We had a guest stay over a couple of nights ago. He saw an aerial picture we have of the house, and before he left he asked if I wanted a go with the drone he had with him. Of course I said yes. So we sent this drone up about 50 feet, and took some video of the house from across the road.
I was seriously impressed. First by the ease of controlling and directing it, secondly by the rock solid stability, and third by the video quality. Despite a 4k sensor, not near a match for a digital VCR with a proper zoom lens, but good. It only had digital zoom.
Hands off the controls, this thing hovered like a kestrel maintaining station. Although it leaned into the direction of travel when I moved it clumsily, the camera remained steady on its gimbal.
It's tiny thing, 14 x 8 x 6 cm when fold, it would fit in a biscuit tin unfolded. It weighs 249g. DJI Mini 2. A kit with spare batteries costs about £440 currently. I'm tempted but can't really justify that for what is really a toy.
Why might I need a flying camera?
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I am currently in drone quandary. My expensive 3 year old semi pro 4k Sony video is irretrievably broken, and I am trying to justify 1600 quid to replace it with another*, when I thought of a drone and its now coloured my thinking. You can get a DJ Mavic pro with a Hassleblad 4/3rds sensor!
* Sony! I swear to god not another Sony product will cross my threshold.
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Wasn't there something about requiring a licence to fly them? Maybe just those over a certain size?
I imagine it'd be a fun toy if you can justify it
Last edited by: smokie on Sun 23 Apr 23 at 18:37
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If they're under 249g you can effectively fly them anywhere (almost)
Mate has a DJI Mini that produces some very nice HD video and was about £300-400 I think.
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Yes there's a 250g cut off. There are no-fly areas, which include prisons, flight paths near airports, military establishments. There are also larger restricted areas where flying >400ft. AGL is forbidden. The DJI drones are geofenced. I am on the edge of the RAF Halton restricted zone and we had to dismiss a warning before it would take off.
You can see here if your house is in a red zone before buying one to inspect your chimney.
www.dji.com/uk/flysafe/geo-map
The price of £440 I think I quoted was actually for a DJI Mini 2 SE + accessories. It's a bit cheaper than the Mini 2 and is only 2.7K, but apparently the video is about as good - the principal limiting factors being the sensor size and small lens.
Obviously they are fragile, being very nicely but lightly built. The battery is over half the weight. It will fly for half an hour, and can be controlled up to 4 Km. away. Good idea to keep it in line of sight!
Coincidentally, a couple of days before the visitor I had a knock on the door from a chap trying to sell me an aerial photo taken last October. I ended up buying the framed 8 x 10 he had under his arm because it's a new house and we had recently moved in. I would rather have had the digital file but he wanted £250 for that, which was a lot more than I gave him for the framed print. The resolution on the photo is just OK, no doubt it was taken with a decent camera but that was from 1600 ft. I reckon I could get more detail from one of these little drones taking the same shot from about 80-100 ft.
The aerial photo man told me that hardly anyone does it now. I said the drones must have put the plane operators out of business - he said not really, because although he could use a drone himself it would take much longer to get the pictures, he can go up in a plane for a couple of hours and take hundreds.
Last edited by: Manatee on Sun 23 Apr 23 at 19:22
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>>Good idea to keep it in line of sight!
AIUI, the law requires that it's in visual line of sight at all times (no binoculars) and at a distance where you can see its orientation.
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The DJI drones are geofenced. I am on the edge of the RAF Halton
>> restricted zone and we had to dismiss a warning before it would take off.
fear not, it wont be a restricted zone for long. Tho I think the closure and flog off has been postponed for a while.
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>> Yes there's a 250g cut off. There are no-fly areas, which include prisons, flight paths
>> near airports, military establishments. There are also larger restricted areas where flying >400ft. AGL is
>> forbidden.
Looking at the map near me. Weybridge Rifle Club is a blue marker thing, as is Wentworth bunker. Wossat mean?
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>> Looking at the map near me. Weybridge Rifle Club is a blue marker thing, as
>> is Wentworth bunker. Wossat mean?
And Bisley and the Deepcut/Ash ranges. I get that, you would'nt want your drone shot out the sky. But yeah you are right, Wentworth Bunker is a weird one, as its sealed up and under a car park.
