.  I hope this changes because they have no clue what they’re missing.

The popularity of the multi-rotor drones is exploding especially with photographers.  They allow limitless perspectives of the subject mater sought to make or capture breathtaking images. 

They have starter drones on the substantially less-expensive end such as the Blade 200-QX that can help your child master the very important skills in controlling, operating and understanding this somewhat new technology. 

To be a successful camera drone owner & operator there are four things that must be part of your learning curve. 

First is learning the science and piloting of the device itself.  Next is the understanding of cameras and video photography.  After that, learning how to edit the video so that it is watchable becomes very important.  Last but not least is story telling or writing ability, which is no small part of this process. 

The best way to describe this is to compare this process to making a TV news story or a blockbuster movie.  If you’re not motivated, creative and competitive don’t bother with camera drones.

There’s really no fun in using the camera drones if you can’t share your films with your friends and the world.  Nobody will want to watch your videos unless they have that special sizzle. 

Drone photography has opened a new world that often can’t even be captured safely with conventional helicopters or fixed wing aircraft.  

The safety record of the camera drones is still unblemished but for a few careless owner/operators that have put their hand or fingers into the moving propellers.  For these people putting Band-Aids in their flight box may be a good idea. 

Crashes into trees, buildings or other fixed objects are inevitable but most of the time the drone survives with little or no damage.  A broken propeller or two are easily replaced.  

A pretty nice consumer drone with camera will cost between $1,200 and $3,000 but is worth every penny. 

The lucrative camera drone manufacturing industry is becoming fiercely competitive meaning the quality improves as the prices are dropping. 

An accomplished camera/drone operator can expect to see real career possibilities in many areas of business.  Filmmaking, TV news, Surveying and Mapping businesses will all need drone/camera operators.

Back to the idea of giving one of these gee wiz gizmos to you kid.  A starter drone may be the best idea.  If your child is really motivated, responsible and capable of handing the learning curve the real deal camera drone might just become the gift of a lifetime.  

Anyone getting a drone should learn to fly with an already accomplished drone operator.  Trying to learn alone is a terrible idea.  There are RC or remote control flying fields everywhere and there are folks there, flying that are only too willing to teach you some basics. 

Camera drone schools are also beginning to surface and that’s yet another professional opportunity. 

The drones are here to stay simply because they are both needed and wanted.  Now I want Santa Claus to put an advanced professional drone under my own tree this year!
My Number One Drone:

 Sunset and PCH L.A. video

Westlake Villiage, CA:

Treason and Murder Disguised as Incompetence, The Ebola Crisis

Ebola is not a real threat, just ask these medical professionals!  

Washington, DC—The Obama Administration and their Kool-Aid drinking followers are setting us up for total disaster.

As the official political line telling us that Ebola is not easily spread.  They claim that only intimate contact can lead to infection.  This, as two American nurses treating an Ebola victim were infected and are now fighting for their lives. 

The medical professionals all know better than to contradict The Obama Administration and their bureaucrats.  They know they will be accused of fear mongering and punished severely. 

The haz-mat suiting up of our medical community speaks volumes since it’s really unprecedented in our history.  They never before felt the need to take these kinds of precautions for Smallpox, AIDS or any other disease! 

We have successfully fought numerous contagious diseases through sanitation, immunizations, and quarantines for a very long time.  That works, political correctness does not. 

The Obama Administration is now intentionally importing Ebola to the United States.  They must stop all air travel between West Africans and the USA.  To do anything else is murder, pure and simple. This may seem difficult but we only need this kind of remedy until the current epidemic is under control.

Obama and his minions are deliberately placing our airline flight crews and military members along with their families in incredible risk.  We are next!

Look at the picture above as you drink your Obama Kool-Aid and ask yourself if political loyalty to this Communist despot is really worth dying over. Think about your children.

Ask yourself if Obama wants America infected and under martial law to complete his promise to fundamentally change America?

Incompetence or treason? 

Ebola Lies and Damn Lies!

Washington, DC—The Obama Administration has become shamelessly notorious as the most secret in American history.

When Obama’s minions are not hiding information they are lying to the public about absolutely everything.  Whether it’s Obamacare, Running guns to Mexican murderers, IRS political revenge, Immigration enforcement obstruction or the Benghazi cover-up just to name a few, all we get are lies.

Generally every government has integrity issues however The Obama Administration has a perfect record of zero credibility.  The six primary American America media organizations controlling 85% of news content have actually become the official Obama propaganda machine.

