On Monday October 5, 2015, Amtrak's Vermonter train struck fallen rock and derailed just outside Northfield, VT.  The diesel locomotive and several passenger cars tumbled down an embankment.  There were many injuries, but thankfully no fatalities.  The location is "extremely rural", cut through dense forest, with very limited access.

The Vermont DOT immediately called the Vermont State University Spatial Analysis Lab for assistance.  A team of volunteers responded to the scene with an sUAS (The SenseFly eBee). 

Within 30 minutes of the call, they had airspace coordinated with the FAA and departed their lab. Upon arrival, they were airborne in 20 minutes and landed 20 minutes later. A KML in the hands of Incident command 20 minutes after that.  The incident commander had a 280 image based high resolution KML in his hands within an hour of their arrival!  After returning to their lab, they created a ortho mosaics to go along with it.

Outstanding work. Safe, fast, and free!

All of this is available on their blog about the response. 

Also covered on Slate: http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2015/10/09/how_vermont_used_drones_after_an_amtrak_derailment.html

Another unwitting newbie with their shiny new toy, totally oblivious to the rules.  I do not know what brand/model it was, although we can probably all make a rather educated guess.  The big take away here is existing laws were applied and the owner was cited appropriately by local police. Gloating politicians everywhere are in tears.  Finally, another good example of why we don't need a bunch of fat suits in an office to make up new laws for something that is already covered by existing laws.

It's also nice to see the media not losing their mind over it.  Although that may come as the morning progresses.

http://wtop.com/dc/2015/10/drone-crashes-on-ellipse-near-white-house/

WASHINGTON — U.S. Park Police have confiscated a drone that crash-landed on the Ellipse, near the White House.

A police representative says the small drone was being operated from the grounds of the Washington Monument early Friday morning.

The drone crossed Constitution Avenue and crashed on the Ellipse, the grassy area between the Monument and the White House grounds.

Police confiscated the drone and issued federal tickets to the operators, whom police did not identify.

Airspace in downtown Washington is the most restricted in the country for passenger aircraft and unmanned vehicles, including drones, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

It is illegal to operate a drone within the Beltway without special permission.

:)

Well this is a delightful bit of irony. 

Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.) decided to capture the excitement of his June 21 wedding day on video using a drone, even though the commercial use of remotely controlled vehicles is still restricted by the FAA, which Maloney oversees on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Aviation Subcommittee.

Maybe this will help our cause.  A congressman with authority over the FAA now has first hand experience with the FAA's incompetent and delayed handling of this issue.  This 2lb toy with a camera could have taken down a loaded 747 hovering there 30ft above ground next to the giant brick church.  Clearly this is a danger to the NAS, much like surveying corn husks.

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Rep-Sean-Patrick-Maloney-Rockland-Drone-Video-Wedding-FAA-267451671.html

Today, a judge granted "Accelerated Rehabilitation" probation to Andrea Mears.  Mears is the 23yr old woman that violently attacked a responsible UAV pilot at a large CT state park back in May 2014. She then lied to the police claiming he attacked her.  He had video of the whole event showing she launched an unprovoked attack on him. And it turns out his video from the Iris was so high up and far away, you couldn't make out any of the people on the beach anyway.  It was scenery video, not beach babe video.

For those who are not familiar, Accelerated Rehabilitation ("AR") in Connecticut is also know as Probation Before Judgement ("PBJ") in other states.  It is not a conviction with a sentence of probation.  Instead you are put on probation before trial and judgement.  You are on probation for X years with conditions that must be met.  If you behave and do not violate any of those conditions, your record will be wiped clean.  No record at all. The case is dropped and no record is left.

Mears was given two years of AR, which is rather common in CT.  If she behaves for those two years, her record will be wiped clean.  She receives no fine, no jail, no punishment, no restitution, nothing. Literally, her "punishment" is that she is not allowed to commit crimes for the next two years.

Personally I think it is pathetic. She violently assaulted an unarmed non-aggressive minor, made false statements to the police via 911, and made false statements to the police in person when they arrived.  She attempted to frame him for a crime he didn't commit by claiming he assaulted her.  Had it not been for his video, the police would have arrested him for assaulting her.  And for this, her punishment is being told not to do that again for two years.

Aerial video:

http://www.courant.com/community/new-haven/hc-new-haven-drone-assault-0710-20140709,0,3673256.story?ncid=newsltuspatc00000010

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EL9jGwRI92I

Preface: My fault, I should know better.  I've flown over to these geese on numerous occasions without incident. But this time I was controlling from further away and therefore my depth perception wasn't as keen.  I don't blame the goose all, however it is tempting to find him and cook him for dinner.

As soon as I saw the goose rear up and open his wings, I punched it but it was too late.  On the log you see full power commanded, and full power applied, but in the same instant, it was all over.  I took a direct hit from a large Canada Goose from probably 6ft AGL.  This was over the swampy edge of the lake behind my house. It flipped over and hit the water / mud upside down at a weird angle.  The only sound it made was a faint LiPo beeper which was clearly drowned.