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Wentworth Bunker is a weird one, as
>> its sealed up and under a car park.
>>
www.subbrit.org.uk/sites/wentworth-ghq-home-forces/
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>> Wentworth Bunker is a weird one, as
>> >> its sealed up and under a car park.
>> >>
>>
>> www.subbrit.org.uk/sites/wentworth-ghq-home-forces/
Yeah been down there, on an organised tour, when I was into Urbex. And the Southern Railway command centre in Dorking, The Civil Bunker in Woking, The ROC post at Walton, couldn't get into the ROC post on the side of the A3 at Esher tho.
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>I swear to god not another Sony product will cross my threshold.
I must have posted at least half a dozen times on here that Sony are on my 5 hit-list.
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Our guest has just sent through the video I took on my first go with a drone. The file is full HD, (1920 x 1080) and 1GB for 2 minutes 10 seconds which seems rather a lot. But it's amazing for an unskilled effort, and much more detailed than the aerial photo as I expected.
I must be in the good books because the boss has just reminded me that I will be 70 next month and says I could get one for a birthday present.
It would be a fun thing to take to Lake Garda in June. I'm weakening.
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The only problem for video from a drone is the soundtrack, its, weell err, a drone.
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>> The only problem for video from a drone is the soundtrack, its, weell err, a
>> drone.
The Mini 2se/2/3 etc. don't record sound. You can I believe get a DJI controller (at a price) that records the audio but clearly there would be no point having the mic on the drone. Don't know about other makes.
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As my way of recouping the cost of the drone would be my train vids an audio soundtrack is required so in addition to the drone bag, I would still need to lug a tripod bag around and probably use my trusty ole Panasonic to record the the audio track so a camera bag as well.
The thing about drones is the lack of convenience, you need to cart the whole kit about, assemble it, you cant use it in rainy or windy weather (Under the 250gm level about 30km/s is the max) you need a clear area to get it up and down (as it were) your operating window is limited and worse of all you get a load of knobs (including policemen) telling you you cant do it.
Tempted tho - sigh - look at this. www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2urjoPk9Do&ab_channel=DawlishBeachCams those opening scenes are stunning. ( I recommend) you watch all the vid, some of the geo attached camera scenes are equally as stunning
But But But. I have dogs....... They love to catch and demolish drones
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>>you cant use it in rainy or windy weather (Under the 250gm level about 30km/s is the max)
Assume you meant 30 kph. The stated maximum wind speed for the little DJI drones is 10.7 metres per second, which is 24mph/38kph. Not bad, but very windy days would be a problem. They don't look very waterproof.
I've watched a few videos. One chap demoing the DJI Mini 2 SE commented that these little ones are less obvious and quieter than the big ones and less likely to attract complaints. More like a toy I suppose.
I succumbed to the Mini 2 SE. Got it all charged up now, just need some better weather to play with it. The drone itself needs no assembly, the legs fold out, take the cover off the camera and that's it. It all fits (drone, RC, spare batteries) into a small case.
I've taken out a year's cover for £35. It allows me up to 2 replacements at £27 each in the first year, if accidently damaged or lost. I'm hoping I'll have learned how not to crash by the end of that.
That video of Dawlich is amazing.
If I can get confidence in operating it I might see if I can overfly the Wicked film set, just down the road at Ivinghoe. They've built a sort of fantasy mediaeval village.
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So, to quote the Dirty Harry scene. "Ise gots to know"
Hows the drone thing going M? need a full blown warts and all review of your drone experience. (thinking about buying myself a xmas pressie)
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Recently sold our house and moved.
The estate agent sent a photographer round to take pics - complete with a 30ft telescopic pole to mount his no doubt expensive camera on to take an "ariel" shot.
The surveyor duly arrived with binoculars - not the best tool for assessing the roof condition.
Potentially very useful little devices - as those on the front line in Ukraine have found!
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>> So, to quote the Dirty Harry scene. "Ise gots to know"
>>
>> Hows the drone thing going M?
Well as there has been no drone update since its purchase, can we assume it crashed into Tring Reservoir?
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That’s not as funny as my friends which crash landed in lake Geneva. How we laughed.
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I did think of taking it to Lake Garda in June.
Decided not in the end. Extremely short of luggage space (MX-5) but also some concern about what arcane regulations the Italians might have about that sort of thing.
