Brand new in training

[Nessmuk]

Hello from Lake Effect area snowbound northern NY State. I just got my first drone this week, a DJI Mini 5 Pro. Kind of surprised I could get it so soon, now that it after the 23 Dec restrictions are in place.

I spent my early days as an Air Force senior instructor navigator for 9 years (call me an obsolete dinosaur these days), then became a civilian AF research laboratory engineer until retirement.


My son is a USAF graduate, now a retired F-16 instructor pilot. He was hired by a civilian airline just before Covid struck and decided to begin what became a very successful drone business to keep a few dollars flowing in during the virtual shutdown. Unfortunately, he lives 1500+ miles away in TX. He is back to full time airline flight duty now. But he can still help me from afar as I study for my Part 107 exam. My state offers a free 2-day preparation course for first responders (I am a SAR volunteer) that I am in at the end of January. I assume the local area exam will be offered soon after. I am now in the process of heavy Youtube online study.


I am an elected board of directors member of a small lake association where we are very concerned about conditions of increasingly heavy vegetation growth in the lake and associated regulated wetlands. A friend of a friend obtained drone overflight video images a few years ago and we need another for comparison and more complete coverage. So, I decided I would be the one to perform that task for our Association. After obtaining suficient operational experince with the mini, I expect to grow into multispectral and IR capability with a more advanced level of UAS.

Two other items draw me into further exploration of owning my own commercial level drone. As a long time (30 years) Search and Rescue volunteer with a local team, I am very familiar with Adirondack and other area Forest Rangers in the state, (who manage all wilderness SAR incidents) and that they in recent times have incorporated UAS into SAR incidents. Can I help? Perhaps.

In addition, my new local village chief of police was more than partially responsible for introducing the state police to UAS technology before he retired from the force. He is also working to incorporate UAS activity into local police work. I have made him aware of myself through SAR and personal contact. Can I help? Perhaps.

 

[GFields]

Greetings from Birmingham Alabama

 

[LoudThunder]

Hello from Lake Effect area snowbound northern NY State.

Welcome from the Hampton Roads area of Virginia,

I grew up way east of you on the Schroon River, Warren County, outside Potterville, and I am also retired Air Force, over 30-years…

Since you are a New Drone Pilot, there are a couple of Legal Things you may need to do…

First, if you have not already done so and you want to fly your drone recreationally, you will need to get your TRUST Certificate. You can get that at the Pilot Institute Web Site (FREE…). This Link is to the Pilot Institute Web Site where you can get your TRUST Certificate. (FREE…)

FAA TRUST Online Portal for Recreational Drone Operators - Pilot Institute

Get your FAA TRUST Certificate of Completion to legally fly drones for recreational reasons in the United States.

trust.pilotinstitute.com

Since your Mini 5 Pro weighs more than 250-grams (0.55 pounds), and even while you are flying under The Exception for Recreational Flyers, you are required to register your Drone. This link is to the FAADroneZone where you can register your Drone. The cost is $5.00…

FAADroneZone

faadronezone-access.faa.gov

You have lots of ambitions with your drone, but almost all of that cannot be done until you acquire your Part 107 Certification… With even the TRUST Certificate, you cannot not even take the photos of the "increasingly heavy vegetation growth in the lake"…

So, with all your hope and dreams you will need to acquire your Part 107 License, here is a link to get you going…

Drone Courses - Free and Paid Drone Pilot Training

30+ free and paid classes to fly your drone. Pass your FAA Part 107 license exam, learn how to fly your drone, and more.

pilotinstitute.com

Since you live in New York, there are specific laws and rules for you to follow, please check the link below for all the Rules and Laws that are in effect in your neck of the woods and it also links you to some of the Best Places to Fly in your area… Also, if you travel on vacation, visit friends, and relatives in other parts of the country, check back here so you do not run afoul of the law.

