How to almost ruin a perfect day:  It was the PERFECT day at Pine Needle Point during our family vacation.  The weather was absolutely spectacular this particular day.  There was a slight breeze, but the lake was like a sheet of glass.  All was quiet and still.  I decided it was the perfect day to fly my drone.  For those who may not know, I do own a drone and I enjoy flying it from time to time.  I’ve often thought about getting a commercial drone pilot’s license just as a “bucket list” item.  Right now, I’m an FAA registered recreational drone operator.  While on vacation in northern Michigan, I enjoy getting my drone into the air to capture some of the spectacular scenery in our state.
 
While on vacation last year, I had a near-miss with my drone that I was surprised I never wrote about.  I was flying the drone over the lake one day and wanted to practice flying in between some huge pine trees that are just off the beach at Pine Needle Point.  I wanted to capture some video and this was somewhat of a practice run.  As I was nearing the huge pine trees, I turned around a bit, which caused me to become confused about what was the front part of my drone.  Keeping a keen eye on the front lights of the drone is essential because it helps you accurately control it.  If all is good, when you push left with the joystick, the aircraft moves left, and when you push right, it moves right.  HOWEVER, if you lose this sense of direction, a quick left or right turn on the controller can bring about a catastrophic end to what otherwise might be a perfect flight.  Newer drones have a collision avoidance sonar radar system which would prevent crashing into trees, buildings or other stationary objects.  My drone has a sonar radar system but only for landing purposes.  Of course, the new technology for the DJI Phantom drones came out a few months after I purchased my current drone.
 
So, back to the story.  As I was coming into the field of pine trees, I got confused with what was the front of my drone and my “left turn” yielded a right turn which caused my drone to crash into a pine tree and make, what I was confident was going to be, a deadly dive into the water.  Needless to say, my heart sank to the bottom of my huge feet (and that’s a LONG way).  Just as the drone crashed into the shallow water, my sister Jackie made an Olympian dash and grabbed it before it got out of sight.  I was sick.  I figured my drone was dead.  I did a quick Google search to see what I should do (while saying some prayers wasn’t on Google’s shortlist, I was doing a ton of praying), I read I needed to pull the battery immediately and then use a hairdryer to start drying it out.  Well, with my mom and sisters around, I had plenty of hair dryers to choose from!  I propped the drone on one of the deck steps and then jury-rigged two hairdryers to blow directly into the drone.  I continued the drying process for close to an hour.  I then let it sit out in the sun for a few more hours and occasionally (just to make me feel better) used the hairdryers at close range to blow out any remaining moisture.  I wasn’t convinced this was going to work, but I was willing to try.  I wasn’t giving up too quickly with my expensive little “toy.”  Later that evening with my dad as my co-pilot, I powered up the drone.  Much to my surprise, it worked!  Thankfully, I averted the demise of what I thought was an inevitable end for my water clogged drone.
 
Fast forward to this year.  As I stated above, it was a PERFECT evening for capturing the beauty around the lake with my drone.  I went down to the dock and did all my pre-flight operations.  After completing my pre-flight operations, my controller then told me how many satellites it locked onto for GPS purposes.  The app on my iPad, which shows my flight information, then gave me the green light to take off.  And, so I did.  As I was ascending and gracefully flying out over the lake, my controller suddenly started flashing red and was sounding off more alarms than I’ve ever heard before.  I was getting a low voltage warning, and the verbal warning system was telling me the aircraft was coming in for a landing.  I started to panic.  The drone was over the water.  This was not good, and I already told myself I wasn’t going to jump into the lake to swim after it because no one else was out on the dock or beach to watch me; everyone was inside getting ready for dinner.  As I was panicking, I decided to see if the controller would allow me to steer the drone close to the dock.  Much to my surprise, I still had some control of the drone as it was rapidly descending amidst the noise of multiple alarms.  I was able to get it over the dock, and it came in for a hard landing.  But then the drone started to bounce on the dock.  I was paralyzed as I watched my drone bounce its way down the dock toward the water.  This was NOT going to be good.  My heart not only sank, but it was pounding faster than it might have been during the most challenging of stress tests.  There wasn’t much I could do other than watch my drone continue to hop along the short dock.  But then suddenly (and thankfully) the drone’s back landing frame got stuck in between the dock’s planks (my guardian angels were fast at work on this one); it was literally within a couple of inches of toppling into the water.  I was saved this time.  I took a deep breath and waited for my heart to calm down. After some minutes, I “unstuck” my drone, gathered my stuff and walked back to the cottage.  This one stressed me out.  I was done for the night.  I may not have gotten any drone pictures this particular evening, but I figured my stress test for the year was complete.  So much for the calm and peaceful evening!  But the whole experience had me wondering how many guardian angels I must have assigned to me.  It’s not easy being me … or should I say, trying to imitate both Clark Griswold and Dennis the Menace all at once!
 
Labor Day Mass:  Please remember that the only mass on Labor Day between St. Joan, Star of the Sea and St. Lucy parishes will take place at St. Lucy’s at 9:00 a.m.  Please join us as we pray that the labor we undertake “may bring progress in this life and by [God’s] favor, advance the spread of the Kingdom of Christ (Collect, Mass for the Sanctification of Human Labor).”
 
Enjoy the week.  Know of my prayers.  Happy Labor Day!
 
In Christ,
 
gmb
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