Had I been able to get it to follow us up an Alp or two I might have been tempted to try it.
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No, just haven't had much opportunity to use it.
Good suggestion I might go and try it out at the ressies.
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Girlfriend dropped a Scholl sandal into one of them. She asked what should she do. I replied "you may as well throw the other one in, because I ain't getting it". So she did. Blamed me for her having to walk barefoot back to the car.
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I hope you explained you saved her the embarrassment of hopping on one foot back to the car?
Was it the flip or flop she lost?
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>> Was it the flip or flop she lost?
Both, in the end.
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A one legged bloke goes into a shoe shop…
“Morning sir, how can we help?”
“Got any flips?”
As you were etc…
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>> Good suggestion I might go and try it out at the ressies.
>>
OK. Woss a ressie?
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I’d guess reservoir, although never heard of ‘ressie’
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One could have read the thread and seen reservoir was in the item being referenced, had one any gumption that is.
Last edited by: Zero on Wed 22 Nov 23 at 20:17
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My Finger is hovering over the buy button for a DJI Mini 2, currently around the £270 mark as my first drone, not the kit with extra batteries (£390)* but could be persuaded if its required. The DJI mini is now classed as a C0 drone, which I am trying to work out what that means. Altho its under 250g I think because its not a toy, has a camera, it needs an operators license. Not a problem, always planned to apply for an operators license and flying ID, as I'll be flying in A2 category as well as A1 and A3, its very easy and cheap to get.
Manatee, have you actually used yours yet? any practical words of advice before I push the buy now button.?
Reason for purchase? Well, the famous loco "Blue Peter" has made it out of the rebuild shop after 20 years away, was transported down to the severn valley railway for rials yesterday, and will make a debut run on the mainline in July. Time to change my filming style (which means extra kit for sound)
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“Drones - anybody have one ? “
Divorced her
Didn’t bother getting another
:-)
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"the famous loco "Blue Peter" has made it out of the rebuild shop after 20 years "
Another one they "made earlier" then
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...it'd be a lot of cardboard, washing liquid bottles and sticky-back plastic, that!...
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Check this one out (motoring connection)..... Drone vs F1 car
www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pEqyr_uT-k
p.s. try and ignore the Red Bull logos everywhere!
Last edited by: Lygonos on Tue 19 Mar 24 at 10:52
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p.p.s. the amount of water being displaced by the F1 tyres is pretty astonishing!
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>> "the famous loco "Blue Peter" has made it out of the rebuild shop after 20
>> years "
>>
>> Another one they "made earlier" then
Ah much consternation and gnashing of teeth in the gricer world, they have only gone and painted it garter blue........
www.youtube.com/watch?v=GB_5IagNyDo&ab_channel=SevernValleyRailway
You can just see it in the corner, gently warming up.
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Zero, can you explain the issue with colour?
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>> Zero, can you explain the issue with colour?
Colour of locos is a constant source of agro with certain types of gricer, gets very vocal and abusive within steaming social media. Its very complex, given the history of the railway companies, big 4 grouping then nationalisation, and then regionalisation within the nationalised railway. Given that locos did actually carry different livery, names, numbers, features during their working, overhauled* and adapted* lives its quite complicated if you give a fig about that kind of thing. Essentially, when you have restored a loco, its about what period in its life do you turn it out in.
No. 60532 Blue Peter was built in 1949, so British Railways, but as essentially an LNER Peppercorn Class A2 (the only surviving A2) it was turned out in LNER Apple Green, during later life it was BR black with various types of the BR lion and wheel logo.
Its been restored in Garter Blue, which was only carried by A4 class locos during LNER days, so its in a colour it never carried. Cue much angry finger pointing, rather than gratitude its been restored to main line running. Especially after its spectacular accident at Chester.
** The row about Flying Scotsman was immense, wrong shade of green, german style deflectors, wrong number of chimneys, despite the fact it had all these things on and off during its long working life,
Last edited by: Zero on Tue 19 Mar 24 at 14:23
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Thanks, v. helpful.
Did it ever run as '532' which would presumably have been an LNER number
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Yup, shopped out as LNER 532 and then renumbered as BR 60532, so its run under both.
