Tag Archives: riverside

Dronecopter

Today we flew Alcalde’s dronecopter somewhere in the wilds of Riverside county. And by “we” I mean that I watched, both with and without goggles that provided a point-of-view drone-flight experience.

Some might be disappointed to learn that there were no crashes, mechanical failures, or run-ins with local law enforcement, but one can’t have everything.

Three charged batteries provided a little under a half hour of flight time.

flight prep

ready for takeoff

controls

goggles

hovering

pov descent

pov ground

Those last two photos are stills from the POV landing video, in which I walk zombielike toward the copter, unable to see anything except the video feed.

More drone info here (with the same photos).

Fireworks in Riverside

Last night we walked about a mile to a church across the street from a park where there was supposedly a fireworks show every year. It was empty. A couple of women were passing by and Alcalde asked them about it. “Oh, they haven’t had that here in years.”

All was not lost, though. We could see another show several miles down the road, as well as occasional fireworks shooting up over the trees from somewhere closer. The latter became more professional-looking as it went along, so we had two shows going. We stood in the intersection drinking beer and watched them both. We could hear a third show somewhere, but couldn’t see it.

It sounds like there used to be fireworks in the park long ago, so Alcalde isn’t completely delusional, but I figure he’s just been standing in that intersection for the last several years, if he’s been going out at all.