Golf Course Flyovers - Turtle Mound & Sandhill

[Goldwingnut]

I did flyovers of both Turtle Mound and Sandhill golf courses this morning. Good flight planning allowed me to get it right in 2 flights and minimized the editing needed.

Enjoy,

Turtle Mound and Sandhill (https://youtu.be/-PZrApo3ERE)
Mangrove - Sweetgum - Palmetto (https://youtu.be/325MMhAGmg4)
Truman and Roosevelt (https://youtu.be/4JCHGT6z3GA)
Southern Star and Yankee Clipper (https://youtu.be/ZZSy-zJ3rm4)

A drone group is forming, please see the announcement in the Clubs of the Villages (https://www.talkofthevillages.com/forums/clubs-villages-76/) section and this week's Rec News.

Link to new video has been updated.

[geofitz13]

link for Turtle Mound and Sandhill says that video was "removed by the user"

[Goldwingnut]

Sorry, the Turtle Mound had a problem and had to be re-uploaded. The link has been updated and everything is working now.

[Mleeja]

Fun videos. Thanks for posting.

[N44125]

Great, first class videos.

[geofitz13]

Great job on the videos! What a great idea to do all the execs. Can't wait to see Bonita Pass and Redfish Run, as those will be the closest to our new home! Thank you!

[Bay Kid]

Thanks, great!

[stings]

Another great video. The fly-around of The Villages water tower is a nice touch. Thank you for these.

[ronsroni]

Intrusive. I had one over our CYV 2 weeks ago for about 15 seconds. WHY?

[bhoward]

Great job! I play both and enjoyed it. Thanks.

[Goldwingnut]

Intrusive. I had one over our CYV 2 weeks ago for about 15 seconds. WHY?

"over our CYV" is a very broad and probably in accurate statement but it deserves an answer as it is a very common question.

First, if you saw the aircraft without looking directly up then it was most likely not over your home it was just near your home, neither of which is illegal. Some simple geometry calculation will show you that if the aircraft is at any significant altitude (100 ft or higher is not uncommon flight altitude to avoid trees) that if you're not about to break your neck to look up and see it, it's not over your home. I know that that is of little consequence to you since you feel you privacy may have been invaded but it just the simple facts of the matter.

Next, consider the camera in use and its capabilities. They are not the spy cameras on satellites, the U2, or an SR71, these are consumer grade cameras with limited technology. For the consumer grade drones (<$2000 in cost) the best on the market is currently considered to be the Phantom 4 Pro (what I fly) with a 20 megapixel still camera/4K video camera. The P4P does not have a zoom lens, in fact the first consumer drone with a usable zoom lens/imager combination was just put on the market about 2 weeks ago, the DJI Mavic 2 Zoom, and it only has a 2x zoom. The images rendered by the camera are incredible, or so they appear. The reality of the images is that they are digital so they have a limited image definition. Let me translate, there are only so many dots in an image, an item in an image is made up of a limited number of pixels (dots), if you zoom in on a digital picture these pixels become squares, that's all the resolution you get. What you see on TV crime shows and in movies where they "enhance" the image if not real and doesn't happen.

I worked in the electronic security industry for the last 20 years and had to deal with the "CSI factor" with customers on a regular basis and explain to them it's just TV. Consider this, your pixel/dot is a sealed room, in the room there are people, how many is unknown and cannot be determined, of the people in the room you know that 50% are men, 50% are women, that's the sum total of the information available (the pixel is gray). When you "enhance" the room you see that there are 20 people in the room with 10 men on the left side of the room and 10 women on the right side of the room. How did I come up with 10 & 10, left & right? I "enhanced" my knowledge of the room, or I made up information, the same holds true when you "enhance" a digital image like they do on TV. Not real.

I have digressed from the topic at hand. Back to your drone issue.

Why would a drone pilot stop for any given amount of time, there are multiple reasons.
1) they were districted and stopped flying, drones hover without continuous operator input. If I am approached by someone asking questions I stop flying and let the bird hover. The same if I need some water or coffee, I sneeze, cough, have to swat the many bugs here in Florida. The pilot needs to maintain Visual Line of Sight (VLOS) of the aircraft while flying, if you take your eyes off of it while in motion it is difficult to locate again.
2) stopped to take a picture or a panoramic picture, both are better when stationary.
3) stopping to change software platforms used to control the aircraft, there are many.
4) loading flight information for a programmed flight, the aircraft stops while receiving course data from the controller.
5) the pilot stopped to look around to determine their location and bearing.
The reasons for stopping are many. Could they be stopping to look at you, maybe but unlikely.

If you see a drone in the air, the pilot is looking forward in the direction of travel, just like when you drive a car, for safety reasons. If the drone is flying towards you the pilot may see you bit it is unlikely they are looking at or for you.

In early 2017 the FAA records indicate there were over 300 drones registered in the 32159/32163 zip codes (The Villages). There are even more now and they are here to stay.

