DRAFT

What I wanted to do

Compare time spent, quality, and expense of Kite photos of Bayou St John wetland vs photos form a new/old drone quadcopter.

I wanted to evaluate the ability of either to lift different payloads

• Infragram on a bolt attached to a soda bottle rig (v light .040 kg, but instable in the wind (flies off nadir often))
• Saturn V setup with a Canon 1400is (LiPo battery, 0.435 kg)

• Titan 2 setup (stripped down, 2x Canon 2300, 0.620 kg)

• Used DJI Phantom 2 (no cameras or anything) 1.01 kg

• Canmore photologger 0.025kg (v close to the error margin of the scale itself)

Attached cardboard tails to the Titan 2 for helicopter flight, since the spread of the copter legs is small--the picavet is made for a kite; it will likely rotate and blur the pics.

I can rarely get the kite to lift the Titan 2 with a 7' Delta in the unstable winds around New Orleans. The other two work well with the 7' Delta; I wanted to see if the copter could lift these, especially the Titan 2.

My attempt and results

On June 5th

I arrived onsite with the materials. But the quadcopter wouldn't turn on. So all I have are kite pictures. Irony. I don't know if this counts as a test.

disspirited, I only flew the Infragram + Canmore on the 7' Delta on 3000' line. It took about 45 minutes to get the shot, because i misread the wind and had to launch twice.

Flickr Album Mapknitter

Infragram save is messed up --2250%?

[note to self, wear bathing suit at BSJ site and you can cross the water instead of winding in a re-launching the kite]

Weather history, 5th June 2016 1630 cst

Take 2 Sunday June 12th, 2016

no wind, hot, thunder 92 degrees and overcast
Weighed the rigs

Canmore photologger is light light.

Crashed the helicopter into tree (I think it's ok).

Rain started before I got to fly, but I think I can get it flying next time. Rebar in the levee armoring might be messing with the GPS signaling to the DJI phantom 2.

Weather history, 12th June 2016 1230 cst

Questions and next steps

June 5th was a high water event, which is interesting. Since Andy's departure from maintaining the site, I do think stem density is down; it at least seems patchy for Spartina species.

June 12th was also high water. wake up earlier next week, to beat the thunderstorm.