Federal Drone Laws in the United States (FAA) - Pilot Institute

44809 is an exemption from Part 107 drone laws. This means that drone pilots fly under Part 107 drone rules by default unless they meet all 9 of the requirements to fly under 44809, the exception for limited recreational operations of unmanned aircraft. You can read more about these requirements...

pilotinstitute.com

Even if you have flown Drones before, here is some Good Old Fashion Advice…

You paid a lot of money for that Drone, put your phone number on it. If your drone gets lost or stuck in a tree and it finally comes down when you are not around, give the finders an opportunity to contact you so it can be returned.

Now, for the Fun Part, But do not let the excitement of the moment get the best of you. When you are going out to fly, do it slowly and deliberately. Get used to a set procedure and even practice it.

There are so many things I could write but these are the highlights that I feel need mentioning.

Plug in your phone/tablet into your controller; turn on the Controller and DJI Fly App (if it does not start on its own…). On the Drone, open the front legs, then open the back legs, then remove the Gimbal Cover.

The Gimbal is the most delicate item on the Drone and banging or bumping can damage it. I also fastened a short "Remove Before Flight" ribbon to the cover so it's more noticeable and I do not forget to remove it…

Turn on the drone and watch it come to "life." Watching the Gimbal go through its self-check is almost like watching a puppy or kitten opening its eyes for the first time…

Place the drone down (preferably on a Landing Pad) while it finishes its self-test (collecting satellites, etc…).

Check your battery status (Phone, Drone, and Controller), check the Signal Strength, by now the Controller should have reported it updated the Home Point.

Lift off, 6- feet (2-meters) or so, hover a bit, check the controls (move the drone a bit forward, back, left, right, yaw left and right). By now, your Controller will probably report again, Home point Updated.

If you go out in a rush and race thru your start up and take off before the drone has finished it prep, it may update its Home Point over that pond or that old tree you are flying over and in your excitement, you'll fly the drone long past it Low Battery point and when it engages Return to Home and lands in the pond or in a tree; it will be all on you…

Now go have fun, learn to fly the drone by sight before you try to fly it out a distance depending on the video feed, FPV.

I would also advise you to use YouTube and watch a lot of the Videos on flying and setting up the Drone. When it is too dark, too cold, or too wet, you can "fly it vicariously" through YouTube. Also watch some of the Blooper Drone Videos and learn how not to fly your "New Baby."

Fly On and Fly Safe…

 

[Nessmuk]

Thanks for all the tips. I am very familiar with the regulations and my need to fly my ambitions only after I pass the exam and receive my part 107 certification. I do have my Trust certification. And of course with 4 feet of snow on the ground and the lake solidly coated with ice, I have no temptation to over fly it to gather information on vegetation growth until a few more months pass. However, with my current recreational cert, there is no reason why I cannot make nearby practice flights for my own "fun" purposes. I know I must have part 107 to gather info for my lake association. I expect to have that very soon. I have been studying all the youtube training I can gather for more than a month so far practically a couple of hours daily, and await formal state sponsored classroom first responder UAS preparation training in about 3 more weeks. Although I am a state licensed wilderness guide and live on the edge of the Adirondacks, I know I cannot fly in wilderness or primitive areas or state parks, but many nearby non-wilderness designated state forest land areas and friendly farm fields are open to me.

I have updated the firmware/software as recommended and my drone is fully registered and labeled per the FAA. My registration and trust certificate is safely stored in my UAS carry bag.

Why do I need to use a phone awkwardly connected with the RC2 controller when it has the DJI fly app built in?

By the way, I have 9 years of active duty flight aircrew instructor navigator experience, extending to 22 years of AF reserve retirement. Plus enough civilian AF research laboratory time concurrently added to my 9 to result in an overall 42 year Air Force retirement from that.

 

[LoudThunder]

Why do I need to use a phone awkwardly connected with the RC2 controller when it has the DJI fly app built in?

You do not need this setup with the RC2, but not all Mini 5 Pros come with that controller, and those instructions were written for the beginner, some of which never got to fly their new drone a second time...

All that I wrote was to offer advice, please feel free to ignore any or all, it was just that your note seem to indicate that you might be be putting the cart before the horse...

BTW: as a vet, assuming you still have unescorted access onto military installations and if one offers the Part 107 Examination, it is free for you... When You register with IACRA and submit your application for the Part 107 Certificate, be sure to log onto PSI to schedule your examination and look for military installations that offer the exam (Camp Drum perhaps...)...