Ebola is not new; it’s been around for decades with occasional epidemics that then seem to subside.  Ebola is a prolific killer for sure claiming 70% of those infected. 

We need to recognize that the people of West Africa are primitive, live in filthy conditions and routinely consume unsanitary water.  As a result hey have all kinds of acquired immunity Americans don’t have. 

Americans live in much cleaner conditions and are far more susceptible to foreign diseases as a result.  The unanswered question is how would Americans fair in an Ebola epidemic?   We may be finding out as the Obama Administration errors only on the side of political correctness.  

Now with three confirmed cases, we have Ebola inside our nation.  Initially the official line was that this disease could not be casually spread.   They compared Ebola transmission similar to that of AIDS.  This is apparently a view through rose colored glass. 

However that obvious lie has been laid bare, after an African Ebola victim easily infected two of our nurses.  

I’m not a physician but I was a Medical Corpsman during my mandatory military service.  Part of that involved specific training in controlling and treating communicable diseases. 

There was a time when government health officials would only error on the side of public safety.  Not anymore!

Today we know that someone that should have never been allowed to enter the United States has subsequently infected two medical professionals.

That eviscerates our government’s rosy assertions to the American people.  If there is a defense, it’s in the argument of preventing panic.  The panic here would simply result in demands on government.

However the most serious is our government’s allowing West African people to enter our borders at the worst possible time.  This appears to me on its face, to be a treasonous attack designed to weaken this nation.

We stamped out Smallpox, Tuberculosis and many other deadly diseases in America.  Now with no border security we are all at real risk once again!  

Political correctness has replaced commonsense in dealing with this deadly emergency.  Obama is gambling with our very lives as a Lame Duck politician that has nothing to lose!

We beat diseases through traditional screening, treatment, immunizations and quarantine.  Political correctness has absolutely no place in medical decisions. 

Once health professionals can get a handle on Ebola in Africa and learn enough about it easing travel restrictions and quarantines would be reasonable. 

Why are we are forcing or military members and  flight crews to expose themselves to Africa's deadly communicable diseases? 

Why are we granting over 100 visas a day to West African citizens, putting them on our planes to the USA?  You can’t justify that really flawed public policy. 

If we are to survive we must run the Obama Administration and all of their disciples out of our government by any means necessary.  We have little choice now. 

Excessive FAA Drone Regulation Will Lead to Near Total Civil Disobedience

Los Angeles, CA—There are many thousands of camera-armed drones out on the American marketplace.  Today they far exceed the numbers of conventional helicopters.

Unlike conventional aircraft the little drones have a perfect safety record.  So far no reported deaths or serious injuries have occurred.  Injuries so far have my minor requiring little more than Band-Aids.  When accidents happen it’s because the drone’s owner put his fingers to close to the propellers.

Now the Obama Administration's FAA wants to create civilian drone regulation and greatly expand their manpower, budget and agency size.   It’s really just an unjustified power grab.

The little drones are not recognizable on radar screens.  Putting ID numbers on them is silly because even with the best binoculars nobody could read them anyway. 

They are simply not a threat to public safety or our airspace. 

The laws covering criminal endangerment, assault, stalking and privacy invasion are more than adequate to deal with that kind of behavior by drone operators.

The real issues are related to flying them in urban areas.  The reality is that's exactly where the drone operators are located. 

Realistically safety concerns are relative to the size of these drones.  The consumer type drones range from a few ounces to a few pounds.

The ones likely to be used by filmmakers, Drone journalists and surveyors must be larger to accommodate more sophisticated equipment.  More skill is needed to fly these very expensive machines.

I don’t care how any of us feel about the drones they are here to stay.  Their good use far outweighs the contrived and unrealized fear of the drone detractors. 

Many officials have yet to learn that the First Amendment like any typewriter, paintbrush or other camera protects the camera drones.

The issue of flying over crowds needs some attention.  Simply said, you can photograph a bunch of protestors better from an angle rather than directly overhead.  Flying near rather than directly over their heads is both safer and will provide better images.

In urban areas or for that matter anywhere I find that flying early in the morning provides better lighting and far fewer people are out on the streets. 

Night flight provides much better view of the drones for the operators.  I find that flying them from large empty parking lots with ample lighting is the perfect place to pilot the drones for night flight.

If the FAA over-regulates these things policing them would be incredibly expensive and difficult.  Frankly the FAA would simply be ignored.

