Two in One

Last weekend, I made a concerted effort to get out of the house. I find that I spend too much time at home and don't get much fresh air. And, I've become extremely lazy.

In preparation for our upcoming vacation (I can't believe we'll be leaving in only two weeks), DW and I have started training by finding steep hills to climb. On the previous Saturday, we drove to the Arboretum, between the Central Experimental Farm and Dow's Lake, and walked up the steepest slope of the hill a few times.

When I finally ran out of breath, we called it a day. We hopped back in our car, drove to our latest, favourite breakfast spot, The Third, and then headed home, where I stayed indoors for the rest of the weekend.

Lazy.

The first week of our vacation will have us up in a mountainous region and we plan to do some hiking. And because I'm probably in the worst shape I've been in in years, I want to make sure that I'm up for climbs. Even in the towns we're visiting, there'll be some climbing and I need to know that I'm able to keep up with my family.

So, last weekend, DW and I drove to the Gatineau Hills early on Saturday morning for a hike to the Carbide Willson Ruins. We're familiar with the trail and know that in the past, we've managed it without any issues.

We strapped on our day backpacks and loaded them up to duplicate what we'll likely have on us when were hiking on vacation. I decided to bring one of my Insta360 cameras and my drone, in its case, plus a large, metal water bottle that I filled to the top.

There was still a coating of granular, icy snow on much of the trail, which presented a bit of a challenge on some of the steeper slopes, but DW and I were able to manage the trail without falling. I decided to use my video camera to capture our trek, and at the ruins, I pulled out my drone to use the automated functions to capture a selfie of DW and me.

I wanted to use the remote controller to get some great shots of the remains of the factory, but I don't have any experience using it. And with the waterfall raging and lots of snow on the ground, I didn't want to risk flying into a tree and losing the drone. It was too slippery to have to retrieve it, should it land somewhere on the other side of the factory.

I did, however, use the remote to simply get a top view of the factory and to close up on the waterfall, but that's all my nerves would allow for this hike.

I've already put the video footage for that hike on my YouTube channel (please subscribe!). It's the first time I've captured video, edited it, and uploaded it in a single day. Give it a look: it's just over five minutes long.

Sunday was an even better day, with the sun coming out for the first time in days. It was warm and there was almost no breeze, so I thought that this would be a perfect day to test my drone.

I wanted to pick a spot where there weren't many people—especially, kids—and where there wouldn't be a great risk of hitting trees. I wanted an open space.

I didn't go far from home. I crossed the Rideau River and parked at Claudette Cain Park, near the Vimy Memorial Bridge. There's a large, treeless field that is surrounded by a circular path, which was perfect for testing my hand at the remote control. And because the ground was still wet, no one was walking on it.

One of the drawbacks of the DJI Neo is that the battery life is limited. They're rated up to 18 minutes but with wind, they tend to get about 15 minutes of less, so you have to have a plan for what you want to capture on video.

Fortunately, I have two extra batteries, so I was good for about 45 minutes of flight time.

I spent the first two batteries getting comfortable with the controller, moving the drone up to about 40 metres or so, turning the drone while moving forward, raising or lowering the gimbal for the camera, and testing the return-to-home function, where the drone will automatically fly to its take-off spot.

Because I set up next to the Moodie Family Cemetery, a small plot of headstones in an enclosed corner of the park, I also practiced moving the drone from a height down to eye level, closing in on the burial plots.

When I felt comfortable, and was down to my last battery, I decided to fly the drone further away, over the trees that separated the park from the Rideau River. Once over the trees, I turned the drone toward the Vimy Memorial Bridge and then circled back to the park before landing it and calling it a day.

I had been outside twice in as many days, the first in a long time.

When I got home, I downloaded the video footage from the drone and decided that I'd make another YouTube video. For the second time, I shot video, edited it, and uploaded the final video in a few short hours.

In viewing the video, I realized that there were some settings that I did not adjust before flying the drone. Being a bright day, I should have lowered the exposure level. And I had learned, from other owners of the DJI Neo, that I should have lowered the sharpness of the video (DJI sets the default too high).

I couldn't do anything with the sharpness in post-production but I applied a high-contrast filter to the video clips during editing. They still don't look great but I was really just focused on getting comfortable flying the drone manually.

With my first drone, which was a cheap, crappy drone, I flew it into trees on my first flight. It survived, but I kept flying it into trees and became discouraged.

The controller on the Neo is much better and makes flying easy. I'll continue to practice but I'm now not as nervous about using the drone when we travel.

If you want to see the drone video, which is just over two minutes long, have a look:

It wasn't until after I viewed the video that I realized I had captured the whole setting of the opening chapter of my novel, Dark Water, where the body is discovered by two kayakers on the Rideau River. You can see Chapman Mills Conservation Area, the river, the bridge, and the park.

Coincidence.

I need to get out of the house more, and now that the weather is improving, I expect the drone will be good incentive to get some fresh air.

Happy Thursday!