BTW 2: if you glanced at the video I linked, the property where my cabin was located is classified as Primitive Wilderness and "Drone Free..."

Fly On, FLy Safe and you can practice all you want... Just be cool and don't get ahead of yourself...

 

[Nessmuk]

My local testing center is at Giffiss, 30 miles away, Ft Drum is in tho opposite direction somewhat further away.

 

[LoudThunder]

My local testing center is at Giffiss,

Ah Griffiss, I remember it well… I was stationed there '81 to '84. I was assigned to a Ghost Position in the Rome Air Development Center (RADC)… In the Salt II Treaty, my position was abolished (but the job was not eliminated…), I was assigned to the 485 EIG, but worked at RADC… after that, I was assigned to another Ghost Position at HQ Sac, Offutt… so you can probably guess my area of expertise…

Tug Hill is a regional name and not Zip Coded so I used 13408 for the Rome area and performed a search for PSI testing facilities within a 300-mile radius of Rome over the next three months, Many, many testing facilities within an easy drive came up, only three locations that offer the FREE testing came up and they are not an easy drive, more a day trip…

The closest one is the Coast Guard Academy at New London, CT. The next closest one is Fort Indiantown Gap National Guard Education Center in Annville, PA. And the last one was the US Coast Guard Base at Cape Cod, Buzzard Bay, MA…







Don’t feel bad, I live in the Class D Airspace of Langley AFB, and when I was ready to test, they had just cancelled the contract for their test proctor and had no intention of renewing it until after the pandemic… I paid the $175 at a local flight school.

In fact, there are many military installations within 25-miles of me: Langley AFB, Fort Eustis, Norfolk Navy Base, Campbell Field, Oceanian, U.S. Coast Guard Training Center Yorktown, Naval Supply Center, Cheatham Annex, US Armed Forces Training, Yorktown Naval Weapons Station, Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story, and Navy TALSA East, and the only one to ever offer the Free testing has been Langley and they do not do it all the time…

I took the Pilot Institute course as I recommended in my initial note. I cannot say enough good things about the course, the Pilot Institute and all the other courses they offer for a Fee and for Free… I aced the Part 107 Exam, what more can I say…

But I believe you are doing the training self-study, so here is the Link to the FAA Study Guide. It is dated 2016, but it is the latest…

https://www.faa.gov/sites/faa.gov/files/regulations_policies/handbooks_manuals/aviation/remote_pilot_study_guide.pdf

The FAA and PSI (the FAA Contracted Exam Administrator) have recently updated the testing requirements with the percentages of questions coming from any particular area…



The Exam is 60- question, multiple-choice exam, you have two hours… Most folks complete the exam in under an hour. I read every question twice, answered it in my head, and then still completed the exam in 45-minutes.

There are plenty of practice exams on line, and if your feel adventurous, in Google, in Chat GPT, "Create a XX question exam for the 'FAA Part 107 Exam' " and see how you do…

There is also the FREE FAA Re-current Exam on line… You do not have to have a Part 107 Certificate to take the exam…

Any case, Go and have fun learning all the capabilities of your new bird.

One final bit of advice, learn the built-in Waypoint Flight feature in the DJI Fly app… Since you will want to check changes in the lake, set and save the waypoint feature in your app. This way you will be able to run it over and over again and always take your photos from the exact same locations…

Air Power!

 

[Nessmuk]

I was in SAC at Griffiss from 1979 until I separated from my 9 years of active flight duty as a KC-135 senior Stan-Eval instructor navigator, in 1982. The Air Force research laboratory at Griffiss was for many years known as the Rome Air Development Center (RADC), (we did not develop ‘air”) then the name changed to Air Force Research Laboratory/Rome (AFRL), as it remains the official name today. After separation from active duty, I remained in the AF reserves at the 485th EIG for a short time before transferring to AFRL, remained in the AF Reserves for 13 more years until retirement from that. Immediately after Active duty, I was also hired as a civilian to work at AFRL through my career in the fields of Radar; Electro-Optics; Photonics; and Cyber Operations, as a Research Engineer and Senior Program Manager, where I remained until my retirement in 2013.