Learning how to fly these things inconspicuously is not difficult.  You simply find a place to deploy and land your drone.  You bring your drone into the target area, get your video and get out.  If you do this right you could do it completely unnoticed. 

If you’re doing it right, by the time authorities could be informed about your scofflaw drone it would already have completed its mission!

Should there be over-regulation, count on me being a drone scofflaw.

You also need to know that unless you lie to officials or confess it may be nearly impossible to prove who was operating the drone.  If you become a target of an investigation connected to drone use say nothing!  Tell them four simple words, “I want a lawyer.”

In most cases they can’t even use a YouTube video against you in court without violating hearsay evidence rules.

If the Obama's FAA thinks they can police every youngster with little drones they really need to stop smoking crack. 

This Christmas there will be many thousands of these things given to good boys and girls.  The FAA needs to leave them alone.

A closer Look at my Phantom 2 Camera Drone and Accessories!

Phoenix, AZ—I number of my friends and visitors want to know more about my Phantom 2 camera drone so I have provided a close-up view.

The Go Pro camera with gimbal is a better choice then the built in camera on the Phantom 2 Vision plus for better images.

Check out my new retractable landing gear that’s never in my video shots anymore. 

My trusted dealer in Van Nuys, CA is Pirofliprc at 16205 Victory Blvd, Van Nuys, CA  91406- Telephone 818-781-3401.

Camera Drones are Voraciously Addictive!

Los Angeles, CA—If my blog seems to have so much content related to camera drones it’s because I hopelessly hooked!

I find myself adding sites to my bucket list every day.  Most of them are in far away places. 

Here are two of my latest shoots.  Please enjoy!

Drones, Research, development, the Dysfunctional FAA and Over-Zealous Politicians

Los Angeles, CA—An undetermined but huge numbers of little camera drones are in civilian hands all over the world.  They are safe, somewhat simple to operate and the cameras are capturing stunning images.

We can easily guess that the number of multi-rotor drones in the USA currently far exceeds that of conventional helicopters. 

Drones for the most part are ignored by the Federal Aviation Administration unless they are used to earn money or are flown inside or too close to airports without control tower permission.   The FAA has advised the drone owners to fly below 400 feet in order to avoid conventional aircraft.

Currently there are adequate laws in every state that cover drones or their potential involvement in endangerment, assault, stalking and privacy invasion.

The FAA has missed their deadlines and has all but abdicated its responsibility to integrate these devices with other air traffic.

One federal judge has already slapped the FAA and their ban on commercial use has been voided.  That matter is currently under appeal.

Other than constant obstruction the FAA has done nothing to encourage the collision avoidance system and other testing by drone manufacturers. 

The voracious drone market competition shows promise of new safety hardware and software development.   That certainly shows the potential of real safety benefits all aircraft passengers and those on the ground.  

Because of the FAA testing is being done everywhere but the USA!  We as a nation are falling behind.  

Any safety concerns by the FAA are without foundation.  There’s never been a remarkable accident!  No lives lost.  Any injuries related to the drones are a few cut fingers of the drone owners because of ill-advised handling.

Public safety would be greatly enhanced if the little drones were used instead of fixed wing planes of helicopters.

The drones are battery powered and environmentally friendly.  The noise from the drones is so much less than regular aircraft. 

Most importantly drones are so much cheaper to operate.   The savings to taxpayers would be huge if government agencies embraced these things. 

For example automobile accident investigations and criminal investigations on our roads rely on time consuming diagramming by cops.  If cops used a camera drone they’d have picture perfect and to scale evidence.  This can be done quickly eliminating prolonged traffic tie-ups. 

Insurance companies could quickly survey damaged property after floods, storms and fires.

Farmers, cattle ranches and rescue crews will all significantly benefit from using drones. 

The FAA is by nature another power and money hungry bureaucracy beast.  The FAA must realize that they can’t keep up with millions of 12 year-old boys flying drones above the roofs of their homes. 

The FAA needs to back off and stick to their original mission of dealing with manned aircraft.  I don’t see much argument over measured and reasonable regulation of drones weighing more than 55 pounds.   

Politicians likewise need to let the existing laws work instead of obstructing business and public safety with unfounded “Chicken Little” predictions of doom and death.   

The operators of the little camera drones for the most part police themselves.  They understandably don’t want to endanger their expensive drones, cameras, the public or themselves. 

For the few drone operators that might choose to use drones criminally the local police have sufficient manpower and resources for enforcement.