Large Scale Central

Drone flight over the In-ko-pah Railroad

I recently bought a really awesome camera drone, the Mavic Pro. It can shoot up to 4k video quality, and 12mp stills. Today I made my first test flights with it, in our backyard, getting some aerial video of my In-ko-pah Railroad. I’ve put together some clips and posted the video on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/4T51I1SAy-c

There were no trains running at the time, because I’m missing a bridge. A temporary wooden bridge was badly weathered and needed replacing, so I’m currently in the process of building a new, permanent bridge.

Ray

Very cool!

Do you have the option of zoom or do you just fly closer?

Next video , I would like to see a train running , just too cool!

WOW!

Looks good in stills, looks fantastic in video.

Great video Ray. Always cool to see a railroad from a different perspective.

How did you get to be such an accomplished pilot on your first flight?

That’s a beautiful layout, Ray.

Very well done, Ray…

I have never been able to fly a drone. Eye to brain to hand coordination just ain’t there when it comes to that…

I sure appreciate what you’ve done with the video and what you’re doing on the railroad. Looks like the start of another building or you’ve added a Sprung Building (tent) (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-tongue-out.gif)(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-tongue-out.gif)

Great video and great looking railroad Ray!

Amazing railroad, Ray. I thought I had a good appreciation of what you had build, but i wasn’t even close. The video really brings it all together. I want to ask how many rocks you moved to build it but I’m afraid you might actually give me a number and i know it would be more than I could comprehend.

Oh, and the video was good for a first flight. I have a feeling we will be seeing more of those and they will get better each time. Thanks for sharing.

Ken Brunt said:

Ken,

This is what your link to Ray’s video should have looked like…

This is one of the all time great model railroads, garden or otherwise

Amen to that! (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-smile.gif)

Looks good. Certainly a low maintenance railroad for all its grandure. (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif)

Thanks guys!

I had previously made a couple mini test flights indoors, just lifting off, moving a few feet back and forth, then landing. That was actually more nerve-wracking, because the room is small and there are a lot of obstacles.

Outdoors was much easier. This is kind of a “high end” drone, and very intelligent. It doesn’t depend on your skills to keep it stable in flight, and if you’re not actively moving it, it will hold it’s position.

It has some very cool autonomous flight features which I haven’t even used yet. For instance you can “target” a moving object, such as a person or vehicle, and it will follow while filming the target. It can do this from behind, in front, alongside, or while orbiting the target.

It uses GPS positioning, and also has the ability to avoid obstacles and follow terrain. It can also return to the launch site and land automatically, and will do so if the battery goes below a certain level.

As incredibly capable as it is, I was surprised at how small it is. The body of the drone is only eight inches long and about 3 inches wide.

It requires a smartphone for control and to see the video as it’s flying. It has a special controller that attaches to the phone. This has joy sticks, etc and also greatly extends the range. You can fly it using just the phone, but the range is very limited.

Sean, it has 2x optical zoom, but I haven’t figured out how to use that yet.

I am REALLY looking forward to flying this drone some more, and will definitely be getting some better shots of the layout once I can run trains again.

Ray-

Now you can take the drone with you on your next research trip into the desert. You can get 360 photos of buildings. I’ve seen guys who get great close up photos of a rail car or engine from all angles including the roof. Makes for great reference photos.

Very nice Ray, I added it to “your” page on my site.

One question, is it possible to brighten some of the shaded areas, or perhaps make one in full sun with no shadows? I’m not sure of how the shadows play, and the impact of the house’s shadow.

Greg

Greg Elmassian said:

Very nice Ray, I added it to “your” page on my site.

One question, is it possible to brighten some of the shaded areas, or perhaps make one in full sun with no shadows? I’m not sure of how the shadows play, and the impact of the house’s shadow.

Greg

We have had some TV live cam shows that the TV ( Channel 31 ) cam crews on our layout came up with this idea and explained how and why it works.

They explained, when using cams in in mix Sun and Shade, this is called Salt and Pepper areas and Videos/ photo don’t do well.

Maybe Ray can do like TV crew and like us… (with some of our R.R. videos or photos.) now due to the shade from trees, morning sun light and etc.

We are using an old projection screen like our ( 3’ x 4’ or 4’ X 5’ ) that has a folding down/up stand and set it in the sun light. Then just aim the sun light at the area you are trying to video. By turning the screen, you can adjust how much light you want on the area you like to show.

We been able to set it up as far away as 20’ of so feet from area we are trying to video. Projection screens usually have ground up glass beads on them.

Just an idea.

Anyway very nice work Ray… Been watch lot of it as you been building it over the years.

Eric Warhol said:

Ray-

Now you can take the drone with you on your next research trip into the desert. You can get 360 photos of buildings. I’ve seen guys who get great close up photos of a rail car or engine from all angles including the roof. Makes for great reference photos.

Yes, exactly! Plus I’ll be able to get good close shots of inaccessible things, like the top of headframes, or mines that are way up on a cliff, etc.

Noel Wilson said:

Greg Elmassian said:

Very nice Ray, I added it to “your” page on my site.

One question, is it possible to brighten some of the shaded areas, or perhaps make one in full sun with no shadows? I’m not sure of how the shadows play, and the impact of the house’s shadow.

Greg

We have had some TV live cam shows that the TV ( Channel 31 ) cam crews on our layout came up with this idea and explained how and why it works.

They explained, when using cams in in mix Sun and Shade, this is called Salt and Pepper areas and Videos/ photo don’t do well.

Maybe Ray can do like TV crew and like us… (with some of our R.R. videos or photos.) now due to the shade from trees, morning sun light and etc.

We are using an old projection screen like our ( 3’ x 4’ or 4’ X 5’ ) that has a folding down/up stand and set it in the sun light. Then just aim the sun light at the area you are trying to video. By turning the screen, you can adjust how much light you want on the area you like to show.

We been able to set it up as far away as 20’ of so feet from area we are trying to video. Projection screens usually have ground up glass beads on them.

Just an idea.

Anyway very nice work Ray… Been watch lot of it as you been building it over the years.

I used to use a 4x4 sheet of Foamcore to add “Fill light” to my still pictures. It does really help to soften the stark shadows. Then my mom had the “brilliant” idea of making a round table top out of it. When I asked her why my Foamcore was all cut up, crumpled up, and in the trash can, she explained to me that it wasn’t strong enough to use as a table top (duh), and that “you weren’t using it for anything anyway.” (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-surprised.gif)(http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-yell.gif)

Looks great Ray.