Although I have years of AF flight experience, the most challenging part of my Part 107 study is in the details of sectional chart airspace. My Air Force navigation flight charts were all worldwide high-altitude charts, known as the GNC series (Global Navigation Charts). I never had to worry about or used sectionals in any way, although in the pattern I would follow along with local area “flip charts”, to keep the pilots honest.

For many years before and since, I have taught wildlands basic and advanced land navigation for Search and Rescue (SAR) and law enforcement agencies, and others, using USGS topographic maps. Without regard to airspace classification rules and regulations.


The zip code for Rome NY is 13440, while your 13408 is for Morrisville NY, quite some distance from Rome. Griffiss has its own zip: 13341. The FAA testing center is at Griffiss on what was formerly known as "SAC Hill", in the same building as where my old flight squadron was located. Known as the Mohawk Valley Testing Center, FAA Exams | Mohawk Valley Testing Center | United States, check it out. They schedule various testing weekly almost every day.

I am familiar with the Pilot Institute training program. I have youtubed many of their free training videos, as well as those from many other such training organizations and private individuals. I do not intend to take the paid training with them or anyone else. However, I am scheduled to attend a (free for first responders) local two-day Part 107 preparatory training course sponsored by the NY Division of Homeland Security and emergency Services (NYSDHSES), locally at the State preparedness Training Center (SPTC), where I was recruited to teach land navigation for several years.

 

[LoudThunder]

the Mohawk Valley Testing Center, FAA Exams | Mohawk Valley Testing Center | United States, check it out. They schedule various testing weekly almost every day.

You put Tug Hill as your location and I googled its zip code as it is need to schedule a Pert 107 exam through PSI… When you do the search, you enter the radius of the search and I set it for the max distance, 300-miles… So the actual zip code was irrelevant based on the search distance… In the search it even found exams in the University of Delaware… The search did turn up "The Mohawk Valley Testing Center…" But as you can see, PSI does not indicate it as FREE Testing for Eligible candidates…



I did go to the link for the testing center and saw the notation FREE Testing… So, you could go Wednesday and challenge the exam and if you pass, your Part 107 certification is as good as any. If you do not pass, you will have to wait 14-days to retest…

I acquired my certification 3-years ago and the test format has changed a lot. Then only the text questions were on the screen, the Air Space, Lat/Long, etc… questions that used maps required that we use that AKT and refer to "Figure X, Section Z" and then answer the question based on what was asked…

I joke that when I tested, "Quadcopters only had two propellers then," and the hardest question was "How high can you fly before the Sum melts the wax off your propellers…"

Beside the various Fee and Free course at the Pilots Institute, I have also enrolled in these additional FAA Safety Team (FAASTeam) Courses:

ALC-451 -- Basic WINGS, ALC-515 -- Part 107 Small UAS Recurrent Part 61 Pilots, ALC-553 -- Commercial Drone Pilot: CFR Part 107 Explained, ALC-564 -- 1800WXBRIEF The Best Of The Future Of Flight Service, ALC-677 -- Part 107 Small UAS Recurrent, ALC-704 -- sUAS Crew Resource Management, ALC-723 -- 10 Decision-Making Concepts for UAS Pilots, ALC-803 -- sUAS: Regulations, Laws, Airspace Ownership and FAA Enforcement, ALC-877 -- Public Safety COA Made Easy, ALC-878 -- Recreational Drone Flying Made Easy, ALC-879 -- Part 107 Night Training Course, ALC-880 -- Ultimate Drone Pilot Guide, ALC-955 -- Airventure 2022 -- The Office of Aerospace Medicine and You, ALC-1083 -- Piper Warrior/Cherokee Deep Dive.