So getting it back was when the real fun began.  It hit the swamp right next to their nest. If you've ever tried to walk up to a goose nest, you know that will be a problem.  Papa Goose is very protective, and he's still pretty pissed. I had to hop logs and rocks out into the water, and still ended up falling in.  Papa Goose wouldn't let me anywhere near it.  He got all hissy and tried to eat me when I tried.  So I ended up using a 12ft long tree limb to hook the landing skids, lift it up, and swing it over towards shore.  My neighbor was on the shore waiting to catch it.  The limb almost snapped from the weight of the UAV and two 4S 5000mah batteries.  And the honker was PISSED.

So I brought it back to the house and started assessing damage.  The dome popped off and cracked because I didn't put the screws back in (stupid).  The camera gimbal separated into two pieces (just glued together, so not a problem).  Wires were ripped out of one of the gimbal motors.  The mobius camera was wet.  The landing skids had detached in a few places.  The 3DR telemetry radio, GPS/Compass, and video transmitter were wet.  One prop was broken.  All the motors were wet.  And there was a splash or two on the APM.  The battery mounts had detached as well.

I took it all apart, opened everything up, and went at it with a hair dryer. After snapping the landing skids and battery mounts back on, and drying it all out, the only actual casualties are (1) gimbal motor, (1) battery beeper, and (1) plastic propeller. I put a new propeller on it and it flies perfectly fine, like nothing ever happened.

Won't be making that mistake again.

After several weeks of building, waiting for parts, and building some more, it all came together.  HAL took flight for the first and second time.  I have a lot of trim work to do over the next few days when I can get back into the indoor arena or without any wind outside.  It was very difficult to control, even in stabilize mode, so I used loiter mode for most of my flying. In loiter mode, even in a 12mph wind, it held rock solid in place.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/5kN3SXp5T1M

Flight controller and receiver mounted on the mid-deck  

Kyosho Zeal vibration dampening gel, with double stick tape on both sides to mount the flight controller. Vibrations were 1 to -1 on the IMU logs!

GPS and Compass mounted to the top deck

Fully assembled, just need to attach the motors.

After my first two flights, already broke the landing skids. They're flimsy, not surprising. Newer better ones on order.

My primary purpose in this new project is photo/video, as opposed to acrobatics and agility.  I started out focused on a Phantom 2.  But I quickly realized I would be better off building my own custom multi.  I need a hobby, I like to tinker, tweak, build, and modify things.  Building my own custom multi would let me build it my way, and let me expand on it in the future. With a Phantom or other pre-made models, it basically is what it is.  I quickly switched gears from DJI Naza to the ArduCopter controllers for the same reasons.  The things I can do with ArduCopter are the things my dreams are made of.  Next I went back and fourth between a Quad and a Hex.  I wanted a hex for photo/video stability and redundancy.  But for now I ultimately settled on a quad. Since I'm new and learning how to fly, I figure the quad will be easier, and with less to break.  I picked a quad frame large enough to handle some nice big props, so I'll get the extended flight time while hovering or moving slowly.  I'm not buying the photo/video gear just yet.  No sense in flying around an extra $1000 of stuff while I'm busy learning and crashing.

Quad Frame: Turnigy H.A.L. (Heavy Aerial ift) (585mm)
ESC: Afro ESC 30Amp with SimonK and a USB programmer
Motors: AX-2810Q-750KV Brushless Quadcopter Motor
Props: Slo-Fly 11x4.5 black and green
Flight Controller: 3D Robotics APM 2.6 with GPS and data link
Transmitter: Turnigy 9XR with the OrangeRX DSM2 module
Receiver: OrangeRX R910 9-Channel receiver
Battery: Zippy compact 5000mAH 4S 25C (2x in parallel)
Charger: Turnigy MAX80W 7A chargers
Charger P/S: HK 105W 15V/7A Switching DC Power Supply

Once I'm good at flying this thing, and I trust myself to fly with another $1000 worth of gear attached to the belly, my future plans include:

• Gimbal for a camera, to be determined by the type of camera.
• HD camera of some kind, yet to be determined.
• FPV transmitter, goggles, and monitor.
• OSD for flight data
• Rebuild into a Hex or Octo
• Sonar and image sensor for low altitude stability

Frame completed.  Landing skids going on last since they would be in the way.

Powerplant

Flight controller, GPS & Compass, datalink radio, and controller

Avionics deck made from standoffs and CDs.  The ESCs and a HK power distribution board will be going between the bottom deck and the frame.  The flight controller and radio receive will be on the middle deck.  And the GPS will up on the top deck.  The datalink radio will be mounted to the bottom of the frame as far from the flight controller as possible.  The batteries will be strapped to the bottom of the frame.

Made my own jumpers to go from the motors to the speed controllers.  Lots of solder and heat shrink.  The motors did not come with connectors on them so I had to add those as well.

That's all for now. I'm waiting on the radio receiver and power distribution board to arrive this week so I can start final assembly.