Last edited by: Zero on Tue 19 Mar 24 at 14:45
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Haven't used it enough. Hope to do more this year, intend taking it to NI and maybe France this summer.
Mine is a mini 2 se. The Mini 2 is very similar but can record 4k at 30 fps, the SE manages only 2.7k.
Neither has optical zoom AFAIK and both are fixed focus although that is not a problem in reasonable light, the depth of field being sufficient for most purposes.
HD video is actually quite good but if storage isn't an issue you might as well record everything at full res.
There's no sound from the drone of course, do you intend to record sound? If so I guess you've figured it out.
Not had any problems with the control linkup to maybe a quarter of a mile in line of sight. I haven't risked it further.
It has no obstacle avoidance, you need to keep well clear of stuff. I think if you touch anything it's down.
Be aware the batteries go flat if left in the charging case while not actually charging.
Last edited by: Manatee on Tue 19 Mar 24 at 12:45
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Good tip re batteries. With good planning I shan't need more than 20 minutes flight time, si Ill charge battery in drone. Will need a carry case, and I'll have a dedicated phone for the control.
Sound is the issue, so I'll plan to use a stand alone audio recorder stashed somewhere good audio wise, I can leave on and leave, and then stitch the audio on later in post production.
I would of course like a pro drone, like the Mavic pro, but I'll learn on the cheaper one.
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Well, I have no drone yet, but I now have an operator id, done the test and I have a flyer ID.,
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...your draft papers for Ukraine will be in tomorrows post...
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I dont have the lethal payloads class on my license.
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Drone is on its way, by van.
DJI mini 2 se fly more bundle.
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>> Drone is on its way, by van.
By van!
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>> >> Drone is on its way, by van.
>>
>> By van!
It's in Transit is what they actually said.
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It's been transferred to a dispatch
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>> ...your draft papers for Ukraine will be in tomorrows post...
Don't get putin ideas in his head.
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vimeo.com/187305988/7b121c8dca
Reminded me of the time we sold our house back in 2017. Seems ever such a long time ago now and no doubt the tech has moved on.
Last edited by: R.P. on Wed 20 Mar 24 at 16:35
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Well its arrived, it got charged, it flies. Take off is easy, landing is easy with the land function, dawdled it up and down the garden in numpty mode. Impressed with the camera gimble stability.
Quite complicated, to get all your parameters in place, so much practice in store.
Dogs hate it.
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A guy I know lives fairly rurally. Someone kept flying a drone over his back garden. He eventually became annoyed by it and shot it down with his 12 bore. No one came to claim the bits.
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...you'd have to be careful, though. Some of them shoot back nowadays.....
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Yes I suppose that’s right. He’s not actually any kind of psycho, he’d just noticed that the drone seemed to coincidentally appear over the garden when his wife and daughter were sunbathing…
Like I said, no one came round to claim the debris.
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...have you bought yourself a replacement?....
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Heh heh!
It’s not a pursuit that appeals to me I’m afraid. Each to their own and all that I suppose.
Perhaps when I get a bit more used to these 7 day weekends I’ll look into trying more nerdy stuff.
Caravans/Dormobiles etc even. Not yet though, I still need to work on the self-esteem redesign thing a bit more.
;-)
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>> Heh heh!
>> It’s not a pursuit that appeals to me I’m afraid.
...drone flying or voyeurism?... ;-)
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Not very much interested in either for now, but I guess if life gets a bit too tedious I could consider them!
;-)
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'the drone seemed to coincidentally appear over the garden when his wife and daughter were sunbathing…'
Don't suppose he posted any footage of the mother-in-law did the same...?
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So, here is my first drone shot. youtu.be/A2I0nc0uT_w
Location was perfect for safe flying for an inexperienced pilot on first test. Simple flight plan, 70 metres away from the line, up, pan and down. Deeply impressed with the drone stabilisation, light winds not gusty. In hindsight, there was a better lower shot near the viaduct, camera settings need to be tweaked with exposure compensation, viewing on the phone is tricky due to glare on screen, needs to use my better phone. All in all pretty pleased for a first effort.
Thoughts about the drone? flight time is nowhere near the 31 minutes, 20 minutes is a safe operating range. Battery charger can't charge all three batteries at once, it charges one, then switches to the next. So charging time for a full set is quite long. It's quiet, at 60 metres away, more or less indiscernible.