When you feel like doing some Free Time studying as some of these courses might help advance you in your ambitions… They cannot hurt…

So we were at Griffiss at the same time and you later went to the 485th… the Commander Joe Stewart liked me because I got along with his folks… in the early '80s the big project was for them was the Digital European Backbone (DEB).which was installed throughout the continental Europe. Until then, a lot of the German communications was still based on the infrastructure build by the Nazis… And I was able to help with the programming the digitized Information transfer for the Command and Control Systems for the Luftwaffe.
I even got to work a bit on EIFEL which was not a tower in Paris… I received two decorations for my tour at Griffiss, one from RADC and the other from the 485th and this decoration was horrible for the presenter to read as EIFEL is a German acronym for "Elektronisches Informations- und Führungssystem für die Einsatzbereitschaft der Luftwaffe: Vorhabenkonferenz"

There was an addendum to my decoration that gave the English translation… "Electronic information and command system for the operational readiness of the Air Force: Project Conference"

But all during this, the 485th's inside and outside plant installers were constantly rotating in and out of Europe… When they were back state side, Colonel Stewart could not let them just have all the time off, they abused it, they left the area, celebrated a bit too hard and got into trouble down town…

It all came to a head when one of the guys was off the entire week (not on leave…) and drove home to somewhere in the mid-west and got into a car accident that resulted in permanent injuries that resulted in his discharge and they had to do a Line of Duty Determination that resulted in him getting less than an honorable discharge.

His installers were all trained so how do you keep them busy while on duty, when all the work is in Europe… And this is where I became Colonel Stewarts "golden boy"… Since the early '80s when computers were first starting to become available to the public, you know what I mean? The Atari 400 and 800, the Radio Shack Trs-80, and the Commodore 32 and 64…

Colonel Stewart used unit funds to buy a bunch of computers and even some games… But I polished my Golden Boy Crown when I suggested that I teach them how to program those computers… First it was in basic, and later even in Assembler (machine Language). They wrote all manner of programs… First gas mileage programs, small data base program to track test scores, and even games like battle ship, poker, black jack, etc.

I had a Commodore 64 and I was already programming computer games for the Commodore publication "Compute" and making some pretty good money… But what really turned the commander's crank was when some of his folks got their programs also published in the various computer magazines….

And in return, they taught me to climb telephone poles and work in manholes… But to be issued your "gear - the Short N2B Parka, the Climbing belts, the Climbing Spikes, and lineman's Boots… All of these are only issued based on the Table of Allowance (TA) to specific career fields. Like Flight Crews are the only ones to get Flight Suits, Helmets, etc… Security Police get Holsters, night sticks, hand cuffs, etc…

I had to earn my gear, it is not given away. The Climbing Gear requires climbing training and then testing… you are taught to climb short distance at a time, ultimately all the way up a 50-foot telephone pole and then the exam is a game of catch up at the top. They had three poles planted and you climbed up with two fully qualified climbers and you tossed a soccer ball back and forth… The evaluation is that you are comfortable up high (not afraid of heights, or movements) as the poles would rock back and forth and they do not want you getting "seasick" up there either…

But the worse test is the manhole. They had a 20-foot deep man hole to an small to a small vault where they teach wire splicing (it had conduit tubes that they would insert lengths of cable and the trainees would have to splice the two opposite ones together…)…

But that is not the test for me for the "ManHole", they fill the hole (vault) with about two feet of water and they toss all manner of nasty stuff into the hole, even road kill when they find it…

The test is you climb down into the water, the only light is from above, and the lower a bucket on a rope to you and you fill the bucket, they pull it up and dump it out, not far from the hole, so water is constantly dripping down onto you…, it echoes something horrible, every drop of water splashing back dozen with lands on you or hit the water and makes all manner of sounds that rival any horror movie's sound effects… You will find stuff floating in that water that makes a weak person vomit… If you survive the ordeal, they call you out after about a half hour or so and pour a clean bucket of water over you, and you pass. I passed…

Then as I stood over the manhole shivering from the cold, they dropped a hose down the hole and fire up a vacuum pump to suck out the rest of the water… I asked why the test, if they have these pumps? The answer was simple, they don't always have the pumps, sometimes they are broke and you do not want to find out your team embers cannot take the claustrophobia, or the cold or the darkness…

So, between my time at RADC and the 485th, I have a ton of memories, some I can share, some I cannot…

I hope this was not too long and boring and reminded you of some great memories during your days…