All this being said, if you look out your window or step outside and there is a drone hovering 20' above you, call the police, this SOB needs to be fined or in jail. Never attempt to bring down a drone as that in itself is a crime. Otherwise a drone flying by or near your home is no different or any more intrusive than a plane or helicopter going by.

[Bay Kid]

Waiting for more courses! It would be great if all the executive courses were done.

[Arlington2]

Love these videos. I have played all of the ones you have shown so far. Looking forward to the next set. Very theraputic.

[Goldwingnut]

More golf course videos are coming, I plan to do all 666 holes. I have the flight plans worked out and ready to go for another 54 holes and working on more.

Right now I'm just waiting for my drone to get back from being repaired, the camera gimbal motor failed about 2 weeks ago for no apparent reason, it should be back on Wednesday according to UPS. I shot some footage before sending it back but there was so much camera movement in the video that when I was reviewing it I started to get motion sickness.

More construction area videos are also in the works.

[Joeg180]

Looking forward to seeing more of your fly overs.

[Goldwingnut]

Just wanted to give a little more detail to the discussion from earlier on what can and can't be viewed by a drone.

Attached are 5 pictures. The first is the original picture taken with a 20MP camera the native resolution is 5472x3078 pixels and 7.4MB file size. This is a large high quality image. The drone is at 100 ft, which put the man with the dog about 120 feet away from the camera and 65 ft forward of the drone.

Zooning to 100% resolution a man and dog are clearly visible.

Zooming in to 300% of native resolution the 3rd picture show more details but the picture is starting to pixilate and there is no substantial details visible.

Zooming to 500% resolution in the 4th picture the dog has become a blob of pixels with few distinguishing features and the man in the picture begins to blend in with the background. Further zooning in makes the image less distinguishable.

The 5ht and final picture is 500% after undergoing several levels of software enhancement, no additional details are shown and image quality is questionably decreased.

Keep in mind that these are taken at a relatively low altitude of 100 ft. which is pretty much the safest height flying over trees in this area. From higher elevations the results are even worse.

One of the first lessons a drone pilot quickly learns flying is that altitude is your friend. At lower altitudes communications quickly fades for telemetry, control, and video over a short distance due to interference, also visibility of the aircraft is more difficult at lower altitudes as it becomes very difficult to distinguish from ground clutter. When one or more of the data signals starts to fail the safest direction is usually UP where a clear data path and line of sight can be reestablished. With UP comes the loss of image resolution.

Looking at my golf course flyovers, these are shot at 50-100 ft AGL in 4K, then rendered in down to 1080p (1/4 native resolution) and at 150% of normal speed, both of which cause loss of resolution and clarity of the image. It looks good on YouTube, but hardly "spy video" quality.

Most drone flies can fit into some simple general categories:
1. Racers - these fly low and fast with cameras designed for FPV navigation. These guys don't normally go far but they get there very fast and are fun to watch.
2. Novices - these are flying less capable aircraft with low resolution cameras and limited range and altitude - about 300 ft. total from the operators.
3. Explorers and photographers - they are flying the high end consumer drones with theoretical ranges of several miles and high quality cameras. Some of these are very sophisticated aircraft with lots of high tech features and capabilities.
4. Professional pilots - flying high end birds ($5K, $10K, and higher) these guys do lots of work with movies, search and rescue, surveying, and agriculture with more areas opening up all the time as more uses are identified.

My experience here in The Villages is that the majority of the fliers are in the 2nd and 3rd categories and leaving the 1st to those younger crowd with faster reflexes.

[pauld315]

Great job !

[Bay Kid]

Thank you!!!

[KSSunshine]

Looking forward to more construction videos! We enjoy the Exec golf course tours even though I don't golf (hubby will). Thank you for sharing your hobby with everyone!

[fastboat]

Boys and their toys.

[maynebonnie]

'Thank you for the great videos ! We are stuck up north and really miss the villages !

[Packer Fan]

More golf course videos are coming, I plan to do all 666 holes. I have the flight plans worked out and ready to go for another 54 holes and working on more.

Right now I'm just waiting for my drone to get back from being repaired, the camera gimbal motor failed about 2 weeks ago for no apparent reason, it should be back on Wednesday according to UPS. I shot some footage before sending it back but there was so much camera movement in the video that when I was reviewing it I started to get motion sickness.

More construction area videos are also in the works.

More Construction videos and the new GC bridge! Waiting is torture. I am addicted to your videos :)

[Dennys37Packard]

For those worried about spying, just look online to some great videos that are posted. Drone users are just getting beautiful aerial footage of surrounding areas you can’t see in windows or really see faces from 100 feet up. It’s a fun hobby.

[Goldwingnut]

For those worried about spying, just look online to some great videos that are posted. Drone users are just getting beautiful aerial footage of surrounding areas you can’t see in windows or really see faces from 100 feet up. It’s a fun hobby.

Thank you. For many like myself the photography & videography really is the driver for the flying.