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>> Thoughts about the drone? flight time is nowhere near the 31 minutes, 20 minutes is a safe operating range.
Rechargeable batteries usually take 3 or more charges before reaching their peak performance.
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That's impressive, particularly how stable it is, and looks like it'll be fun to own. Wish I could think of a reason for having one (apart from being nosey!!)
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>> That's impressive, particularly how stable it is,
That, exactly. My first thought was it was showing a still picture.
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Combination of aerodynamic control stability and a proper gimbal for the camera, all controlled by accelerometers.
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Yeah gimbals are really clever these days, the picture from someone running up and down a touchline filming with a heavy-ish camera can look like it's on rails.
Last edited by: smokie on Wed 27 Mar 24 at 15:16
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twitter.com/TheDeadDistrict/status/1783555037639184835
Impressive stability, 17 secs in. If its not fake.
Last edited by: sooty123 on Thu 25 Apr 24 at 21:47
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That's impressive, especially considering the tiny drone, camera and battery come in at under 250g.
The hover really impresses me. And it will do that in quite a noticeable breeze. You can see them 'leaning in' to the wind and the gimbal keeps the camera level. It's like science fiction to me.
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When first played the resolution appeared poor! The player was set to Auto but still played at at a low res. Resetting to HD solved the problem, but not sure why auto did not work.
Just saying in case you get some comments on res.
Chrome Version 123.0.6312.60 (Official Build) (64-bit) 1920 x1080 Acer 24 monitor
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Was fine ffr me, maybe a prob with your machine?
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This drone footage shows how fast an F1 car actually gets round a circuit.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pEqyr_uT-k
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youtu.be/8ApYSquQ7a8
My second in action drone shot. In sport mode it will do 36mph, the loco was doing about 50, so with some more flying hours experience, I'll try "pacing" and panning, this was stationary hover and panning.
For info, loco was 61 years old D1015 Western Champion a BR Western Region Class 52 diesel-hydraulic locomotive, on its fully loaded (520 tonnes) main line test after overhaul. powered by 2 × Maybach MD655 64.5l 1,300hp diesel engines. Makes the most delicious growl, bettered only by a Deltic at full chat
Last edited by: Zero on Thu 25 Apr 24 at 22:42
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oh and I have bought a Zoom H1n audio recorder I can plop trackside for audio tracks.
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Is that the only Western on the main line?
Noted the carriages were a mix of Mk2 and 3 plus a Mk1 or two. Is the Western ETH fitted or is that provided by the trailing 47(?) ?
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And why have they put a scarecrow in a field with no crops?
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There are those of us who could tell you Kevin, but you know how it is, I’m sure you understand. Clearance thing old boy.
;-)
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>> And why have they put a scarecrow in a field with no crops?
you will note it worked, no-one stood in the way of the scarecrow.
Last edited by: Zero on Fri 26 Apr 24 at 18:03
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>> Is that the only Western on the main line?
The only Western with main line certification*, yes. 7 were saved
D1010 Western Campaigner:
D1013 Western Ranger:
D1015 Western Champion:
D1023 Western Fusilier:
D1041 Western Prince:
D1048 Western Lady:
D1062 Western Courier:
>> Noted the carriages were a mix of Mk2 and 3 plus a Mk1 or two.
>> Is the Western ETH fitted or is that provided by the trailing 47(?) ?
The Western was only ever equipped with steam heat, and as you know Mk2 & Mk3 are ETH only. SO, the 47 dragged the stock from the SVR with WC on the rear. The 47 was turned off for the return from Paddington to act as part of the test load (an additional 100 tons) The PAX was one way only, the cold way back. It was a test run, and hardened grizzled gricers & bashers were the pax so they knew the score.
* to get certified, the motive unit needs GSM/R comms, Automatic Warning System (AWS), Train Protection & Warning System (TPWS) and a black box recorder - On-Train Monitoring Recorder (OTMR) none of which was around when D1015 was built. There is exemption for some of this on some lines.
Mk1's are becoming a no no for loco rail tours, unless they are fitted with central door locking, as mandated by the ORR. checkout WCR's row with the ORR over the Jacobite service.
Last edited by: Zero on Fri 26 Apr 24 at 18:05
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Drones - anybody have one? - Zero
